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A Server is used for playing with multiple people in the same world. Servers can be hosted by yourself, as well as by a server hosting company.

How to host a server[ | ]

Serverconfig.xml[ | ]

This is a table for the serverconfig.xml file that comes with 7 Days to Die as of A20.6.

Only change the data in the "value=" part of the file, otherwise, it will not work.

Option Default Value Description
Server representation GENERAL SERVER SETTINGS
ServerName My Game Host Whatever you want the name of the server to be.
ServerDescription A 7 Days to Die server Whatever you want the server description to be, will be shown in the server browser.
ServerWebsiteURL Website URL for the server, will be shown in the serverbrowser as a clickable link
ServerPassword Password to gain entry to the server
ServerLoginConfirmationText If set the user will see the message during joining the server and has to confirm it before continuing. For more complex changes to this window you can change the "serverjoinrulesdialog" window in XUi
Region NorthAmericaEast The region this server is in. Values: NorthAmericaEast, NorthAmericaWest, CentralAmerica, SouthAmerica, Europe, Russia, Asia, MiddleEast, Africa, Oceania
Language English Primary language for players on this server. Values: Use any language name that you would users expect to search for. Should be the English name of the language, e.g. not "Deutsch" but "German"
Networking
ServerPort 26900 Port you want the server to listen on. Keep it in the ranges 26900 to 26905 or 27015 to 27020 if you want PCs on the same LAN to find it as a LAN server.
ServerVisibility 2 Visibility of this server: 2 = public, 1 = only shown to friends, 0 = not listed. As you are never friend of a dedicated server setting this to "1" will only work when the first player connects manually by IP.
ServerDisabledNetworkProtocols SteamNetworking Networking protocols that should not be used. Separated by comma. Possible values: LiteNetLib, SteamNetworking. Dedicated servers should disable SteamNetworking if there is no NAT router in between your users and the server or when port-forwarding is set up correctly.
ServerMaxWorldTransferSpeedKiBs 512 Maximum (!) speed in kiB/s the world is transferred at to a client on first connect if it does not have the world yet. Maximum is about 1300 kiB/s, even if you set a higher value.
Slots
ServerMaxPlayerCount 8 Maximum Concurrent Players (8 is the maximum supported player count. Anything over 30 will cause corrupted save data.)
ServerReservedSlots 0 Out of the MaxPlayerCount this many slots can only be used by players with a specific permission level.
ServerReservedSlotsPermission 100 Required permission level to use reserved slots above
ServerAdminSlots 0 This many admins can still join even if the server has reached MaxPlayerCount
ServerAdminSlotsPermission 0 Required permission level to use the admin slots above
Admin interfaces
ControlPanelEnabled false Enable/Disable the web control panel
ControlPanelPort 8080 Port of the control panel webpage
ControlPanelPassword CHANGEME Password to gain entry to the control panel
TelnetEnabled true Enable/Disable the telnet
TelnetPort 8081 Port of the telnet server
TelnetPassword Password to gain entry to telnet interface. If no password is set the server will only listen on the local loopback interface
TelnetFailedLoginLimit 10 After this many wrong passwords from a single remote client the client will be blocked from connecting to the Telnet interface
TelnetFailedLoginsBlocktime 10 How long will the block persist (in seconds)
TerminalWindowEnabled true Show a terminal window for log output / command input (Windows only)
Folder and file locations
AdminFileName serveradmin.xml Server admin file name. Path relative to the SaveGameFolder
UserDataFolder absolute path Use this to override where the server stores all generated data, including RWG generated worlds. Do not forget to uncomment the entry!
SaveGameFolder absolute path Use this to only override the save game path. Do not forget to uncomment the entry!
Other technical settings
EACEnabled true Enables/Disables EasyAntiCheat
HideCommandExecutionLog 0 Hide logging of command execution. 0 = show everything, 1 = hide only from Telnet/ControlPanel, 2 = also hide from remote game clients, 3 = hide everything
MaxUncoveredMapChunksPerPlayer 131072 Override how many chunks can be uncovered on the ingame map by each player. Resulting max map file size limit per player is (x * 512 Bytes), uncovered area is (x * 256 m²). Default 131072 means max 32 km² can be uncovered at any time. Setting this too large will corrupt player data.
PersistentPlayerProfiles false If disabled a player can join with any selected profile. If true they will join with the last profile they joined with
World GAMEPLAY
GameWorld Navezgane "RWG" (see WorldGenSeed and WorldGenSize options below) or any already existing world name in the Worlds folder (currently shipping with e.g. "Navezgane", "PREGEN01", ...)
WorldGenSeed asdf If RWG this is the seed for the generation of the new world. If a world with the resulting name already exists it will simply load it
WorldGenSize 6144 If RWG this controls the width and height of the created world. It is also used in combination with WorldGenSeed to create the internal RWG seed thus also creating a unique map name even if using the same WorldGenSeed. Has to be a multiple of 2048 between 2048 and 16384, though large map sizes will take long to generate / download / load
GameName My Game Whatever you want the game name to be. This affects the save game name as well as the seed used when placing decoration (trees etc) in the world. It does not control the generic layout of the world if creating an RWG world
