How to Set Up Reserved Slots on Your SCP: Secret Laboratory Server

With reserved slots, players you have added to a list — for example your team or your regulars — can still join the server even when it is full. The feature consists of two parts: the use_reserved_slots option in the config_gameplay.txt file and the player list in the UserIDReservedSlots.txt file. You can find the basics of editing the configuration files in the Edit configuration files guide.

Warning

The path to the configuration files contains the game port of your server: /.config/SCP Secret Laboratory/config/<Port>/. Replace <Port> with the actual game port of your server. You can find the game port in the dashboard under Overview.

Set up reserved slots

1. Find out the game port
   Open the dashboard of your server and note the game port shown under Overview.

2. Stop the server
   Stop your server via the dashboard.

3. Connect via SFTP
   Connect to your server via SFTP.

4. Enable reserved slots
   Open the following file — replace <Port> with your game port:

   /.config/SCP Secret Laboratory/config/<Port>/config_gameplay.txt

   Find the use_reserved_slots entry and make sure it is set to true — this is already the default value:

   use_reserved_slots: true

5. Add players to the list
   In the same port folder, open the UserIDReservedSlots.txt file:

   /.config/SCP Secret Laboratory/config/<Port>/UserIDReservedSlots.txt

   Add each ID on its own line. Steam players are added in the format SteamID64@steam, Discord users in the format DiscordID@discord — the same format used when setting up a whitelist:

   76561198801452050@steam
   123456789012345678@discord

   You can find your SteamID64 using the linked guide.

6. Start the server
   Save both files and start your server via the dashboard so the changes take effect.

Note

Reserved slots are not a whitelist: a whitelist locks the server for everyone who is not listed. Reserved slots, on the other hand, still let anyone join — listed players simply get a spot held for them.

Tip

Add yourself and your team to UserIDReservedSlots.txt — that way you can still get on the server at peak times, for example to moderate.