How to start unturned server

How to start unturned server

Hi everyone! In this tutorial I am going to show you how to host Unturned server in few easy steps. It is required you to have router that can port-forward and that is. I also made a video in case you do not want to read this, but you are able to understand everything without watching the video. If you have suggestion how I can make it better fell free to post it in the comment section bellow.

To start this multi-step process, Go into you computer’s C: drive and get to the unturned.exe file.
Computer > Program files > Steam > Steam apps > Common > unturned > unturned.exe

Once there, right click Unturned.exe, and create a shortcut. Then right click the shortcut, and goto properties.

Make Sure You follow Steps CAREFULLY

After you do this, run the shortcut, and use the command shutdown to close the window.
The server may take 30+ seconds to respond.

Adding commands
Now you need to add commands to your server, to make it run.

Once in there, you must type in the following:

Name (server name)
Map PEI (You can put this anymap)
perspective both (this will make it that you can go to 1st person and 3rd person by H)
Maxplayers ##(You can choose any numbers between 2-24)
timeout (Timeout mean it will kick some if they afk in 1000secs)
Pvp (or Pve)
Welcome (message)

You are almost finish Now you need to portforward! So, someone can connect to you!

Port forwarding is the hardest part of making a server, and I can’t make a sigular guide for it.
Port forwarding allows you to open your server to others across the webnet.

The process to port forward is different for nearly every router.
Luckily, you can ussually find instrucitons with your router, or on the internet.
If you’re not sure, find your router, and write down the Model / Maker, and google that And More!.

The port you are forwarding is 27015.
The service name is unturned.
Your IPv4 adress can be found with entering ipconfig into a CMD or MS-DOS window.
Your public IP (to give to your friend) can be found at http://ipchicken.com.

CONFUSE!! AHHH Check this Video Out:

You Don’t Have to do This but if you would like do it!

-Add additional /[ItemID] to add more items to loadout. (Leave out brackets when adding in IDs)

Would give anyone with the Spec Ops skillset, when they spawn, an eaglefire, 1 military mag, and Spec Ops bottom.

Similarily, /Loadout 255/81/81/1176 would give all players who spawn in 2 MRE and a GPS

Subscribe to the mod, move it from

Steam > Steamapps > Workshop > Content > 304930
The URL of the steam mod will be the matching folder ##

Move that file to:
Steam > steamapps > common > unturned(serverfile) > Servers > Servername > Workshop > content

That’s How you add mods to your servers!

How to start unturned server

In this guide ill show you how to create your own Unturned server for free on your local machine and (only if you want) how you can install rocketmod.

[!] If you want to install rocket make sure to have the server in a own (copyed) unturned folder [!]

If you like to support my work, check out my mods and leave a like!

// A SteamCMD tutorial for unturned will be added soon!

First you have to create a shortcut, right click Unturned.exe, then click create shortcut.

Now right click on the shortcut and click on properties

To let the server work propably you have to edit the Commands.dat (you can open it in a editor of your choice).

Perspective Both cheats

To made player able to join your server from all over the world you have to forward your ports.
First open the browser of your choice and type in 192.168.1.1 (this is by default the intern ip address of your router.
Now you have to login and navigate to the Port forwarding section.
Press Win+R and type cmd into the box, another consol should be shown.

and press enter.

note the IPv4 Address of your pc somewhere.

now create (in the router control) a new rule for

then save.
When you started the server again your friends should be able to join.

How to start unturned server

PLEASE BE AWARE: Although most of this guide should still work, Rocket has become deprecated and is no longer maintained. Plugins are still avaliable and so is rocket but any bugs or issues may not be fixed. If you just want to create an unturned server then this guide should still work for the most part

To start with, close any excess programs and open to a blank desktop. This leaves us with a clean working enviroment. Next, press CTRL, SHIFT and ESC all at the same time. This will open Task manager. Alternativly, you can search it in the start menu or through Cortana.

Make sure you have clicked the «More details» button so that a list of processors is displayed with changing values at the top.

Navigate to the «Performance» Tab at the top of the box and make sure that «CPU» is being displayed.

Underneith the graph, you will see a number of topics. These are labled «Base Speed», «Sockets», «Cores», «Logical Processors» and «Virtualisation». In this case, you can safley ignore any other ones below this. The one we are interested in is «Cores». If the value next to it is 4 or more then great, you can skip this next bit and jump to where we talk about RAM. If the value is less then 4, have a look at the topic below it, «Logical Processors». If the value next to this is 4 or more then you should be alright to continue. If it is less, you may still be able to run a server but I would reccomend trying to find another computer.

