Handshake Server?

[Ken L]

Will there be a handshake server for connecting to hosts behind firewalls or NATs?

I say this as I travel for business and to keep the group together I might host a game though hotel/company wifi. Does FG provide this?

When I say handshake server, I'm referring to a server that when a game server comes online, it can register to the the handshaker and be 'listed', perhaps by alias (and possibly hidden as well so only those who know the alias can join). When players connect, they are bridged by this server then the game server (the host) will bear the rest of the connection. This bypasses the need for any port forwarding and is a very modern approach to the peering problem.

If FG does not provide this, will it provide this in the future?

[damned]

It is hoped that this feature will become available in the Unity version.
I dont think it has been added to the wishlist yet though so please add it there - https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/ and I will vote for that feature.

[Ken L]

Submitted, It still surprises me that this isn't implemented yet. There's some maintenance cost to run this server but the overall ease of peering is a huge boon to all involved. There's a whole class of individuals who can pay for the platform, but can't use it due to the NAT problem and are driven to Roll20.

It's also how many Indie games do their multiplayer, I'm surprised that FG still doesn't do it.

https://fg2app.idea.informer.com/proj/?ia=100146

[JohnD]

Voted.

[Nylanfs]

You can use Himachi in the meantime

[Griogre]

Yeah the most common solution is to use a free VPN like Hamachi mentioned above.

[Ken L]

So I take it that this isn't an issue for FG? A vast majority of games have already moved in this direction so direct connections seem quite dated.

[Moon Wizard]

FG has a very dated networking library, which is one of the primary reasons we are moving to Unity. We're evaluating network options as we prototype and build that version. We haven't decided what the networking interface will look like yet, but we want to make sure we can support assisted connections as well as direct connections.

Regards,
JPG