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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFor most co-op groups, start with the Normal preset, leave enemy spawning on, use normal enemy health and damage, and enable tree regrowth if you want a renewable supply of wood. Choose Custom when your group has a specific reason to change combat, building protection, player damage, PvP, creative tools, or administrative rules. On a dedicated server, keep the generated configuration as your source of truth, use a deliberate save slot, and treat the published port and frame-rate values as examples rather than universal requirements.
There is no developer-defined setting combination that is best for every group. The right configuration depends on five decisions: how much combat pressure you want, how costly travel and resources should feel, whether structures may be destroyed, whether player-versus-player damage is allowed, and how much administrative convenience you need.
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A reliable starting configuration for a shared campaign
Use these defaults when players have different experience levels and the goal is to complete a normal shared campaign without turning the server into either a sandbox or a punishment run.
| Setting area | Recommended starting point | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Game mode | Normal | Provides a straightforward campaign baseline without requiring every system to be tuned manually. |
| Enemy spawning | Enabled | Preserves the exploration and defense loop. Disabling it changes the game more radically than simply lowering enemy strength. |
| Enemy health and damage | Normal | Keeps combat pressure predictable while the group learns the map and encounters. |
| Tree regrowth | Enabled when the group builds heavily | Creates a renewable supply of cut trees for long-running construction worlds. |
| Building destruction | Decide as a group before the first serious build | Destruction rules determine whether raids and accidents can permanently damage shared work. |
| Realistic player damage | Off for forgiving co-op; on only when everyone accepts harsher consequences | Friendly-fire-like mistakes become much more costly when realistic damage is enabled. |
| PvP damage | Off for cooperative campaigns | Prevents accidental or deliberate damage between players from becoming a server rule dispute. |
| Cheats and creative tools | Off for a progression run | Preserves resource gathering and survival decisions. Enable only when the group agrees that the world is becoming a sandbox. |
These are practical defaults, not mandatory values. Record the choices in your group rules before players invest in a base; changing a rule later can alter the meaning of earlier progress.
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How to choose between Normal and Custom
Use Normal for a mixed-experience campaign
Normal is the least complicated option when the group wants to begin playing immediately. It gives the host fewer decisions to make and makes it easier for new players to understand what the world is supposed to feel like. It is also a useful reference point: if the group later finds combat too easy, travel too slow, or building too fragile, you can change one system at a time in a Custom game instead of changing everything at once.
Use Custom when one rule is clearly wrong for your group
Custom is appropriate when the group agrees on a concrete change, such as protecting a large shared build, allowing tree regrowth, reducing enemy aggression, or disabling PvP damage. Change only the systems you can explain to every player. A long list of unexplained changes makes it difficult to tell whether a surprising encounter is a bug, an intended rule, or a configuration mistake.
Compare settings on five practical axes
- Combat pressure: enemy spawn rate, health, damage, armour, and aggression determine how often players must fight and how dangerous each encounter is.
- Resource and travel friction: tree availability, one-hit chopping, and survival rules determine how much time is spent gathering and moving instead of exploring.
- Building protection: building destruction decides whether attacks and mistakes can erase shared construction.
- PvP risk: PvP damage and realistic player damage define whether another player can become a threat through accident or intent.
- Administrative convenience: creative options, cheats, save behavior, and restart discipline affect how easily an administrator can maintain the world.
Custom settings that have the largest effect
The game-start settings reference exposes individual controls for Custom mode. Names and accepted values can vary with the current build, so select values from the current in-game menu or generated configuration rather than copying an old key from an unrelated guide.
