Automatic (re) connection of stations

You can configure each crew position to connect to EmptyEpsilon automatically upon launch. Moreover, if any such crew position is disconnected from the game for any reason, it will automatically attempt to re-connect. This is the ideal method of handling network disconnections, game resets, server resets, etc., without typing IP addresses or going from device to device and re-joining the game manually.

Example

Adding the following lines to the Preferences File (options.ini) on a device will make it automatically connect to Single Pilot crew position, with control over main screen, of any un-crewed bomber-type ship upon launch:

autoconnect=9
autocontrolmainscreen=1
autoconnectship=solo;type=bomber

The client attempts to automatically discover the server, assuming that the server is on the same network as the client. You can also specify the IP address for autoconnection with autoconnect_address.

Autoconnection parameters

You can configure autoconnection settings in the Preferences File (or, like all preferences, as command-line flags) using these parameters:

autoconnect

Value should be the screen number (based on ECrewPosition, counting from 1):

1. helmsOfficer (6/5 player crew)
2. weaponsOfficer (6/5 player crew)
3. engineering (6/5 player crew)
4. scienceOfficer (6/5 player crew)
5. relayOfficer (6/5 player crew)
6. tacticalOfficer (4/3 player crew, helms+weapons-shields)
7. engineeringAdvanced (4/3 player crew, engineering+shields)
8. operationsOfficer (4/3 player crew, science+comms)
9. singlePilot (1 player crew)
10. damageControl (extras)
11. powerManagement (extras)
12. databaseView (extras)
13. altRelay (extras, labeled Strategic Map)
14. commsOnly (extras, labeled Comms)
15. shipLog (extras, labeled Ship's Log)

Set this to 1000-1360 for a ship window with an angle of 0-360°. Set this to anything else up to 65535 to autoconnect the device to the Main Screen.

autocontrolmainscreen

Set to 1 to allow the crew position to also control the main screen. Defaults to 0.

autoconnectship

Defines a filter to select the ship to connect this device to. A ship filter is comprised of a list of criteria in the form of parameter1=value1;parameter2=value2;...). Defaults to 'solo'. This connects to the first matching ship.

The available criteria are:

• solo: Don't join a ship if the specified crew position is already taken
• faction={faction name}: Join a ship only of the specified faction
• callsign={call sign}: Join a ship only with the given callsign (case insensitive)
• type={ship type}: Join a ship only of the given type (case insensitive)

For example:

autoconnectship=solo;faction=Human Navy;callsign=Maverick;type=Atlantis

autoconnects to the first Human Navy Atlantis with the callsign Maverick that the server reports to the client.

autoconnect_address

Optionally sets the IP address to connect to. If omitted, the client searches for a server on the same network.

For example, to autoconnect to a server at 192.168.50.2:

autoconnect_address=192.168.50.2

Troubleshooting

EmptyEpsilon.log on Windows, or STDOUT output on Linux and macOS, records and confirms autoconnect parameters as "Auto connect filters":

INFO: Switching to local server scanning
INFO: Auto connect filter: solo = 1
INFO: Auto connect filter: faction = Human Navy
INFO: Auto connect filter: callsign = Maverick
INFO: Auto connect filter: type = Atlantis

If the server is running a scenario that has a player ship matching the parameters, but autoconnect still isn't connecting, make sure the server is on the same Wi-Fi or wired LAN network, and that its firewall allows connections over TCP port 35666.

To change a ship to match the parameters - for instance, to change a ship's callsign - you can use the GM screen's Tweak menu on the server. The autoconnect client frequently retries connections and should connect to a modified ship quickly after changing its properties.