HighSeat

In Valheim the nearest player's game runs every creature, and everyone else sees it through that player's connection. One player far away, on a slow line or on a cloud PC, and creatures freeze or move "like they have ping" for the whole group. HighSeat makes the server run them instead, the way most survival games do, and lets one server hold a crowd: 50 players by default instead of the game's 10.

Features

• Server-run creatures: the server loads every player's area and runs every creature in it, monsters, animals, tamed creatures and bosses alike. Optionally only where two or more players share them, so a lone player's game runs their own.
• Server-run spawners: wild spawns, the game's raids, nests, spawn points and boss altars spawn on the server, so every roll on spawn follows the server's rules. Only a console spawn begins on a player's game, handed over within two seconds.
• Big servers: up to 50 players by default, and every player is sent the world 20 times a second with their own share of the send rate. Only what changed is sent, and the far side of a crowded town less often than the players beside you; players with HighSeatPlus get only the changed parts of each object, about a fifth of the data in a crowd.
• Night skip vote: lying in bed or saying !sleep in chat is a vote, and more than half of the players online skips the night. Only those in bed get the sleep screen; everyone sees the count.
• Kept places: the busiest places and fresh death spots stay loaded on the server, so creatures there start at once when a player arrives.
• Boss drops for players nearby: a boss's once-per-player item drops for the players near the fight, not for everyone online.
• Frame budget: a server that falls behind leaves new creatures to players, as the game does, until it recovers.
• Send rate: raised to 500 KB/s per player from the game's 150, never lowered below what another mod set.

Install

Needed on the server only: a dedicated server, or the player who hosts. Players need nothing; HighSeatPlus, optional on their PCs, gets them smaller updates and makes big bases and crowds cheaper to draw. Install with r2modman or the Thunderstore app, or put HighSeat.dll in BepInEx/plugins. A network mod that sets a higher send rate (such as Better Networking) can stay: HighSeat keeps the higher one.

The server does more work: give it a good CPU and plenty of memory, especially when players spread out across the map. A crossplay server stays at the game's 10 players.

Configuration

BepInEx/config/com.HighSeat.cfg: Server runs creatures, Server frame budget ms, and under Big servers Max players, Big server sync, Creatures only where shared, Night skip vote, Kept places and Boss drops for players nearby. All are described in the file and apply without a restart.

Links

Discord: https://discord.gg/Q2sMPGQ4T3

Bugs and ideas: https://github.com/geraldjglasgow/ValheimMods/issues (name the mod and version). Licence: GPL-3.0.

Shout outs

• The BepInEx and Harmony teams, for the tools every Valheim mod stands on.
• Iron Gate Studio, for Valheim.
• Thunderstore, for hosting this page.
• The Valheim modding community, for the hard work and dedication that keeps enhancing an already great game.
• Every modder who keeps their mods open source so others can collaborate, learn and build on them.

Changelog

0.6.0

• Open server: a dedicated server asks nobody for a password, whatever password it was started with.
• A dedicated server shows its real player limit in the server list (0/50, not 0/10).
• A public dedicated server started without a password now starts instead of quitting.
• Fixed: the faster player history update failed on dedicated servers and fell back to the game's own code.

0.5.0

• Creatures only where shared is removed and always on: the server runs spawners and every creature players share; a creature near one player runs on that player's game.
• Much lighter with players spread out: a lone player's area loads only what the server needs there (50 spread out: about 24 server fps instead of 4).
• HighSeat's own statistics are only counted in debug builds.

0.4.3

• The faster send and player list paths now check the game version instead of reading the game's code; they stay off on any game version other than 1.0.21.

0.4.2

• Fixed: many players at the edge of explored land no longer freeze the server while new land generates.
• Smoother with players spread out: far players' areas are gathered less often, and waiting objects no longer slow every pass.
• Fixed: players leaving no longer cause one long frame; their areas unload a little at a time.

0.4.1

• Fixed: players spread over the world no longer freeze the server for 30-40 s while their ground loads.
• Fixed: a far player leaving a hosted game no longer unloads the host's area and leaves the host on a loading screen.
• No more short stutter every 2 s with many players: the ownership pass is spread over frames.

0.4.0

• Players with HighSeatPlus get only what changed in each object: about a fifth of the data in a crowd.
• Sends are prepared on several threads, with less garbage.
• Crowds: the nearest players update every round, the rest of a crowd less often.
• Smoother joins: objects are made to a time budget.
• Quiet creatures on the server skip bone animation until they fight or a player comes near.
• Joining stays under Steam's message limit however long the player history grows.
• Fixed: no frame budget warning while a host loads the world; the player cap is logged once.

0.3.0

• Max players: the server takes 50 players by default instead of the game's 10.
• Big server sync: every player is sent only what changed, 20 times a second, far things less often.
• Night skip vote: a bed or !sleep in chat is a vote; more than half online skips the night.
• Kept places: busy places and fresh death spots stay loaded on the server.
• Creatures only where shared (off by default): a creature near one player only runs on that player's game.
• Boss drops for players nearby: once-per-player boss items count players near the fight, not everyone online.

0.2.3

• Fixed: a world save or one slow frame no longer makes the server leave new creatures to players.

0.2.2

• Fixed: wild creatures spawn near players again; the server's spawner threw errors instead.

0.2.1

• Fixed: a dedicated server running 0.2.0 never accepted players (connections timed out).

0.2.0

• Fixed: creatures near players no longer float over dug-out ground or sink into raised ground.
• Send rate is now 500 KB/s with no setting, never lowered below what another mod set; Send rate KB/s removed.

0.1.0

• First release.
• The server runs every creature near any player, tamed creatures and bosses included.
• Wild spawns, the game's raids, nests, spawn points and boss altars spawn on the server.
• Server frame budget ms: a busy server leaves new creatures to players until it recovers.
• Send rate KB/s: optional higher send rate.