Frequently asked questions

It is a multiplayer co-op mod for Timberborn: you and your friends build one colony together, in real time, each with your own camera and interface. It is an independent fork of the original BeaverBuddies by thomaswp and contributors, and keeps everything the original does.

• Steam friend invites on Valve's current networking API, with no port forwarding.
• An in-game connection panel with players, ping, sync status and tick rate.
• Player activity: teammates' cursors, selection outlines and Viewing / Editing labels, with per-player cursor styling.
• Fixes for a water desync that depended on frame rate, an animation crash, random-number, saving and demolition problems, and more.
• Clearer failures: a mismatched build is refused before the save is sent, and failed connections and actions end with a plain-language reason.

The home page and the changelog have the details, including how well each fix is confirmed.

Yes. It is free and open source under the GNU General Public License v3.0, and the original authorship and license are preserved.

This fork is distributed through GitHub Releases only. It is not on the Steam Workshop or mod.io; the pages you may find there belong to the original project.

It is built and tested against Timberborn 1.1.2.4. Every player must run the same game version, because the mod compares it when someone joins.

It has been tested on Windows with the Steam version of Timberborn. Steam invites need the Steam version. Other stores, macOS and Linux have not been tested by this fork.

It has been tested with two players. Larger groups have not been tried by this fork, so treat them as untested.

Yes. Every player needs their own copy of the game and the same mod download. Only the host needs the save: guests receive a copy of it when they join, stored under Online Games.

Not with a Steam invite. For a direct IP connection, the default port is 25565 and your router must forward it. A virtual LAN such as Hamachi also works and avoids port forwarding.

No. Nobody can join once the host chooses Start Game. Everyone starts from the same save, and a running game cannot be handed to a newcomer. Save, host again, and invite them.

No. It is one shared colony, but every player has their own camera and interface. You see teammates' cursors and selections, and you can ping the map.

The game tells you. The host chooses Save and Rehost, and guests reconnect (Steam guests accept a fresh invite). This fork removes many known causes of desyncs, but it cannot promise none, so keep backups of your saves. See Troubleshooting.

No. Every player must run the exact same build, so a mixed session is refused. The original and this fork also share a mod ID, so you cannot have both installed at once.

Yes, but every player should have the same mods at the same versions. When someone joins, both players are shown a warning if their mod lists differ, naming the mods that are on only one computer or at different versions. It is only a warning: mods that only change the interface are usually harmless, but a mod that changes the simulation will make the games drift apart. Settings that affect the simulation (for example Reduce the number of forced pauses) are not compared and should match too. See Troubleshooting.

Yes, both. Get them from the install guide.

The game must play out identically on every computer, and even a rebuilt copy of the same version can differ. So when someone joins, the mod compares the game version, its own version and its own files, and refuses any difference before the save is sent.

Earlier downloads used a folder named BeaverBuddies-StabilityPreview. Delete it from Documents\Timberborn\Mods before you copy in the new BeaverBuddies-Stability-Fork folder. The two share a mod ID, so having both would conflict.

Connections go directly between players when Steam can find a route and are otherwise relayed through Steam's network. Valve documents that relaying keeps players' IP addresses hidden from each other. With a direct IP connection, the host's address is shared with the players you give it to.

Not over Steam. The host opens a friends-only lobby and only accepts players who joined it, so someone who knows your Steam ID cannot connect. Over direct IP, anyone with your address and port can try to connect until you start the game, so share it only with people you trust.

Other players in your session receive your game actions and, if Player activity indicators is on, your cursor position, selection, recent building edits and the display name and color you chose. This fork's builds contain no bug-report upload token, so the Post Bug Report button does not upload anything, and diagnostic files are written only to your own computer.

Everyone starts from the same save. Every action is sent to the host, which decides the tick it happens on and sends it to everyone. Because the game is deterministic, the same save and the same actions on the same ticks play out identically on every computer. The home page explains it in a minute, and the original project's wiki goes deeper.

How many simulation ticks per second the game is running right now, averaged over about three seconds. It is around 1.7 at normal speed, rises with game speed, and drops to 0 when paused.

Normal play has little overhead, and the latest release does less work every tick and every frame. The one big exception is Always Use Detailed Logging, which records a lot of extra detail for diagnosing desyncs. Leave it off unless you are hunting a desync.

A little. A guest's action goes to the host, which schedules it on a tick and sends it back, so it appears a short moment after you click. The latest release removes about half a tick of that delay (roughly 0.3 seconds at normal speed) by sending your actions immediately, and over Steam that delay no longer grows as the game speeds up.

Download the new zip, close the game, and replace the BeaverBuddies-Stability-Fork folder (delete the old BeaverBuddies-StabilityPreview folder too if you still have it). Everyone updates together, because different builds will not join each other.

Open an issue on the project's GitHub page and attach both players' Player.log. Collecting logs explains where to find them.

• Everyone must run the exact same build. Other mods should match (you get a warning when they do not), and settings are not compared.
• Nobody can join after Start Game.
• Desyncs can still happen.
• Tested with two players on Windows and Steam only.
• Text added by this fork is English only. Other languages show the English text for those strings.
• One fix, for a demolition selection that includes already-demolished buildings, has automated tests but has not been confirmed in a live session.

The multiplayer design and most of the code come from the original BeaverBuddies by thomaswp and contributors. This fork is maintained by kramsey458. It is an unofficial community mod and is not affiliated with Timberborn's developer, Mechanistry.