How to Change the Game Mode on a Vintage Story Server

This guide shows you how to change the game mode on your Vintage Story server. Vintage Story supports multiple game modes - from the brutal realism of Wilderness Survival to the unrestricted freedom of Creative Mode. You can change the mode for an individual player live via the console, or set the default mode for a newly generated world through the config file.

Method 1: Change a Player's Game Mode (Console)

Use this to switch an individual player's mode without affecting the whole server or requiring a restart.

1. Log in to the NolimitHost Game Panel at https://panel.nolimithost.cc/ and select your Vintage Story server. Then go to the Console tab.
2. Run the following command, replacing PlayerName and Gamemode with the appropriate values:

   /gamemode <PlayerName> <Gamemode>

The change takes effect immediately - no server restart is needed.

Available game mode values:

• 0 - Guest (cannot place or break blocks)
• 1 - Survival (normal gameplay with health and hunger)
• 2 - Creative (all blocks, instant break, flight, invincible)
• 3 - Spectator (fly through the world, no interaction)

To also update the player's role (which controls flying and privileges between sessions), run:

/player <PlayerName> role <suplayer|crplayer>

• suplayer - Survival player privileges. Disables flying.
• crplayer - Creative player privileges. Allows flying.

Method 2: Set the Default Game Mode for a New World

Use this when setting up a fresh world and you want all players to start in a specific mode. This method edits data/serverconfig.json, the main configuration file for your server.

1. Log in to the NolimitHost Game Panel at https://panel.nolimithost.cc/ and select your Vintage Story server. Stop the server first so it doesn't overwrite your changes while you edit the file.
2. In the left sidebar, go to Management > File Manager and open data/serverconfig.json.
3. Find "DefaultRoleCode" and set it to the desired player role:
   • suplayer - Survival privileges (no flying)
   • crplayer - Creative privileges (flying enabled)
4. In the WorldConfiguration section, set the gameMode value:

   "gameMode": "survival"

   or

   "gameMode": "creative"

5. To start a new world, also update "SaveFileLocation" to a new filename - this preserves your old world as a backup:

   "SaveFileLocation": "./data/Saves/newworld.vcdbs"

6. Save the file, then start the server. Your new world will be generated with the default game mode you set.