What does Peer to Peer mean for 7D2D?

[KotCP]

My past experience with Peer to Peer on other networking related stuff and games has been, people on the same LAN as you.

So when I see things popping up in the Peer to Peer connection option, I am left confused as I know that I am not hosting a game within my routers LAN, yet I am seeing servers popup in my Peer to Peer list.  So I am left to wonder, what does Peer to Peer means to 7D2D?

[SylenThunder]

Peer-to-peer is not limited to local LAN. It's multiplayer via the client. Games that are started by players and are open to public connections will show in that list.

 

There are basically three modes of gameplay.

1. Single-Player - Occurs via the game client.
2. Peer-to-Peer - Occurs via the game client. It's Co-Op and anyone can join. It's not limited to the LAN network. Only works when you have the game session open and are playing.
3. Dedicated Server - Runs from the dedicated server client. Is headless, and designed to be always-on.

[The_Great_Sephiroth]

Note that in 7 Days on a dedicated server time will "freeze" when no players are connected, unlike most games. I want this feature in Ark!

[Roland]

I would just add that in Peer-to-Peer games one of the players is the host on the same machine he is playing on and as such when the host is done it ends the game for everyone and the world cannot be played again until/unless the host boots it up and starts playing. Dedicated servers, being on a separate machine, avoid this inconvenience.

 

The console version is exclusively Peer to Peer with no dedicated servers at all. A lot of people didn't realize this and wondered why their "server" disappeared and could never be found...