How to create and host a Sunken­land dedicated server

Using the SteamCMD command line client, you can download and install the software for your own Sunken­land server within a few minutes. All you need to do is first create the right basis for hosting.

The re­quire­ments for a Sunken­land server

There are two ways to host a Sunken­land dedicated server: you can either use your personal computer or rent the necessary hardware from a pro­fes­sion­al provider. The advantage of the latter option is the ex­cep­tion­al broadband con­nec­tiv­i­ty provided by data centers, which is crucial for a seamless gaming ex­pe­ri­ence. Moreover, an ex­ter­nal­ly hosted Sunken­land server can operate 24/7 with ease, a task that would be much more chal­leng­ing on a home device.

How much computing power you actually need to provide for hosting depends on various factors. The number of players who are connected to the Sunken­land server at the same time is the main deciding factor. In any case, you should meet the following minimum re­quire­ments:

• Processor (CPU): min. 3.2 GHz (dual-core)
• Working memory (RAM): min. 3-4 GB
• Hard disk storage: 10 GB

How to host a Sunken­land dedicated server with IONOS

Whether you want to host Sunken­land or other games with dedicated server, there are a variety of providers, server types and plans. With IONOS, for example, you can choose from the following three plans:

• VPS (vServer): The vServers from IONOS are based on vir­tu­al­ized hardware from a fixed host system. The service plan is billed at a fixed monthly price.
• Cloud Server: Cloud servers from IONOS use vir­tu­al­ized hardware from various host systems. Unlike VPSs, you can scale the per­for­mance flexibly at any time. Only the resources actually used are taken into account for monthly billing.
• Dedicated Server: The highest quality IONOS server model is the dedicated server. This en­ter­prise hardware is available ex­clu­sive­ly for you but can be scaled like a cloud server if required. Billing is by the minute.

Sunken­land dedicated server scenarios and the right IONOS plan

Are you seeking a way to enjoy a small, intimate group gaming ex­pe­ri­ence with flexible schedules, a lively 24/7 online adventure, or a large-scale server for varied hosting re­quire­ments? We’ve iden­ti­fied three potential options for your Sunken­land server, each matched with the ideal server plan from IONOS, as shown in the table below.

How to set up your own Sunken­land server for Windows step by step

In the following sections, we’ll guide you through the in­stal­la­tion and setup process of a Sunken­land dedicated server step by step. The server runs on Windows Server 2022 (the ap­pli­ca­tion is currently tailored for Windows). For hosting purposes, we use a server from IONOS (vServer, Cloud Server, Dedicated Server) as an example.

Step 1: Connect to the server remotely

To be able to install and manage ap­pli­ca­tions, you must connect to the rented server via remote access. The ap­pro­pri­ate Windows tool for es­tab­lish­ing the con­nec­tion is called “Remote Desktop Con­nec­tion”. The login data can be found in the hosting provider’s customer account, in our case in the IONOS customer account. Here’s how to set up the remote con­nec­tion in a nutshell:

1. Go to the IONOS customer account login page and log in.
2. Click on Server & Cloud and select your hosting plan.
3. Scroll to Features and make a note of the server IP address and your data for the remote login (“User” and “Initial Password”).
4. Open the Remote Desktop Con­nec­tion ap­pli­ca­tion on your device and establish a remote con­nec­tion to the server using IP and login data.
5. If you haven’t already done this, classify the server’s cer­tifi­cate as trust­wor­thy.

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Step 2: Install SteamCMD

The initial step involves in­stalling the SteamCMD ap­pli­ca­tion on your server. This is the command-line client of the gaming platform, allowing you to download dedicated server ap­pli­ca­tions for games like Sunken­land and others. The in­stal­la­tion process for the client consists of three straight­for­ward steps:

1. Download the SteamCMD in­stal­la­tion package.
2. Create a new directory for SteamCMD, for example C:\SteamCMD, and unpack the ZIP package in this folder.
3. Run the unzipped file in the command prompt to install the client. Once the in­stal­la­tion is complete, the input line Steam> will appear.

