Warning: The game intends to support DX12 SM6, which currently has issues on AMD GPUs on UE5. As a result, the toggle is currently unavailable on AMD GPUs and generally older GPUs.

To start the server, a rest port must be provided, otherwise the server will not start. In your launch arguments, for example add: -restport=8085. You may substitute 8085 for a custom port.

Requests need to have a header "username", and a header "password", with the respective username and password for the web server. See server configuration for how to fill this in.

Note: when "UserID" is mentioned here, this refers to the user's steamid.

Endpoints:

POST @ /Announce

Announces a message in-game.

Request example:

{
	"message" : "Hello there!"
}

POST @ /Commands

Sends a raw command, like can be done with the in-game console.

Request example:

{
	"Command" : "announce",
	"Arguments" : ["test"]
}

GET @ /Session

Gets session details.

Response example:

{
  "SessionStartUnixUTCTimestamp": "1639405145708"
}

GET @ /Ping

Returns status 200 with message "Pong!" if server is up.

Players

GET @ /Players

Gets a list of players.

Response example:

{
  "Players": [
    {
      "UserName": "SomeUsername",
      "UserID": "SomeID",
      "Species": "Coelophysis",
      "Needs": {
        "Eat": 100,
        "Drink": 100,
        "Oxygen": 100,
        "Rest": 100
      },
      "Growth": 22.5,
      "GrowthStage": "Adult",
      "Health": 100,
      "IsAlive": true,
      "Location": {
        "X": -7746.56640625,
        "Y": -2029.3963623046875,
        "Z": 66.06634521484375
      },
      "LoginUnixUTCTimestamp": "1639411750941"
    }
  ]
}

Optionally, add a query string to get a specific player:

GET@ /Players/?userid=someid

Response example:

{
	"Player": {
		"NetId": "SomeID",
		"LastKnownUsername": "SomeUsername",
		"AllKnownUsernames": [ "SomeUsername" ],
		"LogonTimestamps": [
			"1640006726518",
			"1640006726540"
		],
		"UseCustomNameColour": false,
		"CustomNameColour": {
			"R": 0,
			"G": 0,
			"B": 0,
			"A": 0
		}
	},
	"Pawn": {
		"Species": "Coelophysis",
		"PersistedSkin": {
			"BasePresetId": "",
			"BaseColour": {
				"R": 0,
				"G": 0,
				"B": 0,
				"A": 0
			},
			"Alphas": []
		},
		"OwnerNetId": "SomeID",
		"Location": {
			"X": -6634.7255859375,
			"Y": -1459.6689453125,
			"Z": 66.06634521484375
		},
		"Growth": 901.5,
		"Health": 1700.3333740234375,
		"Stamina": 349.85000610351563,
		"Thirst": 280,
		"Hunger": 300,
		"Oxygen": 30
	},
	"HasPersistedPawn": true
}

GET @ /Player/Records

Gets a list of historical players.

Response example:

{
    "Players": 
    [
        {
            "Player": {
                "NetId": "SomeID",
                "LastKnownUsername": "SomeUsername",
                "AllKnownUsernames": [ "SomeUsername" ],
                "LogonTimestamps": [
                    "1640006726518",
                    "1640006726540"
                ],
                "UseCustomNameColour": false,
                "CustomNameColour": {
                    "R": 0,
                    "G": 0,
                    "B": 0,
                    "A": 0
                }
            },
            "Pawn": {
                "Species": "Coelophysis",
                "PersistedSkin": {
                    "BasePresetId": "",
                    "BaseColour": {
                        "R": 0,
                        "G": 0,
                        "B": 0,
                        "A": 0
                    },
                    "Alphas": []
                },
                "OwnerNetId": "SomeID",
                "Location": {
                    "X": -6634.7255859375,
                    "Y": -1459.6689453125,
                    "Z": 66.06634521484375
                },
                "Growth": 919.5,
                "Health": 1704.3333740234375,
                "Stamina": 348.04998779296875,
                "Thirst": 267,
                "Hunger": 289.60015869140625,
                "Oxygen": 30
            },
            "HasPersistedPawn": true
        },
    [...]
    ]
}

Simulation

GET @ /World

Gets world simulation details.

