Game Settings

This page is about in-game settings. For video settings available through the Options tab, see Video Display Options.

Description

The Game Settings are used to set up the game using the available options prior to starting a new game or returning to a previously started game. They allow the player to control many different setting which all have a different effect on the overall experience during game play. the Game Settings can be found in the centre of the screen of the New Game or Continue Game screens and are represented by three or four expanding tabs, clicking on one will expand it and show each setting below the tab and the options available to the right of each setting.

Tabs

The Game Settings are represented by tabs that when clicked on will expand to show the options available. There are currently two option tabs available in SurvivalSP: Standard Options and Modded Options. In SurvivalMP, a third tab, Multiplayer, becomes available.

Standard Options

This tab is used to adjust the various settings that have an effect over the overall difficulty of the game.

Difficulty Settings

This setting changes the difficulty level based on six pre-set configurations, they allow the game to be quickly set to a general difficulty level ranging from very easy to very difficult. Available options are:

• Scavenger (0): Easiest setting designed for noobs. - Easiest
• Adventurer (1): Not just a new recruit any more. - Easy
• Nomad (2): Designed for experienced FPS players. - Normal
• Warrior (3): Now you're starting to impress. - Hard
• Survivalist (4): Kids don't try this at home! - Harder
• Insane (5): You're one brave Mother! - Hardest

Note: The serverconfig.xml file uses the numbers 0-5 (easiest to hardest) to determine difficulty. When viewing servers in the MP server browser, it uses the numbers 1-6 (easiest to hardest).

Daylight Length

This setting selects how many hours the day lasts, out of 24. Available options are 12, 14, 16, and 18, with 12 offering the least amount of daylight and the longest night, and 18 offering the most daylight and the shortest night.

Zombies Run

Here the player can control the conditions which affect the way Zombies walk and run, the options are:

• Default - This setting will make the Zombies walk in the daytime and run at night.
• Never Run - This setting will make the Zombies walk all the time regardless of the time of day.
• Always Run - This setting will make the Zombies run all the time regardless of the time of day.

Enemy Aggression

This controls the behaviour of Zombies during the night time, there are two options available:

• Normal - This setting leaves the Zombies to act as normal at night and they will only hunt after the players character if they are detected.
• Feral - This setting is used to simulate the older style of the night time Zombies who are be able to pinpoint the players location and hunt the player down whether they have been detected or not thus making night time very difficult

Persistent Profiles

This controls whether players who rejoin the game are forced back into the profile (Found on the main menu through Options > Player Profiles) they first used to join. Turning this off allows players to join with a different profile, essentially allowing them to 'start over' without losing their progress on their original profile. Leaving this option off can allow players to avoid kick/ban actions for griefing, but provides the benefit for new players to learn the system before making a long-term profile to play on. Use carefully.

Modded Options

With the options found here the player can control the settings that affect the day length, block durability and other things not covered above. The list below shows each option available. Options only available in SurvivalMP state they are.

24 Hour Cycle

This allows players to set how long, in real time, a full day lasts from 00:00 one day to 00:00 the next. This, combined with the Daylight Length setting above, allows for a great degree in flexibility for how long days and nights last

Available options are, in minutes: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, and 120.

Block Durability

This setting will change how easy or difficult it is for both the player and the zombies to destroy blocks and terrain. Available options are:

• 25% - Blocks and terrain will be very easy to break.
• 50% - Blocks and terrain will be moderately easy to break.
• 100% - Blocks and terrain will be a normal difficulty to break.
• 200% - Blocks and terrain will be twice as hard to break.

Loot Abundance

Not Available on A.19

Loot Re-spawn Time

The time it MAY take an empty loot-able container to re-spawn with items can be controlled here.. It MIGHT be set to 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 or 50 days, or to "Disabled" which COULD prevent containers from ever refilling. (Note: Player-placed containers will never refill with items. Only the game-generated containers will re-spawn.)

