Icarus
Almost everything about how your Icarus server behaves, its name, password, player limit, auto-shutdown timers, and which prospect it loads, lives in one file: ServerSettings.ini. This guide walks through editing it and covers the in-game admin commands you'll use to manage players once you're up and running.
Always stop your server on the MintServers panel before editing
ServerSettings.ini. Icarus writes its own copy of this file back out when the server shuts down, so any changes made while it's running will be silently overwritten.
Editing ServerSettings.ini
📁 server (your server's root directory)
📁 Icarus
📁 Saved
📁 Config
📁 WindowsServer
ServerSettings.ini file to open the text editor.
Server Identity & Access Settings
JoinPasswordPassword required to join the server. Leave it blank for a public server.
AdminPasswordPassword required to gain admin privileges with the
/AdminLogin command below. Set this to something real, if it's left blank, anyone can use /AdminLogin with no password and get admin access.MaxPlayersMaximum players allowed on the server at once. Valid range is 1 to 8.
You'll see a
SessionName field in the file that looks like it sets your server's browser name. It currently doesn't do anything, this is a known issue on Icarus dedicated servers. To actually set the name players see in the server browser, your server's startup parameters need to include -SteamServerName="Your Server Name" instead.
Auto-Shutdown Timers
By default, an idle Icarus server will shut itself down and return to the lobby. If your server keeps going offline on its own, this is almost always why.
ShutdownIfNotJoinedForSeconds to wait after startup for a player to join before shutting down. Default is 300 (5 minutes).
ShutdownIfEmptyForSeconds to wait after the last player leaves before shutting down. Default is 300 (5 minutes).
For either setting, a value of 0 shuts the server down almost immediately, and any value above 0 is the wait time in seconds. If you want your server to stay online indefinitely regardless of activity, set both to a high value such as 86400 (24 hours).
Prospect Settings
A prospect is Icarus's term for a save file. These settings control which prospect loads on startup and who's allowed to create or delete them.
ResumeProspectIf
True, automatically resumes the last-run prospect on startup. True by default, this is what you want for a persistent, always-on world.LastProspectNameThe prospect that
ResumeProspect resumes. Icarus updates this automatically as you play.LoadProspectLoads a specific prospect by name on startup, instead of resuming the last one.
CreateProspectCreates and launches a brand new prospect on startup. See the example below.
AllowNonAdminsToLaunchProspectsIf
True (the default), any player in the lobby can create or load a prospect. If False, only logged-in admins can.AllowNonAdminsToDeleteProspectsIf
True, any player can delete prospects from the server. False by default, meaning admin login is required.The format is [ProspectType] [Difficulty] [Hardcore] [SaveName]. ProspectType is the prospect's internal name (not its in-game display name, the full list is on the official Icarus Dedicated Server wiki), Difficulty is 1 (easy) to 4 (extreme), Hardcore is true or false for whether respawns are disabled, and SaveName is what the resulting prospect file will be called. The example above launches the tutorial prospect on hard difficulty and saves it as TestProspect01. Once a prospect exists, switch back to ResumeProspect=True so future restarts pick up where you left off, rather than creating a new prospect every time the server starts.
Admin Console (RCON) Commands
Icarus doesn't use a separate RCON tool, admin commands are typed straight into the in-game chat once you're connected. Type / followed by the command, for example /AdminLogin YourPassword.
/AdminLogin [Password]Authenticates you as admin for the current session. Run this before any other admin command.
/KickPlayer [SteamID or Name] [Reason]Disconnects a player. They're free to rejoin afterward.
/BanPlayer [SteamID or Name] [Reason]Kicks a player and adds them to the server's ban list, blocking future rejoins.
/UnbanPlayer [SteamID or Name]Removes a player from the ban list.
/ReturnToLobbyKicks everyone currently connected and returns the server to the lobby.
/ReturnToLobbyWhenEmptyReturns the server to the lobby automatically as soon as it empties out, instead of waiting on the
ShutdownIfEmptyFor timer./AdminSay [Message]Broadcasts a message to every player on the server.
There's no manual save command because Icarus autosaves the active prospect on its own interval. You don't need to do anything extra before shutting the server down cleanly.
🛠️ Troubleshooting
Changes aren't taking effect
Make sure the server was fully stopped before you edited the file, and that you restarted it afterward.
Admin commands aren't working
Run /AdminLogin [Password] first, in every new session, admin status doesn't carry over between connections.
Server name still shows the old value in the browser
this is controlled by the startup parameter, not SessionName in the config file. Double check the startup parameter value.
Still stuck?
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