Adding Mods to Your Don't Starve Together Server

Adding mods to your Don't Starve Together server is very easy, as the game already has a system that will allow you to automatically download and install mods directly from the Steam Workshop. This article will show where it is located and how to use it.

Manual Installation (Method 1)

This option of adding mods to your server is by far the easiest, as it allows your game client to do 99% of the work of generating the necessary files needed for your server, including the hard coding portion.

Creating the Files to Upload to Your Server

Within the game client on your PC select on "Host Game".

Enable the "Server Mods" you wish to use on your server, these will be Steam Workshop addons you've subscribed to.

Take the time to configure each mod how you wish, all of your changes will be included in the files we will be uploading to your server.

Once everything is how you wish, select the "Generate World" button in the lower right.

Upload the Mod Config Files

Once the world has finished being created, exit to the Main Menu and select "Host Game" once again. Click on the folder icon, it will take you to the files we will be needing. The location on a Windows PC is usually Documents\Klei\DoNotStarveTogether\(randomly generated number)\Cluster_1\.

Select the Master folder, and you find a file called modoverrides.lua. Upload this file from your PC to your /.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/MyDediServer/Master folder in the File Manager of your NodePanel. You can drag and drop the file directly into your server, or you can also use FTP. This file is very important, as it will enable the mods we will be uploading to the server in the next step. It also includes all of your changes you made to customize the mods.

Repeat the process for Caves if applicable. You will select the Caves folder on your PC and upload that particular modoverrides.lua file to /.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/MyDediServer/Caves on your Nodecraft server.

Upload the Mod Files

On your PC, navigate to your Steam\SteamApps\common\Don't Starve Together Dedicated Server\mods folder. Select all of the workshop-# folders and create a .zip file.

Please take a moment to note that all of the workshop items you have subscribed to for Don't Starve Together will be here, so if there were any you didn't include in the initial generation step above, it won't harm the server to include them, but they won't be active on the server either, as they won't be included in the modoverrides.lua file we've already made and uploaded. If you have a little extra time, feel free to not zip up the mods you didn't include, all of these are labelled by their Workshop ID numbers.

Now you can upload the .zip file to your mods folder in the "File Manager" of your NodePanel. Select the .zip file and click on the "Unzip" button and the NodePanel will unzip it for you.

Start Your Server

You can now start your server and begin playing on it with all of your mods!

This option of adding mods to your server does not automatically update the mods. If you wish for you server to automatically update your mods, you will need to check out the section "Download the Mods to Your Server" in the 2nd method below.

Automatic Download (Method 2)

This option of downloading and enabling mods on your server is generally more ideal for mod developers, as it will force the mods to be enabled not matter what (which is not always a good thing if there's an issue with the mod). It also can be a bit more time consuming depending on the number of mods you add to your server as well.

Download the Mods to Your Server

Go to the "File Manager" tab on the left hand side of your NodePanel and click on the mods folder to open it. Once you have opened the mods folder, look for the file dedicated_server_mods_setup.lua. This is the file that controls the automated system for downloading mods automatically. Select the file and then click "Edit" to open a text editor.

Once you have that file open, there are instructions inside of it for how to add the mods.

The system will support downloading individual mods or even entire Steam Workshop collections.

Note: The characters -- in the setup file are comment characters, that tell the file to ignore anything after them, so don't begin the mod setup lines with those or they will not take effect.

You have two options of how to add mods from the Steam Workshop to your server, you can add either mods individually, or by adding the mods to a collection and having the server download the whole collection.

Adding Individual Mods

To use a single mod, add the line:

ServerModSetup("<ID number>")

Where \< ID number > is replaced with the Steam Workshop ID number. Make sure to keep the quotation marks (" ").

To easily find the Steam Workshop ID number for a specific mod, start your Steam client and go to the Steam Workshop for Don't Starve Together. Once in the workshop, click on a mod and it will take you to a website for that mod. In the URL at the top of the Steam window, the ID number will be near the very end, immediately after id=. See the example below.

If you need to add additional mods, just add another ServerModSetup("< ID number >") line under it, and keep repeating until you have added all the mods you want downloaded.

Adding Workshop Collections

To add an entire workshop collection, use the line:

ServerModCollectionSetup("<Workshop Collection ID>")

Below is an example of both lines added to the file:

The workshop collection was removed before continuing, so the rest of the process would be simpler.

Allow the Workshop Mods to Download

Next, start your Don't Starve Together server so that is will begin downloading the mods. When your server is fully started, you should see new folders inside the /mods directory, one for each mod installed, or an entire series of folders for each workshop collection.

Enable the Mods

Select and "Edit" the modsettings.lua file in the /mods folder.

Add the following line for each mod folder that was downloaded and installed by the list of mods that was added to the file dedicated_server_mods_setup.lua:

ForceEnableMod("folder_name")

The text in between the quotation marks (" ") are the folder names as listed in the file manager, not the name of the mods.

Be sure to remember to Save your changes when you've finished making your edits!

Restart the Server

Restart your server and the mods that were downloaded and installed will now be enabled on your server!