# Web dashboard DarkflameServer ships with a web dashboard for managing accounts, moderating, and watching the server. It replaces the separate NexusDashboard. Master starts it when `enable_dashboard=1` is set in `masterconfig.ini`, and it listens on the `port` in `dashboardconfig.ini` (2006 by default). It also talks to master over UDP on `net_port` and the port after it (2010 and 2011 by default); keep those clear of the other servers' ports. This page is for server operators. Everything below the first section is optional. ## Getting started 1. Set `enable_dashboard=1` in `masterconfig.ini` and start the server as usual. 2. Create an operator account from the command line: `./MasterServer -a`. Accounts created this way get GM level 9. 3. Open `http://127.0.0.1:2006` on the server itself and sign in. The dashboard only listens on `127.0.0.1` out of the box (`listen_ip` in `dashboardconfig.ini`). To reach it from other machines, put it behind HTTPS with a reverse proxy (Caddy, nginx, ...) on the same machine, or set `listen_ip=0.0.0.0` if you know what you are doing. Behind a proxy, set in `dashboardconfig.ini`: ```ini secure_cookies=1 behind_proxy=1 dashboard_url=https://dashboard.example.com ``` `dashboard_url` is used for links in emails and webhook alerts. ## Files to back up Next to the server binaries, the dashboard creates: - `dashboard_jwt_secret`: signs sign-in sessions. Losing it only signs everyone out. - `dashboard_totp_key`: encrypts two-factor login secrets. **Back this up with your database.** Without it, every account with two-factor login is locked out and has to be reset by staff with `accounts_manage` (GM 8+). You can also set `totp_key` (64 hex characters) in `dashboardconfig.ini` instead. - `dashboard_oauth2_token.json`: only if you connect a mail account with OAuth2. The [Backups](#backups) page copies the database itself (including settings changed on the Settings page), and lists the files a restore also needs: these, your `*.ini` files and `vanity/`. Keep copies of them somewhere safe. ## Access levels and permissions What people can do depends on their account's GM level. Out of the box: | Level | Can | |---|---| | 0 | See their own account, characters, properties, strikes and trade/mail history; the leaderboards and the property showcase; use the API; change their password, email and two-factor login | | 1+ | See the account, character, property and bug report lists; read the activity and command logs | | 2+ | Kick and mute; read and write the moderation history; read player reports | | 3+ | Approve names; handle player reports and bug reports; give strikes; see linked accounts, mailboxes, character history and who is online; rescue, teleport and restrict characters; read the chat log; send mail; economy reports and the world map | | 4+ | Ban and lock accounts; email password reset links | | 5+ | Moderate pet names, properties and leaderboards; revoke strikes; change a character's missions; change the chat filter's words; send and schedule announcements | | 8+ | Manage accounts (create, change email or password, reset two-factor login) and GM levels; edit characters and replace their XML; give items back; read whispers and team chat; send chat into the game; attach items to mail, to one player or everyone; import models; shut down worlds; schedule restarts and events; run economy checks; play keys, client files and the vanity files; see scheduled tasks, the audit log, server logs, crash dumps, server health and instance load; the developer tools | | 9 | Delete accounts; change scheduled tasks, instance limits, settings and permissions (these two are always GM 9 only), webhooks and email settings; backups; data maintenance | Each of these is a named permission, and you can change the lowest GM level allowed for any of them without rebuilding or restarting: - On the **Permissions** page (GM 9): click the lowest level that should have it. Changes apply straight away. The page has tabs for the dashboard permissions, the in-game commands and the config file names, with a search, a category filter and a *Changed only* switch. - In `dashboardconfig.ini`: `permission_=`, for example `permission_accounts_ban=3`. The names are on the Permissions page. - As an environment variable: `PERMISSION_ACCOUNTS_BAN=3`. A level set on the page beats the file and environment; **Reset** on the page goes back to them. Staff permissions go from 1 to 9, so players (GM 0) never get them, and GM 9 can always do everything (`permissions_manage` and `settings` are always GM 9). What players do (their own characters, properties, strikes and trade history, the leaderboards, the property showcase, and API access) can be set anywhere from 0 to 9: raise one to take it away from players, for example `permission_api_access=1` so only staff can use the API. Account basics (password, email, two-factor login, signing out) always work. Changing GM levels is also limited by rank: nobody but GM 9 can give or change a level at or above their own. Sending mail needs `mail_send` (GM 3+), but attaching items needs `mail_items` (GM 8), since it hands out items like `/gmadditem`; mailing items to everyone needs `mail_broadcast_items` as well. Items go only to accounts you may manage; mailing them to your own characters also needs `self_items` (below), and without it mail to everyone leaves them out. Set `min_dashboard_gm_level` to keep lower levels out of the dashboard entirely. ### Acting on yourself and on your own rank GM 9 can use every tool on anyone, including their own account and other GM 9 accounts. Two safety rails remain: the last GM 9 account that can still sign in (not banned or locked) can't be demoted, banned, locked or deleted, so make another GM 9 first; and deleting your own account asks you to type your username. Below GM 9, staff can never act on an account with a higher GM level than their own, or raise their own GM level. What else they may do is set on the Permissions page: - `manage_equal_rank` (default GM 9): use tools on other accounts with the same GM level. - `self_tools` (default GM 1): tools that gain nothing, used on your own account and characters: rescue or move your characters, kick yourself, sign yourself out everywhere, email yourself a reset link. - `self_items` (default GM 9): give your own characters something: edit coins, U-score, level and items, restore versions, replace XML, change missions, give lost items back, and mail items to your own characters. Without it, items mailed to everyone skip your own characters. - `self_moderation` (default GM 9): change your own record or account security: ban, mute or lock (and lift them), strikes and warnings, history entries, restrictions on your characters, lowering your own GM level, changing your email, password or two-factor login without the current one, and deleting your own account. Each of these works only together with the tool's own permission. Anything staff do to their own account or characters is marked "(on their own account)" in the audit log and in alerts. The same rules apply to the in-game slash commands that act on another player (see below). ### In-game slash commands The Permissions page also lists every in-game slash command with the GM level it needs. The list comes from the world servers: each one stores the commands it registered in the `slash_commands` table when it starts, so the page is empty until a world has started once. **Commands that do the same thing as a dashboard permission use that permission's level.