I'm up for criticism and opinion on this guide. However, I am not up for spam and logicless hate. I just want this community to be how it used to be; friendly and with everyone knowing general knowledge.

Regardless, feel free to comment on grammar / punctuation mistakes and other small mistakes here and there. I'm not perfect, but this guide should be as easy to understand as possible and I will kill myself if it isn't.

... Oh, also this guide is easier with friends. :)

Your computer may be annoying to deal with and require some special education; this is called "Port Forwarding". Basically, your computer doesn't know what ports (Basically what gives information from your internet provider to you.) to open, so you might have to do it yourself.

Test with a friend to see if they can join. If they can, skip to Part 2. Otherwise, continue here.

1. Find your IP Address
If you already know it, good. Otherwise, here's a simple little bit of work for you.

First, go to your start menu and type "cmd". Look for the "Command Prompt" and press that ♥♥♥♥.

Once the big black box appears, type in ipconfig /all and it should give you a ton of information. Disregard all of it and scroll a bit down until you find Default Gateway. Note that down, then find your IPv4 Address and note that down too. This final bit is important, so I made an image just for you.

How sweet am I?

Once that's done, just copy it and go to your chosen web browser. Then put your IPv4 Address into the URL bar and it should take you to your ISP's website. For example, if you use Virgin Media, it'll take you to a Virgin Media website.

So I obviously ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up a bit here. You need to put in your Default Gateway instead of your IPv4 address. Sorry about mixing it up there.

2. The Actual Port Forwarding
Now comes the hard part; finding your Port Forwarding area. For Virgin Media users, simply go to Advanced Options and find Port Forwarding. Sadly, I have no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue for anyone else. Sorry, but you'll have to find it yourself.

Finally, you should end up with something like this.


All you have to do is name it whatever, (It really doesn't matter.) put both ports as 14242 (This is Barotrauma's port.) and put the final box as the last digit of your IPv4 address. Add rule, apply and you've done it.

3. Profit
Well done, you just port forwarded, but probably not for the last time; your IPv4 Address may change sometimes, and you may have to change the port forward every once in a while. Regardless, well done. You've just done something most BT normies can't.

Now you're coming to the fun bits; choosing what you want to do with your server, and what the rule set will be. Some servers are hardcore roleplay. Others, like my own ,(BT) IHD, have no rules at all. (Except don't be a ♥♥♥♥.)

Anyways, go boot up the game. Make sure that this guide is on your Steam overlay though; don't want to lose you now, do we?

Right, game started up? No? Cool, I'll wait.

... done? Cool. So, go to the button that says, "Host Server", and it should open up a tab. Here, you choose your game's name, the max amount of players, if there's a password or not, if the server is public (shows on the server browser), and what kind of play type it is. Go crazy here. No, really, do whatever you want to here; though you might want to not make this server public yet because you aren't ready.

Once you load into your server after pressing "Start", go to the top right and press "Settings". There, you can change even more settings.

WARNING: The rest of this page is dedicated to explaining the settings that need explaining. If you still don't understand one that I didn't cover, I'll update this guide to include it. Please remember that some of these settings may be slightly biased as well. You can trust me though; I've been hosting since Legacy.

If you don't understand the submarine and mission selection yet, it basically means you can choose whether you, the hoster, manually choose all submarines / gamemodes, whether a random algorithm chooses your submarine / gamemode for you or whether everyone on the server excluding the hoster votes on the current submarine / gamemode. Random is annoying, so just choose between voting and manual.

Auto restart is the amount of time between rounds your game will spend on the waiting screen. You can keep it as default for now.

"Start when players are ready" will automatically start the game once a certain amount of people press the Ready button in the bottom right. The percentage chooses how many people need to be Ready-ed.

The bottom four are either self-explanatory or don't need any explaining at all.

In the Gameplay tab, there are the Voting mechanics, respawning intervals and some more misc. stuff.

"End round when destination reached" is self-explanatory. So is "End round by voting".

"Allow respawning" allows people to, after death, respawn, either inside a "respawn shuttle", or just on the main ship. (This secondary bit can be toggled by the Respawn Shuttle button on the top of the waiting screen.) The interval slider chooses how long it is between each respawn wave.

"Minimum players to respawn" only works if the above "Allow respawning" is enabled. It's self-explanatory. So is "Duration of Respawn Shuttle".

Ragdolling is a mechanic where, if you press Space in-game with ragdolling enabled, you will flop as if you are dead, or a "rag-doll". You can disable it, however some people may complain. Regardless, no one ever uses it except for searching people, so it might be a good idea for RP servers.

At the bottom, you can choose which monsters spawn and if you want to add any cargo. These two lists can get rather large with mods enabled (Part 4), so it's best to leave it alone if you're a constant hoster.

