VEIN server not working?
Start here.
VEIN's reputation is servers that never save. Ours run the build that does, so what is left is mostly the game being itself: on-foot stutter after a few hours, bans that wait for a restart, and an admin list that has to be written exactly one way.
# what fixes most VEIN problems 1 Walking stutters after hours → Schedule a restart every 3-4 hours 2 Not sure it's saving → Watch Server.vns's time in Files 3 Panel ban didn't remove them → Restart, or press \ in game
Our world isn't saving: new characters, empty containers, the base gone after a restart
Look at the file
Files → vein/Saved/SaveGames/. A healthy server has one Server.vns, tens of MB, and its modified time moves about every 5 minutes while someone is on. That timestamp is the proof; the in-game Autosaving… message is your own client talking.
Check the two switches that stop it
Settings → Saves & Persistence → Autosave on. Settings → Players & Death → Disable Saving off — on, the world resets every restart by design.
Stop it from the panel
Restart and Power ask VEIN to save first, then shut it down the way the game expects. Force stop skips both: it cuts the power, and anything since the last autosave is gone.
Roll back if it's already gone
Worlds & backups → pick a restore point → type RESTORE.
Why: Our VEIN servers run the game's Windows build under Wine. In our container the native Linux build never wrote a world in a full day; the Windows build created its own and autosaved every 300 seconds, same box, same game build. Why the Linux one never saved is not proven, so we run the one we watched work.
After a few hours, walking stutters: every step catches, but driving is fine
Restart it
Restart clears it completely. Restarting your game client does not — we tried. It lives on the server side.
Schedule the restart
Schedule tab → Scheduled restart → Every 3 hours or Every 4 hours, at an hour your players can live with → Save. The world is saved before every restart.
Clear the loot piles
VEIN's developer says server performance falls away as loose items build up from looting. Clearing heaps of dropped items off the ground helps.
Don't buy RAM for it
When it started on our server the box had 3 GB of headroom and had never hit its memory ceiling. More RAM does not fix this one.
Why: While it was happening we measured the server ticking at 61.6 fps on 0.7 of its 7 cores, zero dropped packets, and the player's own line clean. Memory grows with how much of the map a session has streamed in and then settles; the same world reloads into 3.9 GB after a restart. What causes the stutter is not known — the restart is the measured fix. The developer's answer is on VEIN's own Steam discussions.
How do I make myself admin? Backslash does nothing
Game.ini by hand? It is SuperAdminSteamIDs=<id>, bare, one line per ID, in the WindowsServer config folder. The +SuperAdminSteamIDs= form most guides print registers zero admins, with no error. Admin SteamIDs, the plainer list, is unconfirmed by us — use Super Admin.Add your SteamID64
Settings → Server Identity & Network → Super Admin SteamIDs: your 17-digit SteamID64. Separate several with commas. Apply & restart.
Check the boot line
Console tab, after the restart: LogVein: Superadmins set: should list your ID underneath. An empty list means nobody registered, and the admin panel will not open however often you press the key.
Open the admin panel
In game, press \ (backslash) — twice if the first press does nothing. Kick, ban, item spawning and teleport live there. ~ is the text console, not moderation.
Why: VEIN has no admin password and no RCON. You are an admin because the server read your ID when it started.
My friends can't find or join my VEIN server
Use the address from the panel
Copy it off your server's card. It sounds obvious; a wrong IP once cost us an afternoon chasing a fault that was not there.
Listed or unlisted
Settings → Server Identity & Network → List in Server Browser. On, it shows in the public browser. Off, it is unlisted and players join by address.
Check the join password
Join Password is the only password VEIN asks a player for. Blank means open.
Leave version mismatch off
Allow Version Mismatch lets clients on another build connect, and tends to crash them.
Apply & restart
These are read when the server starts.
Why: VEIN lists through Steam. Its query port answers server-browser queries with the name, map and player count, and we have checked it answering from the public internet.
Containers are empty and looted houses never refill
Rule out saving first
If characters or bases are resetting too, it is not loot — see the world isn't saving.
Give the respawn its time
Looted containers refill on a timer: Settings → Loot & Respawns → Respawn Interval, 10800 seconds (3 hours) by default. World item spawners run their own 1-hour timer beside it.
Read Loot Scarcity the right way round
Higher means less. The game's own labels: 0 Infinite Loot, 1 More Loot, 2 Standard, 3 Less Loot, 4 Impossible. Lowering it does not refill a container that is already filled; that waits for the respawn.
Look for a utility cabinet
A cabinet stops respawns on the ground it claims and feeds on stored items as upkeep. Since 0.025 that ground is set by its pylons: Max Pylons and Max Pylon Distance under Building & Bases.
Confirm a change took
Console → tick Show raw after the restart and look for Set CVar [[vein.ContainersRespawn.Interval:…]] carrying your value. The normal view hides those lines as our plumbing.
I uploaded my world and the server started a fresh one
Stop the server first
Power → stop. VEIN holds the world in memory and writes it on the way out, so a file uploaded while it runs is overwritten by the stop.
Keep a copy of what's there
Worlds & backups → Back up now, or Download a restore point, if there is anything in the current world you want.
Upload into SaveGames
Files → vein/Saved/SaveGames/ → upload your .vns.
Rename it to exactly Server.vns
A dedicated server keeps one world under one name. Any other file name is ignored without complaint and the server builds a fresh world — which looks exactly like the upload did nothing.
Start it
Power → start. No setting picks the save; the file name is the whole thing.
I banned someone from the panel and they're still playing
That is how VEIN bans work
The panel's Ban writes the ban list, and VEIN reads that list only when it starts. Restart, and their next login is refused.
For someone on right now, use the game's panel
As an admin, press \ in game and kick or ban them there: immediate, and an in-game ban persists.
Unban works the same way
Players tab → Banned players → Unban. It applies at the next start. Ban, the list and Unban all work with the server stopped.
Why: VEIN rewrites its own Game.ini from memory when it stops and drops the ban section with it. We keep your bans in a file of ours the game never touches and put them back every boot, so they survive the restart that applies them.
I installed a mod and nothing changed, or players can't join with it
.pak put in Saved/Paks by hand still loads. More in modding your server.Turn mods on
Mods tab → Turn mods on. VEIN loads .pak files itself, so there is no loader to install: this switches our mod folder on and pins your game build so an update cannot land under your mods.
Install the file
Install a mod file takes a .pak, or a .zip with one inside, and puts it in vein/PakMods. Then restart: mods load at boot.
Same pak on every player
A server pak that changes content is not enough on its own. Everyone joining needs the same file.
After a VEIN update
A pinned server stays on its build until you press Update now on the Mods tab. A mod built for an older build usually just stops applying — no crash, no error — so check the mod count there after you update.
Why: Unreal is VEIN's mod loader: it mounts every .pak under the game's Paks folder, and PakMods is mounted inside it.
None of these, or still stuck?
Check the problems every game shares
Connections, settings that will not take, where your world is, lag: the answers that hold on every game are on the support page.
Write to us
The form arrives with VEIN already set; tell us what you tried and it saves a round trip. Pressing Need help? in your panel does the same and attaches your server, so there is nothing to look up.