Custom SCUM Server Configuration Guide (Not Updated)

A complete, comprehensive description and explanation of all settings and variables currently available for a custom SCUM game server.
This guide has not been updated in over a year and contains no information on anything added by patches since then.

Intro

This will start as a quick and dirty guide to configure your server. As it took me the better part of a weekend to collect all the information I needed to understand how to properly set up my SCUM server the way I wanted it, I figured I need to get the information out. I could not find a source containing all these settings and had to piece the information together from Reddit, Steam forums, YouTube and g-portal. I hope this helps anyone that is in the same position as I was, get up and running faster. If any of this information is inaccurate please let me know so that I can correct it.

Basic

Server Name
Pretty straight forward, this will be the name displayed on the sever list in game when people search for Multi-player games. Try to avoid long names with a lot of description or putting web addresses in the name. These things can cause your sever to be unable to start up. Remember your name is also a file name on the server.

AdminPassword
I am still at a loss for this one. My best guess is that it allows another user to access the game server as an admin but don't see how it would be used.

Server Password
By setting a value to this field you will lock out the general public and require players to know the password. Good if you want to screen players before letting them play or if you just want your friends on the server.

Slots
For g-portal this is a drop down that would allow you to select more or fewer player slots if you are paying for more than the minimum 20.

Savegame
Again a drop down. This allows you to role your server back to an earlier backup file if something goes wrong or a hacker messes with your players. The backups are automatically saved and time coded. The default selection is Current Savegame and is the current save of your server.

WelcomeMessage
This will be the message that will appear first in a players chat as they enter the game.

MessageOfTheDay
This is a repeating message that will allow you to inform your players of events, downtime or anything else you want them to know.

MessageOfTheDayMinutes
The interval in minutes between repetitions of the message of the day.

TimeToRemainInGameAfterLeaveRequest
This is the time a player's character will remain in the world after they have clicked quit. It prevents players from unfairly logging out to avoid being killed by an opponent. It IS supposed to be a survival game. If set to 0 the player will immediately vanish when logging out.

MaxAllowedZombiesInWorld
How many Puppets the game will spawn at one time around the map. The higher the number, the more Puppets each player will potentially have spawn around them.

MaxAllowedAnimalsInWorld
Same as with Puppets but in this case it is the occurrence of all animals server wide at any given time.

MaxAllowedSentriesInWorld
This one is a little different. A setting greater than 0 will result in only that many Mechs spawning server wide at any given time. If set to 1 only one Mech can be active on the island but as players leave its area it will respawn elsewhere.
The settings work as follows:

• -1 (default number and position of sentries at all locations)
  
• 0 (No sentries spawn anywhere)
  
• 1 or more (Max number Mechs appearing on the entire map at one time)

MaxAllowedVehiclesInWorld
Total number of vehicles originally spawned around the map. Destroyed vehicles will be removed and respawned up to this number.

Culture
The language set for the server. My U.S. based sever only has "en" as an option.

StartTimeOfTheDay
The time of day the server begins with after a restart. The format for the time is a 24 hour clock using decimals. Examples: 8.0 = 8:00am, 13.5 = 1:30pm

TimeOfTheDaySpeed
This is a multiplier to increase or decrease the real world time it takes to complete a full day cycle in game. The base vanilla speed is 6 real world hours per 1 game day.

To calculate the value you need to put here simply use this equation:

6/T=X

where

T = The length of real world time you want the cycle to last
and
X = the value to which you need to set TimeOfDaySpeed

So, if you want a one hour game day/night cycle (6 / 1 = 6) the value should be 6.
If you want a game day to last 24 hours (6 / 24 = .25) it's 0.25.

Note: The day/night cycle is a 2:1 ratio of day to night. Therefore, a 6 hour cycle would be 4 hours day, 2 hours night and a 3 hour cycle would be 2 hours day and 1 hour night.

MaxPing
The maximum amount of latency in milliseconds a player is allowed to have before the server boots them. Default is 200. I live in a rural area with terrible broadband so I appreciate a 400-500 ms but if PvP is suffering due to rubber banding players it can be lowered.

TimeBetweenEventsMin
This is the minimum amount of time in minutes that needs to past before a Cargo Drop will happen. If this time is not longer than your CargoDropSelfDestructTime you may have multiple Drops on the field at tthe same time,

TimeBetweenEventsMax
This is the maximum amount of time in minutes that can past before a Cargo Drop appears.

