Left 4 Dead 2

[buhwhyen]

Server stuff.
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My IP address: 66.75.244.229
LAN IP: 192.168.0.102
Port: 27015
Search Key: idonotfuckmen (doesn't work yet?)

Open up console before creating a lobby. Type in:
sv_search_key idonotfuckmen

Then create a lobby as normal, and when you start the game it *should* find the server with the same search key (my server). But so far it doesn't.

The other alternative is to set a "force dedicated server." Open up the console again before entering a lobby. Type in:
mm_dedicated_force_server 66.75.244.229:27015

Close the console and enter a lobby and start the game as normal, again it *should* find my server. So far it doesn't find it for me, it only works if I put 192.168.0.102

[buhwhyen]

Copied over from the random gaming thread
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I'm currently setting up the dedicated server. So from the looks of it, there's a few ways to set it up, particularly so only we (or people we know) can play on it.
1. Make it exclusive to Steam group(s). Manually entered into the server, not sure if it works with more than 1 group?
2. Make it password protected. Definitely doing this either way.
3. Making it non-public, ie you have to search to find it? I think that's how it works anyways. Probably going to set this up too. Basically from the looks of it you have to set up a search phrase to find the server and/or have the ip address of the server.
4. Something to do with only being able to connect via lobby, or connect via direct connection. Dunno wtf to do with this one. Hopefully set it up so you can connect either way.

-Dunno why the max number of connections allowed goes up to the mid 30s, but uhh...I'm pretty sure that's because the L4D2 server is basically the same as the other Half life servers (b/c the icon for the server is the half life icon), which support 30ish people (TF2, CS, etc).

-Interestingly enough. You HAVE to be logged into steam in order to run the dedicated server. Though as long as you have the dedicated server software downloaded to your computer, you can log onto any steam account to run the server. It's, thank god, not linked to a single account (ie your l4d2 account) b/c that would be not only stupid, but also butt fucking gay.

-Bah...I have to go make a txt (.cfg) or some sort of file that saves all the server settings, unless I want to type them in every time I start up the server. Wish I knew that before I typed them all in 1 by 1 and quit without logging my changes.

EDIT:
So the server runs, I can play on it (from my laptop) lag free. My ping was ~10-15 ms most of the time minus the beginning when I originally logged into the server. The problem I'm having is how to reliably connect to the server without directly inputting the ip address and port number. Supposedly you're supposed to be able to enter a lobby and the server should be selected every time unless it's already full, but I couldn't once find my dedicated server from the game lobby.

Partially at fault is the fact that I can't seem to get the server.cfg to load properly (at all). Not sure what's up with that, though there's almost no easily found info on how it's supposed to work. All people say is make a txt file with named server.cfg and put it in the cfg folder in l4d2 folder. Though every time I do this and reload the server, the server info is all blank and none of the values are being loaded up, and there's no mention of the cfg file being found/attempted/failed to load in the console log. So I'm not sure if the file is being recognized and isn't loading, or if the file just isn't being seen, or if I entered bad commands, etc.

EDIT2:
Apparently the password stuff is broken in L4D2. People can join without ever being prompted to enter the password.

Haven't had much luck joining games using my actual IP address (not my local router assigned IP).

Still having issues loading up the server.cfg. I thought it might be Server had to have a capital "s," but it doesn't seem to matter. I'll probably try to use a more barebones version with less stuff in it and see how that works.

Not sure why, but for a while I was able to see a bunch of "steam group games," but after reloading L4D2 a few times, I stopped seeing them (being able to find them when I searched).

[buhwhyen]

Well...the server is technically up and running. Though I'm having issue with connecting to it without using the local IP address and forcing the connection. The search key doesn't seem to work, I'm not sure if its because the config txt file isn't being initialized properly, or something else. So...this all means that currently only I can actually connect to it (and therefore have to be lobby leader) because using my WAN IP address hasn't worked for me yet, and I'm on a different network (duh) so my LAN IP is useless to everyone except me.

EDIT:
The config file isn't being loaded, dunno why. I tried setting the search key manually, but it still doesn't want to work.