From the moment we announced that Core Keeper would have online multiplayer, the community was keen to know if they’d ever have the option to use dedicated servers. While we entered Early Access using player-hosted multiplayer, we were already looking into the logistics of facilitating this extremely popular community request.
Then, on the 27th of April, we invited you to help us test dedicated servers and some new repair-mechanic features for Core Keeper on an experimental branch of the game. Your feedback and bug reports were incredibly helpful, and they allowed us to iron out lots of the finer issues when working on this new functionality. Because of your help, we’re now in a place where we can launch what we were testing on the experimental branch on the main branch of Core Keeper!
From this moment onwards, players will have the option to operate their own dedicated servers for multiplayer worlds that can be accessed at any time without requiring a host to be in the game. If dedicated servers aren’t your thing, you’ll be pleased to know that in-game player-hosted multiplayer is still available at any time, and this now uses Steam’s networking back end when connecting players – solving many of the networking issues users have been reporting. We’ve also added a new admin functionality that will give players the option to kick people from their worlds across both dedicated servers and player-hosted games.
If you’d like to host your own dedicated server you can do so using Core Keeper’s own dedicated server hosting application, which will be available to run from the Tools menu in your Steam Library. If you helped us test dedicated servers on the experimental branch, you may remember that port forwarding was required, but this is no longer necessary.
Some Details on The Sunken Sea Update
We’ve been hard at work on the Sunken Sea Biome, and we were very keen to have dedicated servers available before our first major update. This update will bring a brand-new, water-based biome to Core Keeper with lots of seascape to explore. Don’t use up all your wood crafting a bunch of bridges though, as this update reveals an exciting new way to cross water in the underground with the addition of boats!
Explore the Sunken Sea Biome by boating from island to island all while getting to grips with new weapons and gear; mining new valuables and ore; discovering new fish, plants, and food; and even crafting new base-building items. We can’t wait to show off even more of our impending update, and we’re delighted to announce that the full reveal will be featured in the PC Gaming Show on June 12th!
The future is looking bright for Core Keeper, we’ve got lots to look forward to in the coming months, and (as always) we want to hear from you! Join our Discord server to share your thoughts, opinions, and feedback – as well as to meet your fellow Explorers and become a part of our amazing community.