Next we look at how much RAM your computer has. At its most basic level, this is the ammount of storage your computer has to compute with. Modern day consumer computers have usually have between 2 and 64 gigabytes of RAM. For your server I would reccomend 8, espicially if you want to run with mods or lots of players. But you could make do with 4 (or even 2 but I strongly don’t reccomend it). To check how much you have, in task manager, click the «Memory» category. This should be the one below «CPU». Above the graph that appears, in the top right corner, there will be an ammount. For example, mine says «8.0 GB DDR3». Its the number that we’re interested in. If it is 8 or more, you can safley continue but if it is less, you can still continue but as forementioned, you might run into a few permormance issues down the track.

Having these ammounts of RAM and core on your CPU are not a gaurentee that your server will run well. There are more factors that can lead to alternating levels of performance depending on your PC

Now that we have verified the specifications of our computer, we can start to build the enviroment in which we will run the server.

I suggest you create a new folder on your desktop and lable it «Unturned Server». This will be the basis of where we put everything.

Inside of this create another folder called «steamcmd». Download the following: SteamCMD from steams website
(For the origional location of that link, please see here under the «Windows» Section»

When it is done, move it from your downloads folder to the file you labled «steamcmd». It should be called «steamcmd.zip». The next step is to extract this file into the folder. To do this, right mouse click on the file you downloaded and click Extract. Follow the prompts by clicking next and wait until it has extracted.

Our next step is to download Unturned through steam cmd. In the folder you just extracted, there should be a file called «SteamCMD.exe» Double click this.

A terminal window should now open. It might update and will ask you for your username and passoword. Don’t enter them just yet. I strongly suggest making a new steam account if you are going to be hosting servers for a long peroid of time or often. This makes it easier to do stuff and means you can still use your normal steam account while the server is updating etc. Now enter the Username and password you wish to use. Keep in mind that if your username or password has a space in it then you will have to write it in quotation marks. For example if my password was Electo is awesome then I would enter it as «Electro is awesome» with the quotation marks.

Note: If it does not ask you for your login, simply type «login» and then your username and password. If you use steam guard, put that code after it

Once you have logged in and it has loaded, we can acturally install Unturned. Doing this is pretty simple, just type «app_update 304930» into the steamCMD and press enter. Don’t copy the quotation marks in this one.

This will now download and install unturned. This can take quite a while, especially if you have slow internet. Make sure your computer stays on and awake while it is doing this and that the internet stays connected.

After this is done, type «quit» into the steamCMD to close it, don’t click the close button

Now that Unturned has been downloaded, we can set up our server.

In the folder that the steamCMD was in, there should be another called «steamapps» open this and open the sub-folder called «content». Here is where unturned was installed. Open the unturned folder and find the file «Unturned.exe».

Right mouse click on this and select «Create Shortcut». A shortcut will have been created in the same folder. Locate it and right mouse click. Select «properties».

Here you will find two boxes. One is labled «Target» and has a directory below it. The other is labled «Start in» and has the same directory. Make sure you do the following in the «Target» box.

Click apply and close that window.

Right mouse click on the shortcut and select «Rename». Call it «Start Server»

Double click this link. A console window should appear and it will start loading your server.

After it has loaded, type «Shutdown» and it will close. The next step is to install Rocket

Rocket allows you to use plugins with your server. This adds more commands, the ability to adfd permission groups and special abilities.

Head over to https://rocketmod.net/ and click download on the «RocketMod 4» one. «RocketMod 5» is still in development and is not supported by this guild.

After it has downloaded. Follow the same process to extract it as earlier. Right mouse click and select «Extract» and follow the prompts. Copy the extracted folder out of your downloads and into the file you made for your server. go onto the steamCMD folder and then steamapps, then content, then unturned. Finally go into the modulas folder and paste.

Using the start file, run your server again. This time, it will run with rocket. After it has finished loading, type «shutdown».

The next step to to customise your server.

Whilst still in the unturned folder, Click on the folder labeled «Servers», then open the folder inside called «MyServer». This is all your server files.

Inside this, there is folder called «Server» and in that there is a file called Commands. In here is where you say what you want your server to be called. To do this copy in the following:

After each of these, write what you would like them to be. For example, if I want my server to be called «Electro’s fun house», after I have written name, I will put a space and then write Electro’s fun house.
After mode, you can put either Easy, Medium or Hard. This is the difficulty level.
After perspective put both, this will allow the use of third person.
After maxplayers, put a number between 1 and 24. 24 is the maximum and the default. If it will just be you and your mates playing, I would leave it at around 8.
Leave cheats blank.
After map, you put the name of your map. For example, I could put Washington, Russia, Germany, etc.

