The complete guide · 6 min read
Longvinter Server Hosting: A Complete Guide to Running Your Island
This guide explains how a hosted Longvinter server works after 1.0 and the Wild Growth update: picking rules and a plan, the Game.ini settings, admins and security, saves and restarts, and where mods and Island Studio fit in.
By Matthew Griffin, Owner, Gaming DeluxePublished · Updated
In this guide
- What Longvinter Is and Why a Server Helps
- From Early Access to Wild Growth
- Game.ini, Setting by Setting
- PvP or PvE: Choosing the Island's Rules
- Slots, RAM and Performance
- Admins, Passwords and VPN Checks
- Saves, Backups and Daily Restarts
- Mods, Island Studio and What Comes Next
- What to Compare Before You Rent a Longvinter Server
- Longvinter Server Glossary
- Longvinter Server Help and Next Steps
What Longvinter Is and Why a Server Helps
Longvinter is an open-world multiplayer sandbox from Uuvana Studios. You arrive on Longvinter Island as a researcher, start at a research camp, buy tools, sell what you gather and decide whether the other researchers are friends, rivals or targets. Fishing, farming, cooking, crafting and trading fill the days; mercenaries in bunkers, caves and oil rigs provide the danger; and you can build a camp almost anywhere you like, with anyone you like.
Uuvana runs official servers, but they follow official wipe schedules and capacity decisions; in April 2026 it closed some monthly wipe servers because too few people played on them. A server of your own removes that uncertainty. The island, the camps and the market stay until you decide otherwise, and the rules are yours: PvP or PvE, tent limits, trader spawns and the daily restart time.
From Early Access to Wild Growth
Longvinter opened in Early Access on 24 February 2022 and reached 1.0 on 21 February 2025. The years since have been about stability and new content, and a few changes matter directly to server owners.
- June and July 2025: the move from Unreal Engine 4 to 5, which let Uuvana re-enable Easy Anti-Cheat. The first attempt was rolled back, and because saves are not backwards compatible, official servers went back to the previous day's backups.
- September 2025: a run of fixes for server crashes and performance, including oil rigs running about 50% faster.
- 16 April 2026: Wild Growth (1.1) with the Teijo swamp, farm animals, minigames and Unreal Engine 5.7.
- 10 October 2026: Island Studio, Lua scripting and less server work on recurring world checks.
Game.ini, Setting by Setting
A Longvinter server is configured through Game.ini, which has two sections: GI_AdvancedSessions for how the island is listed and joined, and GM_Longvinter for the gameplay rules. These are the settings Uuvana documents, with their defaults.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| ServerName | Unnamed Island | The name in the server browser (avoid the word OFFICIAL) |
| ServerMOTD | Welcome to Longvinter Island! | Message of the day, shown on signs around the island |
| MaxPlayers | 32 | Players who can be connected at once |
| Password | empty | Join password; letters and numbers only |
| CommunityWebsite | www.longvinter.com | A link players can open in game, such as your Discord |
| ServerTag | none | One search tag, for example PVE |
| CheckVPN | true | Checks connecting players for VPNs |
| CoopPlay and CoopSpawn | false and 0 | Co-op play mode and the co-op spawn point |
| PVP | true | Player versus player combat |
| TentDecay and MaxTents | true and 2 | Clears abandoned tents and caps how many can be placed |
| ChestRespawnTime | 600 | Longest respawn time for loot chests, in seconds |
| DisableWanderingTraders | false | Stops wandering traders from spawning |
| AdminSteamID | none | Admin EOS IDs, separated by spaces |
| RestartTime24h | none | The daily restart hour, on a 24-hour clock |
| SaveBackups | false | A daily backup into two separate folders |
Uuvana's sample file uses Tag=none while the settings list calls it ServerTag, so check which one your server reads after a restart. Every change needs a restart, and the server should be stopped before you edit, because it saves about every 10 minutes and can write over a file changed under it.
PvP or PvE: Choosing the Island's Rules
Longvinter's default is PvP, and the game is built around it: alliances, contested areas, raids on camps and, since Wild Growth, the Teijo swamp as a high-risk zone where tents cannot be placed. That suits a community that enjoys betrayal as much as fishing.
Plenty of groups prefer a calmer island, though. With PVP set to false, the threats come from the mercenaries and the environment, and the social side moves to trading, farming and building. When Uuvana polled its players about wipes in November 2024, it wiped the PvP servers but left most PvE servers alone, because base building is more enjoyable with plenty of resources. Decide before you invite people, write the rules into ServerMOTD so every sign repeats them, and add a ServerTag such as PVE so the right players find you.
Slots, RAM and Performance
Slots are the number of players who can be online at once. The default MaxPlayers of 32 is a good guide to what the game expects on a normal island, which is why our plans run 10, 20, 30 and 48, with sizes up to 100 on the order form for bigger communities. Uuvana's own FAQ is clear that the real limit depends on hardware and network.
The official server minimum is 3GB of RAM, but a minimum is a floor, not a target. Memory use grows with everything the server tracks: camps, placed objects, player vendors, crops and animals since Wild Growth. Uuvana has said that the sheer number of placed objects made some of its Asia servers unstable, so a building-heavy island deserves headroom. Our plans include 8GB to 20GB, and tiers up to 32GB can be added later without moving the island.
