Hey, I'm the owner and lead developer for the Penguin Games server. A few comments from my own observations dealing with this: - I am not happy about the player counts either - When player counts are low, it causes a self-perpetuating death spiral where people join the server, see that the lobby for their favorite game isn't active, and then leave. Basically the only thing that helps revive player count is for the player count to be revived. - "Just add more games" is easier said than done. Our dev team is small and we already have like 30 different gamemodes. From my view, we have had a pretty bad scope creep problem, and personally I'd rather prioritize quality over quantity. Any time a dev spends on a new gamemode could be spent adding new content or fixing bugs for an existing gamemode. At least that's my view of it; of course I wouldn't want players to get bored with what's there but I think we have quite a bit of content right now. - The game hub being obscure is kind of intentional because I wouldn't want lobbies to be spread too thin, so we hope that concentrating players in a smaller selection of rotating gamemodes provides a better experience. I'd love to make all gamemodes playable at all time but we don't have the player counts for that, and we didn't even when we were at our peak. - COVID helped us a lot, but unfortunately I can't cause a new pandemic to make my Terraria server more popular again :(. - Another factor is that KZfaqrs don't cover us as often because Terraria server videos don't do as well in the algorithm. I assume that viewers don't care to hear about it because they don't even know what's out there. - Yes, ReLogic has chronically neglected this scene. I would love to see an ingame server list. - Map size variation in Spleef is supposed to be coming soon!

The answer why ppl don't play multiplayer is simple: in Minecraft, there's almost nothing to in the game, while multiplayer provides some communication and fun activities with friends, while in Terraria you have access to excess amounts of solo content and fun activities which is why multiplayer always seems redundant besides a small group of friends playing coop.

i gotta say its pretty brave for your FIRST criticism of a gamemode to be "it needs a battle pass" like they arent one of the most hated things in gaming for good reasons

Im the owner of eternia, and i can honestly say If terraria actually supported us, it would both explode terraria server player count but also help terraria build there own player count.

I got a penguin game ad while watching this video

Hi! I am the lead admin & developer from Terraria Minigames server. In Terraria, the servers are really poorly adapted. There is no good API like in Minecraft. There is nothing to attract the attention of players to the servers. And if a player has joined the server, it is difficult to keep him. For example, we have been thinking for a long time about making it as easy as possible for players to adapt to the server. KZfaq only helps, but it is not always possible to get a video from a major youtuber ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A lot of people play multiplayer in Terraria, just not a lot on public servers. Public servers don't have nearly as much potential as, say, a game like Minecraft. However, a playthrough with friends or even just random strangers you find online and start a groupchat with is and will be one of the most magical things you’ll experience in a game. Minecraft playthroughs are often isolated even on multiplayer servers due to lack of any incentive to stick together especially because of the mob limit making the game easier than it already is when there are lots of people online, while having someone to base with would more often than not lead to betrayal or getting targeted than a peaceful experience, and the progression ends really fast with mostly mindless grinding making up the majority of the game, so after just a few days you will have no reason to remain on the survival server other than build structures or do certain community events to stave off boredom from lack of stuff to do. Meanwhile in Terraria there are certain things like boss fights with the bosses scaling in stats to how many players are online, that encourages players to stick together and take down the threat. Going your separate ways is rarely a good idea when venturing into the unknown, as the evil regions and underground jungle will lead to a lot of pain and having one friend with you ensures a safety net for any coins or items you may lose on death, which is quite common in Terraria due to the obscene difficulty spikes on higher difficulties. Basically, what it boils down to, is that Minecraft, due to its limited progression, becomes a lot more competitive due to players being the main threat in a much more peaceful environment than Terraria, which has an emphasis on cooperation against an extremely hostile environment, where players are either already competing against the eldritch horrors plaguing the land, or are at a point where they are literally so powerful that attacking each other will just lead to both players oneshotting each other before either side has the slightest chance to evade or perform game-changing outplays leading to one's victory. This makes Minecraft a better experience on public servers where there is constant competition, but Terraria a better experience on private multiplayer playthroughs due to its co-op being actually meaningful. In Minecraft, you band together to kill a rivaling group over control of the world spawn. In Terraria, you band together to kill f*cking elder gods and destroy planets with full auto firework launchers that shoot f*cking nukes.