Anti-griefing. First things first, disable Karma. Unless you know what you're doing, Karma might kick and ban random people for doing damage / annoying things to the sub, and the default settings make this very delicate. Just disable it, take a look and see if you want to mess about with it later.

Disguises are when people have a question mark ("? (Disguised)")above their head. It means you can't see their face or ID card, and so don't know who they are. It makes the game more fun and mysterious, so it's best to keep it on.

Rewiring is using a screwdriver to look inside electrical items like doors and the reactor. Don't disable it. Please. It's annoying, and it might actually make it easier to find trolls and hackers, as they usually go for rewiring first thing.

Friendly fire is... well, friendly fire. You can decide whether or not you want people to be able to hurt each other or not. It depends on the type of server, but I like to keep this off.

Bans and Whitelist. No options in here; just people you've banned and the only people who can join the server. If you don't know what a whitelist is, go search on your search engine. Banning is easy; either use a console command (Part 3) or click on them in the waiting menu and click "Ban".

Right, you're done with the game rules. That took a bit. On to the next part...

Still in your server? Good. Press F3 whilst in the waiting screen, and a little menu should pop up.

(Yes, I may have over-censored. Yes, I don't care. Internet privacy isn't a joke, folks.)

This is your console; it is used for console commands. To get a list of console commands, type "help" into your console. It will give you every console command, even ones that you can't do with your permissions.

I'm not going to list each and every single command; what I am going to do is list some useful commands. Off we go.

Actually, wait, two last things. One; you can autocomplete things like names using your Tab key. Two; if one of the following terms is a multiple word answer, put it in quotes. I'll put an example at the bottom of each command. Now off we go.

1. setclientcharacter [[i]client[/i]] [[i]character[/i]] [[i]character number[/i]]
This one's simpler than it may look. Basically, a client is a player, like, for example, johnwwickj. If you give the client name (The name of a player (Possibly not their Steam name!)) into the client part, and the name of a creature (For example a human or their old body) into character, you can essentially do a control command (Next command) for them. The character number only has to be used if there is more than one of the characters. It starts counting from zero, not one (0,1,2,3...).
Examples:
If there were 46 manti and I wanted to be the last one.
setclientcharacter johnwwickj mantis 45
If there were 46 manti and I wanted to be the first one.
setclientcharacter johnwwickj mantis 0
or
setclientcharacter johnwwickj mantis
If there were a single mantis on the entire level and I wanted to be it.
setclientcharacter johnwwickj mantis
If there were a single husk on the entire level and I wanted Ymir to be it.
setclientcharacter Ymir husk

Quotes example:
If there were 2 dead bodies, both named Jake Paul, and I wanted to be the second.
setclientcharacter johnwwickj "Jake Paul" 1


2. control [[i]character[/i]] [[i]character number[/i]]
Essentially setclientcharacter except you can only do it for yourself and control something else.
Examples:
If there were 46 manti and I wanted to be the last one.
control mantis 45
If there were 46 manti and I wanted to be the first one.
control mantis 0
or
control mantis
If there were a single mantis on the entire level and I wanted to be it.
control mantis
If there were a single husk on the entire level and I wanted to be it.
control husk

Quotes example:
If there were 2 dead bodies, both named Jake Paul, and I wanted to be the second.
control "Jake Paul" 1


3. revive [[i]character[/i]] [[i]character number[/i]] / heal [[i]character[/i]] [[i]character number[/i]]
Both of these do similar things, but one can revive someone from death whilst the other just heals them to full health.

If you want to revive someone and let them recontrol themselves, you must do a setclientcharacter command after you revive them.

Examples:
If I wanted to heal a downed and not dead person that happens to be me.
heal johnwwickj
If I wanted to revive a downed dead person that happens to be me.
revive johnwwickj
and
setclientcharacter johnwwickj johnwwickj [[i]current death count[/i] - 1]

Quotes example:
If there were 2 dead bodies, both named Jake Paul, and I wanted to revive the second so that Jake Paul could play as it.
revive "Jake Paul" 1
Press enter, then:
setclientcharacter "Jake Paul" "Jake Paul" 1

4. ban [[i]client[/i]] / kick [[i]client[/i]]
This'll do the same thing as banning / kicking them on the waiting screen, except your prompts for reason (and amount of time banned if you're using ban) will pop up in the console. It may take more than one try to get it right; if you want to, try it on your friends before opening your server. Just make sure to unban them afterwards.

Leaving the duration part blank makes the ban permanent until it is removed from the Bans tab in your server's Settings.

Examples:
If I wanted to ban an unruly member of the server named Ymir.
ban Ymir

Press enter, then:

Being unruly.

Press enter, then:

1h

If I wanted to kick an unruly member of the server named Ymir.
kick Ymir

Press enter, then:

Being unruly.

