A server anyone can join

Every way to play so far starts with knowing someone: one of you hosts, the other joins with a code. That will stay how most people play. But it leaves out anyone who has the mod, a free evening and nobody to play with.

So we are building a public server. It will always be up, anyone with the mod can join it, and it will have a page on this site.

What the page shows

Who is on the server right now, and where. Each player is a dot on a map that moves as they move and points the way they face. There are three maps, one per tab: Skyrim, Solstheim and the Soul Cairn. Each tab says how many players are there, and the page opens on the busiest.

Beside the map is the list of players and the place each one is in. A Join button opens the launcher, which asks before it connects you.

Staying off it

The page shows character names, never a Steam name or anything else about you. And if you would rather not be on it at all, the launcher will let you hide: you are still counted, but your name and your dot never appear.

Where people kept disappearing

The first version of the map kept losing people. Walk through Whiterun's gate and your dot vanished: to the game, Whiterun and the other walled cities are worlds of their own, separate from the rest of Skyrim. They are drawn on the Skyrim map now. Then the same thing happened to anyone who sailed to Solstheim or stepped into the Soul Cairn, which is why those two got maps of their own.

When

Not yet. Before it opens, the server needs setting up, the maps need checking against a few spots in the game, and the rules need writing. Place names in the list come with the next version of the mod, and the option to hide and the Join button with the launcher version that opens the server.

When it opens, it will be in this site's menu, and here.