Using Custom Settings on a Sons Of The Forest Server

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Using Custom Settings on a Sons Of The Forest Server – Overview

Personalizing your Sons Of The Forest dedicated server can result in a unique gameplay experience for all players. Whether you want realistic peaceful environments or horror survival challenges, there are countless possibilities to consider. However, setting up custom settings for your game server isn’t common knowledge among the SOTF community. Due to this, newcomers to the scene may be confused while working on this goal. This is amplified if they’re unfamiliar with the server panel, sometimes creating frustration during the process. With this in mind, we’ve created this Apex Hosting guide to show you how to set up custom settings on a Sons Of The Forest server to get you started on a unique horror adventure.

Custom Settings Benefits

There are many reasons why owners want to customize their SOTF experience, with taking on more or fewer challenges being a primary one. For instance, increasing enemy health, damage, and aggression results in a fierce gameplay session. Another example may include making everything more realistic like seasons or the day’s length, along with other features such as taking extra damage from rotten foods. Regardless of your desires, using custom settings in Sons Of The Forest is a wonderful way to personalize the gameplay experience to have fun with friends.

Getting Started

Sons Of The Forest Custom Server Settings

Any customization of the gameplay is controlled through configuration files, with only one being important to this process. Using our built-in editor is how you and others will quickly make changes, meaning there’s no need to download or upload files. We’ll show you how to accomplish this goal, along with breaking down all the settings for your convenience. Afterward, you’ll be shown how to activate them since it involves changing difficulties and save slots. The entire process will be straightforward and simple to follow, so review the subsections below to get started. Once you’ve done everything correctly, players joining the server can enjoy a customized gameplay experience together.

Editing Custom Settings

All the game settings are stored in the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) panel, under one main configuration. This is the area where you’ll be using the built-in editor to easily make any changes. Keep in mind that making errors while tweaking values can result in a broken file, leading to issues. Make sure to avoid removing quotation marks, colons, commas, and spaces, along with maintaining exact spelling and capitalization. With this said, follow the steps below to customize the settings for your Sons Of The Forest dedicated server.

Head towards your Apex server panel and click FTP File Access near the top left.
Use your Password accordingly, then press the Login button to gain access.
Afterward, navigate to the apex_sotf_server directory from the list.
While inside of this, click Edit to the right of dedicatedserver.cfg to reveal its contents.
Under "CustomGameModeSettings": { in the editor, make your desired changes.
Once you’re finished, press the Save button at the top and return to the main panel.

Config Explained

The exact settings can be confusing at first, especially if you’re brand new to managing SOTF servers. Due to this, we’ve compiled a description of each option and their respective values in the table below. However, we’ve shortened the name of each one since GameSetting is a universal prefix for them. Use this information to help you make any changes in the dedicatedserver.cfg file.

Option	Values	Description
Vail.EnemySpawn	true, false	Toggle if enemies spawn in the server.
Vail.EnemyHealth	Low, Normal, High	Change enemy starter health.
Vail.EnemyDamage	Low, Normal, High	Change enemy damage.
Vail.EnemyArmour	Low, Normal, High	Change enemy armor strength.
Vail.EnemyAggression	Low, Normal, High	Change enemy aggression level.
Vail.AnimalSpawnRate	Low, Normal, High	Alter the spawn rate of animals.
Environment.StartingSeason	Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter	Set the initial season for your world.
Environment.SeasonLength	Short, Default, Long, Realistic	Change the season’s length.
Environment.DayLength	Short, Default, Long, Realistic	Change the day’s length.
Environment.PrecipitationFrequency	Low, Default, High	Alter the frequency of rain and snow.
Survival.ConsumableEffects	Normal, Hard	Toggle if damage is taken on low hydration and fullness.
Survival.PlayerStatsDamage	Off, Normal, Hard	Adjust the damage taken from bad / rotten food and drinks.
Survival.ColdPenalties	Off, Normal, Hard	Adjust the regeneration of health and stamina from coldness.
Survival.ReducedFoodInContainers	true, false	Toggle the reduction of food found in containers.
Survival.SingleUseContainers	true, false	Toggle if containers can be opened once.

Activating Custom Settings For Sons of the Forest

Once you’re satisfied with your custom settings for the SOTF server, the next step is activating them. This process involves you changing difficulties and save slots to successfully use everything in-game. Fortunately, all of this is managed on a convenient page through the panel instead of files. Review the instructions below to begin activating custom settings on your server.

While on the main server panel, click Customizations near the bottom left corner.
On the new page, open the Difficulty menu and select Custom from the list.
Afterward, choose a new Save Slot in the same area and return to the panel.
At the top, press the Restart button to begin applying all these changes accordingly.

Gamemode Examples

We’ve taken the liberty of making a few examples showcasing what’s possible with custom settings, as some users might be unsure about what they want. These include a peaceful experience, while the other is for survival challenges. This means they’re polar opposites, as each type will drastically change the gameplay in unique ways. Keep in mind that not all settings are used for these examples, as only a few play important roles in changing the game. We encourage you to read their descriptions below to see what suits you best, then copy and paste their settings accordingly.

Peaceful Realism

Fans of an enjoyable and peaceful experience may want to try these custom settings. When applied, there’ll be no enemies and tons of wildlife around the environment. This also transforms the game into a realistic world, giving new life to seasons, day lengths, and survival tactics.

Option	Value
Vail.EnemySpawn	false
Vail.EnemyDamage	Low
Vail.AnimalSpawnRate	High
Environment.SeasonLength	Realistic
Environment.DayLength	Realistic
Survival.ConsumableEffects	Hard
Survival.PlayerStatsDamage	Hard
Survival.ColdPenalties	Hard

Hostile Scavenger

Rather than a peaceful time, players using these custom settings will find themselves in a survival horror experience. When applied, there’ll be lots of strong aggravated enemies for you to overcome. There’s also reduced food in containers and extra challenges to keep in mind while playing.

Option	Value
Vail.EnemySpawn	true
Vail.EnemyDamage	High
Vail.EnemyHealth	High
Vail.EnemyArmour	High
Vail.EnemyAggression	High
Survival.ConsumableEffects	Hard
Survival.PlayerStatsDamage	Hard
Survival.ReducedFoodInContainers	true

Common Issues

Custom Settings Aren’t Used

In cases where your custom settings aren’t being used on the Sons Of The Forest server, then make sure you’ve configured the Customizations area correctly. Remember, this means you must choose Custom for the Difficulty, along with selecting a new Save Slot. Afterward, restart the server to see if that helps resolve the situation. If nothing changes, then consider turning it offline and redoing the customization process to see if that works. Alternatively, your configuration file may not have been saved properly.

Configuration Resets

After trying to edit the dedicatedserver.cfg file and some settings reset, this could indicate that its format is broken. In other words, you have an error related to spelling, capitalization, or missing characters. For example, removing quotation marks results in this situation happening. Other times, using “True” instead of “true” can also lead to the problem. We encourage you to revert any changes, which is done by deleting the file and restarting the server. This will regenerate the normal file with all standard settings. Afterward, you can try again to see if that works. However, you may want to Force Stop the server before making any changes too.