Yes - it came from Steam. By that I mean it downloaded like a shell version of Arma (pretty big though - 192MB!). When I went to launch it though, I received two errors after the Arma 3 splash screen. My server box was apparently missing X3DAudio1_7.dll and XAPOFX1_5.dll (those must be part of an older DX package? - because those warnings went away after installing DX11)…
Good news is - after getting the server at least up and running last night, I tried a few times to connect to it this morning from my actual gaming PC and had two failures before I realized I needed to have BattleEye running on my playing PC. Now I’m connected and it looks like I’m in business.
Obviously it is just bare bones - running vanilla A3 with the stock MP missions. Just like with DCS server hosting, I’m sure it will be a learning process.
Just really happy I have at least DCS and A3 working - those two were the primary reasons for the server box. Thanks so much to everyone that helped me get up and running…and suffering through my hair pulling sessions…(more to come I’m sure!).
I’ll open the servers to Mudspike participation once I figure out how secure all of this is - I need to make sure the server is insulated from my LAN with regards to incoming stuff I guess (?). I’m not too good at network security either…
Additional success (I’m on a roll this morning!). Managed to find the Steam Workshop MP pbo files on my gaming machine (there is a special place in Hell for whoever decided Steam files need to go to such non-descript and buried game directories) and send those to my Server game directory. Edited the server.cfg file to add the missions (although I only tested two…but it looks like ALL of the ones I sent showed up…so there must have been some streamlining of finding added missions over the years and the guidance on editing the server.cfg may not be necessary anymore) and they showed up.
Thus…able to run custom Steam Workshop created MP missions on the server and successfully joined them using my networked gaming machine.
With the progress you have made since you seem to have a working version now may be a good time to make a backup of your build, including those DX11 files you found, and save them on a separate computer, a thumb drive, or even Mudspike’s server. You can always replace the files at a later date if something gets updated but I find that it is always a pain in the behind to go searching for things later. Half the time I just do not remember so I would go through the same learning process…
With the number of PC’s - if you need MS Office it’s a good candidate to consider an Office 365 Family pack (5 users / multiple devices each). If the kids need it for school and it’s not provided via the online learning stuff - worth having it. They’ll need the experience with Office software no matter what these days anyway.
You get 1TB of OneDrive storage per user which you can use to backup your stuff and offload photos from your phone(s). In the phone situation, you can then access them on the go via the OneDrive app, and even do an offload via the app.
I don’t run OneDrive on the server but I do take a copy of the configs and .zip it and leave it in OneDrive. (A long with Acronis True Image doing backups for me but that’s another level & story).
The best part is there is no third party software, it’s built in to Windows.
If you don’t need it the bundle, a MS account gets you 5GB on OneDrive free (last I checked - years ago).
There is a catch with Office however.
Cloud licenses are user based and not device based. So you can freely sign in on your home devices so long as your company allows and use Office at home yourselves. That won’t help the kids unless you want to sign in their computers on your company account…not ideal.
The Home Use program is a way to get a discount on personal/family editions by being part of an enterprise - which is the key word (These licenses start with E in the name, such as E3 and E5). “Regular” business licenses do not qualify the users for the Home Use program. If you qualify though you can get a pretty hefty discount potentially (30%).
The air ambulance company really needs to know what the best FortNite skins are though…maybe I can tie it all in to their Epic account and get my company to pay me in V-Bucks!
Well…in COVID quarantine I think me and the boys played about 10 hours of Arma yesterday on the new server and had the best time. We are doing a whole “capture the island” persistent scenario with base building and resource gathering and sector offense and defense. It was soooooo awesome. Worth every dime invested in the computers for the boys and the server…