** Change it on the permission's row and the game follows at once; the command's card says which permission it follows, and the permission's row lists its commands ("In game too"). The pairs: | Dashboard permission | Commands | |---|---| | `accounts_kick` | `/kick` | | `accounts_mute` | `/mute` | | `accounts_ban` | `/ban` | | `server_announce` | `/announce`, `/setanntitle`, `/setannmsg` | | `mail_items` | `/mailitem` | | `moderate_properties` | `/approveproperty` | | `players_view` | `/showall`, `/findplayer`, `/spectate` | | `health_view` | `/uptime`, `/metrics` | | `worlds_manage` | `/shutdown` | | `server_restart` | `/shutdownuniverse` | Commands that only act on your own character (`/gmadditem`, `/givemoney`, `/setcurrency`, `/giveuscore`, `/setlevel`) and `/teleport` aren't paired: they keep their own level. The pairs are declared on the commands (`dashboardPermission` in `SlashCommandHandler.cpp`). The world servers read the permission levels the dashboard stored (its page, `dashboardconfig.ini` and its environment), so set `permission_` for the dashboard only. A `command_level_` value for a paired command (from an older setup, a config file or the environment) still wins: the card marks it "overrides accounts_kick", and **Drop the override** makes the command follow the permission again. For a value in a file or the environment, the page stores `command_level_=permission` over it, which you can also put in the file yourself. Upgrading changes no levels by itself: the first time a world of an existing server starts with this version, each command that now follows a permission but needed a different level before (for example `/mute`, GM 6 in the code while `accounts_mute` is GM 2) keeps that level as an override. The page marks it "kept from before pairing", the audit log records it as `change_command_level` by `[upgrade]`, and **Drop the override** makes the command follow the permission from then on. A new server has nothing to keep, so its commands follow the permissions from the start. Other commands have their own level, `command_level_`, where the name is the first alias in lowercase with anything other than letters and digits turned into `_` (e.g. `command_level_spawn`, `command_level_leave_zone`): - On the page: stored for `worldconfig.ini` and beats the file and environment. Running worlds reload their settings at once; no restart. - In `worldconfig.ini` or `sharedconfig.ini`: `command_level_spawn=6`, picked up when the worlds reload their settings (`/reloadconfig`) or restart. - As an environment variable of the world servers: `COMMAND_LEVEL_SPAWN=6`. Changes need `permissions_manage` and go in the audit log (`change_command_level`, and `change_permission` lists the commands that followed). Some limits come from the code and can't be changed, for paired commands too: - Staff commands (anything above GM 0 in the code) go from 1 to 9, so players never get them. Player commands can be raised to any level, e.g. to stop players using `/pvp`. - `/execute` never goes below GM 8: it runs another command as another player, with that player's GM level. - `/setgmlevel` always stays at GM 0, so staff who lowered their own level can raise it again (it never goes above the account's GM level). - Commands the game client acts on by itself (emotes, team, friend and ignore commands) have fixed levels; the page hides them unless you tick **Commands the client handles**. A value outside those limits is ignored. Commands used at a level above GM 0 are written to the command log. **Commands that act on another player follow the dashboard's rules for its tools.** GM 9 may use them on anyone. Below GM 9, never on an account with a higher GM level (while someone plays at a lower level with `/setgmlevel`, their account's level still counts), on your own level only with `manage_equal_rank`, and on yourself only with the matching permission: - `self_tools`: `/kick`, `/kill` - `self_items`: `/mailitem` - `self_moderation`: `/ban`, `/mute`. `/ban` also refuses the last GM 9 account that can sign in. - Other players only (on yourself they work as before): `/teleport `, `/setlevel `, `/execute as `, and `/tpall`, which leaves players you may not move where they are. A refused command says why in the chat and names the permission. The page shows each command's rule on its card. ## Settings The **Settings** page (GM 9) lists every setting the servers read, grouped by what it's for (Server, Gameplay, Players and access, Email, Dashboard, Data retention) rather than by .ini file; each setting still shows its name and where its value comes from (an .ini file, an environment variable, this page, or the built-in default). That includes settings the shipped .ini files leave out (such as `closed_to_non_devs`), with the default the server uses when nothing sets them. - Inputs match the setting: switches for on/off (saved as `1`/`0`), number boxes with their range and unit, dropdowns for fixed choices, and ID lists that show the zone, item or reward code names. - Settings that only matter when another one is on stay out of the way until it is: the MySQL settings appear when the database is `mysql`, hardcore mode's settings when it's switched on, OAuth2's when email sign-in is `oauth2`. - Edits aren't sent until you press **Save changes** (or Ctrl+S). They're saved together: if one is invalid, nothing is saved and that setting is marked. **Undo** puts one back; **Remove the value set here** goes back to the file's value or the default. - A value set here is used when the files and environment leave the setting out. If a file or the environment sets it, keep **Override the value from the file** ticked so your value wins. - Saving tells every server to reload its settings straight away. Settings marked *restart* are only read when a server starts; the page says which ones need it after saving. Settings marked *unused* are in older .ini files but not read by this version (hidden unless **Show unused** is on). - An environment variable named after a setting in upper case (for example `MAX_CLIENTS`) still overrides the files. Order of priority, highest first: a value set here with override, environment variable, the server's own `.ini`, `sharedconfig.ini`, a value set here, the built-in default. The database connection (`database_type`, `sqlite_*`, `mysql_*`), `jwt_secret` and `totp_key` are shown read-only with a lock: the servers need them before they can read anything from the database, so change them in the .ini file or the environment variable the page names, then restart. The same goes for the programs and folders the servers run or read files from: `backup_mysqldump`, `backup_folder`, `client_location` and `dump_folder` can only be set in the .ini files or the environment, so the `settings` permission can't be turned into access to the machine. Values set for them on the Settings page by earlier versions are ignored. Programs such as `mysqldump` are run directly, without a shell. Secrets (passwords, tokens, keys) from files are never copied into the database; secrets set on the web are stored in the database and can't be read back from the page. ### Setting history The **History** tab of the Settings page (same `settings` permission) lists every change made on the Settings page, and by [scheduled events](#scheduled-events): the value set on the web before and after (and the file's value, which applies when there is none), who changed it and when. A setting changed here has a **History** link on the Settings page for just that setting. **Undo** puts the earlier value back through the same save as the Settings page, so it is checked, audited and recorded as a new change; it is refused if the setting was changed again since (undo the newer change first). Secrets are recorded without their values and can't be undone. Changes to permissions and command levels are in the audit log, not here. ## Signing in and accounts ### Two-factor login Anyone can turn on two-factor login on their account page with an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, Bitwarden, ...). They get 10 single-use recovery codes for a lost phone. To require it for staff, set `require_2fa_gm_level`, for example `3` for moderators and up. Staff at that level who haven't set it up can only reach their own account page until they do. If someone loses their phone and their recovery codes, staff with `accounts_manage` (GM 8+) can use **Reset 2FA** on their account page. ### Forgotten passwords With [email](#email) set up, **Forgot your password?** (`/forgot_password`) sends a reset link. Players with two-factor login can also choose a new password there without email: their username, a current code from their authenticator app, and one of their recovery codes. Both codes are needed, so someone who found the printed recovery codes, or has the phone, can't take the account alone. The recovery code is used up, every dashboard session and API token of the account is signed out, and an emailed reset link that's still open stops working. The game password changes too. It's limited like signing in: 10 tries per address every 15 minutes, and wrong codes count as [failed sign-ins](#failed-sign-ins-locking-and-deleting-accounts). The page gives the same answer for unknown usernames, accounts without two-factor login and wrong codes, so it can't be used to find accounts. Each reset goes in the audit log (`password_reset`), to the `security` webhook event, and by email to the account's address if it has one. Banned and locked accounts can't use it. Turn it off with `password_reset_recovery_codes=0` (Settings, Players and access); with neither email nor this, the page is gone. ### Email Email is used for password resets, address confirmation and [report emails](#saved-views-and-report-emails). Set `smtp_host`, `smtp_from_address` and `dashboard_url`, plus either `smtp_username`/`smtp_password` or OAuth2 (`smtp_auth=oauth2`, needed for Gmail and Microsoft 365). The comments in `dashboardconfig.ini` list every option. Use **Send Test** on your account page to check it (`email_settings`, GM 9). ### Registration Off by default. With `allow_registration=1` (Settings, Players and access) anyone can make an account at `/register`. `registration_requires_play_key` (on) asks for a play key, and `registration_requires_email` (off) for an email address, when email is set up. Staff with `accounts_manage` can also create accounts on the Accounts page. While the auth server uses play keys, a GM 0 account can only log in to the game with one, so give it a key there (create one on the Play keys page first). ### Failed sign-ins, locking and deleting accounts Wrong passwords, wrong two-factor codes, failed password recovery attempts and wrong passwords when downloading a backup all count as failed sign-ins. After 5 of them within 15 minutes from one address, that address can't try that account for 15 minutes; other addresses, including the owner's, still can. As a backstop against guessing from many addresses, 25 failures from anywhere without a successful sign-in in between lock the account for 10 minutes. Unlocking the account on its page ends both. **Lock** on an account page (GM 4+, `accounts_ban`) sets the account's Locked flag: it can't log in to the game or the dashboard until it is unlocked, it is kicked from the game, and its open dashboard pages are closed. Locks are in the moderation history and the audit log. Open dashboard pages (their live-update connections) are checked again every minute and whenever their account changes, so a ban, a lock, a lower GM level or **Sign out everywhere** reaches them straight away instead of when the session runs out. Results of actions that finish later (a kick, an email sent, ...) go only to the account that started the action, and only it can ask for them. **Delete** (GM 9, `accounts_delete`) removes the account's characters with everything tied to them (properties and their models, pets, mail, friends, snapshots, ...) and the rows about the account itself (tokens, recovery codes, moderation history, strikes, login addresses, preferences). It is all or nothing. The audit log, chat log and player reports are kept as the record of what happened. ## Live updates Pages update on their own: world servers tell the dashboard (through master) as soon as they write something it shows, and it pushes that to open browsers. Pages about one thing (a character, an account) reload in place when it changes, unless you're typing, in which case they offer a refresh instead. View choices you make on the pages (show staff, filters, the 3D viewer's switches, ...) are saved to your account, so they follow you to other browsers. On narrow screens the menu folds into a **Menu** button, and the moderation queues and online players show as cards with their buttons, so you can approve names or kick someone from a phone. ## Running the server ### Worlds The home page lists every running world with its zone, instance and clone ID, and for staff the property on a clone and the world's address. **Shut down** (GM 8+, `worlds_manage`) closes one instance; its players are disconnected. Accounts without `players_view` (players, by default) see no clone IDs: running property instances are merged into one row per zone with how many properties are open and their players, so nobody can tell who is on which property. The same goes for `/api/status`. ### Announcements and restarts From the home page: - **Announcement** (GM 5+, `server_announce`): a popup and chat message for everyone online. - **Scheduled restart** (GM 8+, `server_restart`): players are warned in game at 60, 30, 15, 10, 5, 2 and 1 minutes and 30 and 10 seconds before, then the whole server shuts down cleanly. **It does not start itself again**: run it under a process supervisor (systemd with `Restart=always`, a Docker restart policy, ...) so it comes back. Who scheduled it (`GET /api/server/restart`) is also only for `server_restart`; everyone sees when and why. ### Scheduled announcements **Scheduled Announcements** (GM 5+, `announcements_schedule`) repeats an announcement on a schedule: a title and message, every world or only chosen zones, a schedule in the same syntax as [scheduled tasks](#scheduled-tasks) (cron or `@every 2h`, in UTC, at most once a minute), and optional start and end dates. The dialog shows the next sends as you type. **Send now** shows it straight away; the schedule carries on. A send that falls while the dashboard or the master server is down is skipped, not sent late. Creating, changing, sending and deleting are audited. For