Hi, I am the founder and sole developer of Eternia. It is obvious that Terraria is simply not designed for large scale public multiplayer servers. All of the solutions we have now: TShock, plugins, automatically refilling all items areas, lobby switching, etc. are achieved as a result of reverse-engineering Terraria. Using hacky techniques to patch the Terraria server assemblies and hook our own code into it, in combination with decompilation of the game’s source code to figure out how mechanics are implemented so we can extend/modify them as best we can in a server-sided fashion. The whole premise of these big public servers exists on the basis of community developers trying to push the game’s limited multiplayer capabilities to the extreme. When you open a server up to beyond your group of friends, you open it up to malicious actors, and Terraria’s protocol and error tolerance/correction is not robust in the slightest when exposed to the vast array of exploits that exist, because this is simply not the intended use case. Re-Logic does not provide public documentation. Re-Logic does not provide public developer tools like SDKs or a server-side modding API. It’s obvious that support for large Minecraft-style public multiplayer server networks was never meant to be part of the product. The Terraria server developer community has requested certain protocol changes and minor additions (such as SSC), and Re-Logic has however obliged. We were the ones who chose to push it to its limits, beyond what was intended. For Re-Logic to make public multiplayer servers robust and act on these highlighted issues would be a massive commitment at the behest of our entitled expectations. It would add longevity to the game to really flesh out multiplayer and build a more solid foundation for our creativity as Terraria server developers, but I think at this point they might as well rectify it in “Terraria 2”.

*As the owner of a PS4/PS5 all items server, I see an average of 4 - 30 new players joining every 24 hours, depending on the day.* *My server's PvP and building community is quite active, but is limited by the player limit of 16.* *Open for questions.*

W critique i didnt think about how shitty the ui for joining a server is

"Parkoore isnt as fun in 2d as it is in 3d" Celeste looking at you from the shadows. Smiling.

About the registration thingy, that is a server side client called tShock, which allows for devs and server owners to install plugins. It requires players to sign in to save their data.

On Classic Capture the Flag I'd agree with you on the inherent weirdness of invincibility frames and melee detection but it's the opposite perspective given in that terragrim example - any melee weapon that has a decent arc (even a platinum broadsword) and knockback can do a weird stunlock of the character - where doing the same swing, you hit your opponent multiple times while knocking them back - sort of carrying them through the air. The best example is the fiery greatsword which is so damn powerful in this gamemode though that comes with the skill ceiling. I've at the very least decent - I kill either a biome boss, skeletron or queen bee before time runs out because it's fairly easy when boss health isnt affected by player count (and the gamemode is on classic so it's easy to navigate the world). You can fairly easily get to a stage when you have a grappling hook (the best mobility item - bypass knockback), a movement accessory to help and melee weapon (the crimtane or demonite hammer is actually better for this 'stunlock' of hit detection on opponents than the sword but for other metals sword is dominate). Though, at that level the equivalent ranger weapon is fairly powerful though the grappling hook allows one to abuse the stunlock to the utmost. I'm not sure if some meddling with invincibility frames should be applied here - its a mid-high level strat, tending on the high level as it's best used when you have the best material - hellstone (or I hear in some rare cases hallowed bars). There are greater problems attached though they tend to skill level (jungle is pretty much better than snow/dungeon) & dependency on rng for team to win - it can be infuriating to be sacked with a hard to traverse evil biome preventing you from exploring beyond or getting nothing useful from chests.

This has happened after every major Terraria update. The playercounts always peaked heavily aroudn those days but then started dwindling down after a while. I remember how busy the game was during 1.2 days though. Good times.

Teeria Legends player here, the server is still alive and lively. Didn't know Pedguin's server had died or smth. We still have a lot of new players joining every day and are still frequently updated. We now even have a custom Moon Lord battle which is quite fun.

7:05 :O that's me! (the green slime) despite the low player counts, some players have been on the server for a WHILE and they're astonishingly good at many of the games

I used to play on Pedguin's server almost daily, like 5-6 years ago. I made a lot of Steam friends over it (although I eventually lost contact with all of them). Eventually I just played different games and sort of forgot the server existed. I lowkey want to check it out again at some point.

