Mobile News Update - Online Multiplayer Revealed!

Greetings Terrarians!

Earlier today, we conducted a community livestream direct from Terraria Mobile 1.3 running on one of our phones! While that is certainly plenty cool - and we really appreciate everyone that stopped by to hang out and chat with us - we wanted to share the big piece of news coming out of that stream for anyone that was unable to attend.



Terraria Mobile 1.3 will launch with Online Multiplayer!



That's right - for the first time ever, Mobile Terrarians will be able to connect and play with their friends regardless of location. Of course, local multiplayer (over the same wifi network) is still very much included, as you can see from the screen above. We know this is one of the biggest things that Mobile Terrarians have desired - well, that and 1.3 - for a long time, so we are beyond excited to see this come to fruition.


Of course, there are lots of details behind the scenes here that you should know, so let's dive in!


How will this work?
  • Online multiplayer will work much like non-Steam PC multiplayer does. This means that you will need to enter the IP address from the host, along with the port and any password that the host sets.
  • Once you enter all of that information and tap "Join", then you are in!
  • We chose this method to ensure that Android and iOS players can play together, rather than sticking to the device family specific systems. It's a bit more complex, but opens up way more possibilities - and players.
  • Do remember that performance and the like will be dependent on device specifications and your network. Connecting via a lower-end supported device on a 3G connection will obviously see more potential issues than a top end device over blazing fast wifi. ;)

What about hosting online multiplayer sessions?

  • The most stable hosting environment is made possible via a standalone Mobile Server App for PC. This runs similarly to the dedicated server exe that PC Terrarians have been using for years. Simply run the program, enter a few choices, and you are all set up to go!

  • You can also host via your mobile device - again, you will need to make sure that you have your port forwarded on your wifi/router.
    • Once you do so, you can start a mobile hosted game and provide your IP address (What Is My IP Address? IP Address Tools and More) to your friends
    • Reminder once again that hosting MP sessions is a demanding task - so make sure the person with the best device and network is hosting - and we cannot promise that a 4 year old device is going to be able to host like a modern one can. :)
    • See Limitations section below for more details.

  • Share your IP address with your buddies (along with any password that you set) and you should be playing together in minutes.
  • Hosted online servers are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED be on wifi for the host device/PC (clients can be on whatever connection). The reason for this is multi-faceted, but primarily it falls to mobile/cell data not always being stable and fast enough to handle host & play duties coupled with the potential for shifting IP addresses as the host device pings different cell towers (which would immediately kick everyone at the very least... lots of issues there!)
  • Use of mobile data hosting works as well, depending on your connection speed and stability - but is generally less reliable, so caveat emptor!
    • The team has found personal hotspots can also work quite well.

  • We know this may be daunting for some folks (but really, once you have port-forwarding done, its a breeze)
  • That said, the team is looking into doing some professionally-hosted servers that would be available for rent by anyone that wants to pay a monthly fee to a server host in order to remove the hassle (sort of how Minecraft Realms operates) - we will share more details there when we have them. This would be purely optional, of course.

What are the limitations?

  • The team targeted and has done extensive testing with 2-8 players. However, we are looking into expanding that to as much as 16 in the future - no promises though! :)
  • On local connections (same wifi), remember that the hosting device will be shouldering a lot of the load - so older/less capable devices will struggle more with performance and may not be able to host as many players as a newer device. There are too many devices out there to be able to pinpoint which device can do what (especially in regards to Android), so some experimentation may be needed. ;)
  • It bears repeating that performance and the like will be dependent on device specifications and your network. Connecting via a lower-end supported device on a 3G connection will obviously see more potential issues than a top end device over blazing fast wifi. ;)

We are sure that you all probably have TONS of additional questions - so we will do our level best to answer as many of those here as possible. Fire away!

That said, we hope that you are as excited as we are to finally see online multiplayer come to pass on Terraria Mobile! The team has some other very intriguing potential plans in this space and others... so we would encourage everyone to watch this space very closely and stay tuned for more juicy details!