Response example:

{
	"Time": 7.1193399429321289,
	"Weather": "Clear Skies",
	"Season": "Spring",
	"Day": 5,
	"Month": 12,
	"Year": 2042,
	"Lat": -47,
	"Long": -176.74156188964844
}

GET @ /World/Config

Gets current world simulation configuration details.

Response example:

{
	"Spawn": {
		"SpawnWeights": {
			"Arganodus": {
				"Weight": 1,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Chinlea": {
				"Weight": 1,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Dipterus": {
				"Weight": 0.5,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Diplocaulus": {
				"Weight": 0.69999998807907104,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Ichthyostega": {
				"Weight": 2,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Triceratops": {
				"Weight": 1,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Stegosaurus": {
				"Weight": 0.5,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Tyrannosaurus": {
				"Weight": 1.2999999523162842,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Deinonychus": {
				"Weight": 2.5,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Coelophysis": {
				"Weight": 4,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Suchomimus": {
				"Weight": 0.69999998807907104,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Spinosaurus": {
				"Weight": 1,
				"Min": 0
			},
			"Kongonaphon": {
				"Weight": 2.5,
				"Min": 0
			}
		},
		"TotalMaxSpawnedAI": 103,
		"RegulationFrequency": 5
	},
	"World": {
		"Geography": {
			"Lat": -47,
			"Long": -176.74156188964844
		},
		"Weather": {
			"AuroraAtNightChance": 0.15000000596046448,
			"SpringWeatherProbabilities": {
				"Clear Skies": 1,
				"Partly Cloudy": 1.5,
				"Cloudy": 0.60000002384185791,
				"Overcast": 0.5,
				"Foggy": 0.34999999403953552,
				"Light Rain": 0.5,
				"Rain": 0.5,
				"Thunderstorm": 0.40000000596046448,
				"Light Snow": 0.17499999701976776,
				"Snow": 0.10000000149011612,
				"Blizzard": 0
			},
			"SummerWeatherProbabilities": {
				"Clear Skies": 1,
				"Partly Cloudy": 1.5,
				"Cloudy": 0.60000002384185791,
				"Overcast": 0.5,
				"Foggy": 0.20000000298023224,
				"Light Rain": 0.5,
				"Rain": 0.5,
				"Thunderstorm": 0.40000000596046448,
				"Light Snow": 0,
				"Snow": 0,
				"Blizzard": 0
			},
			"AutumnWeatherProbabilities": {
				"Clear Skies": 1,
				"Partly Cloudy": 1.5,
				"Cloudy": 0.60000002384185791,
				"Overcast": 1,
				"Foggy": 0.5,
				"Light Rain": 0.5,
				"Rain": 0.5,
				"Thunderstorm": 0.40000000596046448,
				"Light Snow": 0.25,
				"Snow": 0,
				"Blizzard": 0
			},
			"WinterWeatherProbabilities": {
				"Clear Skies": 1,
				"Partly Cloudy": 1.5,
				"Cloudy": 0.60000002384185791,
				"Overcast": 0.5,
				"Foggy": 0.34999999403953552,
				"Light Rain": 0.15000000596046448,
				"Rain": 0.10000000149011612,
				"Thunderstorm": 0.20000000298023224,
				"Light Snow": 0.5,
				"Snow": 0.5,
				"Blizzard": 0.40000000596046448
			},
			"TimeRangeHoldNewWeather": {
				"X": 60,
				"Y": 300
			}
		},
		"Clock": {
			"StartingHour": 7.1826539039611816,
			"StartingDay": 5,
			"StartingMonth": 12,
			"StartingYear": 2042,
			"TimeZone": 12,
			"AllowDST": true,
			"DSTStartDay": 26,
			"DSTStartMonth": 9,
			"DSTEndDay": 3,
			"DSTEndMonth": 4,
			"DSTChangeHour": 2,
			"GameSpeedDay": 0.80000001192092896,
			"GameSpeedNight": 1.1000000238418579
		}
	},
	"PersistWorld": true
}

@TODO: POST @ /World/Config

Sets active world simulation details.

Response example:

{
  
}

GET @ /AI

Gets current AI details.