Personally never knew there were servers, thx for the information, might even try it out.

There was a german server I often played on and even was Admin on in the past. Unfortunately, the owner had to close the server down at some point and has probably since then long moved on from Terraria.

I legitimately got an add for penguin gaming sever watching this never seen it before

Yesterday I remembered it existed and tried to play ctg. I did not expect to see only 2 people in queue

0:03 i clicked on the video out of curiosity and first thing i see is me rushing full speed to kill the guy with the red gem and failing miserably on penguin games ctg 💀💀

I remember playing on one of the servers (I was fighting zombies) but they wouldn't let me move because of random issues so I was just a fidgeting stone statue for most of it

1:59 that's because ReLogic outsourced the mobille port to another developer (Pipeworks Studios), i guess they could just copy the code and deploy into the PC version but who knows if they aren't gonna do it for 1.4.5

I played on this server back in 2018 and I really enjoyed it. I made a couple of friends but after a while, they disappeared and so did I. It’s a shame that the player count has dropped that steeply since then. It was a good server. My favorite game was the Tanks game (can’t remember the game).

BMT imo are one of the most fun thing for me since you could be praised by your build or just not sweat, though the only thing i dont like about bmt is.. you gotta TYPE FAST

I think that part of the problem may be because terraria is a game people play to fight bosses, advance and overcome challenges. Pretty much all content on the internet revolves around classes, playthroughs, bosses, weapons, builds etc. And if someone wants to play minigames they usually go to minecraft.

I remember a server I used to play all the time a while back that had custom weapons plugin and it was essentially an rpg, unfortunately it closed I wanna say around 2017 or so, don't even remember its name.

I've been playing this game for around 5 years and never knew that there was multiplayer servers

I think the biggest issue really just is lack of server support in the game, minecraft has huge server support and a lot of focus on it, Terraria is not designed at all for large servers in mind and I think that is a shame and something they should show some love to. Could be more than enough to make it popular again

2:05 Didn't know what that servers dat file was before, and just went into it with notepad and was able to check inside it, probably could remove servers from your list this way instead of going scorched earth. but yeah, that menu really needs some love

I have played on a terraria server and i think it was dark gaming but everytime i joined i was kicked like 5 minutes later so i stopped playing on it and it worked once. When i was trying to play with a friend

Shiftech and Goroth were pretty popular at one point. They were almost the only terraria mobile servers around. After People crashing the game with cabinets, and Dark Gaming Sitems, they eventually died to lag. At one point they filled the 16 max player count all the time.

Long ago, approximately a decade long, I joined a very populated server with a friend, and started playing PvP. Once fighting with random people, some overpowered player appeared and killed me almost instantly various times. Then, I hit them with my sword (An Excalibur I guess?) and the game froze for like five seconds, then I saw the numeric pop ups of how much damage I made to them and it was an extremely high count, then I got instantly kicked. When I tried to enter again, it said that I was banned and that "we don't tolerate hackers here". So I suppose somebody hacked my damage to get me banned or that the game bugged, and the server automatically banned me after detecting such impossible quantity of damage. That's my funny little story with online PvP in Terraria.

I tried to join pedguins server many times but it would just sit at connecting forever

I used to play terraria public servers over 10 years ago back in the 1.1 days (back when IcyTerraria and Colins Fun Server was a thing). Servers nowadays just have too many hoops to jump through to access features of the vanilla game like paint and certain weapons.

