Automatic connection of crew screens

You can configure each crew screen to connect to EmptyEpsilon automatically upon launch. Moreover, if any such crew position is disconnected from the game for any reason, it automatically attempts to re-connect to the same crew screen. This is the ideal method of handling network disconnections, game resets, server resets, etc., without typing IP addresses, using remote desktop access, 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 or a server name with autoconnect_servername.

Autoconnection parameters

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

autoconnect

Defines the player screen that this client will connect to, as a number based on the ECrewPosition enum:

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)
16. beamWeapons (extras)
17. missileWeapons (extras)
18. radarOfficer (extras, labeled Radar)
19. probeCamera (extras)
20. targetAnalysis (extras)
21. briefingOfficer (extras)
22. droneOperations (extras)

For example, to autoconnect to the Helms screen, use:

autoconnect=1

To connect to a ship window, set this option to 1000-1360, where the last three digits represent a window angle of 0-360°.

To connect to the main screen, set this option to any other value up to 65535.

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.

Note: When chaining criteria on the command line in Linux, wrap the option in quotation marks to avoid issues with the shell parsing semicolons as the end of the command:

EmptyEpsilon "autoconnectship=solo;callsign=Epsilon"

autoconnect_address

Optionally sets the IP address of the server to connect to. If omitted, the client searches for a server on the same network. If this option is set, EE ignores the autoconnect_servername option.

For example, to autoconnect to a server at 192.168.50.2:

autoconnect_address=192.168.50.2

The address can optionally be appended with a colon (:) and a port number. If no port number is provided, the client uses the default port 35666.

For example, to autoconnect to a server using port 12345 at IP address 192.168.50.2:

autoconnect_address=192.168.50.2:12345

autoconnect_password

If a server requires a password to join, define it using this option.

For example, if a server's password is PASSWORD1234, set:

autoconnect_password=PASSWORD1234

Passwords are case-insensitive.

autoconnect_servername

If autoconnect_address is omitted, the client searches for a server on the same network to connect to. Use autoconnect_servername to specify a server to connect to by its defined server name. If no server is detected with that name, the client continues to check until it finds a matching server.

The server name is defined during server creation, either when created in the user interface or with the server_name parameter.

If autoconnect_address is set, EE ignores this option.

For example, to connect to a server detected on the network that has the server name Example server:

autoconnect_servername="Example server"

If multiple servers on the network have the same name, or if a named server uses a port other than 35666, use autoconnect_address instead to specify it.

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 on the server's configured port (default 35666).

To change a ship to match the parameters, e.g. to change a ship's callsign, you can use the GM screen's Tweak menu on the server or use Lua scripting with the HTTP server or Lua console . The autoconnect client frequently retries connections and should connect to a modified ship quickly after changing its properties.