Step 3: Install Steam app for Sunken­land dedicated server

You can now download and install the Sunken­land dedicated server ap­pli­ca­tion (Steam ID 2667530) via SteamCMD. Follow the in­struc­tions below:

First create a directory for the server files. For example, use the following command to specify C:\sunkenland-server as the directory for the in­stal­la­tion:

force_install_dir C:\sunkenland-server

The next step is to log in to the public Steam servers. The Sunken­land de­vel­op­ment team rec­om­mends logging in with the Steam account you used to purchase the game. In the following command, replace the entry username with your Steam account name:

login username

Confirm the login by entering your in­di­vid­ual Steam password. If you have set up Steam Guard, you’ll also need to enter the five-digit security code.

After suc­cess­ful reg­is­tra­tion, install the Sunken­land dedicated server app using the following command:

app_update 2667530 validate

Step 4: Prepare game world savegame

In the current version of the Sunken­land dedicated server software, you need to manually transfer a savegame of the game world to the cor­re­spond­ing Sunken­land user folder on your server. You can either use an existing savegame or create a new one for this purpose. Re­gard­less of your choice, the savegame of the game world can be found in the following directory (replace “username” with your Windows username):

C:\Users\Username\AppData\LocalLow\Vector3 Studio\Sunkenland\Worlds

Copy the folder of the desired game world into the same directory (also take the in­di­vid­ual username into account here) on your rented server.

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Step 5: Create Sunken­land server start script

The best way to start the server later is with a start script in which, for example, you use the parameter -nographics to ensure that the game world runs on the rented server even without a graphics processor.

A template for the script already exists in the server directory. Create a copy of this file with the name start_headless_server - Sample.bat and name the copy whatever you’d like (the ending .bat is important). Then open the batch file with a text editor and make the following ad­just­ments:

1. Enter the ID of the pre­vi­ous­ly copied savegame under -worldGuid (part after the~).
2. In the “region” section, click on the correct server option.
3. Add the parameter -maxPlayerCapacity and enter the desired maximum number of players.
4. Add entries for the server port -port (rec­om­mend­ed: 29000) and the query port -queryport (rec­om­mend­ed: 29002).
5. Save your changes before closing the script.

The last line of the script file should then look something like this:

Sunkenland-DedicatedServer -nographics -batchmode -worldGuid "YOUR SAVEGAME-ID" -region "us" -maxPlayerCapacity "8" -port 29000 -queryport 29002

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Depending on where you are located, you can enter either “us” (USA, East) or “usw” (USA, West) for the region.

Step 6: Open the server ports

To make your hosted Sunken­land game world ac­ces­si­ble online, the next step is to open the server port and the query port in the firewall settings of your server. In these in­struc­tions, we have selected the TCP/UDP ports 29000 and 29002 and specified them in the start script. If you have opted for other ports, these ports must be enabled instead.

With IONOS, adjust the firewall of your server as follows:

1. Log in to your IONOS customer account on the login page.
2. Click on Server & Cloud and select the server plan on which you have installed and set up the Sunken­land dedicated server.
3. In the menu bar on the right, press Network and Firewall policies one after the other.
4. Create the required rules for your Sunken­land server under Input.

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Step 7: Start the Sunken­land server

After you’ve prepared the start script and enabled the necessary ports, you can now start your in­di­vid­ual Sunken­land adventure at any time. To do this, simply execute the script by double clicking. You can follow the start process in the command prompt window. The message “Server Start Complete, Ready for Clients to Join” tells you whether it was suc­cess­ful or not.

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Step 8: Connect with the Sunken­land dedicated server

If you and your fellow players want to connect to the hosted Sunken­land game session, the following steps must be completed:

1. Start Sunken­land via your Steam client.
2. Press Start game.
3. Select the desired character or create a new character.
4. Click on Join Server.
5. Use the filter function to search for your server. Select Dedicated Server and the correct server region. Then enter a suitable keyword and click on APPLY.
6. Click on the desired search result and connect to your created Sunken­land server.

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Now, nothing can stop you from embarking on your adventure in the un­der­wa­ter world of Sunken­land!

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