The thing is most players don't even know that servers existed in fact I never knew they existed either until I saw this video. I think the terraria developers need to make it so that servers are more easily accessible in later updates.

tbh doing parkour to reach more difficult levels is a good thing imagine being a newbie and having to do hook jumps on pink slime blocks or using your movement items efficiently

Would be nice if we managed to get to Red about multiplayer

I literately got an ad for a terraria server

Holy crap! I didn't even know terraria servers existed! Well, kind of, sinc eI play with my friends sometimes. But I did NOT expect a public terraria server to exist

Why did I get an ad for penguin games

I will only play vanilla terraria if I get items from darkgaming or if I’m just playing the gamemodes thing from darkgaming. It was the first terraria server I joined and is currently the only server I play on. Also, I was there when the items dimension was black with some lights highlighting the categories.

they should make a gamemode where you play Terraria on special seed like get fixed boi that wipes every 2 weeks and changes seeds i think this would be a lotta fun as a gamemode or a server on it's own

Literally got a penguin games add while watching this 💀💀💀

pinky's revenge... also yeah they really, really, really should add in a proper server browser, time has not been kind to the whole "paste the IP" type thing they have

those account systems remind me of those cracked minecraft servers. since anyone can be any username they want, they have to put systems in place to make sure nobody can use somebody elses account. the only reason terraria needs this is because servers are COMPLETELY decentralized and there is no master server to get account uuids from or anything.

Terraria in my opinion isn’t really designed for Multiplayer. You can bring pre-created characters, server worlds are limited in both size and resources, game has an end-point, I doubt servers have much tools to do much. I haven’t really played on servers or made one, so I don’t have much info. Sorry.

I just got an ad for penguin games when watching this video, kinda funny

Man I miss Teeria Legends so much. Hopefully someone here remembers that. Some of my most fond memories in Terraria.

I think my problem is that Terraria servers often focus too much on how Minecraft's servers work and they try to adapt them in this game. Sometimes it does work, but a lot of the time I feel like it's not nearly as good in Terraria. I love Terraria multiplayer, but what makes the game fun for me is the exploration and progression, and a lot of servers just simply lack that. I think stuff like minigames are just simply not nearly as fun due to Terraria's limitations in its 2D world, but I think it has potential for stuff like PVP, survival or maybe some kind of leveling system. I think many servers don't quite focus on what people like the most in the base game itself, but it's hard to do so due to the limitations put on servers.

BAHAHAHA the funny thing is when watching this I got an ad for the server

not me getting a penguin games ad watching this

do not fucking suggest limited time rewards or a battlepass. listen to yourself

I play on pedguin occasionally, especially a few months back when payday 2 got an update which killed my enjoyment of the game (if you know you know) and it's very fun to play every now and then. Parkour, Build my Thing, and Racing are what I enjoy the most, but between those three, literally only one of them gets constant players, that being Parkour, and it's one of the few gamemodes where more players aren't needed to fully enjoy it. It's sad, but it is what it is.

Not really related to servers but chainsaws, drills, and items like the arkhalis or terragrim hit faster in pvp if you spam click. Holding hits slower and if I had to guess it's because they give static i-frames meaning things they hit gain immunity from that specific projectile but not from other projectiles of the same or different types, so spam clicking which creates a new projectile everytime hits faster.

The login system reminds of OLD Minecraft pocket edition servers lol

i joined this server a year ago, it was thr best server i joined until the owner of the server took a break to serve the military and then he shut it down. We tried to recreate the entire experience, it just wont hit the same.

I didn't know terraria even had minecraft-style servers. It never seemed like the kind of game that would lend itself well to such a thing.

I still have fun playing penguin game sometimes

I got a penguin games ad for this video

NOOOOOOOOOO MY 5000 HOURS ON THIS SERVER AND I WASNT IN THE VIDEO NOOOOOOOOO ok though seriously i thank you a lot for this video. i love this server a lot, the memories, the people, the skills i have developed, my personality forged from this server. i do agree a lot with the points you've made in this video. multiplayer ui is horrendous and joining a server is like pretty hard. though i'd like to add some of my own points for why the server was dying (i was there before the rise, during the peak, the downfall of it all) 1. there's hardly any publicity from external sources (thank you for making this video) 2. theres a bit too good players that discourages new players. (im looking at you solar lums) 3. during 2021, there was a lot of cool af events such as echomaze, cryptorunes, coordhunt, and a lot of hosts. this kept a lot of people on the server, and thus more people that came in, stayed because of this. 4. LAG IS FRICKING HORRIBLE. lag is such a big factor on ruining the server experience. what happened in that cctg match of yours was that the guy probably had 500ms and so when u hit him, he took damage from your screen yes, but on his, only half a second later (500ms) only then he takes damage. and ONLY after he takes damage on his screen then you can damage him again. thats all i have to say though, congrats to ml piace, ponky, deer to be in the video those are my friends oh god i regret not staying up to the 3 am to play in this server and be IN THE DAMN VIDEO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Honestly I’ve never played on servers not that I don’t want to but I find the solo gameplay very satisfying

I didn't even know terraria had severs untill today

Dark Gaming is a very fun server for certain things, but I wish they would update their game modes more. Edit: just also gonna add they can’t update much because they have a big lack of staff.

