Running a server
This section will guide you through the basic installation of Sven Co-op's game server.
1 Starting up a game quickly for your friends
If you're looking to begin a game to play with your friends as quickly as possible you should use the game's built-in "listen server", which is launched by using the Create Game option in the main menu.
You can find a more detailed explanation of this, and how it works, at this Guide on Steam Community: Creating a game for your friends without ANY port forwarding or firewall configuration at all.
(The rest of this article will not be for you.)
2 Types of game server
There are two types of servers for Sven Co-op: Listen and Dedicated. Both do almost the same job but with some slight differences.
2.1 Listen server
This type of server is launched via the Sven Co-op game main menu, using Create Game. It's available immediately with Sven Co-op via Steam with no further installation necessary, excluding 3rd party extra content.
These games are hosted by a particular player's computer, the same computer used to play. While the listen server is running the hosting player will be present in game. Therefore it's not possible to have a listen server with no players in it.
Because a listen server is fully dependent on the host player's game running, if the host player leaves their game, it crashes, or loses connectivity, then the server also closes down for everyone else that was playing on it.
Listen servers are best used for temporary games usually for either:
- Content creators to test their creations themselves.
- Groups of friends (or known people) to quickly get in a game without the hassle of setting up a dedicated server or firewall/router settings. (See "Starting up a game quickly for your friends" above.)
- Playing alone. :(
2.2 Dedicated server
This type of server is launched completely separate from the Sven Co-op game. It comes as its own independent application, either via Steam as a tool, or fully stand alone via the SteamCMD tool.
These games can be hosted on almost any computer anywhere often without the need for Steam to be installed at all, and even without the need for any graphical system interface. It can either be run as a regular interactive application (both with a graphical interface or command/terminal "console" interface), or as an unattended service application (or Daemon) without any interactive interface at all. Because of this the system specifications required to run a dedicated server are a bit less than a listen server, as it can be done so with no graphics processor at all.
Dedicated servers are best used for either temporary or permanent games for a range of reasons:
- Allowing the game to continue even if the person hosting it needs to leave the game.
- Hosting a game from a computer at a data centre or server specific computer, be it on premises or anywhere else in the world.
- Hosting a game for public use, such as for building a long term community among larger groups.
3 Choosing a server package
Our dedicated server package comes in two variants both with different benefits. One is distributed to you through your Steam client (the same application you use to launch games in Steam) as a tool, and the other is distributed through Steam's console client (SteamCMD) as a standalone application.
Here are the basic differences and benefits of them both:
| Steam tool | Standalone application |
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4 Further reading
5 Updates
If you would like to be notified when server updates are released you can subscribe to our SvenDS announce mailing list.