ASKA – Dedicated Server Setup Guide

Guide to Dedicated Server Setup

Welcome to the ASKA Dedicated Server guide. This short document will take you through the necessary steps to starting your own ASKA server. 

What is a Dedicated Server?

Dedicated servers are persistent games that don’t rely on the presence of an in-game host. Dedicated servers do not shut down when players aren’t connected and allow any player to connect at any time as long as there are player slots available. 

Dedicated servers can also be hosted on a machine different from the one you’re playing on and are especially well suited for player groups and communities that can’t necessarily sync their schedules to play at the same time. It allows for players to contribute to a persistent world anytime they like.

Basic User Guide

This short guide will take you through the necessary steps needed to set up and run your very first ASKA server.

Prerequisites – SteamCMD

Before you set up your server, make sure you download SteamCMD, unarchive and run steamcmd.exe. Wait for the app to download necessary files. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the tool as instructed in the SteamCMD page.

Getting the App

• Navigate to your Steam Library and sort your apps by “Tools” instead of “Games” or go to this link.

• Browse for “ASKA Dedicated Server”.

• Install it on the machine you’re using as the server.

Configuring the server

Before you run your first server, there are some steps you need to go through.

• Navigate to (<Drive>:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\ASKA Dedicated Server) 
• Locate the server properties.txt file
• Open the file.
• We recommend that you take a moment to familiarize yourself with the file, as it contains comments detailing what every parameter does. You’re free to customize your session using these parameters.

• IMPORTANT: Make sure you configure these following parameters first:
  • Display name
  • Password
  • Region

Recommended Setup

Before you run your first server, here are some recommended steps.

• Move the server properties.txt out of the installation directory (<Drive>:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\ASKA)  and have a .bat file to reference the new location. This will stop the server properties from being overwritten if the app gets updated. 

• You can copy the server properties.txt anywhere, for this illustration we’ll place it in C:\askaconfig
• Locate the AskaServer.bat in the installation directory, and open it with a text editor

• Where it says -propertiesPath, replace that with the location of the server properties.txt file

Running the server

• Now you can launch the AskaServer.exe by running the AskaServer.bat file

Playing on your dedicated server

• Congratulations! You have successfully configured and launched your own dedicated server!
• The game will show up in the multiplayer session list like any regular multiplayer session.

Saving the world on a dedicated server

• Similar to regular host/client sessions, dedicated server sessions save at the start of each new day. 
• Unlike regular sessions however, the dedicated server also saves when the last online player has left the session.
• After the last player has left the session, the world gets saved and the game “pauses”, unloading unnecessary data until at least another player joins.
  As long as no players are online on the server, the game stays frozen. Time stands still, characters don’t do anything and no events take place. 
• There is no way for a player to force the server to save on command. When a player hits “Save” in the pause menu, it only saves the client’s character and data, but the server doesn’t save.
• To recap, remember the world only saves at the start of each new day or when the last connected player leaves the session.

Shutting down the server

You can close the server using the Ctrl+C command or by hitting the (X) button in the top right corner of the app window. This will save the game, kick all the players and shutdown the app safely.