Drop On Death

Used to control which items are dropped when the player character is killed. These are the available options:

• Nothing (0) - Upon dying no items will drop. All items will be retained on player.
• Everything (1) - Upon dying all items the player is carrying will be dropped leaving an empty backpack and tool belt. This will spawn a backpack carrying the lost items at the location where the players character died, which can be retrieved.
• Tool belt Only (2) - Upon dying only the items carried on the players tool belt are lost, items carried in the players backpack are safe and will be with the player when they re-spawn.
• Backpack Only (3) - Upon dying only the items carried in the players backpack are lost, items on the players tool-belt are safe and will be with the player when they re-spawn.
• Delete All (4) - Upon dying all items the player is carrying will be deleted and the lost items will not be re-spawned in a backpack, these items are lost forever.

Drop On Quit (SurvivalMP Only)

Used to control which items are dropped when the player quits a SurvivalMP game, the settings affect which items the player will have remaining upon returning to a game on a server the player has previously quit. The options available are:

• Nothing (0) - With this setting enabled the player will not drop any items they are carrying. Upon disconnecting from the server, the players current inventory will be saved by the server and the player will be carrying the same items upon returning to the same server.
• Everything (1) - When the player disconnects, all items the player is carrying will be dropped leaving an empty backpack and toolbelt. This will spawn a backpack carrying the items at the location where the player quit, which can be retrieved by other players.
• Toolbelt Only (2) - When the player disconnects, only the items carried on the players toolbelt are lost, items carried in the players backpack are safe.
• Backpack Only (3) - When the player disconnects, only the items carried in the players backpack are lost, items on the players toolbelt are safe.

Enemy Memory

The time Zombies will spend searching for the player when they have been detected are controlled using these options. Available options are 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 seconds.

Enemy Spawning

The rate at which Zombies spawn is controlled with these options.

• Disabled - With the setting at this level there will be no Zombies spawned.
• Very Low - With the setting at this level there will a very low amount of Zombies spawned.
• Low - With the setting at this level there will be a low amount of Zombies spawned.
• Medium - With the setting at this level there will be a normal amount of Zombies spawned.
• High - With the setting at this level there will be a high amount of Zombies spawned.
• Very High - With the setting at this level there will be a very high amount of Zombies spawned. *Note: As of A16 appears to be no zombie spawn rates but instead is an option to have them on or off.

Air Drops

This setting allows control over how frequent Air Drops spawn. Available options are: Disabled, Every 1 day(s), Every 3 day(s), and Every 7 day(s).

Cheat Mode

From here the player can use the options to enable or disable [Cheat Mode].

Mark Air Drops

Sets whether or not air drops receive a map and compass marker when they spawn.

Multiplayer

These settings are only available if the game mode selected is SurvivalMP.
These settings give the player control over the multi-player settings used by the game. With these the player can change the settings of things like friendly fire and friends visibility on the mini map as well as many various controls over the settings used for online play. These include player limits, land protection, public or password protected games as well as other settings. The list below shows the current options available:

Player Killing

This setting determines if and when players can damage each other. Available options:

• No Killing: Players cannot damage one another under any circumstances.
• Kill Allies Only: Players can only damage each other if both agree to it by adding each other to their Allies list using the ingame players menu.
• Kill Strangers Only: Players can damage eachother UNLESS they are Allies.
• Kill Everyone: Players can damage everyone, regardless of Allied status

Public/Private

Here the player will find the settings to allow them to make their game public by registering their Survival MP game to the master game server or they can keep it private. there are two options available:

• Private Game - Using this option will keep the players game private.
• Public Game - Using this option will register the players game to the master game server. This will allow other players to see the players game on the server list.

Max Players

This is used to set the cap for the maximum amount of players allowed to play in the game at any given time, this number also includes the players character. these are the options currently available:

• 2 Players - this will set the cap to a two player maximum.
• 4 Players - this will set the cap to a four player maximum.
• 8 Players - this will set the cap to an eight player maximum.
• 16 Players - this will set the cap to a sixteen player maximum.

