Cube 2: Sauerbraten Server Hosting

What can you play on a Cube 2: Sauerbraten server?

A Sauerbraten server can host solo and team versions of ffa, instagib, efficiency, tactics, capture, ctf, protect, hold and collect, and it doubles as a live mapping space through coop edit. Built on the Cube 2 engine, Sauerbraten is an open-source, zlib-licensed and completely free arena shooter that runs on Windows, Linux and macOS, so everyone in your community can meet on the same server.

The scene revolves around speed. In instagib a single shot kills and every match turns into a pure reflex contest; in efficiency everyone spawns with the full arsenal and there are no pickups to fight over. CTF and insta ctf are the classic clan-war formats, while capture is about taking and holding bases. Duels and small team matches carry the competitive side, and ffa servers are where drop-in players warm up. Coop edit is what sets Sauerbraten apart: several players edit the same map at once, from inside the game itself. For anyone building a mapping community, that mode alone justifies running a server.

Which plan does a Sauerbraten server need?

Bronze covers every realistic scenario. The Sauerbraten server is a small C++ program that renders nothing, and the game state and map data it keeps in memory are tiny. 4 GB of RAM is far beyond that load, and even raising maxclients for a large community will not bring you anywhere near the limit.

What players actually feel is single-core CPU speed and network stability. In instagib, where rounds swing in seconds, a server that answers consistently every frame is what makes hits register fairly, and the Ryzen 9 9950X plus the Istanbul location take care of that side. On disk, the biggest consumer is stored demos: the sample server-init.cfg ships with maxdemos 5 and maxdemosize 16 megabytes, and custom .ogz maps are small files as well. In short, the larger tiers are idle capacity for this game. Only think about stepping up if you plan to run a heavy Lua-based server mod with long-term stat logging on top.

Which server-init.cfg settings matter most?

Your server's identity and rules live in server-init.cfg. serverdesc is the description shown in the server browser, serverpass demands a password on connect, and adminpass lets you claim admin with /setmaster. maxclients caps simultaneous players, serverbotlimit caps how many bots a master can add, and updatemaster 1 registers the server with the master server so it appears in the in-game list.

publicserver is the setting that defines how your community is run. Set it to 1 and master can only be claimed by players holding an auth key or by an admin, with locked and private mastermodes unavailable; that is the right choice for a public ffa or instagib server. Leave it at 0 and anyone can type /setmaster 1 while no master is present, and locked and private modes open up, which suits coop edit sessions with friends or closed clan practice. Define the rotation per mode with maprotation lines, restrict map voting with lockmaprotation, and reserve demo recording and pausing for admins with restrictdemos and restrictpausegame.

How do you handle bots, demos and server mods?

Most in-game administration happens through console commands. Once you hold admin or master, /mastermode 2 locks the server so new arrivals come in as spectators, /spectator moves a player to spectate, and /kick removes a troublemaker. /addbot and /delbot keep the server lively during quiet hours, and serverbotlimit stops anyone from overdoing it.

Demo recording is valuable for competitive play. /recorddemo 1 starts a server-side recording of the next match; afterwards players see the list with /listdemos and download what they need with /getdemo, which makes reviewing a suspicious match far easier.

If you want more than vanilla, look at community server mods such as Hopmod, zeromod or spaghettimod. Hopmod and spaghettimod are extended with Lua scripts, while zeromod builds its additions directly into the C++ code, bringing things like stats, stronger ban handling and extra commands. Because they rely on separately built server binaries, upload the files over SFTP and talk to our support team about the startup settings before switching over.

How do players connect to a Sauerbraten server?

Players pick your server from the server browser on the main menu, or open the console and type /connect followed by the IP and port. Sauerbraten uses two consecutive UDP ports: by default 28785 carries game traffic and 28786 answers the pings and info queries the server browser sends. Go by the connection details shown in your panel, and put the port after the IP with a space in the /connect command.

If the server does not appear in the list, check that updatemaster is set to 1 and that the server started cleanly in the console. For a password-protected server, players add the password at the end of the /connect command. Before a clan match, switch mastermode to locked so nobody who arrives mid-game can interfere; latecomers can only watch. From Istanbul, the server gives players in Türkiye low ping and offers a steady connection to those joining from Europe, the Middle East and the Caucasus.