Please can you make a bug report on the Zeepkist Discord server's bugs channel so that Yannic the developer can take a look at the issue: https://discord.gg/9cBVRAZd

If you're on a VPN, the server provider may be blocking the VPN node's IP.

Originally posted by Akane:

Please can you make a bug report on the Zeepkist Discord server's bugs channel: https://discord.gg/9cBVRAZd

We can not.
Our Nitro subscription expired a few days ago, and we would need to leave more than twenty servers in order to join the Zeepkist server.

That aside, having the only method to report bugs being a Discord server is rather unprofessional; as it may require some people to make a Discord account exclusively to report Zeepkist bugs, and nothing else.
It also means that if something happens, like a hacked account floods the server with bad links and the Discord management deletes the server, or if the server is deleted for any reason at all, then the bug report channel goes down with it.

Not saying you Shouldn't have a bug reporting section in the game\developer server. I'm saying it shouldn't be your only way to submit bugs.

Originally posted by Akane:

If you're on a VPN, the server provider may be blocking the VPN node's IP.

We are pretty sure we are not on\using a VPN; to our knowledge, that would require software on our computer, and we do not have such software.

Originally posted by Realms×Myths:

We are pretty sure we are not on\using a VPN; to our knowledge, that would require software on our computer, and we do not have such software.

Technically you don't have to have software on your computer to use a so-called "VPN". It depends on how the service is set up, with some of them you just have to connect to a proxy server.

Thing is, you specifically have to set up a proxy connection in order to do that. For the "VPNs" (they're actually just glorified proxy services in and of themselves) that use software the software just automates that process.

Check your proxy server settings and make sure they're disabled.

Originally posted by A Fat, Angry Serval:

Check your proxy server settings and make sure they're disabled.

That is good to know.
If software is not needed, are these settings on the router? If so, we will need to ask our roomie to look into it.

If it helps, we use Windows 11 on an acer Laptop.
Roomie's internet, and by extension the router, are provided by Bell.

We checked our Windows settings; the "Network & Internet" settings say we aren't using a proxy.

Originally posted by Realms×Myths:

Roomie's internet, and by extension the router, are provided by Bell.

Oof, Bell. There's your problem. They have a specific setup on their routers that only allows outgoing connections and responses to those specific connections, and chances are your router is managed by your ISP and you don't have internal access to its configuration settings.

Originally posted by A Fat, Angry Serval:

…chances are your router is managed by your ISP and you don't have internal access to its configuration settings.

Roomie does. They called bell and was granted access to the router; since we needed to enable port forwarding for our servers.

What settings do we need to update for the router to allow us to connect to Zeepkist's main server?

First off, broken quote.

Second, I'm not sure what ports you need to forward, because they're not listed. You're supposed to not have to do this at all, but ISPs be screwy.

It might not even be a port forwarding matter but something else related specifically to how Bell manages connections compared to other ISPs.

Originally posted by A Fat, Angry Serval:

First off, broken quote.

Our bad. Fixed.

Originally posted by A Fat, Angry Serval:

Second, I'm not sure what ports you need to forward, because they're not listed. You're supposed to not have to do this at all, but ISPs be screwy.

It might not even be a port forwarding matter but something else related specifically to how Bell manages connections compared to other ISPs.

I don't think we need to forward ports for Zeepkist. But we did need to for servers on our end; such as when we were running a Palworld Dedicated Server for a while.
But, if we do need ports forwarded, it would be nice if the game listed them.

We tried looking up info with Google, but the only thing we can find is a Steam post from 2023, where it was just the servers going down for a while. But we can see other rooms in the active rooms list, so we know the main server is up.

Not sure why the developers insist on keeping all bug reports in their Discord.
It'd probably be way easier to find out what issues exist and how to fix them if they are reported and solved in public spaces instead of chat rooms.

So, yeah, it we may not be able to play multiplayer, because the developers refuse to help people outside of chat rooms, unless the players like you decide to help solve issues in the game that the devs refuse to acknowledge because it's not being talked about in said chat rooms.

This is the "error screen" when it fails to connect, if it helps at all;
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3290042255

Unfortunately, it doesn't as there's no status code or any other information, and I don't have any other way to help as just another player.

That's a shame.
Well, thanks for trying regardless.

We'll buy Nitro again eventually, and post in their Discord to try and get this resolved.

Sorry that you're unable to join the developer server for Zeepkist. It has a bunch of automation that cannot be accomplished using Steam forum threads, so is a much preferred option to manage bug triaging directly with Yannic.

Outside of Discord, you can contact Yannic privately here: https://steelpan.dev/contact

Please attach your Player.log (You can find this at %userprofile%\AppData\LocalLow\Steelpan Interactive\Zeepkist, press Win + R and paste this path into the text field to open the folder in File Explorer)

[Note: I am not a developer of Zeepkist. I only host the monthly community events]

Thank you for another option to get help with the issue. It is greatly appreciated.
It is late, and we're getting ready for bed.
We will try to connect again tomorrow, and send the log if it continues to fail.

Hi!!

First of all apologies that the community things are all concentrated on Discord. It's not ideal but as a solo developer my time and resources are super limited which is why I try and keep things manageable as much as possible.

ANYWAY!! The issue!

It's got nothing to do with port forwarding luckily! The issue is that the server (for complex C# reasons) breaks when a single quote ( ' ) or double quote ( " ) are present in your Steam Username or Room Title.

So remove those from your Steam Username or Room Title and making a room should work perfectly.

I'll get a fix out for this as soon as possible :)

Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention!!

- Yannic