Why Bother With a Dedicated Server?
If you've played Stormworks: Build and Rescue multiplayer at all, you already know the peer-to-peer setup is rough. Host leaves, session dies. Host has a mediocre PC, everyone's physics turn to soup. And forget about running a persistent world where people can drop in and out – it just doesn't work that way.
A dedicated server fixes all of that. Your world stays online 24/7, performance isn't tied to someone's gaming laptop, and you actually get control over who joins, what Workshop content is loaded, and how the server behaves. For a game as physics-heavy as Stormworks, that last point matters more than you'd think.
Why Stormworks Is Unusually Demanding
I want to be upfront about this because it catches people off guard: Stormworks is not like hosting a Minecraft server or a CS2 server. The physics simulation runs server-side. Every engine, propeller, buoyancy calculation, fluid system, and logic node on every active vehicle is being processed by the server's CPU. Not the client. The server.
What that means in practice:
- CPU clock speed is king. More than almost any other game we host, Stormworks benefits from raw single-core performance. A fast modern processor makes a genuinely noticeable difference to how vehicles behave for everyone connected.
- RAM scales with vehicle complexity, not player count. Three players building complex helicopters with custom avionics can use more resources than ten players messing about in rowboats. It's counterintuitive but that's how the engine works.
- Disk space is a non-issue. World saves and blueprints are tiny compared to something like Minecraft.
The game supports up to 32 players, though honestly the sweet spot depends entirely on what your group does. Casual building sessions handle larger groups fine. Physics-heavy rescue missions with multiple complex vehicles in the water? You'll want a smaller group for that.
What to Look for in a Host
CPU Quality – Seriously, This One Matters
I keep banging on about this but it's genuinely the most important factor for Stormworks. Budget hosts running older hardware with low clock speeds will give you a noticeably worse experience. The physics will feel sluggish, vehicles will behave oddly, and it gets worse the more vehicles are active.
We run Ryzen 7950X and 9950X processors at LOW.MS, which have some of the best single-core performance available. For Stormworks specifically, that translates directly into smoother physics for everyone on the server.
RAM – Don't Get Caught Short
A lot of budget providers advertise cheap headline prices but only include 2-4 GB of RAM. That's tight for Stormworks, especially once you start loading Workshop content or players start spawning complex builds. Make sure you're comparing like-for-like when you look at prices. We include generous RAM with our Stormworks servers because we know what the game actually needs – check our Stormworks hosting page for the specifics.
A Control Panel That Isn't Painful
You want a panel with Web Console access for running admin commands, a File Manager so you can edit server_config.xml without messing about with FTP, Cloud Backup and Cloud Restore so you never lose your world, and basic things like one-click start/stop/restart. It sounds obvious but not every provider gets this right.
Support That Knows the Game
Stormworks is niche. When something goes wrong with your physics engine or Workshop configuration, you want to talk to people who've actually dealt with it before, not a generic support team reading from a script.
Setting Up Your Server
The setup process is fairly painless:
Order your server from the Stormworks hosting page. It gets provisioned automatically after payment.
Log into the control panel and find your server's IP address and port (default is 25564 UDP – the server uses 3 consecutive ports).
Configure your settings. Edit
server_config.xmlthrough the File Manager or Configuration Files panel to set your server name, password, max players, and world seed. Our Server Configuration Guide walks through every option if you want the full breakdown.Add Workshop content if you want it. Stormworks has a solid Steam Workshop community with custom missions, vehicles, and addons. Add their Workshop IDs to the config and everyone on the server gets access – no extra cost, loads of replay value.
Start and connect. Fire up the server, give it a minute to initialise, then connect from the multiplayer menu using your IP and port.
Our Getting Started Guide has the full step-by-step if you want more detail.
Keeping Performance in Check
Because the physics are server-side, performance tuning matters more for Stormworks than for most games. A few things I'd recommend:
Watch Your Vehicle Complexity
This is the single biggest performance variable in Stormworks. It's not the number of players. It's not the world size. It's the total complexity of all active vehicles. One vehicle with hundreds of logic nodes, fluid systems, and moving parts can hammer the server harder than ten simple boats combined.
Set some ground rules for your group. Keep everyday vehicles reasonable, save the complex showcase builds for designated sessions, and clean up abandoned vehicles regularly.
Restart Periodically
Stormworks, like most game servers, benefits from periodic restarts. Memory usage creeps up over long sessions. A daily restart during quiet hours keeps things running smoothly.
Monitor and Adjust
Start with whatever plan suits your group size and keep an eye on resource usage for the first week or so. If CPU or RAM is consistently high, upgrade. If it's consistently low, you might be able to save some money. Don't overthink it – just watch the numbers.
Things to Do on Your Server
Once everything's running, here are some ideas that work well in Stormworks multiplayer:
Collaborative builds are where the game really shines. Get a group together and build something none of you could build alone – one person on the hull, one on engines, one on electronics. It's chaotic and brilliant.
Mission nights using Workshop missions are great fun. Multiple vehicles responding to the same emergency is exactly as chaotic as it sounds.
Engineering challenges with constraints are surprisingly addictive. "Build a vehicle that can rescue 4 survivors from a sinking ship using only basic components." People get creative.
Vehicle showcases where everyone brings their best creation and demonstrates it. Built a rescue helicopter? Prove it flies in a storm.
Getting Started
If you want to spin up a Stormworks server, head over to our Stormworks hosting page to see what's available. We run high-performance Ryzen hardware, include generous RAM, automatic backups, and proper support from people who know what they're doing.
And if you need help along the way, the knowledgebase has you covered – getting started, server configuration, troubleshooting, and best server settings are all there.