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Tried it and still not working, but I understand that there aren't very many things to try. Might need to just delete everything and download fresh since I've switched versions so many times. Hate to lose the progress on the game we already have going, so for now I'm just setting up a remote desktop so my mates can pop the server on/off when I'm unavailable. Thank you for taking the time to check it out, at least I can keep my sanity intact knowing that it works as intended with a clean install.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a go! Are you using the pauseempty=true option to achieve that result? Or false? I was thinking it may have something to do with compatibility mode, but the server doesn't care about that, just the game.

I'm kind of surprised I haven't found any other posts anywhere regarding this. Is anyone here able to successfully use the pauseempty function? Unfortunately I've dug around in all other settings-related files and I can't find any other troubleshooting to try outside of switching pauseempty on and off and restarting the server

Hey buddy, First things first, I would download LogMeIn Hamachi. Google up the main website, it's a free program named Hamachi that can create a private network for you! Set up and run Hamachi. You may need to read some direction on how to set it up, but once you do, you'll have a Hamachi window from the application. At the top of that window, you'll see the name you gave your PC, as well as an IP address/Mac address. Looks something like this: 10.25.64.17/5250:7a::170c:321a (at least I assume the second number is a MAC, it looks like one. ANYWAY) When you start up the actual PZ game, and click join server, that first number is the IP address you'll connect to for the server. The downside to this method: anyone you want to let on your server will need to download LogMeIn Hamachi, and join your network. Upside is that you don't have to mess with port forwarding AT ALL. Just have your friends join your Hamachi network, connect to that same IP from your Hamachi, and you're good to go! Running your server: Once you've downloaded the game, go into My Computer. Navigate here: C:\Program Files(might be x86 or x32 or what-have-you)\Steam\steamapps\common\ProjectZomboid In that folder, you have a file named ProjectZomboidServer.bat. Simply run that file, and you will open a cmd window. It will create an admin account for you, just finish that out, the server will start and will be sitting there waiting for you to log in! Just leave that black window open in the background, ALT-TAB over to your game, connect, let your friends connect, badaboom badabing you're done!

I am editing the .ini file, yes. I've tested and re-tested and re-tested and it seems to be the same results. Thank you so much for taking time to look at this! Love the game, long-time supporter

So, I've updated to Build 27 #1, wiped out my old server Multiplayer folder, and tried pauseempty = true and false, and both settings seem to allow time to progress with the server running. Is this a common issue? I'd like to be able to leave the server running so my friends can jump on/off at will whether I'm online or not, but the pause empty feature is sort of crucial for our playstyle. Edit: All I see happening after I disconnect from the server is: Unloading cell: 167, 95 (38, 22) Unloading cell: 167, 95 Unloading cell: 168, 95 (39, 22)

Oh wow, that would make a lot of sense. I'm home sick today so I'll try singleplayer and see if it seems like a newer build. 23b was the most recent when I was playing, and it looked like what we were playing was 23b except with a few new items, so yeah I bet that's it. Thanks for the heads up! Back to tinkering!

Regarding the pauseempty=true option; I can't seem to get my server to pause for the life of me. I updated from build 23 to the new beta (27?), wiped out my existing .bins and such, and hosted a new server for myself and two friends about 6 hours ago. We've been playing off and on, but now it's bedtime, and whether I have pauseempty set to true or false, time is progressing with no one connected to the server. And with the server shut down, it seems like. Can anyone help with this? I seem to remember being able to pause by setting pauseempty to false back in build 23, but again, neither option is stopping time from progressing. I disconnect, no players are left, I wait 5 minutes or so, and 2.5-ish hours have passed. Kinda stressful mostly because of the fledgling plants with only half a wall at our ramshackle stronghold o.O Any help appreciated. TL;DR time seems to be progressing with no players connected to server whether pauseempty option in C:\Users\User\Zomboid\Server]serverOptions.ini is set to true or false. edit: ok, it seems time doesn't pass with the server shut down, so for now we're just shutting it down til we all play again.

Please don't post the same content in multiple places. It will not produce better results than posting once. Spoiler Regarding the pauseempty=true option; I can't seem to get my server to pause for the life of me. I updated from build 23 to the new beta (27?), wiped out my existing .bins and such, and hosted a new server for myself and two friends about 6 hours ago. We've been playing off and on, but now it's bedtime, and whether I have pauseempty set to true or false, time is progressing with no one connected to the server. And with the server shut down, it seems like. Can anyone help with this? I seem to remember being able to pause by setting pauseempty to false back in build 23, but again, neither option is stopping time from progressing. I disconnect, no players are left, I wait 5 minutes or so, and 2.5-ish hours have passed. Kinda stressful mostly because of the fledgling plants with only half a wall at our ramshackle stronghold o.O Any help appreciated. TL;DR time seems to be progressing with no players connected to server whether pauseempty option in C:\Users\User\Zomboid\Server]serverOptions.ini is set to true or false.

