SCUM Server Settings Generator
All 432 documented settings for SCUM's ServerSettings.ini: world population and encounters, respawn prices, per-vehicle caps, damage multipliers, loot abundance, raid protection, per-skill XP, the lot. Every one is a toggle or a field with a plain-English explanation, so you're not guessing what does what. Change what you care about, copy the output, paste it into your ServerSettings.ini. Anything you don't touch keeps SCUM's default, so the file stays clean instead of a wall of redundant lines.
Before you edit — three things that trip everyone up
- Stop the server first. SCUM reads
ServerSettings.inionly on start. Edit it live and nothing happens, and worse, the server can clobber your changes when it writes state on shutdown. So it's stop, then edit, then start. In that order. - Host panels override the file. If your host (GPORTAL, Nitrado, etc.) exposes settings as startup variables, those win over the
.inion every restart, every time. Change those in the panel, not the file, and back the file up before you touch it. - The economy isn't here. Trader and economy tuning lives in a separate
EconomyOverride.json(hyphenated keys likeenable-economy). This generator isServerSettings.inionly. An economy tool is its own separate build.
General & Server Identity
Name, password, player cap, tick rate, chat and voting. This is the stuff people see before they even spawn in, so it decides whether they click your server or scroll past it.
Your server's name in the browser. Front-load a keyword — nobody scrolls to find you.
The blurb under your name. Rules, wipe schedule, Discord — the pitch, not your life story.
Leave blank for public. Set it and only people you've handed the password to get in.
Player cap. Your CPU, not your ambition, decides the real ceiling.
Extra ID-based anti-cheat protection. Off by default.
URL to a banner image shown in the server browser. Optional dress-up.
Advertises your server's playstyle in the browser. Set it honestly or watch the salt roll in.
The first line players see on join. Rules link goes here, not 'welcome to our server'.
Rotating server notice. Wipe dates, events, the Discord invite.
How often the MOTD re-shows, in minutes. Too frequent = chat spam nobody reads.
Floor for the simulation rate. Leave it unless you know exactly why you're touching it.
Ceiling for the simulation rate. Higher feels smoother and eats more CPU.
Enforce the ping kick below. On = laggy players get shown the door.
Kick players above this ping. Too low and you cull half your continent.
Seconds your body stays vulnerable after you log off. Combat-log deterrent.
Longer logout timer if you're being held captive — no logging out of a kidnapping.
The brutal one: logout timer inside a bunker. Default is basically 'don't'.
Permit first-person view. Turn off both this and third-person and nobody can see anything.
Permit third-person view. Hardcore PvP servers often kill this for fair peeking.
Show the crosshair. Off = you actually have to aim down sights.
Let players vote on weather/time/cargo drops. Off = your world, your rules.
Allow the in-game map. Off = navigation by landmarks and vibes.
Let players claim credit for kills. Feeds the kill-notification and fame systems.
Allow the coma downed-state instead of instant death. Off = harsher.
Permit mines and traps. Base-defense staple; disable if you're tired of the driveway explosions.
Let players grind skills in safe zones. Off stops the AFK-in-safety XP farm.
Enable world events (cargo drops etc). Off = a quieter, emptier island.
Apply limits to global chat. Pairs with the chat toggles below.
Server-wide chat. Off pushes people to local/squad and cuts the cross-map trash talk.
Proximity chat. The immersive one — keep it on.
Squad-only chat channel. Coordinating a raid without this is pain.
Admin-only chat channel. Handy for staff coordination.
Log rusty-lock (lockpicking) events. On if you're chasing raid disputes.
Hide the 'X killed Y' popups. On keeps kills quiet and mysterious.
Disable the examine-mode ghost preview. Niche.
Turn off the periodic timed gift drops. Off by default means gifts are on.
Enforce the map's no-build zones. Off lets people build in places the devs said not to.
Kill base building entirely. On = a pure nomad/loot server.
How long a vote stays open, in seconds.
Fraction of players who must vote for the result to count. 0.5 = half must care.
Fraction of yes-votes needed to pass. 0.5 = simple majority.
How often (seconds) the server heartbeats the master list. Leave it.
Local-test flag. Leave False on a real public server.
Trigger a partial wipe on next start. Set, restart, then set back to False.
Wipe gold on next start. One-shot flag — flip it back after.
Nuke everything on next start. The big red button — flip back to False immediately after.
Multiplies all fame-point gain. Crank it for a fast-progression server.
Fraction of fame lost when you die. 0.1 = 10% sting.
