How to set up a Starbound dedicated server

In the first step you establish a remote con­nec­tion with the server. If you have chosen one of the IONOS server solutions, you can easily set up this con­nec­tion via the Cloud Panel. To do this, first log in to the IONOS login page with your in­di­vid­ual account data. Clicking on the category “Server & Cloud” will take you to an overview page with the plans you have. Select the server solution you have booked for your Starbound server.

The start page for your server package will then open. Under the item “Access data” you will find the entry “Remote Desktop con­nec­tion” with an as­so­ci­at­ed download link.

Download the remote desktop con­nec­tion. In the following dialog, select “Connect” to begin setting up your Starbound server.

Af­ter­wards, you will be prompted to enter your login in­for­ma­tion in a dialog box. If you have not yet stored any in­di­vid­ual data, you will find the default cre­den­tials in the Cloud Panel under the keywords “User” and “Initial Password”.

The software you need to set up your Starbound server can also be found on Steam. First, download the Steam client to the server as well and then log in with your Steam cre­den­tials. Once you are logged into Steam, you can use the “Search” field in your game library to find the ap­pro­pri­ate dedicated server software. To do this, simply type “Starbound” into the search box. Under the “Tools” item you will find the ap­pro­pri­ate “Starbound Dedicated Server” ap­pli­ca­tion. Install it by clicking on the list entry.

In order for the Starbound server to run, you still need to enable port 21025 in the IONOS Cloud Panel. To do this, click on “Network” and then on “Firewall Policies”. Create a new con­fig­u­ra­tion under the “Incoming” tab by first selecting TCP under “Protocol” and then entering the port number 21025. Confirm the new rule by clicking on the blue checkmark icon on the right.

Now open Starbound. After the game has loaded, select the “Options” tab in the menu. A window opens in which you can make in­di­vid­ual settings. Click the check­box­es to allow both the con­nec­tion via IP (“Connect via IP”) and the use of different game assets (“Allow assets mismatch”). Click on “Accept” to confirm the changes you have made.

In the next step, start the Starbound server. The ex­e­cutable file for this is usually located in the data path C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Starbound Dedicated Server\win64\starbound_server.exe. It is worth creating a desktop shortcut by right-clicking on the program and then clicking on the “Create shortcut” option. This way you can select your server directly from your desktop.

In a final step, you and your friends connect to your server. This is easily done by clicking on “Join game” in the Starbound menu. You can first create or select a character and then enter the IP address of your server. For testing purposes, you can also enter the IP address of localhost, 127.0.0.1, as the server host. If you have not made any other settings in the advanced con­fig­u­ra­tion settings of your Starbound Dedicated Server, you can leave the fields for account name and password blank. Click on “Join server”, and you’ll do just that: You’ll join your Starbound server and the game will load.