GameMode GameModeSurvival GameModeSurvival (This is a depreciated option, but it still remains in the config.)
Difficulty
GameDifficulty 2 0 - 5, 0=easiest, 5=hardest
BlockDamagePlayer 100 How much damage do players to blocks (percentage in whole numbers)
BlockDamageAI 100 How much damage do AIs to blocks (percentage in whole numbers)
BlockDamageAIBM 100 How much damage do AIs during blood moons to blocks (percentage in whole numbers)
XPMultiplier 250 XP gain multiplier (percentage in whole numbers)
PlayerSafeZoneLevel 5 If a player is less or equal this level he will create a safe zone (no enemies) when spawned
PlayerSafeZoneHours 5 Hours in world time this safe zone exists
BuildCreate false cheat mode on/off
DayNightLength 60 real time minutes per in game day: 60 minutes
DayLightLength 18 in game hours the sun shines per day: 18 hours day light per in game day
DropOnDeath 0 0 = nothing, 1 = everything, 2 = toolbelt only, 3 = backpack only, 4 = delete all
DropOnQuit 0 0 = nothing, 1 = everything, 2 = toolbelt only, 3 = backpack only
BedrollDeadZoneSize 15 Size (box "radius", so a box with 2 times the given value for each side's length) of bedroll deadzone, no zombies will spawn inside this area, and any cleared sleeper volumes that touch a bedroll deadzone will not spawn after they've been cleared.
BedrollExpiryTime 45 Number of days a bedroll stays active after owner was last online
Performance related
MaxSpawnedZombies 64 This setting covers the entire map. There can only be this many zombies on the entire map at one time. Changing this setting has a huge impact on performance. Anything over 90 will tank performance.
MaxSpawnedAnimals 50 If your server has a large number of players you can increase this limit to add more wildlife. Animals don't consume as much CPU as zombies.
 NOTE: That this doesn't cause more animals to spawn arbitrarily: The biome spawning system only spawns a certain number of animals in a given
 area, but if you have lots of players that are all spread out then you may be hitting the limit and can increase it.
ServerMaxAllowedViewDistance 12 Max viewdistance a client may request (6 - 12). High impact on memory usage and performance.
Zombie settings
EnemySpawnMode true Enable/Disable enemy spawning
EnemyDifficulty 0 0 = Normal, 1 = Feral
ZombieFeralSense 0 0-3 (Off, Day, Night, All)
ZombieMove 0 0-4 (walk, jog, run, sprint, nightmare)
ZombieMoveNight 3 0-4 (walk, jog, run, sprint, nightmare)
ZombieFeralMove 3 0-4 (walk, jog, run, sprint, nightmare)
ZombieBMMove 3 0-4 (walk, jog, run, sprint, nightmare)
BloodMoonFrequency 7 What frequency (in days) should a blood moon take place. Set to "0" for no blood moons
BloodMoonRange 0 How many days can the actual blood moon day randomly deviate from the above setting. Setting this to 0 makes blood moons happen exactly each Nth day as specified in BloodMoonFrequency
BloodMoonWarning 8 The Hour number that the red day number begins on a blood moon day. Setting this to -1 makes the red never show.
BloodMoonEnemyCount 8 This is the number of zombies that can be alive (spawned at the same time) at any time PER PLAYER during a blood moon horde, however, MaxSpawnedZombies overrides this number in multiplayer games. Also note that your game stage sets the max number of zombies PER PARTY. Low game stage values can result in lower number of zombies than the BloodMoonEnemyCount setting. Changing this setting has a huge impact on performance.
Loot
LootAbundance 250 percentage in whole numbers NOTE: This only affects stack sizes. It does not affect the chance for loot to drop.
LootRespawnDays 1 days in whole numbers
AirDropFrequency 24 How often airdrop occur in game-hours, 0 == never
AirDropMarker true Sets if a marker is added to map/compass for air drops.
Multiplayer
PartySharedKillRange 100 The distance you must be within to receive party shared kill xp and quest party kill objective credit.
PlayerKillingMode 3 Player Killing Settings (0 = No Killing, 1 = Kill Allies Only, 2 = Kill Strangers Only, 3 = Kill Everyone)
Land claim options
LandClaimCount 1 Maximum allowed land claims per player.
LandClaimSize 41 Size in blocks that is protected by a keystone. Must be an odd number
LandClaimDeadZone 30 Keystones must be this many blocks apart (unless you are friends with the other player)
LandClaimExpiryTime 7 The number of days a player can be offline before their claims expire and are no longer protected
LandClaimDecayMode 0 Controls how offline players land claims decay. 0=Slow (Linear) , 1=Fast (Exponential), 2=None (Full protection until claim is expired).
LandClaimOnlineDurabilityModifier 4 How much protected claim area block hardness is increased when a player is online. 0 means infinite (no damage will ever be taken). Default is 4x
LandClaimOfflineDurabilityModifier 4 How much protected claim area block hardness is increased when a player is offline. 0 means infinite (no damage will ever be taken). Default is 4x
LandClaimOfflineDelay 0 The number of minutes after a player logs out that the land claim area hardness transitions from online to offline. Default is 0
Dynamic Mesh
DynamicMeshEnabled true Is Dynamic Mesh system enabled
DynamicMeshLandClaimOnly true Is Dynamic Mesh system only active in player LCB areas
DynamicMeshLandClaimBuffer 3 Dynamic Mesh LCB chunk radius
DynamicMeshMaxItemCache 3 How many items can be processed concurrently, higher values use more RAM
Twitch Integration
TwitchServerPermission 90 Required permission level to use twitch integration on the server
TwitchBloodMoonAllowed false If the server allows twitch actions during a blood moon. This could cause server lag with extra zombies being spawned during blood moon.