Response example:

{
	"AI": [
		{
			"IsActive": true,
			"Species": "Tyrannosaurus",
			"Needs": {
				"Eat": 0,
				"Drink": 100,
				"Oxygen": 100,
				"Rest": 60.000003814697266
			},
			"Growth": 5,
			"GrowthStage": "Juvenile",
			"Health": 100,
			"IsAlive": true,
			"Location": {
				"X": -7048,
				"Y": -2226,
				"Z": 74.661392211914063
			}
		}
	]
}

Teams

GET @ /Teams

Gets current teams and their members

Response example:

{
	"Teams": [
		{
			"IsActiveTeam": true,
			"UniqueId": "1B7EE0E04A897FC2C109D6B1B583651F",
			"TeamLeadUniqueNetId": "SomeID_A",
			"TeamMembers": [
				{
					"UniqueNetIdStr": "SomeID_A"
				},
				{
					"UniqueNetIdStr": "SomeID_B"
				}
			],
			"AllowedMemberSpecies": [
				"Coelophysis"
			],
			"MaxMembers": 20
		}
	]
}

Bans

GET @ /Bans

Gets current bans.

Response example:

{
  "Bans": [
    {
      "BanID": "857E364E4B6C355BBB27749E31438977",
      "UserID": "SomeUserID",
      "LastKnownUsername": "SomeUsername",
      "BannedByUserID": "SomeBannerID",
      "BannedByUserName": "SomeBannerUsername",
      "Reason": "Some reason",
      "TimestampUnixUTC": "1639410049138",
      "DurationInSeconds": 0 //currently not used
    }
  ]
}

PUT @ /Bans

Adds a ban.

Request example:

{
	"UserID" : "SomeID",
	"BannedByUserID" : "SomeOtherID",
	"BanReason" : "SomeReason"
}

DELETE @ /Bans

Removes a ban.

Request example:

{
	"UserID" : "SomeID"
}

Admins

GET @ /Admins

Gets current admins.

Response example:

{
	"Admins": [ "SomeID" ]
}

PUT @ /Admins/?userid=someid

Adds an admin, send the userid encoded through a url query component (?userid=someid).

DELETE @ /Admins?userid=someid

Removes an admin, send the userid encoded through a url query component (?userid=someid).

Misc

POST@ /NameColour

Adds a custom name colour, used in the game chat.

Request example:

{
	"UserID" : "SomeID",
	"UseCustomColour" : true,
	"Colour" : {
		"R": 204,
		"G": 0,
		"B": 204,
		"A": 1
	}
}

Charged jump

Holding the crouch button for a moment, then pressing jump, will lunge the character forward in a charged jump.

"Skip" jump/dodge

Double-tapping the directional keys while holding alt does a small "skip" or "hop" jump.

Admin menu

There's a (rough) admin menu available with the F2 key that miscellaneous tooling such as switching to an admin pawn that allows you to fly around, try the "scanner option".

Yeet

Toggle Y to yeet yourself by increasing max movement speed (start sprinting) and ignoring fall damage.

Player stuck

Use the player overview (accessible through the status menu with the tab key) to teleport the player to you, or you to them. You can switch into an admin pawn through the F4 key that will allow you to fly. Try the "scanner" option.

Console

The game has a large amount of commands available for debugging and server management. Press F1 to open the console. There are too many commands available to list here, but here's a few crucial ones to find and understand them:

1. ls - Lists all commands
2. man [command] - Prints a description of the command you're targeting, so you can figure out how to use it. E.g.: "man sim.weather".

Banning/Kicking

Both the player overview (accessible through the status menu with the tab key), as well as the console have ways for you to ban/kick a user. Alternatively, you can also edit the server config (Privileges.json).

Note: Do not literally copy the config files here, they have been modified and reduced where appropriate for explanation. Rather, manually modify the files that your server generates for you.

Here are some tips on JSON syntax if this is new to you:
https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_json_syntax.asp

A validator for the file/changes you've made can be found here:
https://jsonlint.com/

Note: Keep in mind that selling in-game services that lead to gameplay advantages is prohibited

Tickrate

Default tickrate is 20, if you wish to change it, go to [YourInstallDirectory]/IslesOfYore/Saved/Config/<YourOS>Server/Engine.ini, and add:

[/Script/SteamSockets.SteamSocketsNetDriver]
NetServerMaxTickRate=30

Keep in mind that the game is being developed with high AI in mind, which costs performance, and you'll need to hone in on a config that balances player slots with AI slots and your intended tick rate. 30 can be reachable with some tweaks to the config.

Session.json

This config deals with server session options.

{
    "PublicConnections": 50, //Max amount of players that can connect.
    