Fraction of fame lost when another player kills you. Getting murdered hurts more.
Fame gained for a player kill. Tune your PvP incentive here.
Log every suicide. On if you care who's respawn-taxiing.
Let fresh spawns start on the ground rather than the usual flow.
Auto-prune players who haven't logged in for a while (see the day threshold below).
Days of silence before a player counts as inactive and gets cleaned up.
Also delete banned users' data. Off keeps the ban record around.
How long a chest survives in a forbidden zone before cleanup. Format is HH:MM:SS.
Track who owns which chest. Useful for raid/theft disputes.
Clean duplicate chests on boot. On if a bad shutdown left ghost containers.
Config schema version. Don't hand-edit this — the game manages it.
Stop building too close to POIs and each other. Off = base-on-a-trader chaos.
Item-virtualization internal. Leave it alone unless a dev tells you otherwise.
Item-virtualization internal. Don't touch.
Item-virtualization internal. Don't touch.
Item-virtualization internal. Don't touch.
Item-virtualization internal. Don't touch.
World & Encounters
Population caps, puppets (zombies), armed NPCs, animals, encounters, day/night, bunkers, cargo drops. Basically the entire state of the 225 km² island, and the section most likely to hammer your server if you crank it too hard.
Bird cap. -1 = unlimited. Ambient only, but they cost frames.
Total AI character cap. -1 = engine default. The big performance dial.
Zombie (puppet) cap. -1 = default. Lower it if your CPU is crying.
Cap on NPCs. -1 = default.
Surveillance drone cap. 0 = no drones watching you.
Stop sentries from spawning. On = the automated turrets stay quiet.
Let killed sentries come back. Off = clear one, it stays cleared.
Turn off the exploding suicide puppets. Your base walls will thank you.
Stop loot-carrying puppets spawning. On thins out the loot-pinata zombies.
Allow loot-puppet hordes. Off = no swarming pinata packs.
Noise needed to stir an abandoned bunker. -1 = default.
Extra noise threshold per additional player in the bunker. -1 = default.
Threshold to activate bunker enemies. -1 = default.
Extra activation threshold per additional player. -1 = default.
Only reset bunker armory lockers when the bunker activates, not on a timer.
Let zombies open doors. Off = a closed door is actually safe.
Let zombies vault through windows. Off makes buildings much safer.
Zombie HP multiplier. 2 = spongy, 0.5 = one-tap. Set the zombie tone here.
Zombie sprint speed. Push toward 2 for genuine nightmare fuel.
Force a puppet render/cull distance in metres. -1 = default.
Dropship HP multiplier. Higher = harder to shoot down.
Sentry turret HP multiplier.
HP of sentries that spawn to attack bases during base-building encounters.
Armed NPC difficulty. 1 easy, 3 they-will-ruin-your-day.
Armed NPC HP multiplier.
Armed NPC outgoing damage. Raise it and their bullets bite.
Armed NPC bullet spread. Lower = laser-accurate, higher = spray-and-pray.
How fast armed NPCs run you down.
Force armed-NPC network cull distance in metres. -1 = default.
Chance a searched armed NPC drops its held item. 1 = always.
Worst condition of that dropped item. 0.2 = pretty beat up.
Best condition of that dropped item. Keep above the minimum above.
Force animal network cull distance in metres. -1 = default.
Base number of characters per encounter. The core encounter-density dial.
Extra encounter characters added per nearby player. Scales difficulty with the crowd.
Caps how far the per-player scaling above can push.
How fast dead encounter characters come back. Higher = slower respawns.
How many respawn at once per batch.
Chance encounter characters spawn already aggressive. -1 = default.
How far your noise carries to encounter AI. Higher = they hear you sneeze.
Base size of horde-group encounters.
Extra horde-group members per player.
Cap on the horde-group per-player scaling.
Base size of full hordes.
Extra horde members per player.
Cap on horde per-player scaling.
How likely a horde triggers at all. Crank for chaos, zero for peace.
Cooldown between horde noise checks.
How far away hordes spawn from you.
How fast horde groups refill their ranks.
Play a sound when a horde activates. On = a fair audio warning.
Chance a horde announces itself with a scream. -1 = default.
Let the engine cull low-priority encounter characters under load. Keep on for perf.
Clamp encounter counts when the server runs low on resources. Perf safety valve.
Min spawn distance in low-threat zones. -1 = default.
Max spawn distance in low-threat zones. -1 = default.
Min spawn distance at large POIs. -1 = default.
