The replication layer is currently part of the server and is planned to be between the client and the server.
Instead of the player connecting directly to the server, the player and the server both connect to the replication layer. The layer allows all the servers to be synchronized.
Crash Recovery
If the server crashes, the client stays up, still connected to the replication layer, and when the server comes back up again or a new one replaces it, it comes back to its state before the crash, still impacted by player actions, as opposed to a default state.
References
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