Hosting a Server

Hosting a Listen Server
To host a listen server on Northstar, go to the lobby and press the Private Match button to begin a private match.
While this does allow you to host a server, other people won't be able to join it, so you'll need to port forward 2 ports to allow other people to join.
The ports you'll need to forward are 37015-37020 UDP, and 8081 TCP by default, if this works as it should, this should result in your server being displayed on the server browser, and other clients being able to connect to it.

Hosting a Dedicated Server
Dedicated servers allow you to host a Northstar server without having to use a full client, making them more lightweight and easier to host for longer periods of time. Dedicated servers are still in development for Northstar, so while they do work, expect some bugs and general jank.
To start a dedicated server on Northstar, launch NorthstarLauncher.exe with the argument -dedicated, this can be done manually, but releases also provide the batch file r2ds.bat, which will also do this.
When using a dedicated server, arguments are read from ns_startup_args_dedi.txt, rather than ns_startup_args.txt.

Dedicated Server Caveats
At the moment, dedicated servers still require DirectX 11 to work, which typically requires a physical GPU, though they use almost no GPU processing power while in use, this can be an issue especially on GPU-less setups, so the launch argument -softwared3d11 can be used to force DirectX to run in software mode.
While this is absolutely not ideal, it's the best solution for truely headless dedicated servers at the moment, and surprisingly hardly uses any CPU time, though it can use roughly up to 1GB of RAM.
Regarding RAM usage, dedicated servers also use significant amounts of RAM at the moment, often requiring 1.5-2GB, though I expect this to lower as development continues.

Server Configuration
Whether you're running a listen or dedicated server, you'll generally want to mess with the configuration at least a bit. While I do think the default configuration settings are pretty ok, being able to change your server's name or password, or increasing your server's tickrate is often something you'll want to do. Server configuration can be modified in the file R2Northstar/mods/Northstar.CustomServers/mod/cfg/autoexec_ns_server.cfg, which will be executed on server startup.

Below are a series of variables and commands you can use for server configuration:

Name	Description	Default Value
ns_server_name	Your server's name on the server browser	"Unnamed Northstar Server"
ns_server_desc	Your server's description on the server browser	"Default server description"
ns_server_password	The password required to join your server, can be bypassed if clients directly connect and you are using insecure auth	""
ns_report_server_to_masterserver	Whether your server should report itself to the masterserver, for use in auth and the serverbrowser	1
ns_report_sp_server_to_masterserver	Whether your server should report itself to the masterserver if started on a singleplayer map, for use in auth and the serverbrowser	0
ns_auth_allow_insecure	Allows clients to join your server without authenticating with the masterserver, currently required to allow clients to connect directly to your IP, rather than through the server browser	0
ns_erase_auth_info	Whether your server should erase authentication information after it is used, this is useful for development but should normally be kept at 1	1
ns_player_auth_port	The port used for the server's local authentication server, this is the TCP port we forwarded earlier	8081
everything_unlocked	Whether all items, weapons, etc should be unlocked on the server	1
ns_should_return_to_lobby	Whether the server should return to private match lobby after completing a game, if 0, this will go to the next map/mode in the playlist	1
net_chan_limit_mode	If 0, don't limit the netchannel processing time individual clients are allowed. If 1, kick clients that go over the limit. If 2, log clients that go over the limit in console	1
net_chan_limit_msec_per_sec	The number of milliseconds of server netchan processing time clients can use per second before triggering the response set in net_chan_limit_mode	30
base_tickinterval_mp	The delay between each tick ran on the server, your tickrate will be 1 divided by this value	0.016666667
sv_updaterate_mp	The maximum number of times per second your server will send information to connected players, if a player's cl_updaterate_mp value is lower than this, their rate will be limited to it	20
sv_max_snapshots_multiplayer	The number of snapshots stored locally for use in replays, this should be set to sv_updaterate_mp * 15	300