I am not sure why there is so little accurate documentation regarding this. Also their server setup is very convoluted. It is almost like they don’t want people to play their game…
Note that you can always just play on your own using bots. The game menu has that option built in. Although it is not at all obvious. After starting the game choose the ‘steam workshop’ option.
So I have only been able to set up a LAN server. However you can open your LAN server to the internet and share with friends To do that you must open up some ports on your home router and also know your WAN IP address. But port forwarding will not be explained here. Note also that the server will not show up on the internet under the server tabs in the game.
For some reason, the downloadable servers from steam (shown under ‘tools’) do not work. When run, they don’t show up on LAN or under the server tabs in game.
I started with these dated instructions: https://wiki.tripwireinteractive.com/index.php/RO2_Dedicated_Server
- run SteamCmd
- force_install_dir c:\RO2Server\
- login username password
- They will send you an activation code
- app_update 212542
- exit
- cd c:\RO2Server\
- Set port forwarding on your home model / router if others will be playing over the internet. Opening ports 7757-7778 worked for me
- Change settings in RO2Server.bat and ROGame.ini if desired
- Start your Red Orchestra 2 game in steam first if you want to join the server you will start later! If you start server first, you can’t start your client.
- RO2Server.bat
- Check your LAN tab in your game and join
- Those over the internet can join by running the game, F# then type: open your_wan_ip