Max spawn distance at large POIs. -1 = default.
Min respawn distance in low-threat zones. -1 = default.
Max respawn distance in low-threat zones. -1 = default.
Min respawn distance at large POIs. -1 = default.
Max respawn distance at large POIs. -1 = default.
Radius of low-threat zones.
Radius of medium-threat zones.
Radius of high-threat zones.
Override for virtualized encounter time in minutes. -1 = default.
How close you must be to activate an encounter zone.
Global cooldown between zone activations.
Allow spawns in prevention areas when a character dies. Niche.
Turn off encounter respawns entirely. On = clear it and it stays clear.
How heavily puppets weight into world encounters vs other threats.
How heavily dropships weight into world encounters.
Let dropships show up at abandoned-bunker events.
Chance a dropship triggers at an abandoned bunker. -1 = default.
Chance an encounter triggers against a base. -1 = default.
Timing multiplier for base-building encounters.
Let dropships attack bases. Off by default — turning it on is spicy.
Spawn threat-zone encounters even inside base areas.
Lighter encounter logic when few players are online. Good for small servers.
Minimum base size before base encounters can start. -1 = default.
Base size at which a base encounter ends. -1 = default.
Extra encounter damage per squad member. Scales the beating with your crew size.
Ramp time to full 'elements to end' threshold. -1 = default.
Cap on how much the end-threshold can drop. -1 = default.
Clock time the server world starts at. HH:MM:SS.
Day/night cycle speed. 1 = real-time (24h day). Higher = faster days.
How dark nights get. 1 = pitch black, bring a flashlight. 0 = engine default.
When the sun comes up. HH:MM:SS.
When the sun goes down. HH:MM:SS.
Allow fog. Off = clearer sightlines, better frames, less atmosphere.
Clean up anything that ended up outside the map on restart. Keep on.
Allow locked loot containers that need lockpicking. Off = everything opens.
Enable a custom map region via the coordinates below. Advanced.
Custom map center X. Only matters with CustomMapEnabled on.
Custom map center Y. Only matters with CustomMapEnabled on.
Custom map width in km. Caps at the full island width.
Custom map height in km.
Whether garage doors can be locked. Off by default.
Enable radiation zones. Off = no rads to manage, a softer world.
Shortest gap between cargo drops, in minutes.
Longest gap between cargo drops, in minutes.
Delay before the cargo actually falls after it's announced.
How long the crate takes to descend.
How long the crate sits before it self-destructs. Your looting window.
How many zombies a cargo drop pulls in. Raise it to make loot cost blood.
How likely a dropship crashes the cargo party.
Master animal toggle. Off = a strangely quiet, meatless island.
Overall animal density. Crank it for a hunter's paradise.
Hard cap on active (non-virtualized) animals. Perf ceiling.
How many bears roam. Higher = more surprise maulings.
Boar population dial.
Chicken population dial. Free eggs and feathers.
Deer population dial. The reliable meat run.
Donkey population dial.
Goat population dial.
Horse population dial. Free transport if you can tame the odds.
Rabbit population dial. Small meals, big numbers.
Wolf population dial. Raise it and the woods bite back.
Bear HP multiplier. Already tanky — proceed with caution.
Boar HP multiplier.
Chicken HP multiplier. A bullet-sponge chicken is a cursed idea. Do it.
Deer HP multiplier.
Donkey HP multiplier.
Goat HP multiplier.
Horse HP multiplier.
Rabbit HP multiplier.
Wolf HP multiplier.
How often the good-fishing zones move, in hours.
How much of the map counts as high-activity fishing. -1 = default.
Keycards allowed for standard killbox bunkers.
Keycards for the police-station killbox.
Keycards for the radiation-zone killbox.
How many abandoned bunkers can be active at once.
How long an abandoned bunker stays active, in hours.
How long a bunker keycard stays valid, in hours.
Cooldown on the bunker BCU terminal. HH:MM:SS.
How long a secret-bunker keycard lasts, in hours. Default 30 min — move fast.
HP fraction at which puppets start limping. -1 = default.
HP fraction at which armed NPCs start limping. -1 = default.
Respawn & Death
Where and how players come back: spawn types, prices in gold or currency, cooldowns, and the permadeath threshold. This is where you set how much a death actually hurts.
Let players respawn at a chosen sector. Off narrows the respawn menu.
Let players respawn at their shelter. The 'home base' spawn.
Let players respawn on a squadmate. Great for keeping a group together.
Currency cost of a random respawn. 0 = free.