| Control | What changing it does | Conservative co-op choice | When to change it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enemy spawn | Turns hostile encounter generation on or off. | On | Turn it off only for a construction or showcase world where survival encounters are not wanted. |
| Enemy health | Changes how much punishment enemies can absorb before dying. | Normal | Use a lower value for new players or a higher value for a combat-focused group. |
| Enemy damage | Changes the damage enemies inflict. | Normal | Lower it when repeated deaths prevent progress; raise it only when all players want a harsher campaign. |
| Enemy armour | Changes how resistant enemies are to attacks. | Normal | Adjust it when the group wants equipment and tactics to matter more than raw enemy health. |
| Enemy aggression | Changes how readily enemies engage and pressure players. | Normal | Lower it for an exploration-first world; raise it for a defense-heavy experience. |
| Tree regrowth | Determines whether cut trees can return over time. | On for long-term building | Turn it off when scarcity and permanent landscape changes are part of the challenge. |
| One-hit tree chopping | Removes much of the time normally spent cutting trees. | Off for progression | Enable it for a building server or after the group has completed its survival goals. |
| Building destruction | Controls whether structures can be destroyed under the relevant game rules. | Protect important shared builds | Allow destruction only when the group accepts rebuilding as part of the game. |
| Realistic player damage | Makes damage between players or from player actions more consequential. | Off | Use it for an intentionally unforgiving role-play or survival rule set. |
| PvP damage | Allows players to damage one another. | Off in co-op | Enable it only with an explicit PvP agreement and a clear rule for disputes. |
| Creative mode | Provides construction-oriented freedom instead of ordinary progression. | Off | Use it for a dedicated building world or a temporary design session. |
| Player immortality | Removes ordinary player death pressure. | Off | Reserve it for testing, demonstrations, or a world where survival is not the objective. |
| Cheats | Permits cheat functionality where supported by the current build. | Off | Enable only when every player understands that progression and achievements may no longer be comparable. |
For console changes, the reference uses the setgamesetupsetting command. Its documentation also warns that not every command has been tested. Use the exact setting name, spelling, and accepted value shown by the current reference or generated file; do not assume that a setting name from an older build will still be accepted.
Dedicated-server configuration: fields that matter
A dedicated server reads a JSON configuration commonly named dedicatedserver.cfg. A public example includes the following fields. The numbers below describe that example, not a universal hardware or network requirement.
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| Field | Example value | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
GameMode |
Custom or another selected preset |
Selects the overall mode. Use Custom when per-system values are supplied in the custom settings object. |
MaxPlayers |
8 |
Sets the player ceiling in the example configuration. |
SaveMode |
Value from the generated file | Controls the server’s save behavior according to the current configuration schema. |
SaveSlot |
Selected slot value | Identifies which world slot the process should load or write. |
SaveInterval |
600 seconds |
Sets the save interval in the example. |
GamePort |
8766 |
Game traffic port in the example. |
QueryPort |
27016 |
Server-query port in the example. |
BlobSyncPort |
9700 |
Blob synchronization port in the example. |
IdleTargetFramerate |
5 |
Idle target in the example. |
ActiveTargetFramerate |
60 |
Active target in the example. |
| Logging and timestamp fields | Values generated for the current build | Control diagnostic output and time labeling. |
GameSettings |
Object | Holds general game settings supported by the server schema. |
CustomGameModeSettings |
Object | Holds per-system custom values when GameMode is Custom. |
Do not treat the port, player-count, save interval, or frame-rate figures as universal requirements. Verify the configuration generated by the current server build and follow the network and resource guidance from your hosting environment. If a key is rejected, the log is more trustworthy than a copied example.
For a hosted Sons of the Forest world, Godlike.Host provides game-server hosting with its own game panel. Its Sons of the Forest plans list 4, 12 and 20 slots; the server’s MaxPlayers setting allows 1 to 8 players (Steam Community server guide, 11 Oct 2026).
Illustrative configuration shape
The following shows how the major objects fit together; it is intentionally a shape example, not a drop-in file. Keep the exact key spelling and value types from the generated configuration.
{"GameMode":"Custom","MaxPlayers":8,"SaveMode":"<generated value>","SaveSlot":"<selected slot>","SaveInterval":600,"GamePort":8766,"QueryPort":27016,"BlobSyncPort":9700,"IdleTargetFramerate":5,"ActiveTargetFramerate":60,"GameSettings":{},"CustomGameModeSettings":{}}Replace the angle-bracketed text with values actually present in the current generated file; do not leave those labels in production. A malformed comma, wrong value type, or misspelled key can cause the server to ignore a setting or fail to start.
How to configure a dedicated co-op server safely
- Create or generate the configuration first. Start the server once, if necessary, so the current build creates its normal configuration structure. This gives you the field names and value types expected by that build.
- Choose the mode deliberately. Set
GameModeto the selected preset, or toCustomif you intend to useCustomGameModeSettings. - Set the player limit. Use a value that matches the group you actually expect. The public example uses eight; it is not a claim that every host or build should use eight.
- Select the save slot. Decide which slot represents this world and document it for anyone who administers the server.
- Choose New or Continue correctly. Use New when creating a world. Use Continue when loading an existing save. Selecting the wrong action can make players think their world has disappeared or cause them to create a separate world by mistake.