announcements that belong with something else (said when an event starts, repeated while it is on), add an announcement part to a [scheduled event](#scheduled-events) instead; the sends of both show on its calendar. ### Scheduled events **Scheduled Events** (under Live Ops) switches things on together and off again later. An event has **parts**, any mix of: | Part | Needs | While the event is on | |---|---|---| | **Game feature** | `events_manage` | the feature is in an event setting (see below) | | **Vanity changes** | `vanity_manage` | vanity files are switched on or off, an overlay file is laid over the others and NPCs are taken out (see [Vanity](#vanity)) | | **Live event** | `live_events_manage` | a [live event](#live-events) runs: it starts when the event does and ends when it ends (a live event runs at most 7 days; one cut short that way isn't started again) | | **Announcement** | `announcements_schedule` | a message when it starts, repeated on a schedule while it is on (cron or `@every`, as for [scheduled announcements](#scheduled-announcements)), and another when it ends; each is optional | | **Restart** | `server_restart` | a [scheduled restart](#announcements-and-restarts) when it starts or when it ends, with the warning time and reason you give (one already scheduled is left alone) | Adding, changing or removing a part needs the permission its own page needs; changing an event's name, times or mode, cancelling or deleting it needs the permissions of every part it has. Seeing the page needs any of them; parts you can't change are shown read-only. **When** it is on: - **Once**, from a start to an end (at most a year apart), like the old events calendar; - **By rules**, again and again: every October, full-moon nights, Friday evenings (the rules are below). Its **mode** is *Off*, *Scheduled* (on when its times or rules say) or *Always On*. **Priority** decides which event wins where events that are on change the same vanity NPCs or files: they are laid on from the lowest priority to the highest (by id when equal), so the highest wins. The dashboard checks every 5 seconds. When an event turns on it starts each of its parts, and when it turns off it ends them. Each part remembers whether it was started, so every start and end happens once, even if the dashboard or the servers restart in between; a part that couldn't start (every event setting taken, a live event the client no longer has) says why and is tried again. Changing an event that is on keeps the parts you didn't change running; changed and removed parts are undone (a feature's setting put back, a live event ended, the vanity NPCs respawned) and changed ones started again. Announcements and restarts only act the moment their event starts or ends, so changing one while the event is on doesn't say it again, and deleting an event undoes its parts without its end announcement or restart. **Cancel** (for an event that is on once) switches it off now and ends its parts as if it had ended. Everything is audited, and *Scheduled event started/ended*, *Event waiting for a slot* and the parts' own alerts (*Live event started*, *Restart scheduled*, ...) go to the `server` webhook event. An event that is on once and that the dashboard was down for entirely is marked missed. The page lists the events with what each part last did, when each is on next (in your browser's time) and a month calendar that also shows, dashed, what is scheduled on its own pages: live events, the sends of repeating announcements and a scheduled restart. **Export** copies an event as JSON and **Import** takes one or a list of them. #### Game features and the event settings The game has eight event settings, `event_1` to `event_8`: auth sends them to the client at login, and a world server loads objects that are gated on a feature (`gatingOnFeature` in the zone's scene files) only when the feature is in one of them or already unlocked for the client version (`version_major/current/minor`, the `FeatureGating` table). Pick the feature from the list: every `gatingOnFeature` value in the client's scene files, with the zones that use it, and every `FeatureGating` name (marked when it is already on at your client version, where it changes nothing in the zones). When the part starts, the dashboard puts the feature in the first event setting nothing gives a value (a file, the environment or the Settings page) as a `sharedconfig.ini` value that wins over the files; when it ends, the setting is put back as it was, unless someone changed it by hand meanwhile. A feature that is already in a setting is left there and isn't put in a second one. Both go through the Settings save, so they're in the audit log and the [setting history](#setting-history). If every setting is taken the part waits, and says so. **Event settings now** shows what each setting holds and which event put it there. What takes effect when: new logins get the change straight away. Objects are only loaded when a zone starts, so worlds of the zones that use the feature and are already running keep what they had until they restart; the event lists them with their players, and staff with `worlds_manage` can shut one down from there (a fresh instance starts when someone goes there). #### Rules A schedule by rules is a list of rules, on when **any** of them matches or when **all** of them do: | Rule | JSON | On | |---|---|---| | Every year | `{"type": "yearly", "from": "10-01", "to": "10-31"}` | those days every year, both included; `12-20` to `01-02` runs over the new year | | Once | `{"type": "dates", "from": "2026-12-20", "to": "2027-01-02"}` | between two dates (a date alone is the whole day) or times (`2026-10-31T18:00`, the end not included) | | Days of the week | `{"type": "weekdays", "days": ["fri", "sat"]}` | those days | | Times of day | `{"type": "time_of_day", "from": "18:00", "to": "02:00"}` | every day between those times; may run past midnight | | Moon phase | `{"type": "moon", "phase": "full_moon", "days": 0}` | the day the phase falls on (and `days` either side); or with `"hours": 12` instead, that many hours either side of the exact time. Phases: `new_moon`, `first_quarter`, `full_moon`, `last_quarter` | | Group | `{"type": "group", "match": "all", "rules": [...]}` | rules inside rules (up to 4 deep) | Any rule can have `"not": true`. Moon phases are worked out with the method from Meeus' *Astronomical Algorithms* (to a minute or two), so no dates need entering. Days and times in the rules are in the schedule's time zone (`utcOffset`, in minutes from UTC; a new schedule starts in your browser's). It is a fixed offset: it doesn't follow daylight saving. Mind it for whole-day rules: a full-moon *day* in UTC is 8 PM to 8 PM in New York, so pick your own offset if the day should be yours. The editor builds the rules (or edit the JSON directly), says which time zone they are in, and lists when the schedule will be on next, in your browser's time. #### Examples Halloween every October: `halloween.xml` switched on and `summer.xml` off, the game's Halloween content (a feature; use one your client has), fireworks in Nimbus Station and a greeting when it starts. And a werewolf on full-moon nights that wins over Halloween where they meet: ```json [ {"name": "Halloween", "mode": 1, "priority": 0, "schedule": {"utcOffset": 0, "match": "any", "rules": [{"type": "yearly", "from": "10-01", "to": "10-31"}]}, "parts": [ {"kind": "vanity", "config": {"fileSwitches": {"halloween.xml": true, "summer.xml": false}, "file": "", "removals": []}}, {"kind": "feature", "config": {"feature": "oct2011content"}}, {"kind": "live_event", "config": {"type": "celebration", "title": "Halloween fireworks", "message": "", "zones": [1200], "instance": -1, "config": {"effectId": 4, "effectType": "fireworks", "interval": 30}}}, {"kind": "announcement", "config": {"title": "Halloween", "message": "Spooky season has begun!", "zones": [], "atStart": true, "repeat": "", "endMessage": ""}}]}, {"name": "Full moon", "mode": 1, "priority": 10, "schedule": {"utcOffset": 0, "match": "all", "rules": [{"type": "moon", "phase": "full_moon"}, {"type": "time_of_day", "from": "20:00", "to": "24:00"}]}, "parts": [{"kind": "vanity", "config": {"file": "full-moon.xml", "removals": ["Friendly Farmer"], "fileSwitches": {}}}]} ] ``` An event that is on once has `"schedule": null` and `"startsAt"`/`"endsAt"` (unix seconds) instead. ### Live events **Live Events** (GM 8+, `live_events_manage`) starts something in game now, for 1 minute to 7 days, in the zones you pick (and optionally one instance of them). It is announced in those zones when it starts and when it ends (with a summary and the top players), audited, and sent to the `server` webhook event. Every running world of those zones runs it in each of its instances, worlds that open before it ends join in, and everything it spawned is removed when it ends, is ended early (**End now**), or the world shuts down. The page shows each instance's progress live and the top players. - **Treasure hunt**: hides up to 50 objects (picked from the client's objects) per instance, spread out on ground the zone itself uses (where its NPCs walk and its enemies spawn, snapped to the navmesh when there is one). A player finds one by walking up to it (or smashing it), for coins, an item and an effect you choose. - **Bonus**: multiplies coins from loot, U-score from missions and achievements, and loot drop chances (1 to 10). With no zones it applies everywhere. Bonuses running at once don't stack; the biggest counts. - **Invasion**: waves of enemies (up to 5 kinds from the client's enemies) around the zone's spawn point or a player, with a counter of who smashed how many. At most 60 are alive per instance. - **Celebration**: plays an effect from the client's BehaviorEffect table on every player every few seconds. Players see what is running in their world with `/challenge`. To run one at set times (every Friday evening, with Halloween), add a live event part to a [scheduled event](#scheduled-events); it shows here while it runs. Treasure hunts and invasions announce their end in each world with that world's count. The dashboard announces the end of other kinds of events. ### Community challenges **Challenges** (everyone with `challenges_view`, GM 0; changing them needs `challenges_manage`, GM 8) are goals the whole server works on, such as "smash 10,000 enemies this week": a player statistic or a map event kind (optionally only one object, only some zones, and staff left out unless ticked), a target, a start and an end. World servers count each character's part where the game records it (what the client reports on its own doesn't count). The dashboard announces it in game when it passes each of `challenge_milestones` (25, 50, 75 by default) and when it's complete. When the target is reached, every character that added at least the reward minimum gets the rewards: items by mail (one mail per kind), coins in game (online players at once, others the next time they type `/challenge`). Nobody is rewarded twice. Creating, changing, cancelling, completing and rewarding are audited. In game, `/challenge` shows the running challenges, how far they are and what you added, and gives any coins waiting. With the public status page on, public challenges (running, or finished in the last week) and running live events show there too (`public_status_challenges`, `public_status_events`). The complete and over announcements are sent once the dashboard can reach the worlds: a challenge that ends while the dashboard is restarting is announced when it comes back, up to an hour after it ended. Milestones work the same way. ### Scheduled tasks The **Scheduled Tasks** page (GM 8+ to view, GM 9 to change) lists the jobs the dashboard runs on its own: | Task | Default schedule (UTC) | Does | |---|---|---| | `economy_checks` | `15 0 * * *` | Anomaly checks for the day before | | `economy_compaction` | `30 0 * * *` | Merges old ledger rows into months, deletes old trades and mail | | `log_pruning` | `45 0 * * *` | Deletes old log rows, chat, login addresses, health samples, player positions and task runs | | `message_capture_pruning` | `50 0 * * *` | Deletes saved message inspector captures past `inspector_session_days` or over `inspector_max_mb` | | `character_snapshots` | `0 4 * * *` | Saves every character that changed since its last snapshot | | `database_backup` | `30 3 * * *`, **off** | Copies the database (see [Backups](#backups)) | | `report_emails` | `0 7 * * *` | Emails saved Economy views (weekly ones on Mondays) | | `lift_expired_bans` | `5 * * * *` | Unbans accounts whose temporary ban has ended | | `pet_names_auto_approve` | `0 * * * *` | Approves pending pet names that were approved for another pet before | | `pet_owners` | `*/30 * * * *` | Looks up the owners of pets named before the game saved them | For each task you can change the schedule, switch it off (it then only runs when someone presses **Run now**) and run it straight away. Every run is kept with its log for `log_task_days` days; click a run to read it, or **Log** to follow one that is still running. Schedules are cron expressions in UTC (`minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week`), `@hourly`/`@daily`/`@weekly`/ `@monthly`, or a fixed interval like `@every 10m`. The edit dialog shows the next few run times as you type. If the dashboard was down when a task was due, it runs once when the dashboard starts. The `economy_checks` setting from earlier versions is replaced by the task's on/off switch. ### Backups The **Backups** page (GM 9) makes a copy of the database and lists the copies on the server. SQLite databases are copied with `VACUUM INTO` while the servers keep running; MySQL databases with `mysqldump` (set `backup_mysqldump` if it is called something else, such as `mariadb-dump`). Copies go in `backup_folder` (default `backups` next to the server) and only the newest `backup_keep` (default 7) are kept. Scheduled backups are **off** until you switch the `database_backup` task on (daily at 03:30 UTC; change the time on Scheduled Tasks). Downloading a backup asks for your password and two-factor code again, because it contains every account's password hash and email address; each download is audited and sent to security webhooks. Wrong passwords and codes there count as [failed sign-ins](#failed-sign-ins-locking-and-deleting-accounts). Backups are written with owner-only permissions (0600). Every new backup is checked before older ones are deleted, and one that fails its check is thrown away and the older ones kept: SQLite copies get `PRAGMA integrity_check` and a row count of every table; MySQL dumps must be complete (end with `-- Dump completed`). **Verify** checks