How to synchronize Starbound savegame for multiple users on multiple computers

starbound

Here's my situation:

  • 2 users play starbound on multiple computers (2 desktops)
  • sometimes we play multiplayer together, each on 1 desktop
  • I want to sync my savegames so I can pick up on any of the computers when playing single player

Is this even possible with Starbound?

If I would play always single player with only my own character, I can sync my savegames by copying the storage directory from the SteamApps directory to the computers. But as the universe is shared, if the other user played inbetween, I would overwrite the state of some of the planets when I copy files over from the other computer. Is my understanding correct? If yes, is there any way to solve this?

Best Answer

The ideal way is to set up Dropbox to sync the files between your computers.

Download and install Dropbox on both computers, you'll need to create an account if you don't have one already and sign into both computers with the same account. On the computer with the newest copy of the world, move it from SteamApps into Dropbox (I recommend having everything be in a subfolder, as in, Dropbox -> Files -> Every file and folder that you want to sync).

Then, you'll need to create symlinks. You'll want to symlink the game directory into Dropbox, so open a command prompt or terminal and navigate to where your storage directory was and use the command mklink /J storage C:\Users\[username]\Dropbox\Files\storage for Windows or ln -s /home/[username]/Dropbox/Files/storage for Linux (similar command on Mac). Repeat on the other computer, deleting the existing "storage" in SteamApps on that computer first, so that you can create the link.

Now, you should be good to go as long as you two don't accidentally play at the same time or play without an internet connection (and therefore no syncing). If you screw up your save somehow, you can restore individual files to previous versions from Dropbox's site, but in general I recommend keeping backups.

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