- Place custom values in the correct object. When the mode is
Custom, put per-system values inCustomGameModeSettings. Use the exact names and accepted values from the current generated file. - Stop the server before editing. Never edit a live JSON file while the process may still be writing it. Shut down cleanly, then save the file with the same name and extension.
- Back up before the first restart. Copy both the configuration and the save data to a separate location. Keep the original so you can restore a known-good state.
- Restart and read the log. Look for rejected keys, invalid values, JSON parse errors, or a message showing that the server loaded a different save slot than intended.
- Test with the smallest useful change. Change one rule, join with one player, and verify combat, building, saving, and reconnecting before changing several systems at once.
Scenario-based setting profiles
Mixed-skill family or friend group
Choose Normal, keep enemy spawning enabled, leave enemy health and damage at normal, enable tree regrowth if construction is a shared goal, and disable PvP damage. Keep realistic player damage and cheats off. This profile reduces arguments because every unusual rule has a clear reason and the default combat model remains intact.
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Long-term builders
Choose Custom, keep encounters enabled if the world should still feel alive, enable tree regrowth, and consider protecting structures from destruction. One-hit tree chopping can be enabled when gathering becomes repetitive rather than meaningful. Creative mode is better reserved for a separate build world or an agreed construction phase so that the survival world retains a clear progression history.
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Choose Custom and keep normal values initially, then raise enemy damage, health, armour, or aggression one system at a time. Leave tree regrowth off if permanent scarcity is intentional. Keep realistic player damage and PvP disabled unless the group specifically wants friendly mistakes to carry severe consequences. A staged increase is easier to reverse than a maximum-difficulty setup that nobody can diagnose.
Organized PvP or role-play server
Enable PvP damage only after writing rules for bases, retaliation, loot, and disconnects. Decide whether building destruction is allowed and whether realistic player damage supports the intended style. Tell players exactly which systems are active before they join; otherwise a normal co-op expectation can turn an ordinary encounter into a dispute.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Save management and change control
- Use one named slot per world. Do not rotate several campaigns through an unlabeled slot.
- Keep dated backups. At minimum, preserve the configuration and save before changing mode, custom difficulty, destruction, or PvP rules.
- Change rules during a maintenance window. Stop the process, edit once, restart, and test before inviting the full group.
- Record the old values. A short text record prevents guesswork when you need to revert after a failed restart.
- Assume migration limits. The documented fields and New/Continue distinction do not establish a universal, version-independent procedure for migrating every setting in every build. If a change affects an established world, test a backup copy first.
Troubleshooting rejected settings and unexpected behavior
The server starts, but a custom rule has no effect
Confirm that GameMode is actually Custom, that the value is inside CustomGameModeSettings, and that the key spelling matches the current generated file. Restart after saving the file and check the log for an ignored or unknown field. If the game-start menu exposes a different label than your copied key, use the current generated schema instead of an older tutorial.
The server will not start after editing JSON
Restore the last known-good backup, then compare the edited file for missing commas, extra commas, mismatched braces, quoted numbers, or a value type that differs from the generated example. Make one correction at a time and restart after each correction.
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Players load the wrong world
Check SaveSlot and whether the startup action is New or Continue. A valid configuration can still point to an unintended slot. Stop the server before correcting it, back up the current files, and verify the selected world with one administrator before the rest of the group connects.
Players cannot connect
Verify that the configured game, query, and synchronization ports match the values exposed by the current server build and hosting environment. The example ports are 8766, 27016, and 9700, but another build or provider may require different values. Also confirm that the server process is running the configuration file you edited, not a second copy in another directory.
Performance changes after raising player count or activity
Do not infer a guaranteed performance result from the example frame-rate targets. Check the server log and host monitoring, reduce unnecessary administrative or creative activity, and test with the expected number of players. Treat IdleTargetFramerate and ActiveTargetFramerate as tuning inputs supplied by the example, not promises of a fixed tick rate or latency.
Administrative rules worth publishing to players
Post a short rules notice with the selected game mode, whether PvP and realistic player damage are enabled, whether structures can be destroyed, whether tree regrowth and one-hit chopping are active, and who may use creative or cheat controls. Include the save-slot name and a maintenance contact. Clear rules matter more than a theoretically perfect difficulty value because they prevent players from joining with incompatible expectations.
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Quick Recap
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