CargoDropFallDelay
The time in seconds between the chat box notification of an incoming Cargo Drop and when it appears. The total time of the notification will be this value plus the value of CargoDropFallDuration. (e.g. if set to 300 and fall duration is 60 the notification will say "6 minutes").

CargoDropFallDuration
The time in seconds it takes the Cargo Drop to descend to the ground after it appears in the sky.

CargoDropSelfDestructTime
The time in seconds before the self destruct countdown alarm begins after it has landed.

Lists

Reserved Player List
The Steam64 ID of players who can join the server even when it is full. I assume this kicks the last joining player to make room for the reserved player. IDs should be separated by a new line for each (hit "Enter" after each and add to new line).

Admin Access
The Steam64 ID of all players allowed to use the in game administrator console commands in game. (i.e. #spawnitem AK47, #ListPlayers, etc.) Same format to list all ID numbers as Reserved Player List.

Ban List
The Steam64 ID of all steam users NOT allowed to join the server.

Exclusive Join List
Another one I'm not sure of. If anyone knows what this is for please contact me.

Extended

SpawnerGroupsExpirationTimeInMin
This is the multiplier for the base time it takes the server to wipe all the items in an area and be set to roll for item respawn chance after all players have left a 50 meter radius. The vanilla default time is 30 minutes. This means to make the time for looted items to be potentially respawned 1 hour, you would need to set this variable to 2. To set the time to be 15 minutes, you need to set it to 0.5.

T / 30 = X

T= Time you want before respawn
X = Variable to which you need to set SpawnerGroupsExpirationTimeInMin

This cooldown timer is ment to keep players from camping an area to loot and reloot it until they are maximumly geared.

SpawnerProbabilityMultiplier
For Items that spawn in the open world (you can see them on the ground, shelf, box, etc) this multiplies the spawner locations base chance to have an item spawn. Spawner locations have a range of 10% for rare spawn locations to 60% for common spawner locations. This chance to spawn an item does not affect the rarity of the item, just whether AN item will spawn. The Item generated is rolled on a loot table and its rarity is not controlled by a variable as of right now. But, as we know, this is where the law of probability kicks in. The more items spawned, the more probable a rare one will be produced.

The default multiplier is 1. Raising it above one causes the probability for an item to spawn to increase just as a number below 1 will cause it to decrease. Because the lowest probability for a spawner is 10% setting the multiplier to 10 would cause all spawner locations to always spawn an item...and would be ridiculous.

If vanilla is too sparse for your liking try somewhere around 1.5 to 3. Anything higher than 4.5 and you should just close the game and launch PUBG. I joke. There are scenarios where a custom game might work with super high loot spawns but these remove the survival aspect of SCUM and are more Prison Gang War games.

At a setting of 2 the probability range increases from 10-60% to 20-120% with anything over 100% resulting in a guaranteed spawn. The increase to 50-300% at a multiplier of 5 means that only the rarest spawners wouldn't automatically generate loot and even then they would still have a 1 in 2 chance to do so.

ExamineSpawnerProbabilityMultiplier
Same as above but for item spawners that the players must search using "F"; such as crates, lockers and cardboard boxes.

SentryDamageMultiplier
Increases or decreases the damage output by Mechs. Setting to 0 will cause them to fire blank rounds.

ZombieDamageMultiplier
Increases or decreases the damage output by Puppets. Setting to 0 makes them do no damage.

HumanToHumanDamageMultiplier
Used to raise or lower PvP damage for all forms of attack. Setting to 0 disables the ability of any player to harm any other player, shutting off PvP for the server.

H.ToH.ThrowingDamageMultilier
Changes the damage done by thrown objects (spears, rocks, knives) with regards to PvP

HumanToHumanArmedMeleeDamageMultiplie
Adjust damage from swords, bat, clubs and the like in PvP.

HumanToHumanUnarmedMeleeDamageMultiplier
Changes the damage of boxing between players.

NOTE: The default damage multiplier for all PvP damage is 2. Puppets are undead, technologically reanimated prisoners and as such should be harder to stop. The x2 damage against player is to reflect that they are living breathing people, squishier than corpses and easier to kill...the first time.