Right on Thank you for the information! I was only introduced to PZ a few days ago, and spent a couple days Googling YouTube guides and the like trying to figure out why we couldn't both connect when we had those ports all open (my buddy who was hosting was even in DMZ, we were freakin losing our minds, as we're both IT support techs... we were feeling preeeetty dumb). Nowhere did I see "connect via 16261" other than the line that identifies 16261 as the communication port, and I didn't interpret that the way it is intended to be understood. Like I said, might be a good idea to specify that in the main page introducing MP. It's not like the page says "Once you host the server, tell everyone who wants to join which open port they need to manually connect to!" but because we were trying to setup a 2 player game, and to be honest neither of us has any experience with port forwarding, it didn't occur to us how silly we were being by doing that. Thanks again for everything guys!

Make sure that everyone is connecting to the server via port 16261. Nothing in your post indicates that this isn't case, but for a while my friend and I were trying using 16261 for host, but p2 would enter 16262 in their server settings. This doesn't work, and gives the connection refused message every time- each player connects via 16261, and the server takes over from there. Good luck- happy surviving!!!

nasKo- thanks for the response! Sorry, I'm still getting used to this forum and how to know when you've received a response. Um, it wasn't that I was misled, but that the information isn't expressed in the main post http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/5577-multiplayer-open-test-details-inside/ as technically specific and idiot-proof as it possibly could be (in my humble opinion- I write tech support docs as a part of my job, please don't take this as anything more than professional advice.) So the blurb I'm mostly referring to is The server uses the port 16261 for communications, and each player has a download port for getting the map data from the server, starting at 16261. You will need to open a port per player, so for a 32 player server open/forward 16261 - 16293. Instructions for forwarding ports etc can be found all over the place, and will usually involve going onto your router. So google your router along with 'port forwarding' if you're unsure, or ask a friend. Setting your internal IP (192.168..... obtainable by 'ipconfig' in a command prompt) to the DMZ on your router is a shortcut to doing all this, and will probably be the easiest option, but you'll then be lacking your router's firewall so that's up to you. The earlier instructions on How to join a server don't specify that 16261 should always be the port you connect to either. The first sentence in bold, to a technical person, says "always connect via 16261" but to a layman, it leaves us in the dark. As a noob to port forwarding myself, well you already know from my original post where I went wrong. We were reading mroe into the instructions than intended, basically. Without re-structuring the whole doc, I would say maybe just adding an aside somewhere after the first or second sentence of the paragraph above: "Keep in mind, all players will want to connect to port 16261 while creating their server settings." or something along those lines would help out some less-technical end-users who read the guide and end up in their router settings for an hour or two Thanks again for all the work your whole team is doing on this game- it's astounding! PZ is my full-time go-to game right now for SP and MP and I'm only enjoying it more and more!

TL;DR : Confirmed - Always connect to any server via port 16261. Specifically, I mean that any time you are entering server settings in Project zomboid to connect to a multiplayer server, you should enter 16261 in the port slot. ***Will change in the future per PZ team- this information is good for iwillbackupmysave and onlinetest Beta versions*** Hi everybody! I came here and registered to share something that worked for my friends and I when we were trying to set up our PZ Multiplayer server. I didn't stumble across this in any of the Steam discussions, PZ Wiki or on this site, so I wanted to put the info out there in case this is true for everyone. This is a very specific circumstance, and port forwarding is very complicated... this may have been a case of some weird forward causing this to be the correct way to connect to the server or something, so if this info is bad, someone let me know so I can delete the post. So after monkeying with port forwarding for a day we said screw it and decided to try Hamachi. We followed a guide on youtube to the T, but we kept having problems. With the Hamachi setup, we were both able to join each others' hosted servers, but not our own. This is what we ended up doing. -- Both people install Hamachi, one creates a Hamachi Network, the other joins that network. -- Host runs the server, both players connect to the server using the Hamachi I.P. address of the Host. -- Here's what got it to work for us: both players connect to port 16261. We were repeatedly unable to join even with ports 16261-16269 blown WIDE open on our respective systems, but what we noticed is that when a player successfully connects to the server via 16261, the server sees the incoming connection, and assigns the player to an open port. For instance, when I Hosted the server, connected via 16261, and then watched the server- I saw an incoming connection to 16261, and then I saw the server move the connection to port 16262, and voila! My friend was on my server, using port 16262, but with 16261 in his server settings. That same friend with the same setup would fail to connect when directly entering 16262, 16263, et al. into his actual server settings in the Project Zomboid UI. Hope this helps someone! Happy surviving, y'all!

Hey homie! I came here and registered just to share this tidbit my friend and I gleaned after 2 days of beating our heads against our routers. Let me know if this happens to be it. So after monkeying with port forwarding for a day we said screw it and decided to try Hamachi. I'm sure you have it setup this way already, but I'm gonna go ahead and go throguh it all so i'm sure we're on the same page. -- Both people install Hamachi, one creates a Hamachi Network, the other joins that network. -- Host runs the server, both players connect to the server using the Hamachi I.P. address of the Host. -- Here's what got it to work for us: both players connect to port 16261. We were repeatedly unable to join even with ports 16261-16269 blown WIDE open on our respective systems, but what we noticed is that when a player successfully connects to the server via 16261, the server sees the incoming connection, and assigns the player to an open port. For instance, when I Hosted the server, connected via 16261, and then watched the server- I saw an incoming connection to 16261, and then I saw the server move the connection to port 16262, and voila! My friend was on my server, using port 16262, but with 16261 in his server settings. Hope this helps someone! Happy zombie-hunting y'all!