    "MapName": "SV_Yore_V1", //Do not change, only 1 map available currently.
    
    "Password: "somethingmaybe", //Password, if any
    
    "AdminConnectionPassword": "something" //Used to force log in even when server is full
    
    "ServerName": "IslesOfYore", //Your server name.
    
    //Description shown in server browser (max 45 chars).
    "ServerDescription": "PvP focussed server with medium AI sizes.", 
    
    //Description shown in rules tab in-game.
    "ServerRules": "
    Treat one another with respect, keep the chat clean.
    Toxic behaviour can result in either a kick or a ban.

    Something important. Something important. Something important.

    Something important. Something important. Something important.

    You can contact us through the discord. Something important.
    ", 
    "DiscordURL": "https://discord.gg/xxxx", //Link to your Discord, if any.
    "UseLAN": false, // Keep false, see note below
    "ExitProcessPeriodically": false //See note below,
    "ExitProcessAfterSeconds": 21600.0 (minimum 300),
    "REST_Username": "SomeUsername", // Username for REST web server
    "REST_Password": "SomePassword", // Password for REST web server
    "ExitProcessBelowMinSFPS": false, //Opt-in to auto exit server process if performance low
    "ExitProcessMinSFPS": 5,
    "ExitProcessMinSFPSDuration": 20
}

Discord

Note that the discord URL must exactly start with "https://discord.gg/", or "https://discord.com". It will not work otherwise, this is to prevent abuse.

Server description

Note also that server description has a max character limit of 45! This is an unfortunate limitation that cannot be resolved at the moment.

Tip: The indentation looks a little funky, but if you keep the server rules indentation exactly as in the example above, the text will be nicely displayed in the game.

LAN

The game is hostable over LAN, but you do need a connection to Steam for it to work. You can play by setting up a dedicated server on your local machine or LAN network, and connecting through the LAN tab.

Note: Do not change UseLan to true.

This currently produces an issue where you cannot find the server. If you want to protect it from other people joining, add a password on your server.

Exit Process Periodically

If you have a service that brings the process back up when it exits, you can use this feature to exit and thus restart the instance periodically.

Use ExitProcessAfterSeconds for the duration after which the process will exit. Announcements will automatically be made in-game.

Privileges.json

This config holds information over who's banned and how to handle admins.

Important points for this config are:

1. If AllowAdminPromotionWithSecretWord is set to "true", then the "SecretWord" can be entered by typing "sudo mytopsecretword" into the game console while inside the server. This promotes the person entering the command to admin, and can be a used as a way for your staff to promote themselves without the main admin being in the server or manually editing the AdminNetIds field and restarting the server. This feature is off by default.
2. To add the admins, ensure the steam id is wrapped in quotes: "steamid". If you need more admins, add a comma between them like this:
   "Admins" : [ "SteamID1", "SteamID2" ]

{
    "Admins": [
        "yoursteamid"
    ],
    "BannedUsers": [ 
        {
            "UserID": "somesteamid",
            "LastKnownUsername" : "someuser",
            "Reason" : "somereason",
            "TimestampUnixUTC" : "sometimestamp",
            "DurationInSeconds" : 0 // Not used, reserved for future use.
      	},
        [...]
    ],
    "SecretWord": "mytopsecretword",
    "AllowAdminPromotionWithSecretWord": false
}

Note that there are in-game tools to ban people too. Both on the player overview screen while in-game, as well as through the console. See the server management page for more info.

World.json

This config deals with world simulation options.

Important points for this config are:

1. If you intend to have a large amount of players, you can turn down the amount of max AI that is allowed to spawn.
2. The total of all "spawn weights" is counted up, and the percentage of each individual weight as it relates to the total, is then used to find the amount of animals of that species to spawn based on TotalMaxSpawnedAI. A calculator for this is available here. Copy the sheet and fill in the animals you want to spawn, with their weights.
3. If changing your "geography" settings, make sure that you update the appropriate day light savings (DST) settings for that region in "clock". Otherwise you'll lose the accurate sunrise/sunset times.

