We originally wanted to have Direct IP connection in Nova Factor when we released the first version on Itch.  This didn't work out as planned and we had to remove that feature in order to have a stable build to publish.  This was a bit of disappointment for the team, however the most important thing was that we actually launched the first version of the game.  This version was shown at the Gotland Game Conference 2018 where the team was humbly awarded the Innovation Award.

Now that the dust of that conference has settled we have been taking a much-needed respite before we start up again in the coming months.  The one thing, however, was the lack of direct IP connection that still existed in the game.  We have now added this feature and it supplements the game nicely.  The Local Area Network system we had before is still there however we added the direct IP connection box in the Join section to let people connect over the internet.

The real trick with this is that port 7777 must be open and forwarded in order for this to work behind firewalls or routers.  This isn't an issue if you use the Hamachi VPN network.   You can just connect directly using the IP address you have in the network you created on that system.  Once we all come back together after our vacations we are going to be giving this system the proper attention it needs to attempt to improve the connectivity.