Beginner Windrose Server Admin Guide for New Owners

Congratulations on your new Windrose server. This guide covers everything you need on day one: picking the right plan, locking your server down with a password, getting your crew connected with an invite code, and making sure your world is safe if something goes wrong.

Prerequisites

• A Windrose server. You can view our plans here.
• Windrose installed on your PC, so you can test the connection.

Step 1 - Choose a plan that fits your crew

Windrose is a demanding game to host, and memory is what matters most. The developers publish these requirements for a dedicated server:

Our plans line up like this:

If your server starts struggling as more players join, you can upgrade from Settings at any time.

Step 2 - Set your server name and password

1. Log in to the client area and open your Windrose server.
2. Click Settings and scroll down to Startup Variables.

The fields you'll use:

• Server Name: helps players tell your server apart when invite codes look similar.
• Server Password and Password Protected: to make your server private, enter a password and set Password Protected to True. The two must agree. If you set a password but leave Password Protected on False, or the other way round, Windrose can behave unpredictably.
• Max players: how many people can be on at once.
• Auto Update: keeps your server on the latest Windrose version every time it starts. Leave this on; players can't join a server running an older version.
• Invite code: your server's code. You can't edit it here, but you can copy it.
• Use Direct Connection: leave this on False. Windrose then connects players through its own connection service using your invite code, which is the most reliable option.

Click Save Variables when you're done. The server restarts with your new settings.

Step 3 - Share your invite code

Windrose players don't connect with an IP address. They use an invite code, a short code like fsmg7mln.

Your code is shown in the Invite code field under Startup Variables. Click Copy next to it and send it to your crew. It also appears in the Console each time the server finishes starting, on a line reading InviteCode : ....

To join, each player:

1. Opens Windrose.
2. Goes to Play, then Connect to Server.
3. Pastes the invite code, and enters the password if you set one.

Anyone with the code (and password) can join, so only share it with people you trust. Invite codes are case sensitive.

Step 4 - Get to know your server files

You'll rarely need to touch files on a Windrose server, but it helps to know where things are. Open File Manager and click into the R5 folder:

• ServerDescription.json: your server's settings. PLAYERTICK fills most of it in from your Startup Variables.
• Saved/SaveProfiles: your world and character saves.
• Saved/Logs: the server's log files, useful if something goes wrong.

The server's main folder also has DedicatedServer.md and SaveWorkflow.md, the developers' own technical notes on server settings and saves.

Choosing a connection region

Open ServerDescription.json to see your server's full settings:

One setting worth changing here is UserSelectedRegion. When it's empty, the server picks a connection region automatically. PLAYERTICK's Windrose servers are in London, so if your crew is in Europe or North America, set it to EU:

1. Stop the server. Windrose only allows this file to be edited while the server is off.
2. Change the line to "UserSelectedRegion": "EU",.
3. Click Save, then Start.

The other options are SEA and CIS. Don't edit PersistentServerId, and set your name, password and player count in Startup Variables rather than in this file.

Step 5 - Keep your world backed up

Windrose protects your world in two ways, and it's worth knowing both.

Windrose's own autosaves. The server regularly saves backups of your world into R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB_v2_Backups. If a save gets damaged, the server automatically loads the most recent good backup when it starts.

PLAYERTICK backups. These are full snapshots of your whole server that you control. Click Backups, then Create backup, and give it a name. Take one:

• before every big update
• before changing any files by hand
• before letting a new admin loose on the server

To make it automatic, set up a schedule on the Schedules page with a Create Backup task. A daily backup at a quiet time is a good start.

Step 6 - Good habits for new admins

• Restart once a day during quiet hours. Add a schedule with a Power Action set to Restart.
• Check the Console after every restart. Look for the InviteCode line to confirm the server registered successfully.
• Keep your plan in step with your crew. If memory use in the Memory Usage tile on the right sits near the top, upgrade from Settings before it causes problems.
• Only share the invite code privately. If it leaks, set a password.

Troubleshooting

If you can't fix it from the table, open a ticket from support with the time the problem happened and anything you changed beforehand, and check the status page for any ongoing issues.

Wrapping up

That's it: your Windrose server is named, locked down, backed up and ready for your crew. Hoist the sails! If you get stuck, reach out to us on Discord.