{
    "Spawn":
    {
        "SpawnWeights":
        {
            "Arganodus":
            {
                "Weight": 1,
                "Min": 0
            },
            [...]
        },
        "TotalMaxSpawnedAI": 103, //Total max AI to spawn
        "RegulationFrequency": 5 //Tries to spawn every 5 seconds,
        "ShouldScaleWithPlayerCount": true, //Scale AI count based on players on server
        "ScaleWithPlayerCountMinPlayers": 20, //Above this player count, remove some AI
        "PlayerSlotWeight": 0.5 //How much AI to remove for each player above min players
    },
    "World":
    {
        "Geography":
        {
            "Lat": -47,
            "Long": -176.74
        },
        "Weather":
        {
            "AuroraAtNightChance": 0.15,
            "SpringWeatherProbabilities":
            {
                "Clear Skies": 0.6,
                "Partly Cloudy": 1.3,
                "Cloudy": 1.2,
                "Overcast": 0.8,
                "Foggy": 0.35,
                "Light Rain": 0.5,
                "Rain": 0.5,
                "Thunderstorm": 0.4,
                "Light Snow": 0.17,
                "Snow": 0.1,
                "Blizzard": 0
            },
            "SummerWeatherProbabilities":
            {
                [...]
            },
            "AutumnWeatherProbabilities":
            {
                [...]
            },
            "WinterWeatherProbabilities":
            {
                [...]
            },
            "TimeRangeHoldNewWeather":
            {
                "X": 600, //Hold weather type for min 600 seconds
                "Y": 1200 //Hold weather type for max 1200 seconds
            }
        },
        "Clock":
        {
            "StartingHour": 5,
            "StartingDay": 5,
            "StartingMonth": 10,
            "StartingYear": 2042,
            "TimeZone": 12,
            "AllowDST": true,
            "DSTStartDay": 26,
            "DSTStartMonth": 9,
            "DSTEndDay": 3,
            "DSTEndMonth": 4,
            "DSTChangeHour": 2,
            "GameSpeedDay": 0.8, //Multiplier for game speed during day
            "GameSpeedNight": 1.1 //Multiplier for game speed at night
        }
    },
    "PersistWorld" : true //Persist world state (date/time)?
}

Gameplay.json

This config deals with gameplay and balancing options. SpeciesConfigs holds a list of potential overrides that you can apply per species.

For the currently active balance, see [YourInstallDirectory]/IslesOfYore/Saved/Yore/Temp/ActiveBalance.json.

You can use the ActiveBalance.json file as a starting point for your changes in Gameplay.json. Any species written into SpeciesConfigs within Gameplay.json will have that specific stat/attribute of that species applied within the game.

Here's an abbreviated example of ActiveBalance.json:

{
  "Balance": {
    "SpeciesConfigs": {
      "Coelophysis": {
        "Attributes": {
          "Stats": [
            {
              "Tag": {
                "TagName": "Yore.Attributes.Scale"
              },
              "Stat": {
                "Curve": "None",
                "bUseFlatValue": false,
                "PeakValue": 1.2
              }
            },
            {
              "Tag": {
                "TagName": "Yore.Attributes.AttackForce"
              },
              "Stat": {
                "Curve": "CurveFloat'/Game/IslesOfYore/Characters/Animals/Core/Metabolism/Growth/CurvePresets/CRV_Growth_Linear_SmallDropElder.CRV_Growth_Linear_SmallDropElder'",
                "bUseFlatValue": false,
                "PeakValue": 135
              }
            },
            [...]
          ]
        }
      },
	  [...]
    }
  },
  "AvailableAttributeCurveTypes": [
    "CurveFloat'/Game/IslesOfYore/Characters/Animals/Core/Metabolism/Growth/CurvePresets/CRV_Growth_CurvedLinear_FullLinear.CRV_Growth_CurvedLinear_FullLinear'",
    "CurveFloat'/Game/IslesOfYore/Characters/Animals/Core/Metabolism/Growth/CurvePresets/CRV_Growth_Linear_SmallDropElder.CRV_Growth_Linear_SmallDropElder'",
    "CurveFloat'/Game/IslesOfYore/Characters/Animals/Core/Metabolism/Growth/CurvePresets/CRV_Growth_RampUpPuberty_SlowGrowthAfter.CRV_Growth_RampUpPuberty_SlowGrowthAfter'",
    "None"
  ]
}

And here's an example of a Gameplay.json config override.

