How to use this generator
Choose Build 42 or Build 41 first, then a preset. Apocalypse is the game default, Rising is gentle, and Nightmare is our own mix for groups who want to suffer.
Open any group, like Zombie lore or Loot, and change what you like. Changed settings get a marker and a reset button, and the threat meter shows how hard the world feels.
Copy or download the file when you are happy. The second tab makes a short servertest.ini with the name, password, player limit and mod lines.
Where the files go
Stop the server. Put <servername>_SandboxVars.lua and <servername>.ini in the Zomboid/Server folder of the user that runs the server: ~/Zomboid/Server/ on Linux, C:\Users\<name>\Zomboid\Server\ on Windows. Then start the server again.
If the server starts with -cachedir, the Zomboid folder lives in that path instead. On a hosted server, open the file manager and look for the Server folder inside Zomboid.
Settings that shape a new world, like the start month or the months since the outbreak, only count when the world is created. To feel them, start a fresh save.
How we checked the settings
Every key, default, range and option number comes from the game files of Build 42.21 and Build 41.78, and the file is written in the same layout the game writes. Game presets copy the changes in the game's own preset files.
Importing reads your file with a small Lua reader. Settings the game does not know, often from mods, stay in the new file. Values out of range are pulled back in and listed so you can see what changed.
The threat meter is our own rough guess from the settings that matter most. It is not a number the game uses.
Tips for a good multiplayer world
The population multiplier is the real zombie amount. Normal is 0.65 in Build 42 and 1.0 in Build 41, so copy numbers between builds with care.
Push power and water out to a few months if your group plays a few evenings a week. With Pause when empty on, the clock stops while nobody is online.
Very high populations, respawn and a large ZombiesCountBeforeDelete can make a server lag. Raise them a step at a time.