Unity changing server when it disconnects

Question

I'm making a coop game in Unity. It's designed to be drop-in/drop-out. Currently there's one player who's the server. Though I was wondering, is it possible to change the player who's considered the server in case the current server disconnects.

I wasn't sure what to call this, so my Googling turned up nothing.

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is known as "Host Migration", and it is a little advanced. What you need to do is initialize a new server when the old one quits, the problem comes when you need to make a connection from other players, and make the objects stay.

What I would do is make a list that is the exact same for every player, which means that when one disconnects they should join the next server in queue, but only after waiting for a set amount of time, 5-10 seconds should be long enough, probably shorter works. Then you will need to re-make network instantiated objects due to when a host disconnects the client obviously looses connection, causing all network instantiated objects to be destroyed, so they will need to be re-made. Typically not many objects need to be remade, probably AI, and players, AI being somewhat optional. My advice would be to store the players information, health, position, rotation, etc. In your level/networking manager (if you have one).

If you would like an easier way, there is always photon cloud networking, which does this for you, just it comes at a price.