My problem with Terraria multiplayer is there's no reason to play multiplayer if you can just bring your singleplayer character into them and just start wrecking everything. I know server side character things exist for servers, but established game rules aren't subverted easily by just making things optional.

So like... we probably should suggest some fixes to relogic ey?

Teeria Legends was my favorite server, and I think it has a much more interesting approach towards what a Terraria server can be, but it looks like the player count has gone way down there as well. It used to be bustling at all times way back when! In addition, I feel like there used to be significantly more building-centric and general hangout type Terraria servers than there are now, as well. Minigame servers are awesome, but they used to not be the only thing on offer on the Terraria server browser! And that's not a criticism of the servers that do minigames, it's mostly just an observation. I used to hang out on Terraria servers a lot around the 1.2.4-1.3 days, and while they never did Minecraft server numbers, they felt more active than Terraria servers generally are these days, and had more variety in what they offered. People would just come around to goof off and chat, and make builds together. It was a lot of fun, but I honestly have no clue how you would even go about bringing that kind of community back.

6:47 - hits dealth from other players give more invencibility frames, thats a VANILLA feature

t-dark gaming is just the 1984 of terraria pvp

I think a main component is that, quite frankly, Terraria was made with only a few players in mind. Terraria has microscopic worlds compared to Minecraft, meaning things like SMPs (What I imagine to be one of the largest cintributers to Minecraft's huge multiplayer playerbase) just can't be ported over to Terraria the same, and no amount of game changes can fix that by the very nature of Terraria. Survival servers will always devolve into whats seen in the video because of the size

Part of the issue with PVP games is the Terraria (Or steam) servers are really unstable even for just couple players. Unless you wanna host a port forward.

Idk man, terraria is a really good and fun game single player, unlike minecraft, forcing players to do something else. just my opinion tho

There are still very good servers, like Teeria Legends. A true mmorpg experience with lots on unique mechanics and engaging systems of progression. The people there have lots of love for the game and the community. ❤

I believe this to be VERY expected, but not because of server problems, but terraria problems, and still remember times I played on servers more than 10 years ago. First - Limited world. Second - You can log in with an existing character. I know that this barely sounds like a issues for "games" servers, but that's how the online community starts in games like these. I still remember playing older times playing on Minecraft servers - most of them were for simple survival and progression with lots of other players. That was hella fun. And that was how it started and progressed from there. There's no progression like this, casual gameplay like this in terraria to kickstart the online scene. And I doubt there will be, actually, since Terraria and Minecraft are extremely different.

Honestly the only reason I don't play Penguin Games anymore is BECAUSE of the low player count. I had a lot of fun playing CtG, Class Wars and Spleef when the server was super active- I would log in every day and just have the drive to keep playing and getting better and better, because it really is fun to get better at these modes. I would see the results of my efforts in getting more Penguin Points the better I performed (which admittedly don't give great rewards but it's good as a symbol of progression and status at least) and it was honestly addicting. I didn't quit playing because I got naturally bored of the gamemodes or whatever, I WANTED to keep playing, but the player counts got lower and lower until the server wasn't active enough to consistently play my favorite gamemodes every day. And playing so consistently is what made them so addicting. So I kinda just had to quit because what was I gonna do? Spend most of my day either waiting for players to join so I can get to play a few matches with the absolute bare minimum amount of players needed for one to start, which wasn't that fun? My hand was kinda forced. I would go back to playing these gamemodes as they are now if the server became super active again, but that's not going to happen just because I wish it would. So change is necessary. The server needs to attract an audience. It needs big flashy gamemodes that are great for making youtube videos. Sponsor youtubers to make those videos if necessary. Terraria is more limited than Minecraft but making great gamemodes and server systems is not impossible, it's just harder, and it seems like the devs are demotivated. Unfortunately I cannot just tell them to be motivated. They don't have a great reason to be, tbh. But I think an attempt could be made and perhaps it COULD succeed.

cant wait to hop no terrapixel skysquare

Today i learned that Terraria servers even exist. I honestly thought the game was long dead by now, as i never thought it was that fun to begin with.

