The table below describes the menu items for the Freelancer server.
| Menu | Description |
| File | Exit | Saves the character data for every connected player and forces them to log off. Then shuts down the server and exits. |
| Edit | Copy, Edit | Select All, Edit | Find..., Edit | Find Next | Performs the normal editing commands when in
Console view. Disabled when in Status Summary view. |
| Edit | Accounts... | Displays the Account Management dialog. |
| Edit | Message of the Day... | Displays the dialog for editing the server's current news, also called the message of the day. |
| View | Status Bar | Toggles the visible state of the status bar at the bottom of the server's window. |
| View | Status Summary | Switches the server display to the Status Summary view. |
| View | Console | Switches the server display to the Console view. |
| Chat | Chat With Universe | Displays the dialog for sending chat messages to everyone on the server. |
| Chat | Chat With Star System | Displays the dialog for chatting with the players in a given star system. |
| Chat | Chat With Player | Displays the dialog for sending a private message to a given player. |
Below is information about each of the dialogs the server can display while running. For information about the main server configuration dialog box, see the game manual.
The Account Management dialog allows you to delete characters, force characters to log off, and delete and/or ban accounts from your server. It displays the list of accounts on your server and each of the characters for those accounts. All of these operations can be performed while the server is running.
See the Managing Accounts section below for more information about managing the accounts on your server.
To close the dialog, click the OK button.
To delete a character, select the character name and click the Delete Character button.
To delete an account, select the account name and click the Delete Account button.
To ban an account, select the account name and click the Edit Account button. In the dialog that pops up, set the check on the "banned" checkbox and click the OK button.
To remove the ban on an account, select the account name and click the Edit Account button. In the dialog that pops up, unset the check on the "banned" checkbox and click the OK button.
To force a player to log off of your server, select the account name for the character you want to kick off, click the Edit Account button, and then click the Kick Account From Server button. Click the OK button to close the dialog.
NOTE: If your server allows new accounts, it is better to ban an account than to delete it. If the account is deleted, the same player's account will be created when they connect to your server again (but without the characters they had when the account was deleted). Banning the account without deleting it prevents the player from logging into you server until you remove the ban.
This dialog allows you to examine and modify the news about your server. This news is displayed to players on your server in their character selection screen. The news you enter for your server is saved and used each time the server is launched until you change it again.
To change the news for your server, type the news you want and click the OK button. Any players currently connected and on the Character Selection screen will see the news.
To close the dialog without changing the news, click the Cancel button.
This dialog allows you to send chat messages to all of the players connected to your server.
To send a message to the universe, type the message you want to send in the single-line box at the bottom, and then press ENTER.
To close the dialog, click the Close button.
This dialog allows you to monitor the chat traffic in the star systems on your server, and allows you to send chat messages to entire systems.
To monitor the chat messages in a system, select the Chat | Chat With Star System menu item, then select the desired star system from those listed and click the OK button. A System Chat dialog will then appear. The system channel chat messages in that system will appear in the top box. You can have more than one System Chat dialog open at a time, allowing you to monitor more than one system. When selecting a star system, only those systems that currently contain online players will be listed.
To send chat messages to a system, in a system chat dialog, type your message in the single-line box at the bottom, and then press ENTER.
To close a system chat dialog, click the Close button.
This dialog allows you to send a private chat message to an online player.
To open a Player Chat dialog, select the Chat | Chat With Player menu item, and then select the desired player from those listed and click the OK button. A Player Chat dialog will appear. You can have more than one Player Chat dialog open at a time.
To send a private chat message to a player, open a Player Chat dialog for the player you wish to send the message to, and then enter your message in the single-line box at the bottom and press ENTER.
To close a Private Chat dialog, click the Close button.
The server displays information in one of two views: the Status Summary view and the Console view.
The Status Summary view is the default and is most likely the only view you will ever use. It displays the current load on your server , and some other statistics about your server.
The server load is a measure of how long it takes your computer to process a single simulation step. It is displayed numerically in milliseconds and graphically as a colored bar. A lower value is better. If your computer is processing each simulation frame faster than the ideal rate, the load bar will be less than half its full height and will be colored green. In this situation, your computer has more CPU cycles than it needs to run the server and will provide the best game experience it can. If your computer is processing each simulation frame slightly slower than the ideal rate, the load bar will be over half its full height and colored yellow. In this situation your computer can still provide a good game experience, but you may start to experience some lag on connected clients. If your computer is processing each simulation frame must slower than the ideal rate, the load bar will be near the top and will be colored red. In this situation your server is providing a poor game experience; you will definitely see lag on connected clients.
The server load varies with how many players are connected and what those players are doing. In general, the more players you have on your server and the wider apart they are spread across the universe, the higher the load will be on your server. If you find that you are consistently running in the yellow or red on your server, you can limit the number of players that can be connected to your server at once. For information on how to limit the number of players, see the game manual's section on running a game server.