To install plugins on your server, navigate back to your servers main folder and then into the folder labled «Rocket». Inside there you will see a folder labled plugins, thats where they go.
Here you can also edit the Rocket permissions and Rocket Config.

Well you did it. Hopefully it all worked. If you need help, please comment below and I’ll try get to you. If you want to now how to add mods, custom maps, set up Rocket permissions, add an icon, add a description or pretty much anything else, just ask and I will try my hardest to help you. Thankyou for reading my guide!

I am still actively answering any questions, so let me know if you need help

How to start unturned server

In the main Unturned folder, there will be the Unturned shortcut (Unturned.exe). Create a shortcut of Unturned.exe. You should name your shortcut of Unturned.exe something different, like UnturnedServer.

*****
You can change the line «+secureserver» (safe and accesable via the server list) to «+insecureserver» (does not deny VAC banned accounts) or «+lanserver» (only LAN accessible).

There are also many other commands that you can put in here. This is a list: http://unturned.wikia.com/wiki/Server_Commands

To be able to port forward, you need to be able to access your router online. This means you must have the password and username for your router (if they are still default, it is OK). Without this, you cannot port forward.

Normally, you can type 192.168.0.(***) into your internet address bar, and that is your login page for your router.

If this does not work, start by looking at the sticker on your router.
Type your password and username into the respective bars. If you don’t know your password or username, they may still be default. In that case, look at the sticker and it should say the default password and username. If they are not default, but you can’t remember your password and/or username, you can reset your router.

*** One user was kind enough to tell me that his Netgear router logged in using 192.168.1.1 ***

Look around in your router menu, and see if you can find something along the lines of «gaming» or «port forwarding».
Mine has a tab under a tab, so:
And then:
Every router is different, so I can’t give you specifics. Once you have found the tab or menu for port forwarding, you need to enter your local IP address. To find your local IP address, type «cmd» into your Windows search bar. Once you have Windows CMD up, type in «ipconfig». It will be the IPv4 address.

Now, the port forwarding section might look intimidating, but it’s not. For the IP address, type in your local IP address. This makes it so the router sends information from those ports to your computer.
For the start port, enter 27015. The end port will be 27018 (that’s what I do. People will give you different numbers, but this works the best, in my opinion). There should also be a selection for UDP and TCP ports, select both. If you don’t have a selection for both, create a section for UDP, then another for TCP, using the same ports and IP address.
Now enable those ports, if your router requires you to do this action, as mine does.
***Enter your own local IP address, not the one that is in the image.

If your server is still not working or was working at one point but now is not, try:

If for some reason your server isn’t working, you can comment below.
There are also many other resources out there that can guide you through making an Unturned server. If I didn’t give enough information or somthing isn’t clear, you can search on the internet and find many other great guides (and some not so great guides). You can also comment, and I can add sections.

Hosting a Dedicated Server

A Dedicated Server is a method of hosting an Unturned server that does not require the host to be an active player in the game. The host can choose to play on the server, or just leave it running in the background while others play on it. Unlike a Local Server, port forwarding is required. Servers are hosted with the Unturned Dedicated Server app.

A Dedicated Server also allows for vastly increased versatility in configuration of the server. Many server options become available through the Commands.dat, Config.json, server console, and other configuration files.

Contents

Windows Setup:

Shortcut Method (pre-3.20.12.2 only)

The deprecated shortcut method for creating servers only works for versions of the game prior to 3.20.12.2, which had been released on October 14, 2020. Newer versions of the game should only be hosted through the Unturned Dedicated Server app.

How to Host a Dedicated server on Unturned Version 3.0 Above

An example of a finished «Target» field:

4. Finally, run the server. A black console screen should appear. 5. Optional: You can easily update an existing Unturned server by using the following method:

The following text string will create a shortcut that will automatically update your server. This example assumes that you installed your server through SteamCMD, which does not update Unturned automatically.

Classic Setup:

To finish, simply apply changes to the shortcut and double-click it to run it. The game should run and then immediately go to a gray screen. This screen means the server is running fine. If your screen doesn’t go gray and the server does not work, make sure you put the -sv option at the end of your options, otherwise the server may not work.

MacOS Setup:

With Unturned 3.0, the procedure is exactly the same, but after the parameters, you need to add: +secureserver/servername

Replace «secureserver» with «lanserver» if you want a LAN server instead. Replace «servername» with what you want to name your server.

