Guide for Setting Up Your Own Dedicated OpenTTD Server

Introduction to OpenTTD

A few years ago, I was looking for games that I could play together with friends without being in the same location. One of the games I came across was OpenTTD.

OpenTTD is an open-source simulation game based on Transport Tycoon Deluxe

This free game is also available on Steam or the Play Store and has highly positive ratings (96%) or 4.3/5 stars. In this strategic Transport Tycoon game, the goal is to run a transport company by building and managing transport routes and vehicles. You can use trains, buses, aircraft, and ships to transport goods and expand your industry.

Why Run a Dedicated Server?

A dedicated OpenTTD server makes it possible for multiple players to log into a shared game at different times without requiring the host to be online. In this guide, I’ll show you how to rent and operate your own dedicated OpenTTD server that’s available 24/7.

Renting a Server

If you have already set up a server according to these instructions, you can skip this part, as the setup is repeated here in abbreviated form.

The first step is to rent a suitable server. I recommend the VPS and especially Root Server (dedicated CPU) from Netcup or servers from Hetzner. For a pure OpenTTD server, you don’t need high requirements, especially if you’re not planning to create huge maps and/or expect a large number of players. A smaller VPS should be completely sufficient.

New customers receive with these affiliate vouchers a discount on the first order (and I receive a commission for referred customers). The percentage discounts remain permanently active if the VPS is not canceled.

I choose Ubuntu 24.04 as the operating system for the new installation. Another would also be possible as long as Docker can be installed on it. Still, I have some experience with Ubuntu and see no reason to change. Furthermore, the end of standard support is in April 2029, so it will probably not be necessary to upgrade the operating system to the next version for the time being.

Setting Up the Ubuntu Server

The connection to the server must be established as soon as the server has been reinstalled. This can be done under Windows with the Windows Terminal, PuTTY or a similar program. VSCode also has a built-in terminal and offers the advantage of easier editing, as described here. I use the Windows Terminal.

ssh root@{ip-address}

You should naturally enter your server’s own IP address.

Then answer the question with “yes” if necessary and enter the password. The password is not displayed while it is being entered. First, we check whether there are any updates and install them if necessary:

apt update
apt upgrade

Confirm whether you want to update with Y.

The text editor Nano should already be installed by default, but you can install it like this to be on the safe side:

apt install nano

Next, we rename the server:

nano /etc/hostname

In Nano, exit the file with Ctrl + X. Nano will ask you if you want to save the changes (confirm with Y) and what you want to name the file. As we want to overwrite it, we do not change the name and simply confirm with Enter.

The new hostname is visible when you restart the server reboot and then reconnect to it ssh admin@{ip-address}.

Now, it makes sense to create a user who is not root.

useradd -m -G sudo newusername
passwd newusername

Useradd is the command to create a new user. The -m ensures that this user is assigned a home folder. The -G puts the user into a group, and then the group is named. The sudo group can execute commands with sudo. Finally, the name of the new user follows. A password for the user is created with passwd.

If the sudo group does not exist, you must create a group.

groupadd namenewgroup

This group should have the right to execute sudo commands:

EDITOR=nano visudo

The new group must then be mentioned in the file.

Now, we set the correct time if required.

date

If the correct time is not displayed:

tzselect

The time zone can be selected using the numbers.

timedatectl set-timezone 'Europe/Berlin'

It is time to restart the server and log in as a newly created user.

reboot

Next, I install Htop (a monitoring program).

apt install htop

Now, the server should refuse to run the program and ask if you are root.

So again, with Superuser do.

sudo apt install htop

By entering htop, you can now view the load on the server.

This makes it easy to see how much the server’s CPU and RAM are used. Press F10 or CTRL + C to exit the view.

I would like to have another shell.

sudo apt install git curl
sudo apt install zsh

Now I install zim and change the default shell to zsh.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zimfw/install/master/install.zsh | zsh
chsh -s /bin/zsh
exec bash

Now the shell should (subjectively) look better.

The most important parts of the installation are Docker and Docker-Compose. Also optional is Lazydocker, a straightforward way to view your Docker containers and their current logs via SSH.

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

# Install Docker:
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Finally, we create a folder in the new user’s home directory.

cd ~
mkdir docker

With mkdir (make directory), we created the folder docker in the home directory (~).

