What I'm looking for:
Procedural Multiplayer 3D first person/third person with online co-op player-hosted dedicated server(s).
Life-Sim plus Combat as far as features go, with things like building, crafting, farming, etc.
Portal Knights is perfect, but it doesn't permit more than 4 players, and our play group needs 8-10.
Essentially I'm looking for a first/third person 3D version of Stardew Valley, if such a thing exists. We would play/mod the hell out of that.
What I've found so far: Garden Paws. While it technically matches, its target audience is a bit younger than us.
We are currently playing Portal Knights, as it also matches, but doesn't have the same depth of building/crafting/life-sim as SDV or Garden Paws, and the server limit of 4 is killing us.
Garden Paws will be our next if this community is unaware of something better. But we are hoping for alternatives.
Dinkum was as very close match, but the multiplayer isn't quite right, in that the host is really the only true player, the rest are just temporary/transient guests.
I'm just asking here to ensure we haven't missed anything that might fit the requirements.
We've tried and/or played (in the past) SDV, Necesse, Wayward, Rust, Ark, Atlas, Pixark, Solace Crafting, Valheim, Frozen Flame, Raft, Wurm Unlimited, Veloren, Vintage Story, Dinkum, and more.
Generally most of them fall down either with technical bugs, crashing servers, not actual SDV-like-multiplayer, not 3D, or shallow crafting, building, life-sim and little/no story/plot.
We are not looking for a pure sandbox like unmodded Minecraft, but something more with an overarching story. Ideally more than just "kill this next boss", although if that's all there is, ok.
PvP isn't part of this equation, we're looking for a PvE/Co-Op setting.
As far as content goes, we would prefer no zombies, horror, darkness-as-fun, vampires, or similar themes (been there, done that), but if that's the only option, ok.
I've heard good things about Deep Rock Galactic and Minecraft Legends, but.. haven't tried them, so if anyone has, and feel they should be recommended as a match, please provide that feedback.
Voxels are ok (obviously, portal knights) but are not required.
The ideal features are:
Server-authoritative dedicated persistent reliable non-crashing server, ideally run/hosted under Linux or Wine. Multiplayer of 8-10.
Procedural generation of everything like maps, islands, non-home areas.
Life sim features of farming, crafting, building, domestication, pets, taming, fishing, events, non-combat progression paths.
Combat/Exploration/Resource acquisition with procedural maps, dungeons, missions, content.
Quests, Tasks or Missions intended for teams to accomplish. Tiers/Bosses are fine, too.
Quest related tasks anyone can do (Portal Knights) or tracked individually (SDV).
3D first/third person.