Vintage Story Adjusting world-related config settings lets you customize the in-game terrain and game rules. Most of them you can change live, but seed, world size, and playstyle only apply while a world is being generated, so changing those means starting a fresh world.
| Setting | Needs a new world? |
|---|---|
Seed | Yes |
worldWidth and worldLength | Yes |
PlayStyle | Yes |
Everything else (spawnRadius, deathPunishment, playerHealthPoints) | No. Change them live |
All of these live in data/serverconfig.json, which you open from File Manager in the Game Control Panel sidebar (how to use it). The world settings sit under the WorldConfiguration object and are written automatically the first time the server starts, so there is nothing to paste in. For the full list of keys and accepted values, see Vintage Story’s server config reference.
Regenerating Your World
Seed, world size, and playstyle changes all use the same procedure.
- Stop your server, then open
data/serverconfig.jsonin the File Manager and change the setting you want. Press CTRL+F to find it. The sections below give the exact key and value for each. - Take a backup, then delete the
data/Saves/folder. - Start your server. It generates a fresh world using your new settings.
Changing the World Seed
The world seed controls terrain generation. Set "Seed" inside "WorldConfiguration", then regenerate your world.
"WorldConfiguration": {
"Seed": "myseedhere",
...
}If you leave "Seed" empty or omit it, the server picks a random seed.
Changing the World Size
worldWidth and worldLength control how large the world is in blocks. The default is 1024000 (1,024,000 blocks in each direction). Set both inside "WorldConfiguration", then regenerate your world. For example, for a 51,000-block world:
"WorldConfiguration": {
"worldWidth": "51000",
"worldLength": "51000",
...
}Choosing a Playstyle Preset (Homo Sapiens, Wilderness Survival)
Vintage Story ships with five preset playstyles that change starting health, respawn radius, temporal mechanics, lore content, and dozens of other defaults. The PlayStyle field selects which preset a brand new world uses. The full settings each preset applies are listed on the Vintage Story Preset Playstyles wiki.
| Value | Preset |
|---|---|
surviveandbuild | Standard - the default balanced survival experience |
exploration | Exploration - lighter combat, focus on travel and building |
wildernesssurvival | Wilderness Survival - hardcore survival with 10 HP and harsh settings |
homosapiens | Homo Sapiens - no lore, ruins, or temporal mechanics. You are the first human on the planet |
creativebuilding | Creative Building - flat terrain, unlimited blocks, flight |
Set the PlayStyle line to the value you want, then regenerate your world. Switching it on an existing world has no effect.
"PlayStyle": "homosapiens",Reducing Hostile Creature Spawns
The creatureHostility field controls how aggressive animals are (wolves, bears, foxes), but drifters and locusts ignore it. To make a peaceful server you usually need to combine creatureHostility, the temporal rift and storm settings, and sometimes a mod.
See Disable Hostile Creatures for the full walkthrough.
Using World Generation Mods
Mods that change terrain generation (such as rivers, biomes, or terrain height mods) only affect newly generated chunks. If you install a worldgen mod on an existing world, only unexplored areas will use the new generation.
For consistent results, install your worldgen mods first, configure your world settings, then generate a fresh world. You can also create a customized world in singleplayer with your mods and settings, then upload it to your server.
Changing Settings Live With Admin Commands
For anything that does not need a new world, the /worldconfig command is the fastest route. You need to be a server admin first, which is covered in Giving Yourself Access. Usage is /worldconfig <name> [value], where value is a string, boolean, or number. The full option list, covering terrain, climate, gameplay, and generation settings, is on the Vintage Story wiki. Common ones:
/worldconfig spawnRadius [number]- How far from the world spawnpoint players spawn./worldconfig deathPunishment [drop|keep]- Whether you drop your inventory on death. Default isdrop./worldconfig playerHealthPoints [1-999]- Base health points for players. Default is 15, and it does not affect players who have already joined.
Restart the server after changing a setting to be sure it applies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Stop the server, back up data/Saves/ if you want to keep your current world, then delete the data/Saves/ folder and start the server. The server generates a fresh world with a random seed and your current WorldConfiguration.
Yes. Deleting data/Saves/ permanently removes the current world. Always take a backup first if you want to keep it. WinterNode's automatic backups also retain previous saves you can restore from.
Yes. Seed and worldWidth/worldLength only apply during initial generation. Existing terrain stays as-is, so you have to delete data/Saves/ for the new value to take effect.
No. Homo Sapiens and the other playstyle presets only affect initial world generation. To switch, change the PlayStyle value in data/serverconfig.json and delete the data/Saves/ folder so the world regenerates with the new preset.
Seed, worldWidth, worldLength, and PlayStyle only apply during initial generation, so changing them needs a fresh world. Everything else, including spawnRadius, deathPunishment, and playerHealthPoints, can be changed live with the /worldconfig command or by editing WorldConfiguration in data/serverconfig.json and restarting.