If Lazydocker can be opened, the setup is complete.

sudo lazydocker

With Q, ESC or CTRL + C Lazydocker can be closed again.

Docker-Compose with OpenTTD

The next step is to create a Docker-Compose file to start the container with OpenTTD. First, we need a folder in which the configuration file and the savegames can be saved as well as the Docker-Compose file.

mkdir ~/docker/appdata/openttd -p
touch ~/docker/docker-compose-openttd.yml

We check whether port 3979 is already in use.

sudo lsof -i -P -n | grep LISTEN

We now fill the Docker-Compose file.

nano ~/docker/docker-compose-openttd.yml

services:
    openttd:
        container_name: openttd
        image: ghcr.io/ropenttd/openttd:14
        ports:
            - 3979:3979/tcp
            - 3979:3979/udp
        restart: unless-stopped
        volumes:
            - ./appdata/openttd:/config
        environment:
            - loadgame=false

If port 3979 is already in use, we select another port under which the Docker can be reached. For example 3969:3979/tcp and 3969:3979/udp. This is also necessary if several servers are to run simultaneously. After we have saved the file, we start the container.

cd ~/docker
sudo docker compose -f docker-compose-openttd.yml up -d

And we look to see if there is anything unusual in the log.

lazydocker

First we stop our container again.

sudo docker compose -f docker-compose-openttd down

The container can also be stopped via Lazydocker.

Editing the configuration

Now the configuration should be customized to your liking. The configuration files should have been downloaded automatically when the container was started for the first time.

sudo nano ~/docker/appdata/openttd/private.cfg

Here I can change the server name.

sudo nano ~/docker/appdata/openttd/secrets.cfg

Here I can change the password for the server, which requires new players to enter the password to join.

server_password = abc

sudo nano ~/docker/appdata/openttd/openttd.cfg

There are many possibilities here, I change a few values of the default settings:

autosave_on_exit = true
autosave_on_network_disconnect = true

This way the game is automatically saved when the server is shut down.

min_active_clients = 1

The game is paused if no player is connected to the server.

The game is paused when there is not at least one player connected to the server.

map_x = 9 # 6 to 12
map_y = 9 # 6 to 12

The size of the map can be changed. The larger the map, the more work the server has to do.

infrastructure_maintenance = true

This causes an amount to be paid at regular intervals, calculated from the number of areas with rails, canals or locks.

max_aircraft = 100
max_ships = 200

This setting reduces the number of airplanes and ships a company may have.

town_name = german

This ensures German town names.

terrain_type = 2

This provides a slightly less flat landscape.

snow_line_height = 7

Snow starts lower.

town_layout = 4

More varied towns

industry_density = 4

Lower industrial density

station_noise_level = true

With this setting, the number of airports that can be placed near a city is no longer fixed. Instead, it depends on the airports’ noise level, distance from the city center and the city’s attitude.

I leave the rest as it is for now. Now I’ll delete the previous automatically created scores.

sudo rm -rf ~/docker/appdata/openttd/save

Starting the game

We adjust the configuration so that game saves are loaded.

cd ~/docker
nano docker-compose-openttd.yml

services:
    openttd:
        container_name: openttd
        image: ghcr.io/ropenttd/openttd:14
        restart: unless-stopped
        ports:
            - 3979:3979/tcp
            - 3979:3979/udp
        volumes:
            - ./appdata/openttd:/config
        environment:
            - loadgame=exit

And a new game can be started.

cd ~/docker
sudo docker-compose -f docker-compose-openttd.yml up -d

This time, the logs show that the game has been paused due to the changed settings.

Now, it is also possible to connect to the game. To do this, install the game and start it. You can add a server in the “Multiplayer” menu.

The IP address, including port, must be entered in the input field. For example 191.80.90.90:3979. You can then join the server.

Server Update

Of course, you should update the server occasionally; with Docker this is done with just a few lines of code.

cd ~/docker
sudo docker compose -f docker-compose-openttd.yml down
sudo docker pull redditopenttd/openttd
sudo docker compose -f docker-compose-openttd.yml up -d

# Don't forget to update the host server occasionally
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

With htop you can see if the server has enough resources. At this point, I wish you lots of fun building 🚈