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Expanding Your Survival Horizon

Unturned possesses one of the most prolific and technically creative map-making communities within the Steam ecosystem. Transitioning your server from vanilla maps like PEI or Washington to a massive community project - such as Arid, Elver, or Buak - significantly enhances the gameplay depth and variety for your community. To successfully deploy a custom map, you must follow a coordinated technical sequence: authorizing the automated download via the Steam Workshop API and then defining the specific map identity within your server configuration.

Difficulty

Beginner

Time

8 Minutes

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Step 1: Technical Asset Identification

Before initializing the configuration, you must retrieve two critical identifiers from the Steam Workshop portal.
  • Workshop ID: The 10-digit numeric string found at the conclusion of the browser URL (e.g., 2683620106 for the Arid map).
  • Internal Map Identity: This is the technical folder name defined by the creator (often located in the mod’s description). It may differ from the public Workshop title (e.g., “Arid Extended” is frequently identified simply as Arid internally).

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Step 2: Authorizing the Download

Follow these steps to instruct your FREAKHOSTING instance to retrieve the map data from the global Steam network.
1

Access Configuration

Log in to the Game Panel and navigate to the Files tab.
2

Open Download Registry

Open the following file: /Servers/Default/WorkshopDownloadConfig.json.
3

Register the File ID

Insert your map’s numeric ID into the File_IDs array. Ensure you maintain the correct comma placement if adding multiple assets.
{
  "File_IDs": [
    2683620106
  ],
  "Max_Query_Retries": 2
}
4

Initialize Retrieval

Restart your server. Monitor the Console tab; the engine will programmatically download and mount the map assets during the boot sequence.

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Step 3: Setting the Active World

Once the files reside within the server’s cache, you must explicitly tell the engine to initialize that specific world.
1

Access Commands.dat

Navigate to /Servers/Default/Server/Commands.dat within the File Manager.
2

Define the Map

Update or add the map command followed by the Internal Map Identity identified in Step 1.
map Arid
3

Deploy & Verify

Restart the server once more. A successful deployment will show the new map name in the server browser and display the correct loading assets upon joining.

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Need Extra Help?

If you encounter any issues, our support team is ready to assist:

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Last Updated: January 2026 | Unturned: World expansion complete.