I might try out some Terraria servers now

For me personally, I've never looked at Terraria as a game where I play on public servers, since that ruins what makes the game fun for me. I will absolutely do a playthrough of the game with friends in a private server, since that means we get to share the experience of exploring the world and getting new items, but a public server where everything is either pre-built or already destroyed takes that away. Yes, you could say the same thing with Minecraft, but that game was built more with a creative focus than an explorative one, with mods being the only way for me to get a kick out of exploring the world and finding loot.

8:40 iirc xbox, nintendo and playstation have rules against custom external servers in the first place, so this is impossible for console players unless rules change

gonna guess the number 1 right away: obscurity

Problem sith video is that hes comparing to minecraft gamemodes and normal terraria

man, this vid didn't give me much nostalgia for Terraria servers cuz cmon.. who tf plays em. but having to make an account inside of a server was a core memory of mine while playing minecraft. Used to play on romanian servers A LOT as a kid and all of them would have you make a username and passwork for logging in, which I obviously forgot every time, pretty sure most of em still use this system

I've been using the free items server Teeria legends for damn near a decade now, I even used to play the separate survival one, and they were good times. While it's true servers are currently going downhill, we can hope in future updates that online server play is made more readily available and supported.

probably the biggest thing that should be fixed from Relogic's end is the quite frankly abhorrent net code the game has. Even with mods to drastically improve how the game tracks entities between multiple clients and stuff, it still tends to not be very stable at the best of times.

is this a hypixel build battle reference?

true they need an improovement

server ui thing is a good point, but adding a straigh up banner to every entry, feels a bit overkill imo, a small icon like Minecraft has feels like it would work better, specially when considering that it would also be more consistent with other selection menus in terrraria itself, such as the character, world or resource pack selectors

People moved on

*Short answer:* Terraria wasn't designed for multiplayer and creative freedom, it's a 'linear progression' sandbox, not a creative one.

Terraria's size and design honestly never has interested me for mass multiplayer.

You can always connect your keyboard and mouse to your phone!

Bro, I didn’t even know there was servers you could play on

I didnt even know that terraria servers *existed*

i hacked on the penguin server and go a perma ban for changing the time from day to night,

I'm pretty sure I heard Re-Logic has plans for a cross-play update. Which, I believe, means the Multiplayer menu will get a revamp. In due time. I do think custom items would give more room for creativity and rewards, unique to each server. But it is also a double edge sword. As that would inevitably mean: micro-transactions. Some requested features for the Labor of Love update got denied, simply because of software limitations. Which, I can see how that would be the reason custom items not being a thing just yet. What I'm trying to say is, there is more things to consider. Not just the lack of features that would be nice to have. Comparing the player count of two companies that have different marketing goals, unsurprisingly will give different results. Re-Logic updates the game out of passion, not out of greed. I don't think this video does a good job answering the question in the title. If you were to make another video on the topic, I would advice gathering more information. Try more servers, and take into consideration what each dev company is currently spending their resources on.

I just don't need anything like that servers at all. I played on the server once, and it was Dragon Ball Terraria.

CTG was so fun back in the days

I would say the problem isn't terraria's multiplayer servers in of itself, it's more like that Terraria is already such a fun Solo and Co-op experience that there was never a need for a dedicated server to exist. Minecraft is more of a survival sandbox experience, living life, building villager cities, trading, making your world more personalized, that kind of stuff. Meanwhile, terraria has a dedicated progression-based adventure for its players to sink their teeth into, they don't need to have a dedicated server with unique gamemodes and experiences because the solo and co-op experience already provides everything they'd ever want for the game.