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.
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
- Log into your MintServers panel and click Stop to shut down your server.
- Go to the Files tab in the left-hand sidebar.
- Use the file manager to navigate to the config file:
📁 server (your server's root directory)
📁 Saved
📁 Config
📁 WindowsServer
📄 ServerSettings.ini (Click to edit this file) - Click on the
ServerSettings.inifile to open the text editor. - Make your changes, then save the file.
- Start your server for the changes to take effect.
Server Identity & Access Settings
JoinPassword— Password required to join the server. Leave it blank for a public server.AdminPassword— Password required to gain admin privileges with the/AdminLogincommand below. Set this to something real, if it's left blank, anyone can use/AdminLoginwith no password and get admin access.MaxPlayers— Maximum 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.
ShutdownIfNotJoinedFor— Seconds to wait after startup for a player to join before shutting down. Default is 300 (5 minutes).ShutdownIfEmptyFor— Seconds 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.
ResumeProspect— IfTrue, automatically resumes the last-run prospect on startup. True by default, this is what you want for a persistent, always-on world.LastProspectName— The prospect thatResumeProspectresumes. Icarus updates this automatically as you play.LoadProspect— Loads a specific prospect by name on startup, instead of resuming the last one.CreateProspect— Creates and launches a brand new prospect on startup. See the example below.AllowNonAdminsToLaunchProspects— IfTrue(the default), any player in the lobby can create or load a prospect. IfFalse, only logged-in admins can.AllowNonAdminsToDeleteProspects— IfTrue, any player can delete prospects from the server.Falseby 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./ReturnToLobby— Kicks everyone currently connected and returns the server to the lobby./ReturnToLobbyWhenEmpty— Returns the server to the lobby automatically as soon as it empties out, instead of waiting on theShutdownIfEmptyFortimer./AdminSay [Message]— Broadcasts a message to every player on the server.
🛠️ 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
SessionNamein the config file. Double check the startup parameter value.
If you'd like a hand with any of the settings above, no worries! Just open a support ticket and our team will gladly take a look with you.