Timber Together

Tested for 12+ hours in a single multi colony game without any desyncs or issues. Every feature confirmed working in game besides mixed factions and sharing power. Build apart. Thrive together.

Co-op Timberborn where every player runs their own colony on one shared map: their own districts, beavers, stock, science and working hours. The colonies meet only at Trading Posts, where they barter, and share power through a Power Export Facility. Co-op, not a race.

Install · Host · Join · Your colony · Trading Posts · Sharing power · Controls · Troubleshooting · Website

Warning

Beta: the release candidate for 1.4.0. Automated checks cover everything here, and all but two features have been played. Play on a copy of your save and keep backups.

• Played: hosting, joining over Steam and founding a second colony; two colonies building side by side, in step; the Co-op Game room, from joining to Start; the Separate colonies checkbox and splitting a shared game; hosting a save or the game you're in, joining from inside a game, and rejoining a rehost; the road rule; Trading Posts exchanging goods and beavers, at scale; trade messages and chimes; the late game (automation, the HTTP API, water automation, power, dynamite and tunnels, both Wonders, bots); looking after an away player's colony, and hand-overs; and the Stability Fork's Steam invites, connection panel, cursors and desync fixes, over hours of two-player play.
• Not played yet: Folktails and Iron Teeth together; sharing power through a Power Export Facility.

Built on BeaverBuddies by Thomas Price (thomaswp) and contributors, through the BeaverBuddies Stability Fork (credits). Steam invites, the connection panel, chat, pings, cursors and ordinary shared-colony co-op all still work.

Install

You need Timberborn 1.1.2.4 (tested on Windows, Steam version) and the Harmony and Mod Settings mods. Every player installs the same zip.

1. Download TimberTogether-<version>.zip from the newest release, under Assets (not "Source code").
2. Close Timberborn.
3. In Documents\Timberborn\Mods, delete any other BeaverBuddies folder (the Stability Fork, an older copy of this mod) and unsubscribe from the Workshop BeaverBuddies. Only one can run; the main menu names any that is still on.
4. Extract the zip and copy the TimberTogether folder into Documents\Timberborn\Mods.
5. Start Timberborn and enable Harmony, Mod Settings and Timber Together.

Settings: open the Mods list (main menu, or Esc in a game) and press the settings button beside Timber Together.

To update, replace the folder with the new zip. Everyone updates together: a different build can't join.

Host a game

Every co-op game starts in a Co-op Game room. Invite with Invite friends (Steam) or give your IP address (port 25565); friends press Ready, and your Start game loads the game for everyone at once, paused. Nobody can join after that, until you Save and rehost.

A new game. New Game → faction → map → difficulty. Under the game's Tutorial checkbox:

• Separate colonies (ticked): a colony each. Unticked, everyone builds one shared colony. While it's ticked, two more boxes show under it:
  • Separate science and unlocks (ticked): each colony earns its own science. Unticked, they share one pool.
  • Mixed factions (unticked): each player picks Folktails or Iron Teeth in the room. Greyed unless every faction is unlocked and no other faction mod is installed.

Then press Host co-op game beside Start and name your settlement. Invite friends lights up as soon as the Steam lobby is ready.

A save. Load game (main menu, or Esc in a game) → pick a save → Host co-op game, right of Load. A gold line under the save's picture says whether it has separate colonies or one shared colony. Each player gets the colony the save remembers for them. For a shared save, the room offers Separate colonies: tick it to split the game at Start, for good. Your colony keeps everything built so far, and each friend founds a new one.

The game you're in. Playing alone, Esc → Host co-op game saves the game and opens its room over it.

Save and rehost. In a co-op game, that button reads Save and rehost: the game is saved and everyone meets in its room again, to let someone new in or to recover from a dropped connection or a desync. Guests come along by themselves; one who missed it chooses Rejoin.

Join a game

Join co-op game (main menu, or Esc while you play alone) lists your Steam friends' games: pick the host's and press Join. Or accept the host's Steam invite, or type their IP address under the list. In the room, press Ready and wait for the host.

Joined from inside a game, the room opens over it and your game waits, paused. Leave takes you back to it; at Start game it is saved as at Exit to menu, and the host's game loads. In a co-op game, leave it first to accept someone else's invite.

Found your colony. In the game you're offered a district center to place (Place district center, or Ctrl+K later). Put it anywhere its roads won't join another colony's: it's free and already built, with starting beavers, food and water. On a multi-start map you get the next start instead. The save remembers your colony by your Steam ID, whoever hosts.

Your colony

• Yours alone: your districts, beavers, stock, working hours and marks, and with separate science your own science and unlocks. Nobody else can change them, and your beavers work only for your colony.
• Build anywhere, right up to a neighbor. The one rule: your roads never join another colony's, except through a Trading Post. Ctrl+L shows every colony's roads in its color.
• Your power never joins another colony's, except through a Power Export Facility. Ctrl+P shows every colony's power in its color.
• Your screen is your colony's: the top bar and its wellbeing window, alerts, status icons, batch lists and working hours.
• Shared by everyone: the map (water, droughts, badwater, weather), speed, pause, pings, chat and saving.
• Up to four colonies. More players help run the host's colony.
• Folktails and Iron Teeth together (Mixed factions): each colony plays its own faction. Between factions, Trading Posts carry the goods both use, and science, but not beavers.

Away for a while? Your colony is kept for you. To keep it running, press Y → Let … look after it on your colony: your friend presses Run this colony to play it, and Back to your colony when done. Take it back any time.

A colony changes hands only when it has no beavers or bots left for a whole day, when the host hands it over from the colonies window (Y), or after its player misses the host's limit, Hand over a colony after its player is away (days) in Timber Together's settings (0, never, by default). Its player can then found a new colony with Ctrl+K.