To host a server just edit the startdedicated.bat file and the serverconfig.xml using notepad or notepad++. You shouldn't need to edit the startdedicated.bat. In the batch file you will see the following text:

startdedicated.bat

@echo off

rem
rem Starts a dedicated server
rem
rem -quit, -batchmode, -nographics: Unity commands
rem -configfile			  : Allows server settings to be set up in an xml config file. Use no path if in same dir or full path.
rem -dedicated                    : Has to be the last option to start the dedicated server.

echo|set /p="251570" > steam_appid.txt

start 7daystodie -quit -batchmode -nographics -configfile=serverconfig.xml -dedicated

echo Wait until game started
timeout 15

echo.
echo Connect to the service interface. use 'shutdown' to stop the server
echo.
if exist "Tools/bin/putty.exe" (
     "Tools/bin/putty.exe" -raw localhost 8081
) else (
     telnet localhost 8081
)

echo.
echo Server is running in background, you can close this window
echo.

pause

Finding your Public IP[ | ]

To find your Public IP Address which your friends need to use to connect to your dedicated server search "my ip" in any major search engine. Send it to your friends and they should be able to join if you have already finished Port Forwarding.

Looking for servers[ | ]

If you are looking for a server to play on, you can find one on the the server browser on your game client.

For computers on the same local network as the server you can connect to it by using its LAN IP address, simply enter this and the chosen port number into the two boxes at the bottom of the games server browser screen.
To find the LAN IP address "Go to start, click run or search, type cmd. In the window that opens type ipconfig. You'll see a list of information. You're looking for the IP address."

Example: Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

  Connection-specific DNS Suffix. : home
     IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.102
  Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
  Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Where mine says 192.168.1.100 that's the IP your server has.

If your client and server are running on the same machine it is possible to use the loopback IP address, which is either accessed via "localhost" or 127.0.0.1

Automated Installation via AMP[ | ]

7DTAMP

Creating a server using AMP

AMP is a popular game server management panel you can run on your own PC/server that supports 7 Days to Die and makes it easier to get the server going from its web interface. You can run it on both Windows and Linux. AMP also makes it possible to host 7 Days servers on ARM systems such as Oracle Cloud (including their free tier)

Once you have AMP itself up and running (Tutorial and Guide), click "Create Instance" and then select "7 Days to Die" from the list of games. Once you've done that, select "Create Instance".

After that, double click the new 7 Days to Die instance to manage it and select "Update" from the status screen. This will download the 7 Days to Die server and required files. You can take a moment at this point to look through the configuration and set up the server as you please.

Once the download is complete you can hit Start and after a few moments the server will start up. Once the startup has completed you can connect as normal.

Renting a server[ | ]

There are several companies/websites that allow you to rent a server from them. This rented server will reside in a data center and hosted by them.

These servers are mostly 24/7 servers. This is useful because you won't need to keep your computer running 24/7. You can rent servers to many different specifications, some may not be powerful enough to host a server. Generally, network connections at a datacenter far exceed what is available to residential ISPs, which will cut down on latency that you might experience hosting at home.

Dedicated Server Providers

Managing a server[ | ]

Before setting up a server manager, it is strongly recommended to install Alloc's Server Fixes. Website

Then you have a large selection of tools to choose from for managing your server.

  1. Botman - Website - Forum thread
    • Notes: Website says it's A20 compatible, and still has A16-A19 compatibility available
  2. CSMM - Cloud hosted server manager - Website - Forum thread
    • Notes: A20 compatible as of v1.27.0 [1]
  3. RAT Server Manager - Website - Forum thread
    • Notes: A20 compatible as of RAT 3
  4. ServerTools- Website - Forum thread
    • Notes: As of Version 20.5.2, it is compatible with A20 [2]

Video Tutorials[ | ]

How to set a server up through the Steam Application:

Video walkthrough of using a Hosted (game server hosting company) Server, how to select options and get it up and running!

How do you Admin your server? Here's how to manage it on a Hosted Platform:

Below video walks through setting up a dedicated 7 Days to Die server using steamcmd.

The video below walks through setting up the 7D2D RAT - Remote Admin tool, a Server Manager tool.

See also[ | ]

References[ | ]

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