The table below explains each one of the displayed statistics. Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are since the server was last started.
| Statistic | Description |
| Player Count | The number of players currently connected to your server. |
| Total Logins | The total number of players that have logged onto your server. |
| Total Logouts | The total number of players that have logged off of your server. |
| Failed Logins | The total number of players that have failed to log onto your server. |
| Aborted Missions | The total number of missions that have been aborted by players on your server. |
| Player Deaths | The total number of times a player has died on your server. |
The Console view displays information useful only when debugging server issues. As the server runs it generates messages about what is doing, including errors it may find and notification of exceptional conditions. These are displayed in the Console view.
When in Console view, the Edit menu is active, and you can select and copy sections from the console to the clipboard.
As people play on your server, you will accumulate account and character information. If you intend your server to be a persistent place for Freelancer players to come play, you will need to spend a little time maintaining it. This section covers typical maintenance tasks for the Freelancer server.
Each time a player who has never connected to your server connects to it, a new account will be created for that player. You can prevent new accounts from being created on your server by un-checking the Allow New Players checkbox in the server configuration dialog.
If you wish to prevent a player from logging onto your server, you can ban that player. You can ban a player that is currently online, at which point the player will be immediately logged off.
If you don't want to ban the player, you can just kick the player off of your server. Of course, the player can just turn around and log back in unless you ban their account.
Player accounts can be manipulated in the Account Management dialog. See the section on the Account Management dialog for more information.
If a character or account is currently online when it is deleted, the player is automatically logged off.
NOTE: Accounts are tied to the build number of the server on which they run. Therefore, your character files will not work on a server with a different build number.
The accounts for your server are stored in the My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder of your documents folder. If you are running Windows 2000/XP, this means that different users on the same computer can run their own servers with different sets of accounts.
You can back up the accounts for your server by backing up the entire My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder in your documents folder. You must back up the entire directory.
You can move the entire set of accounts from one server to another by replacing the My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder on the destination server with the contents of the same folder from the source server. Copying of individual accounts to another server is not supported.
To move your accounts from server A to server B:
Freelancer uses the DirectPlay protocol for client/server communications. Therefore, the game client should work through most Network Address Translation (NAT) routers and works with the Windows 2000/XP Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) feature without requiring a configuration change. Special steps (described below) are required when using ICS on Windows 98/Me.
DirectPlay can coordinate with a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) NAT/ICS to open the proper ports for running a Freelancer server. However, if you have a hardware NAT or router that is not , you will most likely need to configure it in order to run a Freelancer server behind it. See the section below on the ports used by Freelancer for more information.
If you are running a firewall, you may need to configure it in order to play Freelancer on the Internet. If you are able to play other games that use the DirectPlay protocol through your firewall, you should be able to play Freelancer as well. For more detailed information, see the section below on the ports used by Freelancer.
Freelancer uses the standard DirectPlay8 UDP ports 2300–2400. Ports are allocated starting at 2300, working toward 2400. Port 2300 is only used when connecting to the global server.
This port range is used by both the game client and game server. The game server uses it to connect to the list server and to accept incoming connections from game clients. The game client uses it to connect to both the list server and the game servers.
Windows98 ICS is not Universal Plug & Play (UPnP) compliant. This prevents Freelancer servers from negotiating with ICS to open the proper ports. If you want to host Freelancer games behind a Windows98 ICS system, you have to configure your ICS to allow the Freelancer server to be accessed from the Internet.
We have provided an INF file that contains special configuration instructions for Freelancer’s server with Windows98 ICS. This file is located in the Extras folder where you installed Freelancer and is called Win98ICS.inf. This file must be installed on the machine that serves as the ICS host (i.e. the machine with the real Internet connection).
If you are simply running a Freelancer server on your ICS host machine, you can use this file as-is. If you are running a Freelancer server on another machine on your network, or you’ve chosen a specific port with the /P option, you will need to edit this file before installing it. When you’re happy with the contents of this file, right-click on it and choose Install. You must reboot the ICS machine for the changes to take effect. This should properly configure your ICS to work with Freelancer.
Many NAT, ICS, and firewall issues can be resolved by simply opening up ports 2300–2400 on your NAT/ICS server or firewall. If you just want to run a single server on your NAT/ICS network, this should work well for you.
The Freelancer server normally picks its own port (in the range of 2302–2400) when hosting a game. This works well in most cases. However, there are situations where you may want to control the port choice for the server. These situations are usually caused by running more than one DirectPlay game on your network at a time.
You can control the port selection with the /P command line option to the FLServer.exe program. For example, if you wanted to have the server host on port 1234, you would use the following command line FLServer.exe /P1234. You can easily modify the provided shortcut to FLServer.exe to include this option. Simply edit the Target line and add your own /Pxxx after the FLServer.exe text.
© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Digital Anvil, DirectX, Freelancer, the Microsoft logo, the Microsoft Games Studio logo, the .Net logo, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.