Commonwealth-Online-Server/DEVELOPMENT.md

Development

Server

The dedicated server is a C#/.NET project at server/CommonwealthOnline.Server.csproj.

Core files:

• AuthoritativeServer.cs: sessions, authoritative gameplay state, security, interest filtering
• ProtocolCore.cs: JSON codec, transport policy, snapshot sequencing/envelope
• ProtocolValidation.cs: Protocol V2 packet validation
• Domain.cs: sessions, bans, NPC authority, world presets
• TcpTransport.cs: newline-framed TCP compatibility transport
• GnsTransport.cs: C# wrapper over the native GameNetworkingSockets bridge
• AdminDiscovery.cs: authenticated localhost admin channel and LAN discovery
• Program.cs: CLI, interactive server, management commands and synthetic load command

Build and test:

cd server
dotnet build CommonwealthOnline.Server.csproj -c Release
dotnet run --project tests/CommonwealthOnline.Server.Tests.csproj -c Release

The test harness uses in-memory connections for authoritative behavior and contains no external test-framework package dependency.

Native GNS bridge

server/native_transport remains C++. Keep it transport-only. Do not move validation, identity, interest filtering, NPC authority, combat, world state or caching into the bridge.

The C ABI is the boundary consumed from GnsTransport.cs.

Qt Host

The Qt host remains C++. ServerProcess launches the published C# server and communicates through the authenticated localhost admin channel. It must not invoke a scripting runtime.

CMake publishes a self-contained server as part of the Host GUI post-build step.

Protocol changes

Protocol behavior is intentionally independent from transport. If adding a packet type:

1. Define validation and normalization in C#.
2. Decide its delivery policy in TransportPolicy.
3. Default new control/state traffic to reliable/ordered.
4. Use unreliable/sequenced only for latest-wins snapshot families.
5. Add tests before changing the client.

Never cache/replay discrete action events, accept stale NPC authority epochs, accept stale snapshot sequences, or bypass server-owned identity and interest validation.