a backup again: it only reads the file, runs in the background, and is audited (`verify_backup`, `verify_backup_result`). For SQLite it also reports any two-factor secrets this server's key can't decrypt. A backup is only the database, including settings changed on the Settings page. The page lists what a restore also needs; keep copies of these somewhere safe as well: `dashboard_totp_key` (or `totp_key` in `dashboardconfig.ini`), your `*.ini` files, `vanity/` and `dashboard_oauth2_token.json`. **Restoring SQLite:** stop all servers; copy the backup over the database file (`sqlite_database_path`); **delete `-wal` and `-shm`** if they exist (a leftover `-wal` from the old database corrupts the restored one); start the servers. **Restoring MySQL:** stop all servers, then ```sh mariadb -e "DROP DATABASE dlu; CREATE DATABASE dlu" mariadb dlu < dlu-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.sql ``` (or `mysql`). Dumps from MariaDB 11+ begin with a sandbox-mode line that MySQL's client rejects; restore those with `mariadb`, or delete the first line. Start the servers. Restoring an older backup is fine: migrations bring it up to date when the servers start. ### Webhooks and alerts On the **Webhooks** page (GM 9) add Discord, Slack or generic JSON webhooks and choose which events they get: `bug_report`, `pending_name` (names waiting for approval), `moderation` (bans, locks, mutes, kicks and restrictions, from the dashboard or in game), `security` (GM level and two-factor changes, API tokens, recovery code use), `economy_flag` and `server` (auth or chat going down or coming back, restarts, events). JSON deliveries can be signed: with a secret set, each request has `X-DLU-Signature: sha256=`. ### Server health and instance load **Server Health** (GM 8+, `health_view`) charts players online, running worlds, memory used by all server processes, and whether auth and chat were up, over the last day, week or month (sampled once a minute, kept for `health_days`, 30). **Prometheus metrics** are off until `metrics_enabled` is switched on (Settings > Dashboard > Metrics). `/metrics` then serves the Prometheus text format: players online (total, per zone and per instance), running worlds per zone, whether master, auth and chat are up, memory and process count per kind of server, dashboard uptime and WebSocket clients, chat messages by channel (and how many the filter blocked), today's coins, items and map events, moderation queues (names, pet names, properties, bug reports, economy flags, player reports), active strikes, each scheduled task's last run, and how long the database reads behind them took. Labels never contain account or character names or addresses. A scraper sends `Authorization: Bearer` with either an API token of an account with the `metrics_view` permission (GM 8 by default), or the shared `metrics_token` (at least 16 characters). `metrics_allowed_ips` can limit where requests come from (addresses or IPv4 ranges like `10.0.0.0/8`), and the numbers are worked out at most every `metrics_cache_seconds` (10), however often they are fetched. `/api/metrics` returns the same text for API tokens. An example scrape config and Grafana dashboard are in `docs/grafana/`. **Instance Load** (`health_view`) records the players in each world instance at the same time and keeps them as long: the busiest zones (most players in one instance, most instances and most players at once), and for a zone each instance's players over time against its caps. How many players an instance takes is decided by the master server: it sends a player to a running public instance of the zone while it has fewer players than the zone's **soft cap** (joining a friend: the **hard cap**), and otherwise starts a new instance; the hard cap is also the most connections that world server accepts. The caps come from the client's `ZoneTable` (`population_soft_cap`, `population_hard_cap`). With `instances_manage` (GM 9) you can set other caps per zone (up to 500), and up to 5 **spare instances**: the master keeps that many instances of the zone with room running (checked every 10 seconds, one started at a time), so players moving in don't wait for a world to start. A spare that stays empty still shuts itself down after 30 minutes like any empty world, and the master starts another. A spare that stops before it has been up for 5 minutes (a crash, a missing file, a port in use) counts as a failure: the next try waits 10 seconds, and each failure in a row doubles the wait, up to 30 minutes, so a broken zone isn't restarted over and over. One that stays up for 5 minutes resets it; the master's log says how long it waits. Changes reach the master straight away (no restart): new instances take the new caps, and running ones too, but a running instance's hard cap can only go down, not above what its world server was started with. Private instances and character selection aren't affected. ### Logs and crash dumps **System Log** (GM 8+, `logs_system`) shows the end of any server's log file (the newest by default; pick an older one from the list), says which file you're looking at and when it was last written, and can download it. It also searches the newest log files of one or all servers. Crash dumps: set `dump_folder` (for example `crash_dumps`, relative to the server binaries) and world servers write a backtrace file there when they crash (`generate_dump=1` also writes a memory dump on Windows). Server Health lists them to read or download for staff who also have `logs_system`. The **Activity Log**, **Command Log** and **Audit Log** pages show zone changes, slash commands used and what staff did on the dashboard. How long each is kept is under Settings, Data retention (`log_*_days`; 0 keeps everything). ## Players and characters ### Online players **Online Players** (GM 3+, `players_view`) lists everyone in game: character, account, world and position, updated live. From there you can kick a player, rescue them to another zone, or teleport them to another player in the same world (`characters_rescue`). A rescue lands on the zone's usual spawn point, or on one you pick from the named spawn points in the zone's scene files (the ones rocket launchers use; needs `client_location`). A character that isn't online has its saved position changed instead. ### World 3D **World 3D** (GM 3+, `players_view`) shows a zone in 3D the way the game draws it: its ground, the models of its objects and its sky, with everyone online moving on it live. Pick the zone and, when it has several, the instance. Click a player to see who it is, double-click (or **Follow**) to keep the camera on them; click an object for its name, LOT and the scene it belongs to. Needs `client_location`. The view fills the window (the page doesn't scroll; the wheel only zooms). View settings are in the **Layers** tab (on phones, the **Panel** button opens it from the bottom) and are remembered per account. - **Scenery** (on by default) draws every object in the zone's scene files with its model, from the client's .nif files, as the property view does; **Sky** switches the zone's sky. Objects the game doesn't draw (trigger and blocking volumes: blocking-volume types, `renderDisabled`/`CreateNULLRender`, and `carver_only` objects, which the client never loads) are left out; **Hidden objects** shows them see-through in pink for debugging. Models