{
  "Balance": {
    "SpeciesConfigs": {
      "Coelophysis": {
        "Attributes": {
          "Stats": [
              
            // Stat override #1, attack force
            {
              "Tag": {
                "TagName": "Yore.Attributes.AttackForce"
              },
              "Stat": {
                "Curve": "CurveFloat'/Game/IslesOfYore/Characters/Animals/Core/Metabolism/Growth/CurvePresets/CRV_Growth_Linear_SmallDropElder.CRV_Growth_Linear_SmallDropElder'",
                "bUseFlatValue": false,
                "PeakValue": 20 // change this to make the animal stronger
              }
            },
              
            // Stat override #2, scale
            {
              "Tag": {
                "TagName": "Yore.Attributes.Scale"
              },
              "Stat": {
                // make sure you set a curve
                "Curve": "CurveFloat'/Game/IslesOfYore/Characters/Animals/Core/Metabolism/Growth/CurvePresets/CRV_Growth_CurvedLinear_FullLinear.CRV_Growth_CurvedLinear_FullLinear'",
                "bUseFlatValue": false,
                "PeakValue": 1.3 // change this to make the animal larger
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "NeedsDepletionMultiplier": 1, //Tweak how fast needs (food/water) deplete
  "AIAttackMultiplier": 0.8, //Tweak the default species attack stats for AI
  "AIDefenseMultiplier": 0.8, //Tweak the default species defense stats for AI
  "AISpeedMultiplier": 1 //Tweak the default species speed stats for AI
}

Some things to consider here:

1. Your overrides will consist of a peak value and either a curve, or defining it as a flat value with bUseFlatValue. Flat values don't change during growth, curves allow you to define how you reach that peak value over the lifetime of the animal as it grows.
2. All available curves are found in AvailableAttributeCurveTypes.
3. As seen in the example, some stats have a curve of None, and also do not have a flat value enabled. This combination indicates a custom curve that is currently set in the game, and is not exposed. If you want to override a stat, make sure you use one of the available curves or opt for a flat value. Keeping None and just adjusting the peak value will not work.

If your community server is found in breach of this rule, action will be taken to block access to the server.

Flocking/schooling/grouping

Fish still made it into the game (disabled on official server, see last note on this page), but schooling and flocking has been postponed. Foundations have been laid, but it hasn't made into the game yet. Similarly, with limited exceptions, AI generally do not yet behave as coherent groups.

Quetz landing (limited)

The first trailer showed Quetz landing. It still does this, but on predefined locations where the player can't currently reach, and quetz fulfills more of a background role right now.

Ocean/Lake aquatics

The game had some aquatics in the oceans and fish in lakes prior to to the habitat patch. While they get reworked, they're currently not on the the new map. Community servers can however allow spawning fish through the config options available on the server.

To learn how to track your way to food and water, see the smell documentation.

Tip: Termite mounds are available across the map for players with newly spawned characters to eat from. They offer a low-risk strategy to grow your character by avoiding other players and AI in combat.

Pressing the smell key causes the character to start tracking things in the environment that can replenish your needs. This could be water (blue), or food sources (orange). Food sources could be termite mounds (great for players who just spawned), AI, or other players.

Standing still for a moment while tracking allows the smell to settle, making it easier to gauge the direction you need to head in.

Your starting point will be through the various presets, with (proto-)feather and scaly options if the animal supports it. These represent the very base of your character, and can be customised to your liking from there by adding your desired patterns and colouring.

Then just customise to your liking and hit "Rise" to start!

First select the "build nest" option in the radial action menu

Then place the nest:

Grab some foliage for bedding, reeds or certain flowers in foliage fields work:

Place the foliage, repeat until done

Finished!

Characters and locomotion

Locomotion improvements are a constant goal, and while the previous patches improved the situation with things like terrain alignment and smoothing out the general movement, there's still a ways to go before we're statisfied with it.

AI

Limited behaviour

In the first early access release, carnivore AI characters already hunt for food, but herbivores currently have no such mechanics. Drinking behaviour is also generally still missing for AI. More complex behaviour beyond tending to basic needs is being thought of.

Pathfinding

The AI traverses across the land and through the water, but pathfinding isn't flawless yet and is an ongoing point of improvement. This can sometimes lead to AI getting stuck or moving in an unrealistic manner.

Low resolution landscape/sharp edges (jaggies)

Unreal Engine is in a state of transition, with old systems soon parting for new replacements in Unreal's upcoming major release, UE5.

