Vintage Story /worldconfig Reference — The Keys Server Admins Actually Change

Vintage Story /worldconfig — The Reference for Keys Admins Actually Change

Last verified: June 12, 2026 against Vintage Story 1.22 stable.

Half of Vintage Story server administration lives in one command, and the official docs scatter it across pages. This is the consolidated /worldconfig reference: the syntax, the dozen keys that real servers actually change, the friendly-server and hardcore presets, and the distinction that trips up every new admin — what belongs to worldconfig versus serverconfig.json.

Syntax

• /worldconfig name — read the current value.
• /worldconfig name value — set it. Most changes apply to the live world; a few need a restart or only show in newly generated chunks (noted below).
• /worldconfigcreate datatype name value — create a key that has no built-in default. Datatypes: float, double, int, string, bool. Mostly used by mods that read their settings from worldconfig.

worldconfig vs serverconfig.json (the confusion that fills forums)

The rule: serverconfig.json's world-creation parameters apply only before the world exists; /worldconfig adjusts a world that already does. Many settings appear in both, so the classic failure is editing the config file on a running server, restarting, and seeing nothing change — past creation, the file's world section is inert and the in-game command is the lever. (Server-level settings — ports, whitelist, max players — stay in serverconfig.json; that guide covers them.)

The keys that matter

Spawn and death:

• gameMode — survival (default) or creative.
• deathPunishment — drop (default) or keep. The single most-requested change on co-op servers.
• spawnRadius — scatter of fresh spawns in blocks (default 50). Tighten to 10-20 for group starts so new players actually find each other; widen for scatter-survival events.
• graceTimer — in-game days before hostile creatures spawn (default 0). Five days is the sweet spot for new-player servers: enough time to reach copper without a drifter ambush at the firepit.
• playerlives — lives before permanent death; -1 = infinite (default behavior). The hardcore-event switch.

Difficulty:

• creatureHostility — aggressive (default), passive, or off. Passive keeps the creatures in the world but defangs them; off is full pacifist.
• playerHealthPoints — base health, default 15.
• playerHungerSpeed — 0-10 multiplier, default 1. The quiet difficulty dial: 0.75 noticeably relaxes the food treadmill, 1.5+ makes food preservation the center of the game.

Worldgen multipliers (new chunks only):

• globalTemperature — 0-5, default 1. Below 1 trends colder worlds, above 1 warmer.
• globalPrecipitation — 0-5, default 1. Pairs with temperature to define your climate bands.
• seasons — enabled (default) or pinned to a single season (spring, summer, fall, winter).

The worldgen trio deserves a warning: because they only shape newly generated chunks, changing them mid-game produces climate seams — a tundra border running through your farmland. These three want deciding at world creation. The Vintage Story world generator exists for exactly this: preview temperature, precipitation, and worldgen combinations before you commit a server (and a community's hundred hours) to one.

Three presets worth copying

• Friendly co-op: graceTimer 5, deathPunishment keep, playerHungerSpeed 0.75, spawnRadius 15. The settings behind most "chill VS server" listings.
• Default-plus: stock everything except graceTimer 2 — vanilla danger with a fair first night. The least controversial change you can make.
• Hardcore event: playerlives 3, deathPunishment drop, playerHungerSpeed 1.25, creatureHostility aggressive. Announce the lives count loudly; nobody reads the MOTD.

Operational notes

• Changes are admin-gated: /worldconfig requires admin privileges — see adding admins for the role setup, and the admin command reference for everything beyond worldconfig.
• Some changes want a restart. If a set value reads back correctly but does not behave, restart the server before debugging further; a subset of keys is read at world load.
• Mods extend this surface. Modded servers accumulate worldconfig keys (set via /worldconfigcreate) that vanilla never documents — when a mod's behavior seems unconfigurable, check its Mod DB page for worldconfig lines before editing JSON by hand.

Setting up a fresh world with the climate you actually want? Host a Vintage Story server with Supercraft — console access for worldconfig, daily backups for the day someone sets globalTemperature to 5.

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