Quotes example:
If there were a hacker named Jake Paul and I wanted to ban him permanently (until I decided to unban him in the Ban tab in Settings).
ban "Jake Paul"

Press enter, then:

Hacking.

Press enter, then:
(I type nothing, because that automatically makes the ban permanent)


5. teleport [[i]character[/i]] [[i]character number[/i]]
Simply teleports someone to where your mouse pointer is. Both fun and practical.

If you leave character blank, it'll teleport whatever you're playing as.

Examples:
If I wanted to teleport myself from one room to another using my mouse pointer.
teleport johnwwickj
or
teleport
If I wanted to teleport Ymir after she died to my current room using my mouse pointer.
teleport Ymir 1
If I wanted to teleport the 5th mantis onboard using my mouse pointer, for whatever reason.
teleport mantis 4

Quotes example:
If there were a person named Jake Paul and I wanted to teleport him to the cursor.
teleport "Jake Paul"

6. spawnitem [[i]item name[/i]] [[i]cursor/inventory/cargo/random/[character][/i]]
This allows you to spawn stuff. A bit annoying, as you need to know the exact name of something to get it. Reminder that multiple word items need you to put them in quotes. You can autocomplete names using Tab. If I were to start typing Ymir ("Ym") and then press tab, it would either autocomplete it as Ymir, or allow me to go through a list of people whose names begin with Ym (Ymam, Ymir, YMolo.)

Examples:
If I wanted to give myself Ethanol (Only works whilst controlling something).
spawnitem Ethanol inventory
If I wanted to give Ymir Ethanol (Works even if Ymir is dead. (Yes, you can make dead bodies drop items.)).
spawnitem Ethanol Ymir
If I wanted to put Ethanol everywhere in random places.
spawnitem Ethanol random
or
spawnitem Ethanol
If I wanted to spawn Ethanol on my cursor.
spawnitem Ethanol cursor

Quotes example:
If there were a person named Jake Paul and I wanted to give them Husk Eggs.
spawnitem "Velonaceps Calyx Eggs" "Jake Paul" (This is the only way that it'll work.)

Welp, that was a doozy. Right, let's move onto the next part now, shall we?

So, you've done it. Your server is all set up and ready for people to join. But what about subs? (And mods but I'll discuss those later on in this part.)

Subs, ships or submarines are this games main mode of transport, (who would've guessed?) and it might be hard to choose which ones to get. I'd recommend playing around with a few, either in singleplayer or with some friends on a private server before hosting a public one. Maybe even go on a few other people's servers and steal their ships. All you need to do is find the right one. Some personal recommendations are Shakesthespeare's, Perald Baxter's and Solbusaur's ships. (I'm assuming you aren't stupid and know how to navigate through their profiles and get to their ships.)

Right, you've either got ships or are prepared to go without; now, you have to think about mods. Some mods won't work with others, some just don't work and some are still buggy. Just check them out like with the ships. However, make sure that you have at least one ship with modded items, or else you'll be spawning in guns or items every single round. I don't want to see that, and I doubt anyone else does either.

... That was quicker to write than I thought it'd be. Onto the next bit, then!

Now, you're finally hosting. Everything's set up, including the description... WAIT ♥♥♥♥. Yeah, you gotta do that. Umm, just put something, doesn't really matter what. Probably a Discord link so that people can stay in touch if they like your hosts. Umm, ♥♥♥♥, sorry about that.

Anyways, now you're hosting... and where is everyone? If no-one's joining, don't worry. It may be that everyone's trying out a different server and will eventually stumble across yours. Of course, it is also possible that no one cares about your server and won't join this host. This is possibly the hardest part of the entire process; waiting for people to join.

In the meantime, get some friends on. They might make people join, and anyways, they'll keep you entertained. Test out commands. Grief the ship. Husk captain then blow up the reactor, I dunno; just keep yourself ready for the host.

I'm assuming that you're now reading this with ~3 people on. Just have some normal rounds, possibly a fun round where you spawn husks somewhere on the ship, and let your clients relax. Then, once you get enough people (~6-8), either start doing insane ♥♥♥♥ or keep going normal. I like the former. I don't know what you'd expect from me, but I host with no rules.

So, you've reached the end of your first host... Now what? Well, you plan your next host. Either announce it on Discord, plan it on your calendar or just wait until you feel like one. Or announce it 30 minutes before. Whatever. You've done it. Go tell your mom, or the random person on Discord called Ymir. Woo-hoo.

Thanks for reading this, guys. It's my first guide, so I genuinely have no clue if what I've said will help anyone. It took about 2 days to make, but I spent about a month procrastinating on it and so this guide was started back in October.

Regardless, if you had any issues with this, just make a topic and I'll get to it. I never get notifications anyways. See you in another guide. Go make a submarine. G'night. Au Revoir. Bonne Nuit. Gute nacht. Dobranoc.