I know you said you can’t do your local box, but there’s no necessity for a static IP to do that. Dynamic DNS is relatively easy to set up, I suppose provided you have a domain name you own (which you can find for very reasonable prices).

I had the opposite when I was a kid. Playing Nightfire on PS2 with my friend adding in “AL” bots as extra players.

He wasn’t very happy with me explaining that they are A.I.