Stormworks: Build and Rescue Server Troubleshooting Guide

Introduction

So your Stormworks server is giving you grief. Don't worry, we've seen pretty much every issue that can come up with these servers, and most of them have straightforward fixes. This guide covers the common problems – connection failures, lag, save issues, mod conflicts, and startup problems – with practical solutions for each.

If you're still setting things up, check out the Getting Started Guide first. For tweaking your settings, the Server Configuration Guide has you covered.

Connection Issues

Players Cannot Connect to the Server

This is probably the most common issue we get tickets about. Nine times out of ten it's something simple.

1. Make sure the server is actually running. Log in to your LOW.MS control panel and check that the server shows as online. Sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised.
2. Double-check the connection details. The IP and port are displayed in your control panel. The default game port is 25564 (UDP), and the server uses three consecutive ports (25564, 25565, 25566) – all of these need to be accessible, but on LOW.MS they're handled for you automatically.
3. Check the password. If you've set a server password, make sure players are entering it exactly right. Passwords are case-sensitive.
4. Game version mismatch. Both the server and all connecting players need to be on the same version of Stormworks. After a game update, use Steam Update in the control panel sidebar to make sure your server is current, then restart it.
5. Try a direct connection. If the server isn't showing up in the browser, have players connect by IP instead. From the main menu, go to Multiplayer > Join by IP and enter the full address (e.g., 192.168.1.1:25564).

Intermittent Disconnections

Players connect fine but keep getting kicked after a while. I've seen this one a lot.

1. Check your resource usage. Open the control panel and look at CPU and RAM. If either is pegged at the limit, the server is struggling and will start dropping connections.
2. Too many vehicles. Large or complex vehicles generate heavy physics calculations. Ask players to despawn unused vehicles in-game, or restart the server to clear them out.
3. Lower the player count. Try reducing max_players in server_config.xml (via Configuration Files in the control panel) to see if fewer connections helps.
4. Schedule regular restarts. Memory usage accumulates over time. A fresh restart clears it out. If disconnections are a recurring thing, set up a restart schedule.

Server Not Appearing in the Browser

The server is running, but nobody can find it in the in-game server list.

1. Check if it's set to public. A password can sometimes affect browser visibility. Try removing the password temporarily to test.
2. Give it a minute. After starting or restarting, it can take a few minutes for the server to register with the master server list. Just be patient.
3. Use direct connect as a workaround. While you're troubleshooting browser visibility, players can always connect by IP. It's not ideal, but it works.

Performance Issues

Server Lag and Low TPS

Everyone is rubber-banding, vehicles are sluggish, interactions are delayed. In my experience, this is almost always a vehicle problem.

1. Get rid of abandoned vehicles. This is the single most effective fix for Stormworks server lag. There's no console command to mass-remove vehicles – you'll need to either manually remove them in-game or restart the server to clear the world of spawned vehicles.
2. Check vehicle complexity. A single vehicle with hundreds of logic components, sensors, and moving parts can absolutely tank performance. Find the worst offenders and ask their owners to simplify or despawn them when not in use.
3. Reduce player count. Each connected player adds physics overhead. Fewer players means less to simulate.
4. Consider upgrading your server. Stormworks physics are server-side and CPU-intensive. If you're consistently hitting resource limits, it might be time to upgrade. Check out our Stormworks hosting plans to see your options.
5. Restart the server. Memory leaks and accumulated state degrade performance over time. A restart clears the slate.

Lag Spikes When Spawning Vehicles

The server freezes briefly whenever someone spawns a vehicle. This is normal to some extent – large blueprints require significant processing to initialise all the physics components – but you can manage it.

1. Encourage smaller vehicle designs for regular multiplayer sessions.
2. Spawn vehicles one at a time rather than multiple at once.
3. Pre-spawn complex builds during off-peak hours if you need them for a planned session.
4. Upgrade your server resources if spawn lag is consistently bad and accompanied by high memory usage.

Physics Desynchronisation

Vehicles are jittering, clipping through terrain, or behaving differently for different players.

1. Reduce the load. Fewer active vehicles and players means less physics state to synchronise across the network.
2. Restart the server. Physics desync tends to accumulate over long sessions. A restart resets everything.
3. Check player ping. High-latency players (200ms+) will always experience more desync. Not much you can do about that one besides choosing a server location closer to your players.
4. Simplify problematic vehicles. Vehicles with lots of articulating parts or fluid systems are more prone to desync than simpler builds.

World Save Issues

World Not Saving

You restart the server and all your progress is gone. That's a bad feeling, but it's usually fixable.

1. Use graceful shutdowns. Always stop the server through the LOW.MS control panel – don't force-stop it. Graceful shutdowns trigger a final world save before the process ends.
2. Force a manual save first. Before stopping the server, run ?save in the Web Console to manually trigger a save. You can also use ?save mysavename to save to a specific name.
3. Check disk space. If the server is out of disk space, it can't write save files. Check usage in the control panel – if you're near the limit, clean up old files via File Manager.
4. Verify the save_name setting. Make sure save_name in server_config.xml hasn't been accidentally changed. A wrong value means the server loads a different (possibly empty) world.