Game Password

This box can be used to set the password for access to the player's game. Any combination of letters, numbers or symbols can be used. Only players that know the password will have access to the players game, this allows the player to control which players have access. If the player do not enter a password and start a public SurvialMP game any player will be able to access the players game.

Game Port

This is the port number that the game communicates with other players on, the default port is 25000 but any available port can be used, this is given along with an IP address of a host client or server that is running a private game. This allows players to connect to a private game not listed on the master game server list.

Claim Size

These settings are used to control the size of the area that a Keystone will protect, this is shown as a value in blocks and refers to a square with sides equal to the value. As an example if used at the default setting of seven blocks it will give the player a 7x7 block protected area. Vertical protection will be based on the same 7x7 area, but covers the entire area from the sky limit all the way down to bedrock. the options here are:

• 7 Blocks This will provide a 7x7 block area of protected land.
• 11 Blocks This will provide an 11x11 block area of protected land.
• 13 Blocks This will provide a 13x13 block area of protected land.
• 15 Blocks This will provide a 15x15 block area of protected land.
• 31 Blocks This will provide a 31x31 block area of protected land.

Claim Deadzone

Here the player can control the area around land claim to determine how close another player can build to an existing claim. This is shown as a block value that represents the size of the area in blocks that must separate a new claim from all other claims. This is measured from the outside edge of all claims. The current options are:

• No Deadzone: Two claims can be placed so that their borders touch, but not overlap
• 5 blocks: There must be a 5 block gap of unclaimed blocks between every claim.
• 10 blocks: There must be a 10 block gap of unclaimed blocks between every claim.
• 15 blocks: There must be a 15 block gap of unclaimed blocks between every claim.
• 20 blocks: There must be a 20 block gap of unclaimed blocks between every claim.
• 30 blocks: There must be a 30 block gap of unclaimed blocks between every claim.
• 40 blocks: There must be a 40 block gap of unclaimed blocks between every claim.
• 50 blocks: There must be a 50 block gap of unclaimed blocks between every claim.

Claim Duration

This relates to the amount of time in (Real-time) days it will take a land claim to expire and is taken from the last time a player was online. This means that if the player is playing on a server and has a land claim it will remain theirs for the given length after the last time the player logged on to the particular server. Failing to return to the game before the time limit expires will mean the players land claim will expire and anything contained on the players land claim can now be destroyed, built on or even claimed by another player.

Available options are (In real-time days): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 30

Claim Decay Mode

Here the player will be able to adjust the setting used to control the decay of the effects of land protection. Claim decay applies to the players claim while they are offline. As time passes the protection given by the players land claim decreases and the settings are used to control the speed at which the protection decays. There are three options available:

• Slow - The hardness of the players land claim will decrease slowly over time.
• Fast - The hardness of the players land claim will decrease over a short period of time
• None - The hardness of the players land claim will not decrease at all.

Claim Health Online

This is used to control the hardness modifier that is applied to the blocks inside a land claim while the claim owner is online. Expressed as a multiplier it can be adjusted from normal hardness at 1x and doubles each time up to 256x the normal hardness. there is also an option for infinite hardness and this will make the blocks inside a land claim indestructible.

Claim Health Offline

This is used to control the hardness modifier that is applied to the blocks inside a land claim while the claim owner is offline. Expressed as a multiplier it can be adjusted from normal hardness at 1x and doubles each time up to 256x the normal hardness. there is also an option for infinite hardness and this will make the blocks inside a land claim indestructible.

Images

Below are some screen shots showing Game Settings tabs in both a closed and open state for both game types. (Screenshots are outdated)

The new game screen showing the three settings tabs for a SurvivalSP game.

The new game screen showing the four settings tabs for a SurvivalMP game.

The new game screen showing the Difficulty tab open for a SurvivalMP game.

The new game screen showing the Multiplayer tab open for a SurvivalMP game.