Bare-Bones Basics for Multiplayer:

Part 1: Port-forwarding

Setting up:

You're going to need to port-forward your router. As this differs from router to router, you should check here for a guide for yours. Here's a screenshot of mine that may help if you think you haven't followed the steps 100%. Mine says "both" just because there was that option. Yours may not have that option.

Testing:

Go to this site Enter your IP from here in the "your IP" box if it doesn't have it automatically Enter 21025 in the "port" box Click "check port"

Note: Every port-forward testing site I've found has told me I've done it wrong, even if it's working. So this may not be a reliable way to test.

Part 2: Server Config

Check here for your external IP address. Right-click "Starbound" in your Steam library (Or "Starbound - Unstable" if you're using Unstable or Nightly) Click "properties" Click "local files" Click "browse local files" Go into "giraffe_storage" You should see a bunch of files, like this. Open "starbound.config" in Notepad++ (Or wordpad. Regular Notepad will just see a huge block of text.) Find the following in Starbound.config: "title.connectionString" (If it's not there, add it.) Put your IP in, like this: Note: To avoid the "Fatal Exception caught: (IOException) Rename error: 3" error, place this line under "serverName" : "A Starbound Server", "title.connectionString" : "(put it here, no brackets)", Note: title.connectionAddress just saves whatever IP you type in the IP address box when joining a multiplayer server. Save starbound.config

Part 3: Launching the Server

Launch Starbound from Steam Click "Launch Starbound Server" from the lower-right of the launcher This should give you a command prompt window. It'll take a while to set itself up, and then you should be good to go. Launch the singleplayer client, and sign in using the IP you got from part 1, step 1.

Part 4: Connecting to the Server

Launch Starbound Click "Multiplayer" Type the IP you got from here into the IP box If that doesn't work, use the local IP you got from part 1. (Should be similar to 192.168.0.4)

Advanced:

Part 1: Blocking Anonymous Connections

Open Starbound.config in Notepad++ or Wordpad Find "allowAdminCommandsFromAnyone". If it's not there, add it somewhere. Set it to "false": "allowAnonymousConnections" : false,

Part 2: Whitelisting Users and Creating Admins

Open Starbound.config in Notepad++ or Wordpad Find "allowAdminCommandsFromAnyone". If it's not there, add it. Set it to false: "allowAdminCommandsFromAnyone" : false, Find "anonymousConnectionsAreAdmin". If it's not there, add it. Set it to false: "anonymousConnectionsAreAdmin" : false, Find "serverUsers". If it's not there, add it. Add yourself as admin. The usernames can be anything, and don't have to be your Steam name or character name. Example:

"serverUsers" : { "yourname" : { "admin" : true, "password" : "yourpassword" } },

Note: You will not be able to execute admin commands right away. You'll still have to /admin yourself when in-game, but other users will not be able to do the same if you haven't set them to be allowed to.

For every additional user, you're going to have to put them in that piece of config. Example:

"serverUsers" : { "yourname" : { "admin" : true, "password" : "yourpassword" }, "secondname" : { "admin" : false, "password" : "secondpassword" }, "thirdname" : { "admin" : false, "password" : "thirdpassword" } },

Note: When connecting, you must enter your username into "server name", and your password into "server password", or your connection will be refused.

Things broke!

Don't worry! There's usually a solution! Depending on what broke. The most common thing recently, has been the "Fatal Exception caught: (IOException) Rename error: 3" popup and crash. If the note in step 2 didn't work, try following these steps: Try running OpenGL instead of OpenGL 64bit. Didn't work? Right-click "Starbound" in your Steam library (Or "Starbound - Unstable" if you're using Unstable or Nightly) Click "properties" Click "local files" Click "browse local files" Go into "win64" Right-click "starbound_opengl.exe" Click "run as administrator" You'll have to do this each time, unfortunately.

Make sure you follow EACH step precisely otherwise it will NOT work.