How to Create a Subsistence Server Guide

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A Subsistence server keeps your world, bases and seasons going while everyone is offline. You can rent one from us or run the free dedicated server yourself on a Windows PC.

Option #1: Renting a Subsistence server

You can rent a Subsistence server from Survival Servers, with 10, 20 or 30 slots.

Order the server

  1. On the Subsistence order page, pick a plan and a location close to your players, then click Order Now.
  2. Sign in or create an account, choose Credit card or PayPal, and click Order Now.
    Order page steps 2 and 3: sign in or create an account, then choose credit card or PayPal and press Order Now.
    Step 2 is your account, step 3 is payment.
  3. Your server is set up for you.

Set up your server

  1. Sign in to the Command Center and click your server's name.
    A Subsistence server's page in the Command Center with Start, Stop and Restart, its status and the Address row outlined in gold.
    Your server's status and address are under Server Details.
  2. Under MODIFY GAME SERVER SETTINGS, type your server's name in Server Title. Players search for this name in the game's server list. A new server is called My New Server by SurvivalServers.com until you change it.
  3. Optional: set a Lock Password so only your group can join. Use letters and numbers only.
  4. Set an Admin Pass, the password you log in as admin with. Use letters and numbers only.
  5. Click Save Settings & Restart in the bar at the bottom of the window.
    Bottom bar reading You have unsaved changes, with the Save Settings and Restart button outlined in gold.
    Nothing is saved until you click Save Settings & Restart.

Difficulty, hunters, seasons, PvP and mods are in the server's settings file. How to change them.

Make yourself an admin

Log in with your Admin Pass: type it instead of the Lock Password when you join. A server with no Lock Password needs a console command instead. Then open Server Stats, the button under your character's clothing panel, to kick and ban players. Full steps and the console commands: Subsistence admin commands.

Option #2: Hosting a Subsistence server yourself

The Subsistence dedicated server is a free download through SteamCMD, and the computer running it doesn't need a copy of the game. It runs on Windows only.

What you need

  • A Windows PC with about 1 GB of free disk space for the server.
  • SteamCMD, Valve's command-line Steam client.
  • DirectX June 2010 and Visual C++ 2010. Install both with UE3Redist.exe in the server's Binaries\Redist folder.
  • Visual C++ 2019. Get it from Steamworks Common Redistributables in Steam, or from Microsoft's site.
  • Two ports open to the internet: the game port and the query port.

Install the server

Start SteamCMD and type these lines one at a time: 

force_install_dir C:\subsistence
login anonymous
app_update 1362640 validate
quit

The server is Steam app 1362640, and the same lines update it when Subsistence updates. You can also install it from your Steam library: it is under Tools as Subsistence Dedicated Server.

Start the server

  1. In the server's Binaries\Win64 folder, run run_dedicated_server.bat once, then close the server. This first start writes its settings files.
  2. Open UDKDedServerSettings.ini in the UDKGame\Config folder. Give the server a ServerName and an AdminPassword, then save. Every setting: Subsistence server configuration.
  3. Run run_dedicated_server.bat again. It starts the server with this line:
start /B Subsistence.exe server ^
  coldmap1?steamsockets -log

The server writes its log to Launch.log in the UDKGame\Logs folder. A line starting Steam game server UID: means players can reach the server. If it is missing, check the ports.

Ports

The server uses two ports. Players connect on the game port, 7777; change it to run a second server on the same PC. The in-game server list reads your server's name and players on the query port, 27015.

Both are set in UDKEngine.ini in the UDKGame\Config folder. Open them on your firewall and router for UDP, the kind of traffic game servers use.

  • Game port: Port=7777
  • Query port: QueryPort=27015

If Launch.log shows UDP recvfrom error, another program is using the query port. Pick another number, such as 27025, and start the server again.

A PC with more than one IP address can bind the server to one of them. Add this to the end of the line in run_dedicated_server.bat, with the address in place of <IP>: 

-multihome=<IP>

Connecting to your server

Players find the server by its name in Subsistence's in-game server list. If it has a password, the game asks for it when they join.

The server shows in the list once it has finished loading the world. A server with Steam Workshop mods loads the world a second time when its mods are ready, so it takes longer.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Subsistence dedicated server free?

Yes. It downloads through SteamCMD with an anonymous login, Steam app 1362640. Every player who joins needs their own copy of Subsistence.

How many players can join a Subsistence server?

Up to 32. Our plans have 10, 20 or 30 slots.

Can I move my co-op world to a dedicated server?

Yes. Stop the server, then copy the SaveData folder from the UDKGame folder of your game into the same place on the server, replacing the server's folder. On a server you rent from us, upload it with the FTP details on your server's page.

Does my server run the experimental branch?

No. Our servers install the public build of the Subsistence dedicated server.

Related guides

Keep your bases and seasons running with Subsistence server hosting from Survival Servers.

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