Linux Setup:

New Guide

Go to the install folder and right click and press open in terminal.

press the following

Replace XX with the name of the architecture (x86 if you have a 32 bit computer, x86_64 if 64 bit)

Headless Guide

Note: This is mainly for computers without a GUI (graphical user interface), or if you only have access to the terminal/command line. If you use a VPS with only SSH/PuTTY access, go right ahead! If you are using a GUI, the above option might be better for you, however you might have some slight memory benefits using this method.

To update in Fedora, use

while on Ubuntu, use

The «Add Architecture» is only needed once; to update your system, only the other two is required afterwards.

If on Fedora, you do not have access to dnf, try using yum instead.

Now for installing the libraries. On Fedora, run

If you have an Nvidia GPU, also use

If you only have an Intel Graphic Chipset, or you don’t know what graphics you have, use

For Ubuntu, type each individual line, then hit return. You should have typed in four statements.

If your Fedora/Redhat server throws an architecture error, try adding —setopt=protected_multilib=false to resolve the issue temporarily.

At this time, you will need a steam account. To avoid conflict, create a new dummy Steam account with Unturned added to its library.

There are a lot of things to say here, but I recommend creating a new user similar to the instructions in the old guide. Look at the «Running the Server» part, and ONLY do the first step (two commands).

Most of these steps are going to be the same for Ubuntu/Fedora/Debian/RHEL/CentOS, unless said.

First, let’s create some folders and download SteamCMD.

We need the RocketLauncher to start the server, so we will download it.

If you want RocketMod on your server as well:

You may now remove any excess files, other than start.sh, update.sh, unturned/, steamcmd/, or Steam/.

Now, using an editor of choice (Vi or Nano), open update.sh.

Here is where your Steam account that you created earlier is used. Put the username and password in there. If you want to keep your password private, keep the password string blank.

File installation

A short-term testing method is to use WinSCP or a similar SFTP software to transfer the entire Unturned folder over to the Linux server. The folder is likely located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\. The problem with this option is that you must update the server files with WinSCP every time an update is released.

A better option is to use SteamCMD, which is a light-weight Linux Steam client that downloads and updates the required Unturned files.

Running the server

Configuring your Server:

Setup Commands

Use the Commands file if you want to run list of commands that will run each time the server starts. Use a separate line for each command.

The Setup Commands are as follows:

Command Line Options

These parameters are used in launching the server from a command line interface. The order of inputted commands do not matter.

Config.json file

The Config.json file offers a lot of control over the actual server gameplay. It is located in:

It can be edited in the same manner as the commands.dat file. It is in JavaScript Object Notation format, meaning that it is a simple list that connects one string to a variable. In more simple terms, you should only edit text that is within «quotation marks» and after a : colon. Any value that is before the colon is specific to the game and it WILL break your server if you change it.

Connecting:

You should now be able to connect to your own server by running the game through Steam. To do this, click «Play», and then «Connect», and in the IP field, type «localhost», then click «Connect» to join your own server.

If you fail to connect to your own server, try installing SteamVR (found under tools in Steam).

Note: Other players will not use «localhost», only you will. Other players will use your EXTERNAL IP to connect to your server. Find your external IP by visiting a site such as WhatIsMyIP.

Firewall

If you have correctly set up your server and can’t even connect to it, you might want to check if your firewall is blocking the port. On Windows, it shouldn’t be that hard; open Control Panel, Security, and click «Allow a Program». Here, you can choose the Unturned application, and voila!

For MacOS, open System Preferences. Go to Security and Privacy, Firewall, then unlock the settings via the padlock at the bottom left of the window. Next, go to Firewall Options, scroll down the list, click on Unturned, and on the right of it, make sure it says «Allow incoming connections». If not, click on it, and choose that option. Close the window, making sure to apply settings, padlock the settings, and you’re done!

For both, if you selected a different port via the start command or Commands.dat, change the first number to the port you selected, and the second port two ports ahead (ex. 27040-27042).

Port Forwarding:

NOTE: Port Forwarding has to be done carefully. Nobody will be able to connect to your server if you do this incorrectly.

In order for anyone to access the server you’ve set up, you need to go into your router’s settings and open the server’s set ports.

You will need the following information which can be retrieved from your router (usually a sticker on the side):

To find your local IP address, follow these steps (Windows):

Follow the steps below (these might not be the exact field names, you will have to look for something similar in context):

Below is an example of a completed port forwarding rule.

If you are unable to locate these things, try checking https://portforward.com/router.htm to see specific instructions for your router.

Alternatively, you can put your hosting system into the DMZ. This opens all ports and is an option if for some reason normal port-forwarding fails. Putting your system into the DMZ opens up numerous security vulnerabilities and should only be used as a last resort!