How do I create a dedicated Monday Night Combat blitz server?

Question

I am trying to play blitz with my friends, but we can't seem to be able to join each others created games, and the blitz servers that are available are always full.

Outside of trying hamachi (our backup plan), how do we create our own dedicated blitz server?

Answer 1

Update 2011/02/24:
You can now create Blitz dedicated servers both with the standalone game and dedicated server installations.

You can install a dedicated server for Windows using Steam's HLDSUpdateTool. Sadly, there is no Linux dedicated server.

The command to install it using HLDSUpdateTool is:

HldsUpdateTool.exe -command update -game mondaynightcombat -dir INSTALLDIR

where INSTALLDIR is the directory you want to install the server to.

The dedicated server command line to run a Blitz server is:

mnc.exe server HostileLobby?game=HostileGame.HGameInfo_PreGameLobby?GameType=TeamBlitz?ServerDescription="My Blitz Server"?MapName=3?CoopChallenge=3

Replace "My Blitz Server" with you server name.

Valid range for MapName and CoopChallenge is [0,5]. These values must be the same for servers to correctly display in the server browser!
0 = Exhibition
1 = Season
2 = Playoff
3 = Scramble
4 = Sudden Death
5 = Super Sudden Death

Answer 2

Do you really need dedicated server?

Usually the problem is with your router, you have to open up a few ports. This is generic to most games where you host yourself, you have to configure your network to do it properly by using port forwarding

Here is a list of ports you have to open in order to host a game with MNC. It worked for me.

"Standard Steam Ports"
UDP 1200 (used for friends service)
UDP 27000 to 27050 inclusive
TCP 27000 to 27050 inclusive

MNC Ports
TCP 7777-7780
UDP 7777-7780

The exact method to do configure the router depends on the router itself, every vendor has its own interface. There are plenty of tutorials on the internet on how to set up port forwarding with virtually every router possible.