One such system is World Composition, which briefly stated, allows you to carve up the world into smaller tiles so that you do not have to load the whole world at once. This system is rather cumbersome, incompatible with newer features of the engine (like the aforementioned water system), and will be replaced in UE5 with a tool called World Partition.

As such, the decision was made to not tile the landscape, instead using one large contiguous landscape for the first map in the game. The only way to make this feasible at the scale of the world the game has however, is to drastically limit the resolution of the landscape. This in turn causes sharp geometry to be visible in some places, creates a lot more manual work to smooth out terrain (where possible), and is all-around not a great long term solution. However it still felt like the best option for the first incarnation of the map, as it would allow all the systems to be tested at proper scale. This limitation is expected to be resolved when the landscape can be recreated after UE5 becomes stable enough to support it.

The game has transitioned onto UE5 with 0.6.0, but the new map has not yet been able to take advantage of World Partition. This is slated for improvement at a later time, once the editor tooling becomes sufficient to support this.

Note: Keep in mind that selling in-game services that lead to gameplay advantages is prohibited

Hosting options

Official servers run on Linux, and likewise community servers are recommended to also run on Linux, though Windows binaries are available. The documentation below contains information for both platforms.

Note: If you want to configure the server yourself, you could go for a hoster like Digital Ocean or Vultr. If you instead wish to have a pre-configured box, PingPerfect has support for the game.

Hardware requirements depend on how many players and AI you want to have running on the server, but generally speaking:

• 4GB of RAM
• A few gigs of disk space
• The faster the CPU, the better

Server user

Linux

Prepare a new user account that will run the actual server. The command used may vary depending on the Linux distribution you go with, but on Ubuntu, this would be adduser mygameserveruser. Subsequent documentation will continue with mygameserveruser as your game server user, adjust where appropriate.

Windows

No suggestions at this time.

Installing the server files

The first step is to download the server binaries through Steam, and copy them over to your server instance. A suggestion for Linux systems would be to /var/IslesOfYore. From this point on the documentation will assume this path, but you can substitute it for your own if desired.

You could opt to do this manually (downloading through Steam Library -> Tools -> Isles of Yore Dedicated Server, and copying the files over to the server manually), but a smoother way of getting the server binaries is through SteamCMD.

Linux

1. First install necessary packages for the server to run smoothly:
   apt-get update && apt-get install -y lib32gcc1 libc6-i386 lib32stdc++6 libsdl2-2.0 wget unzip
2. Switch to the user we created earlier, e.g.: su mygameserveruser. Make sure you are in your home directory (cd ~/).
3. Download SteamCMD with: try wget http://media.steampowered.com/client/steamcmd_linux.tar.gz and when it's done downloading, tar -xvzf steamcmd_linux.tar.gz to unpack
4. Makes sure your shell is in the install directory, and run (after you change the install dir in the command):
   ./steamcmd.sh +force_install_dir YOUR_INTENDED_INSTALL_DIRECTORY +login anonymous +app_update 1827330 validate +quit
5. Once that's done, connect to your server, escalate to root user (stay in the root user for the remaining duration of the guide), and make the server file executable:

chmod +x /var/IslesOfYore/IslesOfYoreServer.sh

Windows

1. Create the installation folder, as mentioned above
2. Download SteamCMD from https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steamcmd.zip.
3. Unzip SteamCMD and open a shell in the directory you unzipped in. Then run (after you change the install dir in the command):
   ./steamcmd.exe +force_install_dir YOUR_INTENDED_INSTALL_DIRECTORY +login anonymous +app_update 1827320 validate +quit

Firewall

Linux

We'll need to open a port on the server. The below commands assume using the UFW firewall tooling (apply the info to your own tool if you use something else), and default ports, see the next section for info on custom ports.

ufw allow ssh
ufw default deny
ufw allow 27015/udp
ufw enable

Windows

There is currently no documentation for this step for Windows, check best practices for your version of Windows server on how to enable port 27015over the udp protocol.

Optional - Custom ports/multiple instances

Multiple instances can be run on the same server, as long as ports are different. Things to keep in mind:

1. GamePort comes in pairs (default 7777 - 7778), and you would typically add the first member of that pair. I.e. 7777 (port) - 7778 (paired port), 7779-7780, 7781-7782). However, due to the current NetDriver selected for the game, this port does not seem to be used externally and will be bound to a random open (interal) port on startup. This port does not need to be opened on the firewall.
2. Data is routed externally through the QueryPort, which defaults to 27015. It cannot be between 27020 and 27050 as these are already reserved by Steam.
   Watch out: Ports vastly above or beyond the default 27015 will likely also not work, keep the number somewhere around the default port.

