Abiotic Factor Server Worlds, Saves and Your PC Save

An Abiotic Factor server keeps each world in a folder of its own and plays the one named by -WorldSaveName. Moving the world you played on your PC onto a server is a matter of copying one folder.

Where a server keeps its worlds

In SaveGames/Server/Worlds, one folder per world, named by the world, each holding WorldSave_*.sav files. Admin.ini sits beside it in SaveGames/Server, and the game keeps its own rolling backups in SaveGames/Server/Backups. -WorldSaveName says which world the server plays.

How often it saves, and what a stop costs

The server autosaves every 5 minutes (its log says "Finished autosaving"). It cannot be told to save sooner: it has no RCON, and a stop signal ends it at once without a save. So a stop, a restart or a crash costs whatever happened since the last autosave, up to 5 minutes.

  • On Flux, a restart waits a few seconds for an autosave in progress to finish, then ends the game. Restarting right after an autosave loses almost nothing.
  • The daily restart and game updates wait for an empty server, up to an hour, so nobody is mid-session when it restarts.
  • The Worlds tab and the Overview show when the world was last saved.
Tip:The Abiotic Factor server cannot be told to save. It autosaves every 5 minutes, so a stop, a restart or a crash can lose up to 5 minutes of play.

Starting a new world

Give -WorldSaveName a name that has no folder and the game makes the world on that start. On Flux, the Worlds tab does it for you: name the world and start it now, or prepare it first, set its sandbox rules in Server Settings, and restart.

Tip:Never create an empty world folder by hand. A world folder with no WorldSave file in it is corrupt to the game, which then shuts the server down after 5 minutes. Our image moves such a folder aside at every start.

Moving your PC save to a server

  1. Close the game on your PC. On Windows the game keeps its saves under %LOCALAPPDATA%\AbioticFactor\Saved\SaveGames, in a folder per Steam account.
  2. Find the world's folder (the one with the WorldSave files in it) and zip it.
  3. On Flux, upload the zip in the Worlds tab under a new name, then press Play on it. The server restarts onto it.

By hand on your own server: copy the folder into SaveGames/Server/Worlds under the name you want, start the server with -WorldSaveName=<that name>.

Tip:We could not test with a real PC save, as no game client was available. The panel takes the zip of a world folder as it is and puts it next to your other worlds, never over one.

Downloads and backups

  • Download any world from the Worlds tab as a .zip: the same format the upload takes back.
  • On Flux every world is backed up when the server starts (unless a backup is under an hour old) and every six hours; the last ten are kept, plus the safety copies made before a restore or a world is deleted.

Frequently asked questions

How often does an Abiotic Factor server save?

Every 5 minutes, by itself. It cannot be told to save sooner, so a stop or a restart can lose up to 5 minutes.

How do I start over on my server?

Start a new world with a new name and keep the old one, or delete the old one after downloading it. On Flux, deleting a world makes a backup first.

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