Cheers - and here's to Mobile Terraria 1.3 coming very soon!
Hype!
 
A rod of discord button would be amazing. I need a quick way to use it without clicking a million buttons (on other platforms a keybind to use it would be amazing)
 
So this update wont reset current data on ios version of terraria? had that happen one time but i think it was just a bug
[doublepost=1563477114,1563476561][/doublepost]Since its 1.3 i'm assuming there will be yoyo's? i'm already hyped! :happy:
 
Hey all, I lost my character today. I don’t know what happened, but I lost it. Is there anyway to recover it (I’m on IOS and the character wasn’t connected to the cloud)? Also, hyped for the update and I hope it comes soon and I get picked for Beta!

Sorry you lost you character, it’s just a good reminder to make backups of all data that you care about - whether it’s photos and documents on a computer or characters and worlds on Terraria. :)

I still would not delete anything if the file is still there, just not loading. There is a CHANCE the update could sort out any issues - not a guarantee, but I would at least wait and see.

Will we be able to still jump/fly with the movement joystick, it probably would be very hard to only use seperate button or are there options to enable that?
Also will there be graphic settings to have so people with lower-end and high-end phones can be able to make the game playable for themselves giving correct graphic with 30-60 fps to themselves


You can jump with the stick now, but it is a double press (double press+hold to fly) and intended as a backup option only. Obviously, this is a change from before - however the "up stick to jump" leads to a ton of misclicks and control conflicts. Team is considering making it an option (likely post launch if so) to enable this (with double tap being the default backup jump) - but it will be with a heavy dose of caveat emptor should you turn it on.

Honestly, the controls do have a learning curve vs what you may be used to - but if you take the time to work through that and settle into your own new style, that is going to serve you very well in the long term. Whereas before the goal was "simple to learn but limited" (which is why things like grappling are a pain), the goal here was "full functionality, but may have a learning period".



Hey will thare be a xbox live sign-in

No - MC has that because Microsoft owns MC. :p
 
I still would not delete anything if the file is still there, just not loading. There is a CHANCE the update could sort out any issues - not a guarantee, but I would at least wait and see.




You can jump with the stick now, but it is a double press (double press+hold to fly) and intended as a backup option only. Obviously, this is a change from before - however the "up stick to jump" leads to a ton of misclicks and control conflicts. Team is considering making it an option (likely post launch if so) to enable this (with double tap being the default backup jump) - but it will be with a heavy dose of caveat emptor should you turn it on.

Honestly, the controls do have a learning curve vs what you may be used to - but if you take the time to work through that and settle into your own new style, that is going to serve you very well in the long term. Whereas before the goal was "simple to learn but limited" (which is why things like grappling are a pain), the goal here was "full functionality, but may have a learning period".





No - MC has that because Microsoft owns MC. :p
Awesome, thanks!. Release Date? I’m really excited!
 
I am so excited but I’ve been waiting for a release date for months. I get that they don’t no the exact date but they could at least give a range like “ before the end of the summer,” or “mid to late August.” Just something to give us a sense of assurance and confirmation.
 
I am so excited but I’ve been waiting for a release date for months. I get that they don’t no the exact date but they could at least give a range like “ before the end of the summer,” or “mid to late August.” Just something to give us a sense of assurance and confirmation.
No, we can't/won't, because if we do and don't make the estimated time frame, then people get angry and say we lied/broke promises/yadda yadda yadda. We've learned to not feed into that.

We don't know a date at this point, not even a range. When we do and are comfortable with that, it will be announced to everyone and the release will be very soon after that.
 
No, we can't/won't, because if we do and don't make the estimated time frame, then people get angry and say we lied/broke promises/yadda yadda yadda. We've learned to not feed into that.

We don't know a date at this point, not even a range. When we do and are comfortable with that, it will be announced to everyone and the release will be very soon after that.
Could you guys suprise us like what you guys did with switch
 
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