Admins, Passwords and VPN Checks
Admin rights come from the AdminSteamID line in the GM_Longvinter section. Despite the name, it takes EOS IDs, the Epic Online Services IDs that each player can find in the game settings. To add an admin:
- Ask the player to copy their EOS ID from the game settings.
- Stop the server and open Game.ini in the File Manager.
- Add the ID to AdminSteamID, separating several IDs with single spaces.
- Save the file and start the server.
For a private island, set a Password using only letters and numbers, as Uuvana advises. CheckVPN is on by default and checks connecting players for VPNs. Leave it on for a public island, and switch it off only if a trusted player has to connect through a VPN.
Saves, Backups and Daily Restarts
The island lives in the Longvinter/Saved folder, which is also what Uuvana's backup instructions copy. The server writes to it about every 10 minutes. With SaveBackups set to true, it also keeps a daily backup in two separate folders, a useful extra layer that is off by default.
RestartTime24h sets a daily restart hour on a 24-hour clock, so 6 means six in the morning, server time. A daily restart keeps a long-running Unreal Engine server fresh; pick an hour when your players are asleep and mention it in ServerMOTD. Our Scheduled Tasks can add a backup shortly before that restart.
Mods, Island Studio and What Comes Next
Uuvana has long supported creators. Its modding project on GitHub explains how to build new items, placeables, weapons and even custom maps, and mods are shared through the Steam Workshop with an uploader built into the game. Island Studio, released on 10 October 2026, goes further: a map editor for custom islands, quests and gameplay, plus Lua scripting for rules, inventories, callbacks and custom UI.
Because Island Studio is so new, read Uuvana's latest notes on hosting custom islands before you build a community around one, and test on a copy of your world first. Looking further ahead, Uuvana has announced a PlayStation version with cross-play. Until it is released, a Longvinter server is for Steam players on Windows.
What to Compare Before You Rent a Longvinter Server
Longvinter hosting offers look similar at first. These are the details that matter once the island is busy.
- Access to Game.iniYou need to edit every key yourself, from PVP to AdminSteamID, without waiting on a ticket.
- RAM in the base priceCheck what memory the price includes and what the next tier costs. Busy islands with many placed objects use more than the minimum.
- Update speedAfter a patch, players on the new version cannot wait long. Look for a one-click update.
- Backups you can restoreMake sure you can take and restore snapshots yourself, and ask how far back offsite copies go.
- Locations you can pingTest latency from where your players are, then set ServerRegion to match.
- Billing termsCompare monthly and longer terms, and look for setup fees or minimum contracts.
Longvinter Server Glossary
- Longvinter Island
- The game's main map, where researchers arrive by boat.
- Sgt. Lake
- The base camp with vendors, and since Wild Growth the Activity Park minigames.
- Teijo
- The swamp island added in Wild Growth, a high-risk PvP area where tents cannot be placed.
- Game.ini
- The server's configuration file, with the GI_AdvancedSessions and GM_Longvinter sections.
- EOS ID
- A player's Epic Online Services ID, used in the AdminSteamID admin list.
- MOTD
- Message of the day, which Longvinter shows on signs around the island.
- Tent
- A player's placeable home base; MaxTents caps how many can be placed.
- Island Studio
- Uuvana's map editor for custom islands, quests and Lua-scripted rules.
Longvinter Server Help and Next Steps
Useful pages for setting up and running your island.
- Longvinter server configurationEvery Game.ini setting, from Uuvana's wiki.
- Longvinter server FAQPlayer limits, regions, ports and updates.
- Longvinter modding projectUuvana's official modding guide.
- Gaming Deluxe control panelWhat the panel does and how to log in.
- Our server locations
- Contact support24/7 help with Game.ini, admins and moving an island.
How this guide was made: researched from Uuvana Studios' server wiki, its GitHub repositories, the Steam store page and Uuvana's announcements on Steam, drafted with AI assistance, checked against our live order form for every plan, price and location, and reviewed by Matthew Griffin before publishing. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
Sources, checked October 22, 2026:
- Longvinter server configuration, Uuvana Studios wiki
- Longvinter server FAQ, Uuvana Studios wiki
- Longvinter Windows server guide, Uuvana Studios wiki
- Longvinter Linux server guide, Uuvana Studios wiki
- Longvinter on Steam
- Longvinter 1.0 Is Out Now!, Uuvana on Steam (21 February 2025, PlayStation announcement)
- Wild Growth Update, Uuvana on Steam (16 April 2026)
- Island Studio, Uuvana on Steam (10 October 2026)
- Devlog #59, Uuvana on Steam (console preparation, February 2026)
- Pets & Anti-Cheat, Uuvana on Steam (Unreal Engine 5, June 2025)
- Wipe days and time, Uuvana on Steam (November 2024 wipe decision, placed objects on Asia servers)
- Pet Update Delayed, Uuvana on Steam (rollback, saves not backwards compatible)
- Longvinter modding project, Uuvana Studios on GitHub
- Gaming Deluxe order form, Longvinter Dedicated Game Server

