Changelog

Anyone can sign up now. We started on invites so we could give the first people a hand in person, and that part worked, but the waiting was doing nobody any good. The invite queue is gone.

• No waitlist. Make an account and you’re straight into the dashboard. Invite links still work if you’re holding one.
• A place to ask. We have a Discord now, and [email protected] reaches us. The setup guide is written to stand on its own, but the first half hour is the hands-on part, so it helps to have somewhere to ask when a step doesn’t match what’s on your screen.

Five games are ready to host: both ARKs, Palworld, and Minecraft in Java and Bedrock. The getting started guide takes you from a blank computer to your friends playing.

Server Reforged now hosts Minecraft: Java Edition, the classic PC version played through the official launcher. That makes five games, alongside both ARKs, Palworld, and Minecraft (Bedrock Edition).

Java is the first game we host where “what kind of server do you want?” is a real question, so the dashboard asks it up front.

• Four kinds of server, one game. Paper runs plugins, which live on your server alone, so your friends install nothing and join with the Minecraft they already have. NeoForge, Forge, and Fabric run mods. You pick when you create the server, and the dashboard uses the right word from then on, because a plugin and a mod ask very different things of your friends.
• One link to send your friends. A modded server builds a client pack: a small file, and a link you can send instead. Your friend opens it in their launcher and lands on the right Minecraft version, the right loader, and your server already in their list. After that the server keeps their mods matched to yours as they connect, so adding a mod next week isn’t a group project.
• Play a published modpack without assembling it. Browse modpacks from inside the dashboard and build a server straight from the pack author’s own server files. The pack decides the loader and the version for you.
• Your Minecraft version, your call. Pick it when you create the server. Modded servers start on the line where the mods actually live rather than on the newest release, because the mod world moves slower than Minecraft does. If you add something that needs a different version, we name the one that works instead of leaving you to guess.
• Datapacks. Choose one when you create a world and change how it generates, with nothing for your players to install.
• Java installs itself. We put the right version of Java on your computer, and if two of your servers want different versions, it keeps both.

Backups and restores got sharper along the way, for every game: a restored backup is now dated by when its save was actually taken, restoring into a stopped world leaves it stopped, and a rig waking up can no longer roll back the save that woke it.

New here? The getting started guide walks you from a blank computer to friends playing, and the Java walkthrough covers this one end to end.

Two changes to how the dashboard feels day to day.

• Your computer picks up work in about a second. Starting a world, installing a mod, or changing a setting used to wait for your rig’s next check-in before anything happened. Now the dashboard nudges it straight away, so the button you pressed and the thing you asked for line up.
• Restarts that read the room. A scheduled restart on an empty world just happens now, with no countdown to sit through. If people are playing, they get the warnings in their own game rather than only in your group’s Discord.

Server Reforged now hosts Minecraft (Bedrock Edition), the version of Minecraft that runs on phones, tablets, consoles, and the Microsoft Store on PC. It joins both ARK games and Palworld.

• Your world, your rules. Pick a seed, walk through our guided setup, and tune world rules from the dashboard. No config files to hunt down.
• Add-ons, managed for you. Browse CurseForge add-ons (Bedrock’s version of mods), install them from the dashboard, and see when an update is available. Some add-ons come in more than one style, and you can pick which one runs.
• Start from a ready-made world. Install a world from CurseForge and play someone else’s creation with your friends.
• Backups without the boot. Minecraft lets us back up a world while it’s running, so nobody gets kicked out for a save.
• Player management included. The live player list, kick, and in-game broadcasts work here from day one.

Who can join: friends playing on a PC, phone, or tablet can join from anywhere. Consoles (Xbox, PlayStation, Switch) can’t join by address yet, and we’re working on a way in for them.

New here? The getting started guide walks you from a blank computer to friends playing.

Player management landed this week, and it works across every game we host.

• A live player list. Every running world now shows who’s on right now and how long they’ve been playing, right on your dashboard.
• A Players panel. Everyone who has ever joined your server, in one place. Kick or ban someone who’s ruining the fun, or broadcast a message that everyone in the game sees.
• Discord knows who’s on. If your rig posts to your group’s Discord, it can now announce when a friend hops on or off. No more “anyone playing tonight?” messages.
• Safer setups by default. The setup wizard now sets up automatic backups and a daily restart schedule when you create a server, with choices for how often and a skip button if you’d rather not.
• Progress you can actually see. Installing or updating a game now shows real progress and a time estimate on the server card, instead of leaving you to wonder.

A few small improvements landed over the last week or so.

• Show up in Palworld’s server browser. The setup wizard now asks if you want your server listed in Palworld’s in-game Community Servers browser, so friends can find it by name instead of typing in an address.
• Double-check your join password. Passwords in the setup wizard now have a show/hide toggle, so you can see exactly what you typed before you send it to your friends.
• Faster joins for people in your house. The connect card now shows a home-network address for anyone playing on the same network as the server, and their game traffic stays inside the house instead of taking the long way around the internet. Quicker joins, smoother play.

Two Palworld improvements landed together.

• Run more than one world. You can now keep several Palworld worlds on the same rig, each with its own name, its own settings, and its own save. Handy when your group wants a serious world and a mess-around world at the same time.
• Steadier joins. We changed the way Palworld runs behind the scenes, which clears out a class of problem that could kick players while they were trying to connect. Nothing for you to do here, it’s just steadier now.

Server Reforged now hosts Palworld, and two more things landed alongside it.

• Host Palworld on your own hardware, right next to both ARK games. Guided settings, per-world config, and your friends can join no matter how your home internet is set up.
• Discord alerts. Point a rig at your group’s Discord and get a heads-up when the server comes online, a new map goes live, or something crashes.
• Backups you own. Download a backup of any world to your own computer, and upload a save back whenever you want.

Server Reforged is live as a free closed beta. We’re letting people in a group at a time, so join the waitlist and we’ll save you a spot.

• Host ARK: Survival Ascended and ARK: Survival Evolved on your own hardware
• Guided setup that turns a spare computer into a server in about half an hour
• Mod management, server settings, and per-map configuration from the dashboard
• Optional automatic game and mod updates
• Crash recovery so your server comes back on its own