Currency cost to pick your respawn sector. Pricier than random for a reason.
Gold cost to respawn at your shelter.
Gold cost to shelter-respawn when the shelter's outside a flag area.
Gold cost to respawn on a squadmate.
Initial wait before a random respawn is available.
Initial wait for a sector respawn.
Initial wait for a shelter respawn.
Initial wait for a squadmate respawn.
Cooldown between random respawns.
Cooldown between sector respawns.
Cooldown between shelter respawns.
Cooldown between squad respawns.
How much the random cooldown grows on repeat use.
How much the sector cooldown grows on repeat use. Discourages spam.
How much the shelter cooldown grows on repeat use.
How much the squad cooldown grows on repeat use.
Bumps random respawn price per squadmate. 0 = flat price.
Bumps sector respawn price per squadmate.
Bumps shelter respawn price per squadmate.
Initial wait before the suicide option is available.
Cooldown between suicides. Stops the respawn-reroll lottery.
How much the suicide cooldown grows with repeated use.
How close to a base a fresh spawn can land, in metres.
Fame floor for permadeath. Drop below this and your character is gone for good.
Vehicles
Per-vehicle spawn caps, functional caps and minimum-purchased amounts, plus fuel and battery drain and cleanup timers. Tune these unless you want the map buried under abandoned cars.
How fast engines burn fuel. Lower = friendlier road trips.
How fast the engine drains the battery.
How fast lights/radio drain the battery.
How fast a parked battery goes flat.
How fast driving recharges the battery.
How fast a dynamo recharges the battery.
Max Kinglet Duster planes in the world.
Minimum player-purchased Kinglet Dusters kept available.
Max dirtbikes in the world.
How many dirtbikes can be fully functional at once.
Minimum purchased dirtbikes kept available.
Max Laika 4x4s in the world.
Max functional Laikas at once.
Minimum purchased Laikas kept available.
Max motorboats in the world.
Minimum purchased motorboats kept available.
Max wheelbarrows. The humble hauler.
Minimum purchased wheelbarrows kept available.
Max Wolfswagen cars in the world.
Max functional Wolfswagens at once.
Minimum purchased Wolfswagens kept available.
Max bicycles. Silent, fuel-free, zero dignity.
Minimum purchased bicycles kept available.
Max Rager vehicles in the world.
Max functional Ragers at once.
Minimum purchased Ragers kept available.
Max Cruiser vehicles in the world.
Max functional Cruisers at once.
Minimum purchased Cruisers kept available.
Max Ris vehicles in the world.
Max functional Ris at once.
Minimum purchased Ris kept available.
Max dinghies in the world.
Minimum purchased dinghies kept available.
Max paddleboards (SUP) in the world.
Minimum purchased SUPs kept available.
Max Kinglet Mariner boats in the world.
Minimum purchased Kinglet Mariners kept available.
Max tractors in the world.
Minimum purchased tractors kept available.
Max sidecar motorcycles in the world.
Max functional sidecar bikes at once.
Minimum purchased sidecar bikes kept available.
How long an abandoned vehicle survives before cleanup. Default is 240 hours.
How long a vehicle survives parked in a forbidden zone.
Log every vehicle destruction. Handy for raid/grief disputes.
Damage Multipliers
Global damage dials: player-vs-player, sentries, dropships, zombies, and item, food and weapon decay. Small numbers here swing the whole difficulty, so nudge before you yank.
All player-vs-player damage. The master PvP lethality dial.
PvP damage with melee weapons (bats, knives).
PvP damage with fists. Crank for a bare-knuckle fight club.
PvP damage from thrown weapons.
How hard sentries hit players.
Sentry railgun damage specifically.
Sentry grenade damage.
Damage from sentries that attack bases.
Railgun damage from base-attacking sentries.
Grenade damage from base-attacking sentries.
How much sentries damage base structures.
How hard dropships hit players.
Dropship railgun damage.
How much dropships damage base structures.
How hard zombies hit. Pair with health/speed for your zombie difficulty.
How fast items wear out. 0 = things never degrade.
How fast food spoils. Lower it if survival micromanagement isn't the point.
How much guns wear per shot. 0 = weapons never degrade from firing.
How much damage locks resist during raids. Higher = tougher to break in.
Features — Flags, Base Building, Raid Protection, Skills, Quests, Turrets
The big grab-bag: flag and base limits, raid protection, resource replenish rates, per-skill XP multipliers, squad limits, quests, turret behavior, new-player protection and HUD toggles. Every one of the 135 keys is here, so if a setting exists, it's in this pile somewhere.