Trading Posts

Build a Trading Post (District Management; 10 logs, no science) between your road and another colony's, one half's door on each road. It's the only place two colonies' roads meet, and it starts trading once both reach it.

1. Offer. Select your half. Choose what You give and You get, as the whole trade (101 logs for 2 gears, say). A post carries up to 100 of each a round, so the game spreads it over rounds; Rounds shows how many. Or tick Repeat until cancelled, with each round's amounts. A side at 0 is a gift. Keep at least holds back a reserve so a long deal never empties your stock. Then Make offer.
2. They accept on their half, or decline; a declined offer stays in your form, ready to adjust. The offer reaches them as a message that says the whole trade and stays until they answer or close it, with a chime. Clicking it takes them to the post.
3. The beavers carry it out. Each colony's workers bring its side to its own half, and when both are in, the round crosses at once. Nothing is given before what it was traded for is in.

Science (with separate science) and adult beavers can be traded the same way. Cancel exchange needs the other player to agree; any goods already brought then go back to the colony that brought them. One exchange runs per post at a time: build more posts for more.

Y (or the Trade button, top right) lists your posts and every colony, with its food and water in days, its goods in stock, what it is looking for, and who looks after it. Set what your colony is looking for there.

Sharing power

Build a Power Export Facility (Power tab; 20 gears, 20 planks, 20 logs, 200 science) between two colonies, one half for each. Each half needs its colony's road at its door, a shaft at its end, and one worker.

Select your half and tick Send power to …. Your spare power goes to them, only as much as they can use. Charge my batteries first fills yours before anything is sent; Use my batteries for … lets stored power go too. Power goes one way between two colonies, and a colony sends to one colony, which can pass it on. It crosses while both workers are at work. To pay for it, barter at a Trading Post.

H (or the Power button, top right) shows where power goes, your networks and facilities, and every colony's power.

One shared colony

Untick Separate colonies on the New Game page and everyone builds one colony together, as in ordinary BeaverBuddies. Later, a player other than the host can split off once: Esc → Found your own colony. The game then has separate colonies for good. The shared colony and its science stay the host's. Every colony keeps the unlocks made so far, and each earns its own science from then on.

Controls

Key	Action
Ctrl+K	Found your colony
Ctrl+L	Show every colony's roads in its color
Ctrl+P	Show every colony's power in its color
Y	Trading Posts and colonies
H	Power window
Enter	Type in the chat
Home	Back to your colony (click a name in the connection panel to go to that player)
Ctrl+Shift+J	Write a diagnostics report

Change them under Options → Bindings → Timber Together. Ping location and Toggle connection panel have no key until you set one there.

Co-op basics

• Steam invites need both players online in Steam and owning Timberborn there.
• Direct IP needs port 25565 forwarded to the host, or a virtual LAN such as Hamachi. Anyone who can reach that port while you host can join, unverified: open it only for people you trust.
• The connection panel (top left) shows each player and their colony, ping, sync and tick rate, with chat and a speed boost for everyone. A message from another player chimes while the panel is closed. The speaker on a player's row mutes the sounds of their actions.
• Pausing pauses the game for everyone, and the connection panel says who paused it. Menus and dialogs don't pause a co-op game.
• Other mods must match on every computer, at the same versions. You get a warning when they differ; a mod that changes the simulation will make the games drift apart.
• Dev mode desyncs the game, except its instant unlock, Finish now and Add 1000 Science.
• After a Timberborn update that changes something this mod corrects, co-op stops at load and names it (single player carries on). Update Timber Together.
• The game ends only when every beaver on the map is gone. Much of the text this mod adds is English only.

More: Steam invites, the connection panel, player cursors, and the full colony rules in TWO-COLONIES.md.

Troubleshooting

• Multiplayer build mismatch: someone has a different build. Everyone installs the same zip and restarts.
• Someone dropped out or wants in late: the host chooses Esc → Save and rehost; they choose Rejoin, or join from Join co-op game.
• A desync: the host chooses Save and rehost; guests choose Reconnect (wait for rehost).
• "That would join another colony's roads": keep your roads a cell apart from theirs, or link them with a Trading Post.
• A Trading Post says Not trading yet: each half needs a different colony's road at its door.
• "That would join another colony's power": keep your shafts a cell apart from theirs, or link them with a Power Export Facility.
• No power crosses a Power Export Facility: select your half. Its panel says what's missing.
• Ctrl+K says this is one shared colony: a player other than the host splits it with Esc → Found your own colony.

Reporting a problem: open an issue (here, not with the original BeaverBuddies) with every player's Player.log from %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Mechanistry\Timberborn and their newest report from the TimberTogether-Reports folder beside it. Ctrl+Shift+J writes a report any time; a desync in a separate-colonies game writes one on every computer. The troubleshooting page has more.

Building it yourself, or curious how it works? See DEVELOPING.md.

Credits and license

Timber Together is a modified version of BeaverBuddies (Steam Workshop), created by Thomas Price (thomaswp) with contributions from Robin, Slide, Phil Lehmkuhl, SamuZad, Joe Stead, Zibo Ye, Dasker and Tarensaror. The multiplayer this all rests on is theirs (keeping every player's game in step, the connections, the desync checks) and so is much of the code: this mod would not exist without their work. It is built through the BeaverBuddies Stability Fork. CREDITS.md has the full credits.

Licensed under GPL-3.0, like the original (License.txt); License.txt and CREDITS.md ship in the mod folder. Every original commit keeps its author in the repository history, and every change is listed in STABILITY-CHANGELOG.md. An unofficial community mod for Timberborn, not affiliated with or endorsed by Mechanistry or by the authors of BeaverBuddies.