Swarm Hosts / Guides

The Forest

Staging — awaiting client validation

Local server startup, five-minute stability, and configuration persistence on restart are the evaluation scope. Public networking, relay access, player joining, server-browser discovery, and gameplay remain unverified.

Swarm Hosts offers the Windows server through Wine on Linux runtime for evaluation. Read Staging games before inviting players.

Requirements

Start with 4 CPU cores and 4 GiB memory on a Linux host with fast storage and enough free disk for server downloads, generated worlds, and backups. These are evaluation allocations, not a maximum-player performance promise. Downloads and initial world setup may take several minutes.

Launch and settings

  1. Choose The Forest from Staging and select a suitable host.
  2. Read the settings below and use a new disposable test deployment.
  3. Set the required private admin password and keep it separate from the optional join password.
  4. Launch, inspect startup logs, and monitor resources before attempting a client connection.

Set a server name, one to eight players, an optional join password, and a unique private admin password. The template uses Continue mode with save slot 1 so restarting loads existing data.

The internal routes are 27015/UDP for gameplay, 8766/UDP for Steam, and 27016/UDP for queries. Share the assigned public player endpoint shown on the server page. Container ports can differ from public relay ports. See Relays and Port Forwarding. Private administration services are not player routes.

Connect

Use the PC dedicated-server browser with a matching client. Evaluate public query discovery and joining separately. See the publisher guidance. Check the reported server version before selecting a client; the template does not promise that a later download has the same build as the staging test.

Persistent data and backups

The persistent storage root is /serverdata. Keep generated configuration and saves together when moving the deployment. The restart check covers initial server artifacts; no player progression or restored backup has been certified. Take an independent backup and restore it into a disposable deployment before trusting a valuable world. See the user guide.

Server Actions

Game-specific Server Actions are unavailable during staging. Platform start, stop, restart, settings, files, logs, monitoring, and backups remain subject to the game and your permissions. Their presence does not certify a game-side administration effect or successful backup restoration.

Mods & Content

Managed Mods & Content is unavailable. Evaluate the vanilla server before adding any manual content. Preserve a backup before modifying server files and repeat connection and persistence checks after a change.