Corrupted World Save

The server fails to start, crashes on load, or the world is missing stuff.

1. Restore from backup. Navigate to Cloud Restore in your control panel sidebar and restore the most recent clean backup. We'd recommend always keeping recent backups around for exactly this situation.
2. Check the server log. Open Log Viewer in the control panel and look at the startup output for error messages that point to the problem.
3. Try a different save. Change save_name in server_config.xml (via Configuration Files) to test whether the server starts with a fresh world. If it does, your original save is the issue.
4. Contact support. If you can't restore from backup and the save is important to you, reach out to LOW.MS support. We'll do what we can.

Workshop and Mod Issues

Workshop Mods Not Loading

You've added mods to server_config.xml but they're not showing up in-game.

1. Verify the mod IDs. Double-check that the Workshop IDs in your configuration match the actual Steam Workshop URLs. One wrong digit and the mod won't load.
2. Check the XML format. Make sure the mod entries are correctly formatted within the <mods> section. A single syntax error – a missing bracket, an unclosed tag – can prevent all mods from loading.
3. Restart after changes. Changes to the mods section require a full server restart to take effect.
4. Check mod compatibility. Some mods might not work with the current game version. Check the mod's Workshop page for recent comments – other players will usually mention if it's broken.

Server Crashes After Adding Mods

Server was running fine, then you added some Workshop items and now it crashes. Classic.

1. Identify the problem mod. Remove all the mods you recently added, then add them back one at a time, restarting between each. Tedious, but effective.
2. Check for conflicts. Some mods don't play well together. If adding them individually works fine, try different combinations to find the conflict.
3. Check the logs. Open Log Viewer in the control panel – the crash output often names the mod that caused the issue.
4. Update your mods. Outdated mods are the most common cause of crashes after game updates. Make sure everything is current.

Mod Desync Between Server and Clients

Some players see mod content, others don't, or things look different for different people.

1. All players need to subscribe to the same Workshop items the server uses. No exceptions.
2. Share a Workshop collection link with your players so they can subscribe to everything at once. Saves a lot of hassle.
3. Check mod load order. The order of mods in the configuration file can matter. Make sure it's consistent.

Server Startup Issues

Server Fails to Start

You hit Start and nothing happens, or it immediately errors out.

1. Check the logs. Open Log Viewer in the control panel and look for error messages. This is always your first step.
2. Verify your configuration. An invalid server_config.xml will prevent startup. Common culprits: missing closing tags, invalid characters, or wrong value types. You can edit the file via Configuration Files in the control panel.
3. Remove mods temporarily. Comment out or remove all Workshop mods from your config to test whether one of them is preventing startup.
4. Check for game updates. The server might need updating after a Stormworks patch. Hit Steam Update in the control panel sidebar to force an update, then restart.
5. Contact support. If it consistently won't start and there's nothing obvious in the config or logs, get in touch with us.

Server Starts but Nobody Can Join

The control panel shows it as running, but every connection attempt fails.

1. Wait for it to finish loading. After starting, the server needs time to load the world and initialise everything. Give it a minute or two before trying to connect.
2. Check max_players. Make sure max_players in the configuration is set to at least 1 (the maximum is 32).
3. Verify the ports. Confirm the ports shown in the control panel match what players are using to connect.
4. It might have crashed. The server process can crash immediately after starting but still briefly show as running. Check Log Viewer for crash reports.

Update-Related Issues

Server Crashes After a Game Update

Everything was fine yesterday, now it's broken after a Stormworks update. This happens more often than you'd think.

1. Force an update and restart. Use Steam Update in the control panel to make sure the server has the latest version, then restart.
2. Check your mods. Game updates frequently break Workshop content. Temporarily remove all mods to see if the server runs clean without them.
3. Wait for hotfixes. Major Stormworks updates sometimes get follow-up patches within a few days. Keep an eye on the Stormworks Steam News for patch notes.
4. Restore a backup. If the update messed up your world, use Cloud Restore in the control panel to roll back to a pre-update backup.

Version Mismatch Errors

Players get a version mismatch error when trying to connect.

1. Update the game client. Players should verify their game files through Steam – right-click the game, go to Properties > Local Files > Verify Integrity of Game Files.
2. Update the server. Make sure the server has the latest version by using Steam Update in the control panel, then restarting.
3. Check for beta branches. If any player is on a beta branch in Steam, they'll have a different version than everyone else. All players should be on the same branch – usually the default stable one.

Getting Further Help

If you've worked through the relevant sections and you're still stuck:

1. Check the logs. I keep saying it, but the Log Viewer in the control panel is always the best source of detailed error information. Check Web Console too for any runtime errors.
2. Search the Stormworks Steam Community. Other players have probably hit the same issue.
3. Contact LOW.MS support. We're available 24/7 and can look at things from the server side directly.