How long it takes to overtake an enemy flag. HH:MM:SS.
Max build elements under one flag. The core base-size cap.
Bonus build elements per extra squad member. Bigger crew, bigger base.
Cap on expanded elements per flag.
Let one player own several flags. Off = one base per person.
How many flags a player may own (when multiple flags are allowed).
Allow placing flags on base-building elements. Off by default.
Hours before an unowned chest can be acquired by someone else.
Max weapon racks per flag area. -1 = unlimited.
Weapon racks past this count start decaying. -1 = off.
Max wall weapon racks per flag area. -1 = unlimited.
Wall racks past this count start decaying. -1 = off.
Max wells per flag area. -1 = unlimited.
Wells past this count start decaying. -1 = off.
Max player turrets per flag area. -1 = unlimited.
Turrets past this count start decaying. -1 = off.
Max ovens per flag area. -1 = unlimited.
Ovens past this count start decaying. -1 = off.
Max gardens per flag area. -1 = unlimited.
Max smokers per flag area.
Smokers past this count start decaying.
Max tombstones per squad. -1 = unlimited.
Allow floors on half/low walls. A base-building geometry rule.
Allow walls on half/low walls.
How fast unmaintained base parts decay. 0 = bases never rot.
Damage above this to a base gets logged. Raid-evidence dial.
Raid-protection mode. 0 = off; higher values enable scheduled/offline protection.
Log raid-protection events.
Cooldown before a flag's raid-protection settings can change again.
Gold cost to change a flag's raid-protection settings.
Max per-flag raid-protection window.
Delay after everyone logs off before offline raid protection kicks in.
Max offline raid-protection window. Default was blank in-source — set explicitly if you use offline protection.
Show players the raid-window times.
Announce when raid windows open/close.
Show raid start/end messages.
Cost multiplier for water at pumps/wells.
Starting water stock at a source.
Max water a source holds.
How much water refills per cycle.
How often water refills.
Water refill when a player is nearby.
Chance of a proximity water refill.
Cooldown on proximity water refills.
Cost multiplier for gasoline.
Starting gasoline stock at a source.
Max gasoline a source holds.
How much gasoline refills per cycle.
How often gasoline refills.
Gasoline refill when a player is nearby.
Chance of a proximity gasoline refill.
Cooldown on proximity gasoline refills.
Cost multiplier for propane.
Starting propane stock at a source.
Max propane a source holds.
How much propane refills per cycle.
How often propane refills.
Propane refill when a player is nearby.
Chance of a proximity propane refill.
Cooldown on proximity propane refills.
Global loot-spawner probability. The big loot-abundance dial.
Probability for examine-triggered loot spawners.
How long examine-spawned loot lingers.
How long spawned loot lingers before it despawns.
Group items into shared spawn cooldowns. Anti-farming.
Length of those shared cooldowns.
Squad size allowed at Intelligence level 1. Brains cap your crew.
Squad size at Intelligence level 2.
Squad size at Intelligence level 3.
Squad size at Intelligence level 4.
Squad size at Intelligence level 5. The full-crew cap.
Squad-size limit tied to the oversize penalties below.
Probation window after squad changes, in days.
Currency penalty per previous squad member. 0 = no penalty.
Fame penalty per previous squad member. 0 = no penalty.
Show squadmate names floating above them.
How long harvesting a plant takes.
Bonus yield chance on a plant's first harvest.
Enable the selected-skills promotion system.
Archery XP gain rate. Crank all skill multipliers for a fast-leveling server.
Aviation XP gain rate.
Awareness XP gain rate.
Brawling XP gain rate.
Camouflage XP gain rate.
Cooking XP gain rate.
Demolition XP gain rate.
Driving XP gain rate.
Endurance XP gain rate.
Engineering XP gain rate.
Farming XP gain rate.
Handgun XP gain rate.
Medical XP gain rate.
Melee-weapons XP gain rate.
Motorcycle XP gain rate.
Rifles XP gain rate.
Running XP gain rate.
Sniping XP gain rate.
Stealth XP gain rate.
Survival XP gain rate.
Thievery XP gain rate.
Master toggle for the quest system.
How long a global quest cycle lasts. HH:MM:SS.
Quests each trader offers per cycle.
How many of a trader's quests can be active at once.
Cooldown before a trader restocks quests.
Cooldown before phone quests refill.
Cooldown before notice-board quests refill.
Stop quest-required items from being sold to traders.
