Sons Of The Forest Servers now available!
Created by: LOW.MS Support
Last modified: 23rd June 2023
Sons Of The Forest Dedicated Servers are now available - how to configure your server is detailed below
You can now order your server for Sons of the Forest (SOTF). The guide will take you through what you can configure on your server.
Currently there are 3 configuration files:
- ownerswhitelist.txt
- This allows you to become an admin on the server
- dedicatedserver.cfg
- All settings related to the server itself
- SonsGameSettings
- This is specific game settings itself
Becoming an admin of your SOTF Server
- Navigate to your control panel and find the SOTF server
- Click on 'Configuration Files'
- Click 'Text Editor' next to ownerswhitelist.txt
- You will need to know your SteamID
- To find your SteamID, you can either navigate to this page https://store.steampowered.com/account/ or directly in Steam click on your name on the top right, then Account Details.
- Enter your SteamID on bottom of the configuration file for example:
7987654321987 - You can also add comments in the file by adding a # so you can put names to peoples IDs.
dedicatedserver.cfg - settings
This file is written in JSON format so you will need to be somewhat careful on what you change as this may stop the server from booting if incorrect.
If you example you wanted to change the SaveInternal of the server, you would modify this line:
"SaveInterval": 600,
to
"SaveInterval": 300,
This would set the save internal to every 5 minutes instead of every 10.
Option | Description | Accepted Values |
---|---|---|
ServerName | Name of the server visible in the server list, and in the Steam contacts. | any string |
Password | Adds a password to make your server “private”. Upon connection, this password will be requested before the client can proceed. | any string up to 40 characters long |
SaveSlot | When creating a new save, this number will be the id of the save. | integer greater or equal to 1 |
GameMode | Sets the difficulty game mode when creating a new save. This parameter is ignored if loading a save (save mode set to “continue” with a save that exists on the slot). If the game mode is set to “custom”, then the custom game mode settings will be read from CustomGameModeSettings option, described later. | normal, hard, hardsurvival, peaceful, custom |
SaveInterval | How often the game server automatically saves the game to SaveSlot, in seconds. | integer |
IdleDayCycleSpeed | A multiplier to how quickly the time passes compared to normal gameplay when the server is considered idle (no player connected). | floating point value between 0 and 1, strictly greater than 0 |
GameSettings | A key value map of all game settings you can use to tweak your game (in any mode). All parameters will be listed in a later paragraph along with their possible values. If the value is null, or empty, default settings will be used. | See below |
CustomGameModeSettings | A key value map of all settings available to customize your game in custom mode. All parameters are listed later in this guide along with their possible values. If the value is null, or empty, default settings will be used. This parameter is ignored if the game mode is not “custom” or if loading a save (save mode set to “continue” with a save that exists on the slot), whether is it “custom” or not. | See below |
You may have noticed that we haven't included everything in here, this is because the options not shown are mainly for us, you won't need to modfiy these.
Game Settings
Currently there are two extra settings you can set here.
"GameSettings": {
"Gameplay.TreeRegrowth": true,
"Structure.Damage": true
},
When modifying this ensure you keep the brackets and quotes and comma's for every new line you add.
Option | Description | Accepted Values |
---|---|---|
Gameplay.TreeRegrowth | Enable automatic tree regrowth, triggered when sleeping. | true, false |
Structure.Damage | Allow buildings to be damaged. | true, false |
More to follow when we learn more of the settings available.
Custom Game Mode Settings
These are extra settings, which are only listened to if the game mode is set to custom (see first table above)
The current default is:
"CustomGameModeSettings": {
"GameSetting.Vail.EnemySpawn": true,
"GameSetting.Vail.EnemyHealth": "Normal",
"GameSetting.Vail.EnemyDamage": "Normal",
"GameSetting.Vail.EnemyArmour": "Normal",
"GameSetting.Vail.EnemyAggression": "Normal",
"GameSetting.Vail.AnimalSpawnRate": "Normal",
"GameSetting.Environment.StartingSeason": "Summer",
"GameSetting.Environment.SeasonLength": "Default",
"GameSetting.Environment.DayLength": "Default",
"GameSetting.Environment.PrecipitationFrequency": "Default",
"GameSetting.Survival.ConsumableEffects": "Normal",
"GameSetting.Survival.PlayerStatsDamage": "Off",
"GameSetting.Survival.ColdPenalties": "Off",
"GameSetting.Survival.ReducedFoodInContainers": false,
"GameSetting.Survival.SingleUseContainers": false,
},
Option | Description | Accepted Values |
---|---|---|
GameSetting.Vail.EnemySpawn | Enable enemies spawning. | true, false |
GameSetting.Vail.EnemyHealth | Adjust enemy starting health. | low, normal, high |
GameSetting.Vail.EnemyDamage | Adjust damage enemies can do. | low, normal, high |
GameSetting.Vail.EnemyArmour | Adjust enemies armor strength. | low, normal, high |
GameSetting.Vail.EnemyAggression | Adjust enemy aggression level. | low, normal, high |
GameSetting.Vail.AnimalSpawnRate | Adjust animal spawn rate. | low, normal, high |
GameSetting.Environment.StartingSeason | Set environmental starting season. | spring, summer, autumn, winter |
Structure.Damage | Allow buildings to be damaged. | true, false |
GameSetting.Environment.SeasonLength | Adjust season length. | short, default, long, realistic |
GameSetting.Environment.DayLength | Adjust day length. | short, default, long, realistic |
GameSetting.Environment.PrecipitationFrequency | Adjust the frequency of rain and snow. | low, default, high |
GameSetting.Survival.ConsumableEffects | Enable damage taken when low hydration and low fullness. | normal, hard |
GameSetting.Survival.PlayerStatsDamage | Enable damage from each bad or rotten food and drink. | off, normal, hard |
GameSetting.Survival.ColdPenalties | Adjusts the severity that cold will affect health and stamina regeneration. | off, normal, hard |
GameSetting.Survival.ReducedFoodInContainers | Reduces the amount of food found in containers. | true, false |
GameSetting.Survival.SingleUseContainers | Containers can only be opened once. | true, false |
A Sons Of The Forest guide, let us know what other guides you want to see and we will get them published!