Satisfactory Satisfactory’s dedicated server has a lot of settings. Most of them don’t matter. A handful of them will make or break your experience, and the defaults on several of those are wrong for how most people actually want to play. This guide covers the settings worth changing and why.
Auto-Pause: The #1 Setting to Change
By default, Satisfactory pauses the simulation when all players disconnect. Your conveyors stop, your machines stop, your power grid stops. Everything freezes until someone logs back in.
This is fine for casual co-op. It’s terrible if you want an always-on factory that keeps producing while you sleep.
How to disable it: Open the Server Manager in-game, go to Server Settings, and toggle “Auto Pause” off. The setting persists across restarts.
With auto-pause disabled, your factory runs 24/7 on a dedicated server. This is the main reason to use dedicated hosting instead of listen server (host-and-play) mode - your factory keeps building up resources even when nobody is online.
Always-On = Power Planning
If your factory runs 24/7, your power grid needs to handle sustained load without you there to fix trips. Oversize your power capacity before disabling auto-pause, or you’ll come back to a dead factory.
Network Quality: The Lag Fix Nobody Mentions
This is the single most impactful multiplayer setting, and it’s buried in the options menu rather than the server config.
Network Quality controls how frequently the server and clients sync game state. The server defaults to Low (0), which reduces CPU load but increases desync and rubber-banding. Ultra (3) syncs more frequently, which means smoother gameplay but more CPU usage.
The fix: Set Network Quality to Ultra on the server AND have all connected players do the same on their clients. Both sides need to match for the best experience.
If players with slower connections experience FPS drops on Ultra, they can lower it individually - but the server should stay on Ultra.
Recent Improvement
A recent update significantly improved Network Quality scalability, which helps with load times on larger saves. If you previously avoided Ultra because of performance, it’s worth trying again.
Autosave Interval
The default autosave runs every 5 minutes (300 seconds). During autosave, the server serializes the entire world state, which causes a brief TPS drop and a temporary RAM spike.
For early-game factories, 5 minutes is fine. For mid-to-late game with hundreds or thousands of machines, that autosave can cause a noticeable stutter every 5 minutes.
Recommended intervals:
- Early game: 5 minutes (default)
- Mid-game: 10 minutes (600 seconds)
- Late game/mega-factory: 15-30 minutes (900-1800 seconds)
How to change it:
- Console command:
FG.AutosaveInterval 600(value in seconds) - Config file: In
GameUserSettings.ini, look formFloatValuesand setFG.AutoSaveIntervalto your preferred value
The tradeoff is straightforward - longer intervals mean more potential progress lost if something goes wrong. But a server that stutters every 5 minutes is worse than one that stutters every 15.
The game keeps 3 rotating autosaves by default, so you always have a few recent saves to fall back on.
Max Players
Satisfactory defaults to 4 players, which is what Coffee Stain officially supports. You can increase it.
How to change it: Edit Game.ini on the server and add:
[/Script/Engine.GameSession]
MaxPlayers=8The theoretical max is 127. The practical ceiling is 8-16 depending on factory size and server resources. Beyond 8 players, you’ll start hitting performance walls because the game loop is single-threaded - every connected player adds simulation overhead on the same CPU core.
For most groups, 4-8 is the sweet spot. If you’re running a community server, keep expectations in check - Satisfactory was designed for small co-op, not MMO-scale.
Ports (Updated for 1.1)
Update 1.1 changed the port configuration. If you’re following an older guide, it’s probably wrong.
Current ports:
| Port | Protocol | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 7777 | UDP | Game traffic |
| 8888 | TCP | Reliable messaging (new in 1.1) |
Ports 15000 (beacon) and 15777 (query) are no longer used as of Update 1.1.
The game port (7777) can be changed with the -Port= launch flag. The reliable port (8888) can be changed with -ReliablePort=.
Important: Port redirection (external port different from internal) is not supported for the game port. The forwarded port must match. If you’re behind a firewall or NAT, make sure both 7777/UDP and 8888/TCP are forwarded correctly.
Getting ports wrong is the #1 cause of the “stuck on loading screen” issue. If players can’t connect, check ports before anything else.
Server Password vs Admin Password
These are two different things and mixing them up causes confusion:
- Server password - players need this to connect. Set in Server Settings or via the initial server claim process.
- Admin password - grants console access and elevated permissions. Set separately.
Both are optional. A server can run with no password (not recommended for public-facing servers) or with just one or the other.
Stable vs Experimental Branch
Satisfactory has two build branches:
- Stable - the default, well-tested build
- Experimental - gets updates first, may have bugs
Critical rule: Server and client versions must match. Players on stable cannot join an experimental server, and vice versa. If you switch branches, everyone in your group needs to switch too.
On a self-hosted server, you switch branches with -beta experimental in the SteamCMD update command. On managed hosting, check your panel for branch selection options.
Settings You Can Ignore
Not everything needs tweaking. These defaults are fine for most servers:
- Gameplay settings (resource multipliers, creature hostility) - only change these if you specifically want a different experience
- Session name/privacy - set once during initial setup, rarely needs changing
- Starting location - only matters on first world creation
The settings that actually affect daily server performance are the five above: auto-pause, Network Quality, autosave interval, player cap, and ports. Get those right and the rest takes care of itself.
If you’re looking for a Satisfactory server where all of this is configurable from day one, WinterNode gives you full access to server config files, startup parameters, and scheduled restarts. Get your Satisfactory server →
Frequently Asked Questions
Auto-pause is enabled by default. When all players disconnect, the server pauses the simulation. Disable it in Server Manager > Server Settings to keep your factory running 24/7.
The most common cause is the Network Quality setting. All connected players AND the server should set Network Quality to Ultra. If it's set to Low (the default on servers), you'll see rubber-banding and desync regardless of your internet speed.
As of Update 1.1, Satisfactory uses two ports: 7777 UDP (game traffic) and 8888 TCP (reliable messaging). Ports 15000 and 15777 are no longer used.
Yes. The default is 4, but you can increase it by editing Game.ini. The practical ceiling is 8-16 players depending on factory size and server resources. Coffee Stain officially supports 4.