Understanding SCUM server files: the beginner's guide

The short version

A SCUM server is controlled through several files, not one. They all live in the same folder: SCUM/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/.

The most important is ServerSettings.ini with 437 values — practically everything that shapes how the server feels sits there. Alongside it are two JSON files for economy and raid times, plus six plain text lists for admins, bans and whitelists.

The iron rule for all of them: stop the server, edit, save, start. Edit a file while the server runs and you lose the change, because SCUM writes its own state back on shutdown.

Which file does what

ServerSettings.ini — the core. Name, slots, password, loot, puppets, vehicles, damage, raid protection, respawn, skills, tick rate. Split into six sections the game assigns itself: [General], [World], [Respawn], [Vehicles], [Damage], [Features]. Those sections grew organically and help little when searching — zombie damage sits under [Damage] while the zombies themselves sit under [World].

EconomyOverride.json — everything about trade: whether the economy runs at all, when it resets, how fast traders recover money and stock, how gold prices move. Looking in the INI for trader prices is a waste of time.

RaidTimes.json — the windows during which raiding is allowed, per weekday. Careful on rented servers: the times apply in the server's time zone, usually UTC — not your local time.

AdminUsers.ini — who holds admin rights, one Steam ID per line. WhitelistedUsers.ini — who gets priority on a full server. BannedUsers.ini, SilencedUsers.ini, ExclusiveUsers.ini and ServerSettingsAdminUsers.ini round it off. All are empty at first start and get filled by hand or through admin commands.

How to approach your first setup

Do not work through the file top to bottom — that produces a server that is coherent nowhere. This order has proven itself:

1. Decide first what kind of server this should be. Relaxed PvE for newcomers? Classic PvP with raid windows? Hardcore? That decision drives nearly every value that follows, and it is hard to reverse later without losing players.

2. Set the shop-window values. Server name, description, playstyle, welcome message with Discord link. That is all players see of you before joining — and the reason they join.

3. Then the three values with the biggest impact. Loot quantity, time-of-day speed and raid protection. Those three decide more about how a server feels than the remaining 434 combined.

4. Next, beginner friendliness. Fame gain, new player protection, alternator charging, battery loss while parked. These are the values servers fail on without anyone noticing: when new players give up in their first hour, the cause is almost always here.

5. Fine work last. Individual vehicle counts, animal prevalence, skill multipliers. That can happen while the server is already running.

Technical values only with a proven problem. Tick rate, virtualization, cull distances — touching these without a measured problem makes things worse more often than better.

Values that work differently than you expect

Four patterns almost everyone trips over once:

-1 means "the game decides", not "off". For many caps and probabilities -1 is both the default and the best choice, because the game then uses its built-in, location-aware distribution. A fixed number is nearly always cruder.

Switches with "Disable" in the name are negated. scum.DisableSentrySpawning=True turns sentries off. Miss that logic and you achieve the exact opposite of your intent.

Multipliers compound. Player-to-player damage and the armed melee supplement are two factors that multiply. Both at 2.0 gives quadruple damage, not double.

Global caps apply everywhere at once. A cap on puppet numbers covers the whole island. If players on the far side consume the budget, your area stays empty — even in the middle of a town.

Before you save

Back up the file. A copy with the date in its name costs ten seconds and saves an evening. That goes doubly before your first larger overhaul.

Change little at a time. Adjust twenty values at once, then find the server feels wrong, and you have no idea which one did it. Three to five changes, then play for a week.

Announce changes that affect property. Shortened despawn timers, a wipe switch, a smaller map: all of these destroy things players spent time on, at the next restart. An announcement in Discord costs nothing and keeps your community.

After an update, check for ballast. SCUM adds missing keys by itself but never clears out removed ones. A long-maintained file therefore ends up holding lines the game no longer reads. They do no harm, but anyone adjusting them waits in vain for an effect.