Starbound Server

Starbound is not a new game, having reached version 1.0 in 2016, and the latest release (currently version 1.4.4) dating to August 2019. However, it is expansive and quieting in a way few games have proved to be. And so, I still play it.

To get this up and running,

The Server Itself

You need to provide the Starbound server executable, and mount it to the directory /app. If you own the game on Steam, you can download it with steamcmd with something like this:

steamcmd +login <steam_username> +@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType linux +force_install_dir ./starbound_linux +app_update 211820 +quit

Note that this will also download all your subscribed mods. The above command can be run on Windows and will download the linux version of the game. It may ask you for your password, and a one-time code (if you have SteamGaurd/2FA active) (your password can also be provided from the commandline).

Now copy over the server executable and the game assets over. In the end, you'll have something like this:

app
  +- assets
  |    +- user
  |    |    +- songs
  |    |    |    +- 12 Days of Christmas.abc
  |    |    |    +- [a bunch of .abc files]
  |    |    `- _metadata
  |    `- packed.pak
  `- linux
      `- starbound_server

You may need to mark the starbound_server file as executable (chmod +x starbound_server).

(Existing) Universe

If you want to move over your existing Universe, you can copy it to folder mounted as the config directory. Something like this:

config
  `- universe
       +- <hexi-decimal number>.clientcontext
       +- <numbers>_<numbers>_<numbers>.system
       +- <numbers>_<numbers>_<numbers>_<digit>.world
       +- [etc]
       +- universe.chunks
       `- universe.dat

(The actual files you have will depend on what parts of the universe you've explored.) Locally, you may also have a players directory, but the server doesn't need that.

Mods

You can also add mods. One "trick" is that the directories specified in sbinit.config are not searched recursively, so if you copy over the mods directly as Steam downloads them, you'll have to list each folder individually. Personally, I'll rename Steam's contents.pak to the <steam Id>.pak and drop them into the root mods folder. (The root mods folder is set up to be picked up my the included default configuration.)

The mods folder in a subfolder of the mounted config folder. Something like this:

config
  `- mods
       +- 729480149.pak

Ports

The server runs on port 21025 (which Docker exposes).

Default Starbound Config

The included default starbound config (at /config/sbinit.conf):

{
    "assetDirectories" : [
        "/app/assets/",
        "/config/mods/"
    ],

    "storageDirectory" : "/config/storage/",

    "defaultConfiguration" : {
        "gameServerBind" : "*",
        "queryServerBind" : "*",
        "rconServerBind" : "*"
    }
}

Running Notes

If you change the mods, you'll have to restart the server for the changes to be loaded.