load nearest first around where the camera looks; **High / Medium / Low detail** sets how far they're drawn and how sharp (Medium by default). Objects drawn with a model get no marker; **Markers on objects with a model** (Layers tab) brings the markers back. They can be clicked either way. - **Terrain** shows the zone's terrain file (.raw), read with the same parser as the world server's terrain code (`Raw`, dCommon), in one of its layers: **Textured** (its four textures blended as the game does), **Color map** (the tint painted over the ground), **Texture blend map** (the weights of the textures as colours) or **Scenes** (which scene each part of the ground belongs to, coloured with the game's scene colours, with a legend of the scenes' names from the .luz and their share of the ground in the Layers tab). - **Flairs** (Layers tab, with Models on) are the grass, flowers and small rocks the terrain file strews over the ground (models from FlairTable), drawn only near the camera like the game does. - **Objects** are markers coloured by what they are (enemies, vendors, mission givers, quickbuilds, launchers, collectibles, activities, smashables, other); the Layers tab switches each kind on and off. - **Paths** (Layers tab, off by default) are the zone file's paths as lines, by type. They are most of a zone file, so they're only read when switched on; everything else needs just the start of the .luz (its scene list, spawn point and terrain file name). **Replay** (GM 5+, `players_history`) plays back where players went over a time range (up to 7 days at a time) with a scrubber, speeds up to 1800× and fading trails. The dashboard keeps a player's position every `position_history_seconds` seconds (5) while they move and every 30 seconds while they stand still, for `position_history_days` days (3); switch it off with `position_history=0` (Settings, Data retention, Player movement). Every replay opened goes in the audit log (`view_position_history`). **Heat map** (`reports_view`) plays the World Map's events of one kind (kills, drops, deaths, ...) day by day as coloured squares on the ground: one day a frame, seven days a frame, or everything so far. The view starts on the zone's objects and spawn point. Terrain that is only a flat plane far from everything (like Venture Explorer's) is not drawn. ### Editing, history and lost items Everything that changes a character (the editor, restoring an old version, uploading XML) first disconnects its player if they're online, saves a snapshot of the character as it was, then writes the change and notes it in the audit log. Nothing is ever changed under a player who is still in game. - **Edit** (GM 8+, `characters_edit`): coins, U-score, level, and adding or removing items. - **History** (GM 3+, `characters_history`): earlier versions of the character. Each one shows what differs from now, can be downloaded as XML, and (with `characters_edit`) restored. The `character_snapshots` task saves every character that changed once a day; old snapshots are removed after `snapshot_days` (90), but each character always keeps its newest `snapshot_keep` (10). - **Give it back** (GM 8+, `items_restore`): on the Economy page, trace an item and mail it back to the player. If the item no longer exists anywhere it comes back with its original ID. - **Give back lost items** (GM 8+, `items_restore`; picking a snapshot needs `characters_history`): on the character page, pick a snapshot to see what the character had then and is missing now (per item, and every change per inventory), then tick items, or a whole item set, to mail them back. Mail works whether the player is online or not, and their saved data isn't touched. Only what is really missing is sent: items are counted across all inventories (moved or split stacks aren't lost), and what waits in their mailbox (including an earlier restore) or that someone else now holds (traded or mailed away) is taken off. Lost items nobody holds go back with their original IDs. ### Missions and progress - **Missions** (everyone who can see the character): the character's missions and achievements with their tasks, progress, state and rewards. With `characters_missions` (GM 5+), staff can complete one (with or without its rewards), reset it so it can be done again, or give it even if its prerequisites aren't done, including any mission found by name or ID. If the player is in game their world does it exactly like the `/completemission`, `/resetmission` and `/addmission` commands, and tells them. If not, their saved data is changed the way the game would save it (they're disconnected from character select first and a snapshot is kept); rewards can only be given in game, so complete without rewards or wait until they're online. Everything is in the audit log. - **Progress** (everyone who can see the character; players with `own_characters`): missions and achievements done out of those in the game, per group the game sorts them into and per zone, with what the game counts per zone (achievements earned there, coins, enemies, quick builds) and what the zone's summary tracks (collectibles, flags, pets). It is compared with the server's average and says how many characters have done less. The averages come from reading every character, so they are worked out in the background when first needed and kept for 6 hours. ### Related data The account and character pages have a **Related** card with everything tied to them: characters, properties, pets, friends, name requests, trades and mail, bug reports, economy flags, staff actions and recent chat, each shown only to people allowed to see it. ## Moderation ### Review queue **Review Queue** (GM 3+, `moderate_names`) holds character names waiting for approval, and for staff who may moderate them, pet names (`moderate_pet_names`, GM 5+, also on their own **Pet Names** page) and properties made public (`moderate_properties`, GM 5+). Approving or rejecting tells the player in game if they're online. Rejecting asks for an optional reason, which the player sees on their own account page next to what they asked for. The queues show only what the game itself would still review: rejected properties and names whose player must pick a new one no longer appear. ### Moderation history, warnings and bans Each account page has a **Moderation history** (GM 2+, `accounts_notes`): notes and warnings staff write, plus every ban, mute and lock with its reason, including bans and mutes done with GM commands in game. A warning can also be sent to the player in game. A ban (GM 4+, `accounts_ban`) takes a reason and optionally a number of days. The player sees the reason when they try to log in, and a temporary ban lifts itself at the next login after it ends (the `lift_expired_bans` task also lifts ended bans every hour). ### Strikes Something being rejected doesn't always mean the player did anything wrong, so strikes are a separate choice. When rejecting a name, pet name or property, removing a leaderboard score or acting on a player report, staff with `strikes_give` (GM 3+) can tick **Also give a strike on their account**; the dialog shows how many strikes the account already has. Strikes can also be given by hand from the account page, and revoked (`strikes_revoke`, GM 5+): a revoked strike stays on the record but stops counting. `strike_expiry_days` (Settings, Dashboard, Strikes) makes older strikes stop counting; 0 (the default) keeps them forever. The account page lists every strike with what it was for, the reason, who gave it and whether it still counts. Players see their own (`own_strikes`), without staff names. Giving and revoking strikes is audited and goes to the `moderation` webhook event. **Strike thresholds.