Do turrets shoot players (prisoners)? Off = friendly turrets.
Do turrets shoot zombies? Great automated base defense.
Do turrets shoot vehicles?
Do turrets shoot sentries?
Do turrets shoot animals? Off by default so you don't auto-murder the deer.
Do turrets shoot armed NPCs?
How much momentum affects movement. 0 = snappy, 1 = weighty.
Stamina cost per jump. 0 = bunny-hop freely.
Stamina cost per climb.
Turn off exhaustion entirely. On = run forever, survival-lite.
How fast the body sim runs — digestion, metabolism. Ties loosely to the day-speed default.
How long beds and other maintenance items last with no interaction before they expire. Default is 360 hours.
Extra seconds added on a failed killbox-defuse attempt. Punishes fumbling under pressure.
How long your sleeping bag stays visible to others after you log out. Low = it hides fast.
Allow the BCU lock. On = the lock mechanic works.
Hours before a player can rename their character again. Default is a full week.
Currency cost of a name change. 0 = free rerolls.
Shield fresh spawns from PvP for a window. Off = welcome to the meat grinder, day one.
How long new-player protection lasts, in minutes. Default is two hours.
Auto-open the chute just before you hit the ground. Off = pull it yourself or become terrain.
Hide the quickbar slots from the HUD. True = hidden (yes, the naming is backwards).
Hide the health/stamina stats from the HUD. True = hidden — hardcore immersion mode.
Enable the Deena NPC on the server. Off removes her.
Let players use the Deluxe Survival Pack (formerly Digital Deluxe Starter Pack).
Let players claim the Free Gold Card from the Digital Deluxe pack.
Server-side guard against players dodging the ping limit. On for competitive servers.
Log active network objects for leak diagnosis. Leave off — it costs a little performance and is only for chasing bugs.
Advanced / Raw Config Overrides
The escape hatch for any scum. line this form doesn't have a field for. One scum.Key=Value per line, appended verbatim to the output. Fair warning: pasted lines don't get read back into the form, so this is a one-way trip.
About the SCUM server settings generator
SCUM's ServerSettings.ini is the master config for a dedicated server: 432 settings, every one prefixed scum., split across the game's six real sections. General (identity, chat, fame, wipes), World (zombies, armed NPCs, animals, encounters, day/night, bunkers, cargo drops), Respawn (spawn types, prices, cooldowns, permadeath), Vehicles (per-vehicle caps, fuel and battery drain), Damage (PvP, sentries, decay), and Features (flags, raid protection, resource replenish, per-skill XP, quests, turrets). Most references out there are read-only tables you copy off by hand. This one's interactive: flip what you want, copy a paste-ready file.
Every tip is written straight from the setting's own description. The one value the source left blank carries a ⚠ verify badge, because we'd rather flag what we can't confirm than dress up a guess as fact.
Where does ServerSettings.ini live?
On a self-hosted server:
\SCUM\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\ServerSettings.ini(Windows)- On managed hosts (GPORTAL, Nitrado, and most panels): control panel → Configuration Files / Config Editor
Unlike most game configs, the file is flat. There's no [Section] header, so each line is just scum.SomeKey=Value. Paste the generated lines anywhere in the file, or replace matching lines. Anything you don't set keeps the game default, which is exactly why the output here contains only what you actually changed.
Why didn't my changes take effect?
SCUM reads ServerSettings.ini only when the server starts. Edit it while the server's up and nothing happens, and the server may overwrite your live edits when it saves on shutdown, so you lose them twice over. Always stop the server, edit, then start. And if your host panel exposes a setting as a startup variable, that panel value overrides the file on every restart, so change those in the panel and not the file.
What about the economy and traders?
Not in this file. Economy and trader tuning lives in a separate file, EconomyOverride.json, with its own hyphenated keys (enable-economy, traders-unlimited-funds, and so on). Most references blur the two together; we keep them clean. A SCUM economy generator is its own separate build.
Do I have to configure anything?
No. A stock SCUM server runs fine on defaults. The 432 settings are there for admins who want the world tuned their way: softer or nastier zombies, cheaper respawns, faster skills, loot everywhere, raid windows. Start from a preset above (Vanilla, PvE, Hardcore, High Loot) and adjust from there, or just search for the exact setting you're after.
More SCUM tools
- SCUM Admin Commands: all 89 in-game
#commands, including spawn items, teleport, weather, fame, moderation and the developer cheats, plus how to become admin - All config generators: every game's server-settings builder