BlueprintsAutoDestroyTime
The time in minutes before items placed by players degrade and are removed from the server if not maintained or repaired by the players. This keeps the map from being littered with structures built and abandoned by players. Default is 15 days (21600 minutes). This applies to base components, shelters, fire rings and the like.

AllowSectorRespawn
Toggles whether or not players are allowed to spawn in a specific sector after death.

AllowShelterRespawnToggles
Toggles whether or not players are allowed to spawn at their last placed shelter after death.

AllowSquadmateRespawn
Toggles whether or not players are allowed to spawn on one of their squad mates after death.

RandomLocationPrice
The price in Fame Points charged to spawn in a random location. This selection is always available regardless of the players current FP. If they have less than the required price they will incur a negative FP balance.

SectorLocationPrice
The price in Fame Points charged for a player to spawn in a specific sector. This selection is unavailable if the player has less than the required Fame Points.

ShelterLocationPrice
The price in Fame Points charged for a player to spawn at their last placed shelter. This selection is unavailable if the player has less than the required Fame Points.

SquadLocationPrice
The price in Fame Points charged for a player to spawn on one of their squad mates. This selection is unavailable if the player has less than the required Fame Points.

RandomInitialTime
Time in seconds before this option becomes available after a player's first death.

SectorInitialTime
Time in seconds before this option becomes available after a player's first death.

ShelterInitialTime
Time in seconds before this option becomes available after a player's first death.

SquadInitialTime
Time in seconds before this option becomes available after a player's first death.

RandomCooldownTime
Time in seconds added to the delay before this option becomes available after each additional player's death.

SectorCooldownTime
Time in seconds added to the delay before this option becomes available after each additional player's death.

ShelterCooldownTime
Time in seconds added to the delay before this option becomes available after each additional player's death.

SquadCooldownTime
Time in seconds added to the delay before this option becomes available after each additional player's death.

RandomCooldownResetMultiplier
Increases or decreases the base time required for the respawn penalty to expire and the time for respawn to revert to value set in the RandomInitialTIme variable.

Note: As of right now, I do not know the value of the base number (the standard amount of time before the respawn penalty goes away) but I do know changing this variable will lengthen or shorten the duration.

SectorCooldownResetMultiplier
Same as above but for the Sector respawn time penalty.

ShelterCooldownResetMultiplier
Same as above but for the Shelter respawn time penalty.

SquadCooldownResetMultiplier
Same as above but for the Squad Mate respawn time penalty.

[Yoko]

Thank you, it would be super helpful if you would add the known min/max values.
There are some here:
https://scum.fandom.com/wiki/Server_Settings

[Uziel]

This was very very helpful, thanks a lot mate. We rent a gportal scum server just yesterday for the first time...

[Kingslayer]

What is an Exclusive Join, ReservedID or Banned List?

You can add players to an Exclusive Join list. ONLY these players can join the server. No one else.

If a player is on the Reserved Slots list and tries to join the full server, another random player (of course no Admins) is automatically kicked. So your regulars can always join you. You CAN’T choose which players will be kicked so your regular players can join!

Unwanted, trolling, or abusive players can be permanently banned from your server. They will never be able to access your server again with their Steam account unless you undo this. A banned list is a great way to maintain a friendly atmosphere on your server.

[Flannel]

@R.H. Bishop thanks for the input, so far I am obsessed with Scum, and the server made sense for running with friends. First time with GPortal and helps to talk with those who have used it. Valheim is great as well. Cheers

[R.H. Bishop]

@Flannel I played like a million hours and got burned out. I still love the game but I go hard and then break for a while especially with early access games. G-Portal is a good host imo. They answer tickets quickly and add game time to your account if there are server issues. Currently using them for Valheim (my current obsession).

[Flannel]

@R.H. Bishop was there a specific reason you shut down your server? GPortal, just curious was starting to go through the process of setting up a new server on GPortal.

[R.H. Bishop]

The reason I haven't updated the guide is because I don't have a server anymore. Without the config files being available and accessible until launch there is no way to figure out the settings without a g-portal server. I'm sorry. I can't believe there is still no official guide or that g-portal hasn't fixed their setting descriptions after so long.

[Carvalho]

Update please

[shep1phil]

Can we have an update?

Need to know about the weather setting

[Marsu-Marsu]

Hi im looking for un updating guide please !