Vintage Story is a survival game that rewards patience: knapping your first tools, firing clay, smelting bronze, and slowly building a homestead that survives the seasons. It is even better shared. A dedicated server keeps the world running for your group, so the farm grows, the seasons turn, and anyone can log in to work on the forge without waiting for the host. This guide covers how the server works, what drives its memory, the settings that matter, mods, backups and how to get a server running on GGHOST Cloud.
What you are hosting
The Vintage Story dedicated server runs one world for everyone connected. It generates the terrain as players explore, simulates the creatures, crops, weather and temporal storms, and saves everything to a single save file in the Saves folder, with the extension .vcdbs.
Settings live in serverconfig.json in the server’s data folder, alongside the Mods folder and the save. You can edit all of it from the panel’s file manager, and many settings can also be changed from the console while the server runs. You can change the server build or game version as a startup setting in the panel and restart.
How much RAM does a Vintage Story server need?
There is no single right figure for Vintage Story, because memory depends on how the world is played:
- How far players spread out. Each player keeps the area around them loaded. A group living in one village loads far less than the same group exploring in all directions.
- World generation. Generating new terrain is the heaviest thing the server does. Players travelling fast into unexplored land push memory and CPU up.
- Mods. Content mods add blocks, creatures and systems; large mod lists need noticeably more memory.
- Concurrent players. More players online means more of the world active at once.
We size Vintage Story servers with you: tell us your player count, mod list and how your group likes to play, and we recommend the memory from that. If the memory graph sits near the top at peak, size up.
On GGHOST Cloud you pay for memory, not player slots. The player limit is a setting you choose, not a line on the invoice.
The settings that matter
The keys in serverconfig.json you are most likely to change:
Password: a join password. Players enter it when they add the server.WhitelistMode: dedicated servers whitelist by default, so only players you add can join. Set it toofffor an open server, or keep it on for a private group.AdvertiseServer: whether the server appears in the public server browser. It is off by default.DefaultRoleCode: the role new players get when they first join, which decides what they can do.SaveFileLocation: which save the server loads.ModPaths: the folders the server checks for mods. Keep the defaultModsentry.
Stop the server before editing the file by hand, then start it again. Many of the same options can be changed live with the /serverconfig command.
Admin basics
Commands typed in the panel’s console run as the server. The ones you will use first:
/op <name>gives a player admin rights./whitelist add <name>lets a player join a whitelisted server./player <name> role <role>changes a player’s role, for example to give a trusted builder more permissions./autosavenowsaves the world immediately./stopsaves and shuts the server down cleanly.
Mods: installing them safely
Vintage Story has a strong modding scene, with mods shared on the official ModDB. Server mods are .zip files that go in the Mods folder in the server’s data folder. Upload them through the panel’s file manager or over SFTP, restart, and check the console for errors.
One of the nicest things about Vintage Story is how it handles mods for players. When someone joins, the game offers them the server’s mod list and downloads server-side and universal mods automatically, so most players do not have to install anything by hand. Client-side-only mods are the exception.
A few rules keep a modded server healthy:
- Match the game version. Mods are built for specific versions, and a game update can break them until their authors update.
- Add mods in small batches. If the server will not start after adding ten, you will not know which one did it.
- Back up before every mod change. Removing a mod that added blocks to the world can leave gaps where they were.
- Read the mod page. Some mods change world generation and only affect new chunks, so add them before your group explores far.
Keeping the server smooth
- Restart on a schedule. Use the panel’s scheduled tasks to warn players and restart at a quiet hour.
- Ease off fast exploration. Long journeys into new land generate terrain the whole way. If the server stutters when someone travels, that is usually why.
- Update together. After a game update, the server and every player need the same version. Update the server, restart, and check your mods load before your group comes back.
- Watch the console after any change, and fix errors before they pile up.
Backups and saves
A Vintage Story world takes real time to build, and it is all in one save file. On GGHOST Cloud, backups run on a schedule you set and restore from the panel without opening a ticket. Run a daily backup, and take a manual one before game updates and mod changes. You can also save on demand with /autosavenow before anything risky.
If you are moving an existing world from your own PC or another host, upload the .vcdbs save, your serverconfig.json and your mods over SFTP, point SaveFileLocation at the save, and restart.
Getting a Vintage Story server on GGHOST Cloud
Vintage Story is set up on request, not through checkout yet.
- Ask us. Message us on Discord (or open a ticket) with the build, mods and player count you need, and where your players are. Singapore and Europe (France–Germany border) are live today; the United States (East, Central and West), the United Kingdom, India, Japan and Australia are available on demand.
- We size it and quote. We recommend the memory for your world and quote a monthly price. There is no setup fee and no contract, and billing is at app.gghost.cloud.
- We set it up. We build the server on our Pterodactyl panel, usually within a few days, with your version and mods in place.
- Share the address. The address and port are shown in the panel. Players add the server in the multiplayer menu and join.
You then have the full panel at panel.gghost.cloud: a live console, file manager, SFTP, scheduled tasks for restarts and announcements, sub-users for your group, and database access. Every node is behind DDoS protection from our network providers, on every plan. Support comes from the people who run the servers, on Discord and at hello@gghost.cloud.
The short version
Set your rules in serverconfig.json, remember the whitelist is on by default, add mods to the Mods folder and let players download them on join, keep the server and players on the same version, and back up before every change. Size memory for how far your group explores and how many mods you run, and your homestead will see many winters.
