Changing SCUM single player settings

Single player runs on the same file as a server

This is where most people get stuck, and it is the good news: a single player game in SCUM runs on a server. That server simply runs on your own machine and lets nobody else in. The same game files, the same technology, the same settings.

So there is no separate, smaller list of values for single player. It is the full ServerSettings.ini with everything a rented server has: loot, puppets, animals, time, economy, base building. Everything this reference says about a setting applies to your single player game just the same.

Alongside ServerSettings.ini you will find RaidTimes.json, EconomyOverride.json and Notifications.json — the same set as on a server. What those files do is covered under config files.

Where the files are

The location is the only real difference. A server keeps its settings under WindowsServer, your single player game under WindowsNoEditor:

%LocalAppData%\SCUM\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\

The quickest way there is the address bar in Explorer: type %LocalAppData%\SCUM\Saved\Config and hit enter. The WindowsNoEditor folder appears once you have started a single player game at least once. Before that it is simply not there, and that is not a fault.

SCUM has to be closed while you edit. The game reads the file on startup and writes it back on exit. Change it while SCUM is running and your lines are gone the next time you quit. Close first, then edit, then start.

Putting a copy of the file aside beforehand costs nothing and saves you the whole mess if something goes wrong.

More loot in single player

The most common wish, and it comes down to two values. SpawnerProbabilityMultiplier decides how much appears at all. SpawnerExpirationTimeMultiplier decides how long it stays before it disappears and the spot is restocked.

That also answers whether loot respawns in single player: it does, by exactly the same rules as on any server. A house you cleared out fills up again once the expiration time has passed and you were far enough away. If you are impatient, lower the expiration time rather than raising the amount — that usually feels better in play than houses with cans stacked to the ceiling.

Go easy on large numbers. Loot is the strongest lever on balance in SCUM; tripled amounts take the tension out of the game within a few hours.

Fewer puppets — or a great many more

How many puppets are about at once is set by MaxAllowedPuppets. Turn it down for a quiet building game, up for a siege. How much they take is governed by PuppetHealthMultiplier.

There is a limit here that never shows up on a rented server: your machine is running both the game and the server. Every puppet, animal and NPC costs processing time that is then missing from your frame rate. If you push the limits up and wonder about the stutter, the explanation is under why a SCUM server stutters — it applies here too, except the same machine takes the hit twice.

The same goes for armed NPCs and the density of wildlife.

What the file cannot do

Conjuring up items, teleporting yourself, setting the clock on the spot: none of that is in the settings, it runs through the admin commands in game. In single player you have those without any detour, because the server is yours. The difference is fundamental — the file sets the rules of the world before it starts, the commands reach into it while you play.

The other way round, some settings naturally do nothing in single player. Anything that assumes other people — squad sizes, chat channels, respawning on a squadmate, raid times against other bases — stays in your file and simply has no effect. That is not a fault and no reason to delete the lines.

The clock, and how fast it runs

Two values that matter more in single player than on a busy server: TimeOfDaySpeed sets how quickly a day passes, StartTimeOfDay the time of day at startup.

The reason is simple: on a full server somebody is always playing, so the night is part of the deal. On your own you sit through it. If you want shorter nights without abolishing them, change the length of the day — that feels more natural than nailing the sun in place.

Let the configurator build or check the file

You do not have to hunt down the lines by hand. The server configurator builds you a complete ServerSettings.ini from four templates, with an explanation on every value. Copy it into the WindowsNoEditor folder afterwards and your next single player game starts with it.

It works the other way too: drop your existing file into the check and you get nonsensical values, contradictions and outdated lines listed out. The last of those are all but guaranteed in a long-running single player save, because SCUM adds new keys with every update but never clears out abolished ones. The file only ever grows.