[2.1.7] Crash of headless with bundled example config (missing JSON keys)
Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2026 3:47 pm
The headless server crashes with the provided example configuration file (specifically map-settings.example.json) as it has missing required JSON keys.
1. What did you do? I pulled the container image factoriotools/factorio:2.1.7 and started it, which as default behavior copies the example config files from the headless server zip and uses them as defaults (This issue is reproducible outside this Docker image too, however, by manually copying the example configs out of the server zip into the data folder)
2. What happened? The game crashed with the error "0.000 Error Util.cpp:81: Key "evolution_group_size_factor" not found in property tree at ROOT.enemy_expansion"
3. What did you expect to happen instead? The example configuration should include all required keys for the server to start properly.
4. Does it happen once, sometimes, or always? Always, however as a workaround you can copy the config of an existing savefile generated by the client instead.
I've attached a full log of the error as well.
1. What did you do? I pulled the container image factoriotools/factorio:2.1.7 and started it, which as default behavior copies the example config files from the headless server zip and uses them as defaults (This issue is reproducible outside this Docker image too, however, by manually copying the example configs out of the server zip into the data folder)
2. What happened? The game crashed with the error "0.000 Error Util.cpp:81: Key "evolution_group_size_factor" not found in property tree at ROOT.enemy_expansion"
3. What did you expect to happen instead? The example configuration should include all required keys for the server to start properly.
4. Does it happen once, sometimes, or always? Always, however as a workaround you can copy the config of an existing savefile generated by the client instead.
I've attached a full log of the error as well.