Got it starting. Deleted AppData\Factorio uninstalled the game. Reinstalled. Seems to work.

Thanks for your reply daniel. UTF-8 and ANSI both get the same error.

Starting parameters are:

D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Factorio\bin\x64\factorio.exe --start-server ./saves/MultiArneNiciPaddy2.zip --server-settings ./data/server-settings3.json

I've got the same problem, deleted the example and reloaded it via steam and tons more. I usually solve my own problems but I'm stuck.

{
"name": "NGCFactorio",
"description": "Description",
"tags": ["game", "tags"],

"_comment_max_players": "Maximum number of players allowed, admins can join ...