Sunkenland Save Management & Backups

Managing Server Saves

This guide explains save management for dedicated hosting with practical steps to keep uptime stable, reduce regression risk, and maintain a smooth player experience.

Save File Location

Your server saves are stored in:

Note: On Linux servers running via Wine/Proton, this will be inside the pfx directory.

Creating Backups

1. Stop the server.
2. Copy the World folder to a secure location.
3. We recommend daily backups as the game is in Early Access and save corruption can occur during updates.

Restoring Saves

To restore, simply replace the World folder with your backup while the server is stopped.

Topic Deep Dive: save management

Save management on dedicated hosting is most reliable when changes are staged, measured, and validated against live-join behavior before wider rollout.

• Plan first: Plan maintenance for save management and announce player-facing impact in advance.
• Measure impact: Track CPU, RAM, and network baselines before and after each configuration change.
• Protect continuity: Keep rollback-ready backups so failed changes can be reverted within minutes.

Operational Checklist

Treat this topic as a repeatable server operation, not a one-time change. Schedule changes during lower traffic, announce maintenance windows, and keep a rollback snapshot before each update. If your server is modded, validate changes on a staging copy first so startup logs, world loading, and player joins are confirmed before production rollout.

Validation Steps

• Capture baseline metrics: Record CPU, RAM, and average player ping before changes.
• Apply one change at a time: Avoid batch edits that make root-cause analysis difficult.
• Review logs after restart: Check for version mismatch and dependency warnings immediately.
• Run a real join test: Confirm fresh clients can connect and complete core gameplay actions.
• Observe for at least 24 hours: Validate behavior under peak load, not only right after reboot.

Performance and Stability Notes

Most hosting incidents come from resource spikes combined with configuration drift. Keep restart cadence predictable, review world/save growth weekly, and cap optional systems that generate extreme entity counts. When performance drops, compare with your last known-good baseline and revert recent high-risk changes quickly to reduce downtime.

Backup and Rollback Policy

Use automated daily backups plus pre-change snapshots for risky operations. Keep at least one off-node copy and test restore procedures routinely. A practical retention strategy is 7 daily, 4 weekly, and 2 monthly restore points. If a change causes instability, roll back first, stabilize service, and then reattempt with a narrower test scope.

Game-Specific Hosting Notes

• Save integrity first: Validate world save write permissions and backup rotation before changing gameplay or admin settings.
• Co-op desync control: Prefer stable update windows and avoid changing multiple progression-related settings between sessions.
• Player slots: Scale slots to real CPU headroom, not only RAM, to avoid combat/input latency during base-heavy gameplay.