Nuclear Dawn is a post-apocalyptic first person shooter game. The dedicated server component can be run as a Windows Service using FireDaemon Pro, which allows you to start the dedicated server automatically at boot prior to login, start multiple instances of the dedicated server and more. This HOWTO will show you how to set it up. You can also use FireDaemon Fusion to manage FireDaemon and other Windows services via a web browser.


Nuclear Dawn Dedicated Server Setup Under FireDaemon Pro

First download and extract SteamCMD. The download is small (< 2 MB).


Download the Nuclear Dawn server files via Valve’s content servers. First before you can download the files, go to the directory where you installed SteamCMD and create a shortcut to "SteamCMD.exe". Next edit the properties of the shortcut and in the target box, at the end of it (with a space before the following), put:

+login anonymous +force_install_dir "C:\Nuclear Dawn" +app_update 111710 validate +quit
The target box should now look something like: 
C:\SteamCMD\steamcmd.exe +login anonymous +force_install_dir "C:\Nuclear Dawn" +app_update 111710 validate +quit


Now download the Nuclear Dawn server files via Valve’s content servers. Click the shortcut you created and let it run. It might take a few hours to update everything. You should also stop your server and run the shortcut every week or so to grab the latest server updates.


Download and install FireDaemon Pro into the directory of your choice, typically C:\Program Files\FireDaemon.


Next start the FireDaemon GUI from the desktop shortcut. Click on the "Create a new service definition" button in the toolbar (or type Ctrl+N) and enter the information into the fields as you see below. Adjust the paths to suit your installation. Note the required parameters.


  • Executable: The path to your ndsrv.exe file. The path we have specified in this HOWTO is C:\Nuclear Dawn\ndsrv.exe.
  • Working Directory: The directory containing your ndsrv.exe file. The path we have specified in this HOWTO is C:\Nuclear Dawn.
  • Parameters: -console -game nucleardawn -port 27015 +maxplayers 32 +map downtown
    • -console - skips the GUI and goes straight to the console
    • -game nucleardawn - tells your server which server to run
    • -port 27015 - specifies which port is used for the server
    • +maxplayers 32 - specifies the maximum number of players
    • +map downtown - specifies which map to use. This setting may be changed.

Now click on the Settings tab. If you DON'T want to see your dedicated server running, uncheck the Interact with Desktop check box & select "Hidden" from the "Show Window" dropdown. You can optionally run Nuclear Dawn as the user you installed it as. In the Logon Account field type your username (eg. Administrator) and then enter the user's password twice in the Password and Confirm fields. You can change the Process Priority to allocate more CPU time to the dedicated server or specify which CPU or core the dedicated server will run on (in the case of multi-processor, hyperthreaded or multi-core CPUs).


Now click on the Lifecycle tab. Uncheck Graceful Shutdown as Nuclear Dawn doesn't respond to it.


Now click OK to finish setup and start your Nuclear Dawn dedicated server!