Actually setting the port and query port can be done by either updating the Engine.ini:

1. Create an Engine.ini file in the install directory
   Windows: InstallDirectory\IslesOfYore\Saved\Config\WindowsServer
   Linux: InstallDirectory/IslesOfYore/Saved/Config/LinuxServer
2. Make sure it has this data (here using 27016 as our custom port):

[OnlineSubsystemSteam]
GameServerQueryPort=27016

Or running the executable with flags:

-QueryPort=27016

Tip: In Windows, you can make a shortcut to the executable and add the flags to the end of the target field.

Optional Tooling

Windows auto-update and restart script

This script checks for updates and restarts on crash. Adjust ports as intended.

@echo off
cls

TITLE Isles of Yore Gameserver

SET steamcmd_path=C:\Your\Path\To\SteamCMD_Directory
SET server_path=C:\Your\Path\To\The\Server_Directory

REM Server Settings Section 
SET query_port=27015
SET rest_port=8085

:IslesOfYoreServerUpdate
echo (%date% -- %time%) Server is Updating
cd %steamcmd_path%
start /wait steamcmd.exe +login anonymous +force_install_dir %server_path% +app_update 1827320 verify +quit

goto IslesOfYoreServer 

:IslesOfYoreServer
cd %server_path%

echo (%date% -- %time%) Server Started
start /wait IslesOfYoreServer.exe -restport=%port% -queryport=%query_port% -log | set /P "="

echo (%date% -- %time%) WARNING: Server crashed, restarting server.
goto IslesOfYoreServerUpdate

^Note that this sets the ports as defined in the script, which means you cannot use the launch arguments to define the ports.

Linux service

This is not mandatory but it is recommended to set-up a service that automatically restarts the game on server restart or when the process crashes. The following steps again assume Ubuntu/Debian, adjust for your distribution if necessary.

To do this, add a yore-game-server.service file in /etc/systemd/system.

The file should look like this:

[Unit]
Description=Isles of Yore game server
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=mygameserveruser
ExecStart=/var/IslesOfYore/IslesOfYoreServer.sh start
Restart=always
RestartSec=10s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note: make sure the "user" matches the user you created earlier.

Now run the following command to enable the service:

systemctl enable yore-game-server

Linux startup script

If you want auto-updating on Linux, replace the ExecStart line from the above mentioned Linux service with a path to a bash script of your own:

$STEAMCMD_DIR=YOUR_STEAMCMD_INSTALL_DIRECTORY #Adjust this!
$GAME_DIR=YOUR_GAME_INSTALL_DIR #Adjust this!

cd $STEAMCMD_DIR
echo "Installing game at $GAME_DIR"
unbuffer ./steamcmd.sh +force_install_dir $GAME_DIR +login anonymous +app_update 1827330 validate +quit

cd $GAME_DIR
echo "Starting server"

chmod +x ./IslesOfYoreServer.sh
./IslesOfYoreServer.sh

Wrapping up: Linux file permissions

For Linux installs, the last step we need to perform is sort out the file permissions so that your newly created game user can run the files. For this, do the following and make sure it matches your user:

chown -R mygameserveruser:mygameserveruser /var/IslesOfYore/

Starting the server

Linux

Either execute /var/IslesOfYore/IslesOfYoreServer.sh, or better, run the service you set up with service yore-game-server start. Mind that you need to switch into the game server user you set-up to do the former, and the root user to to the latter.

Windows

You would run the IslesOfYoreServer.exe file.

Addendum: what to do in case of an update

If you're doing things manually, in case of an update, you'll need copy over the newly updated server files again.

Just to reiterate, a smoother way of working is to use SteamCMD. See the documentation above, where you would then need to run the command that contains app_update in the Installing the server files step again. The Windows script shared above does this automatically on start-up.

Keep in mind that your configuration files and user data live in [InstallDirectory]/Saved/Yore/, so keep them safe in case you opt to delete the folder on update.

Next, see how to configure your server to suit your intended playstyle: server configuration.