Vrising Server

make a new folder 'vrising1'
cd there
Download SteamCMD.
Extract the contents of the ZIP into a new folder on your main drive called "steamcmd".
Run "steamcmd.exe" in the folder and wait for the startup process to complete.
Type into the window "login anonymous" and hit Enter. Wait for SteamCMD to log you in.
Type "App_update 1829350" and hit Enter. Wait for the server files to be downloaded.
Once the process is complete, type "exit" and hit Enter to exit the window.
From your steamcmd folder, go to "steamapps/common/VRisingDedicatedServer" to find your server files.
[1]

follow start.bat examples in [2]
this one was involved. first just run the exe without args and see if it fails or not. it shouldnt immediately return the prompt, it should spit out a bunch of stuff and essentially hang. then test it by directly connecting to server.

Once you have a working binary, then you can start adding config options a bit a time and see when it stops working and roll back to your last working config. Generally copy and paste from the start.bat examples in [2].

Also configure the settings json thats hidden in some subfolder. I think this is where the (more or less sane) defaults come from for the initial test of running the binary without args.

Once you get everything working like you want, zip the folder and use the python3 -m http.server trick to transfer the zip to your cruddy old windows AME VM. if everything worked you can extract and doubleclick on your handcrafted start.bat.
If its all working, take a vm snapshot and don't touch it.