Vanilla is the game’s own Terraria server. It is what a new Terraria server on Loafhosts runs. Players join with the normal game. It has no accounts, no mods and none of the panel’s player tools, so some pages show less than they do on TShock or tModLoader.
What Vanilla is
The panel downloads the server from the game’s own dedicated server list. By default it takes the newest version. At the time of checking that was 1.4.5.8. You can pin a version with Terraria version on the Startup page, for example 1.4.5.8. Players need the same version as the server.
Update at start on the World page is on by default. It brings the server to the version you named at every start. Check that it is on and that Version says latest, then restart. Switch it off to keep the version that is installed.
What works
On the Players page:
- Who is on. The panel reads it from this start’s log: who joined and has not left.
- Kick. The player is disconnected and can join again.
- Ban. The game bans their name and the address they joined from, and removes them from the server. The ban list is the
banlist.txtfile. The panel says lifting a ban takes effect at the next start. - Message everyone. It sends a line to the server.
- The world. The time buttons Dawn, Noon, Dusk and Midnight, and Save the world now.
- Joins, leaves and chat. The page lists them from the log, newest first.
The Map page draws the world from its save, in the colours of the game’s own map. It redraws when the game saves.
The Console takes the game’s own commands. Type help for the list. Stopping the server from the panel sends exit, which saves the world first.
What does not work
The Players page says it plainly: “Vanilla runs nothing of the panel’s, so kicks, bans, the time and messages work but health, items and the live map need TShock or tModLoader.”
So on Vanilla you do not get:
- Live positions on the Map. The map shows the world, but not where players are.
- What a player carries, Heal, Give an item, Give a buff, Send to the world’s spawn, Call a boss and Kill.
- Events such as a Blood Moon or an invasion.
- Accounts and groups. Those are TShock’s.
- Mods. The Mods page says “Mods need tModLoader”.
To get any of these, change the server software on the World page. Your worlds are kept. See change the server software and which of the three to run.
Good to know
- An empty server pauses. Time does not pass while nobody is connected.
- Standby. It is on by default; check the switch on the Standby card in Settings. The panel counts players from the start log on Vanilla, so a server with nobody on can go into standby like any other.
- Bans by hand. Open
banlist.txtin Files. To lift a ban by hand, delete the name and the address from the list.
More about the game on Loafhosts: Terraria servers.
If it does not work
- The Players page shows nobody. Nobody may be on. If someone is, restart the server once, after warning them with Message everyone.
- Players see a version error. The game and the server differ. Match Terraria version to the players’ game.
- A lifted ban still turns someone away. The panel says a running server reads its ban list at its next start. Restart it, which disconnects everyone who is on.
Sources: terraria.wiki.gg: Server