DayZ Server Settings Explained

Everything in a DayZ server's serverDZ.cfg that most owners touch is on the Game Settings page of the panel, with a short explanation next to each field. This page goes through them in the order they appear, so you know what to change and what to leave alone.

1Where to Find Them

• Log in to your game panel and click your DayZ server.
• Open Game Settings in the left menu. Change what you need, save, and restart the server: DayZ reads the configuration on start.

2Server Identity

• Server Name is what players see in the launcher. Make it specific; the Community tab lists thousands of servers.
• Max Players is the number of slots. Your plan sets the ceiling the hardware is comfortable with.
• Server Password closes the server to everyone without it. Leave it empty for a public server.
• Admin Password is the #login password, see how to make yourself admin.
• RCon Password is used by the Players page and by tools such as BattleMetrics.

3Fair Play

• Verify Signatures checks that players only run signed mod files that match the server. Keep it On; it is the main defence against modified clients.
• Same Game Version Only rejects players on another DayZ version than the server. Keep it on; it prevents the "could not connect" reports after a patch.

4Gameplay

• First Person Only removes the third person camera, the classic hardcore setting.
• Hide Crosshair removes the crosshair.
• No Personal Light turns off the faint light around every player at night.
• Darker Nights uses the darker night lighting. Combined with No Personal Light, nights need a torch.
• Disable Voice Chat turns off in-game voice; Voice Quality (0 to 30) trades sound quality for bandwidth.

5Time

• Time Speed is how much faster the in-game clock runs than real time. 12 means a full day takes two hours.
• Night Speed multiplies the night on top of that. 1 keeps nights at the same speed as days; a higher value shortens them, which many public servers do.
• Keep Time of Day continues from the saved in-game time after a restart instead of the real clock.

6Updates and Repairs

• Automatic Updates updates the server and every Workshop mod on each start. See how to update your DayZ server.
• Game Version switches between Stable and Experimental. Changing it needs a reinstall from the Settings page.
• Validate Files checks and repairs the game files on the next start. Turn it off again afterwards; it makes every start slow.
• Lowercase Mod Files fixes mods that fail to load on Linux because of upper case file names.

Good to Know

• Loot, spawns and the economy are not in the server config. They live in the mission folder, mpmissions/dayzOffline.chernarusplus, in files such as cfgeconomycore.xml, types.xml and cfgspawnabletypes.xml. Edit them with the file manager while the server is stopped, and keep a copy of the original.
• Launch parameters such as -dologs and -adminlog are under Extra Startup Parameters on the Startup page. The defaults are the sensible ones.

Finished

You know what each setting does. If you changed the mission files, take a manual backup before the next experiment.