Astro Colony Server Hosting

What does an Astro Colony dedicated server give you?

An Astro Colony dedicated server keeps your colony online without depending on anyone's gaming PC. In regular co-op the session ends when the host quits; on your own server, everyone logs in on their own schedule and picks up the production line where it stopped.

The game is about founding colonies across a procedurally generated universe, linking them together and automating production with conveyor belts and pipes while you keep your astronauts fed and sheltered and push through the research tree. A handful of server keys shape that experience. SharedTechnologies lets research unlock for every player at once. OxygenConsumption can be switched off for a more relaxed pace. Groups that only want to build can enable Sandbox or FreeConstruction and design without gathering resources, and UnlimitedResourceStack removes most inventory juggling. The same server software can therefore run a tight survival colony or a pure creative space for your friends.

How much RAM does an Astro Colony server need?

For a small crew on a fresh save, 4 GB is enough; what really drives the requirement is how big the colony gets, not the headcount. Every structure, conveyor segment, pipe run and astronaut adds to what the server tracks each tick, and the save file grows as more of the universe is explored.

Our rule of thumb: groups of 2 to 4 starting a new world are comfortable on Bronze 4GB. If you are planning a world that will run for months with several linked colonies, starting on Gold 8GB pushes the upgrade conversation far down the road. Platinum and Diamond add memory headroom for very large late-game saves.

On the CPU side, automation games lean on single-thread speed, and every plan uses the same Ryzen 9 9950X. Bronze through Diamond get 4 vCores, Emerald gets 6 and Xtreme gets 12. When you think about disk, remember AutosavesCount: ten rotating autosaves by default, and each one gets heavier as the colony matures.

Which ServerSettings.ini options matter most?

Nearly everything about an Astro Colony server is controlled from the [/Script/ACFeature.EHServerSubsystem] section of ServerSettings.ini. Open it in the panel's file manager or over SFTP, and stop the server before editing so your changes are not overwritten.

Start with these. ServerPassword locks the server. MaxPlayers caps concurrent players. MapName is the world name shown in the server list. Seed is only used when a new save is created; while ShouldLoadLatestSavegame is enabled the server loads the most recent save on every start, so changing the seed does not touch an existing world.

AdminList takes comma-separated Steam64 IDs. The gameplay switches SharedTechnologies, OxygenConsumption, FreeConstruction, UnlimitedResourceStack and Sandbox each accept true or false. For saves, AutosaveInterval is measured in minutes and defaults to 5, and AutosavesCount limits how many autosaves are kept before the oldest is rotated out.

Handling updates, saves and backups

Astro Colony expects the server build to match the players' game version, so when the game updates, the server files need to be brought up to the same version. When versions drift apart, the usual symptom is that the server disappears from the list or players get rejected on join. If you are not sure how to pull the update on your server, message support and we will handle it with you.

Take a manual backup before any big patch. In-game autosaves rotate inside the same folder and the oldest is deleted once AutosavesCount is reached; the panel's automatic backups are separate, so even a corrupted save can be rolled back to an earlier day. Downloading the save folder over SFTP now and then is a good habit for long-running colonies.

A very short autosave interval makes the save-time pause on big colonies more frequent, while a very long one costs more progress after a crash. Five minutes, the default, is a balanced starting point for most groups.

How do players join your Astro Colony server?

Players open the multiplayer menu in Astro Colony, find your server in the list by the name you set, and join. If you configured ServerPassword they are prompted for it, which is the easiest way to stay visible in the list while keeping strangers out.

Because the server is hosted in İstanbul, players in Türkiye connect with low latency, and friends in Europe, the Middle East and the Caucasus generally get a good connection too. Most connection complaints come from versions rather than the network: if a player's Steam copy has not updated yet, or the server has not, they will not match.

When you want a friend to help moderate, add their Steam64 ID to AdminList; you can find it from their Steam profile URL or a public ID lookup site. On busier servers, look at MaxPlayers and your plan together, since more simultaneous builders on a large colony is exactly when extra headroom pays off.