** In the same settings section you can have something happen on its own when an account reaches a number of active strikes: `strike_warn_at` (a warning on the record, shown to the player if online), `strike_mute_at` with `strike_mute_days` (3), and `strike_ban_at` with `strike_ban_days` (7; 0 bans permanently). 0 switches a step off, and all are off until you set them. For example warn at 2, mute for 3 days at 3, ban for 7 days at 5. Right after a strike is given, the highest threshold reached is applied the same way the account page's buttons do it (moderation history, audit log, `moderation` webhooks, the player disconnected when banned), and the moderator who gave the strike is told what happened. A step is applied once for its number of strikes: a fourth strike after the mute at three does nothing more, and neither does reaching three again after a strike was revoked, as long as the strike that set the mute off still counts towards `strike_expiry_days`. A mute or ban never shortens a longer one, and nothing happens to an account the moderator couldn't manage themselves (staff at or above their level). ### Player reports Players report someone from the game's **Report Abuse** window (in the help menu, or **Report** on another player's name): another player, a model they point at, or a property. These arrive on the **Player Reports** page (GM 2+, `player_reports_view`, under Moderation) with who sent them, what they wrote, where they were, and who the report is about: the reported player, or the owner of the property or of a model placed on it. Reports about another player used to be filed as bug reports; they now come here, and model and property reports, which the server used to drop, are kept too. Each world takes at most 3 reports a minute and 20 a day from one account; more are dropped (with a line in the world's log), so nobody can flood the queue. Staff with `player_reports_manage` (GM 3+) close a report with **Act on it** (what was done, and optionally a strike on the reported account, with the same dialog as rejecting a name) or **Dismiss**. Muting, warning or banning is done from the account page as usual. Both are audited; acting on a report goes to the `moderation` webhook event. ### Linked accounts Account pages have a **Linked accounts** card (GM 3+, `accounts_links`): other accounts with the same play key, the same email address, or that logged in to the game from the same network address, with how many reports are about the account. Login addresses are recorded by the auth server at each successful game login while `log_login_addresses` is on (the default; Settings, Players and access). An address is personal data: the dashboard never shows it, only that two accounts share one, and an address an account hasn't used for `log_login_address_days` (90) is deleted by the nightly log pruning. A shared address can also be a family, a school or a public network, so treat it as a hint. Turn `log_login_addresses` off if you don't want addresses kept (and mention it in your privacy notice if you do). ### Chat filter The **Chat Filter** page (GM 5+, `chat_filter_manage`, under Moderation) adds words on top of the chat filter's files (`chatplus_en_us.txt` in the client's `res` folder lists the words normal chat may use, `blocklist.dcf` the words best friends' free chat may not). **Block** stops a word in every kind of chat, even where the files allow it; **Allow** lets normal chat use a word the files don't list. Words are compared the way the filter compares them: lower case, without `! ? ; . ,`. Every change is applied straight away in running worlds and in the chat server's web chat, without a restart, and servers that start later read the list. Before blocking a word, **What would blocking it stop?** lists the recent chat players saw that contains it; **What did the filter stop with it?** lists recent stopped messages that contain it. Checking a word also says where it stands: in the allowed words file, in the blocked words file, and on the lists here. Changes are audited and go to the `moderation` webhook event. **From the files** lists the allowed words of `chatplus_en_us.txt` (needs `client_location`), searchable, marked when a list here also has them. Click one to check it; block it with **Block** as any other word. `blocklist.dcf` keeps only hashes of its words, so only how many it has is shown; checking a word tells whether it is one of them. **Copy into the Allowed list** copies every word of the file into the Allowed list once (words already on a list are left alone), for servers that want to edit the whole list here; the file stays as it is, and a word removed from the Allowed list is still allowed by the file until it is blocked. API: `GET /api/chat_filter/files?search=&start=`, `GET /api/chat_filter/lookup?word=`, `POST /api/chat_filter/import`. ### AI moderator helper Staff with `ai_suggest` (GM 3+) get a **Suggest** button on player reports, chat log messages (and "Suggest for this player's recent chat" under the Character filter), pending character and pet names, and open economy flags. It asks Claude (Anthropic's API) to draft a suggestion: an action (dismiss, note, warn, strike, mute or ban for some days; approve or reject for names), a short reason written for the player, a paragraph for staff citing the evidence (chat lines, earlier strikes and moderation, shown with the suggestion), and how confident it is. It is only a draft: **Use this** fills in the usual dialog (the reject or act dialog, the flag review) and **Fill in on the account page** fills in the note, mute, ban or strike form there, and staff check it and apply it themselves. Nothing is ever applied on its own, and nothing the helper writes reaches players unless staff send it. It is off until set up in Settings, Dashboard, AI moderator helper: `ai_helper_enabled`, `claude_api_key` (never shown back or logged), `claude_model` (`claude-sonnet-5` by default; any model ID works), `ai_helper_rules` (your code of conduct, sent with every request), and limits so it can't run up a bill: `ai_helper_per_minute` (5), `ai_helper_per_day` (200, per UTC day, for the whole dashboard), `ai_helper_max_tokens` (2000 per request) and `ai_helper_timeout` (60 seconds; busy or failing answers are retried up to three times). The Moderation page shows how many suggestions are left today. Each request sends the item, the player's chat from `ai_helper_chat_minutes` (10) before and after it, their strikes, notes, earlier reports and name decisions, and only what the asking staff member could see themselves. It never sends emails, addresses, passwords or account names. What players wrote is marked as data the model must not obey, and answers that aren't exactly the expected JSON, cite things that weren't sent, contain links for the player or repeat the helper's instructions are thrown away. Every suggestion is stored with the item (asking again about an unchanged case shows the stored one at no cost; **Ask again** asks anew) and audited as `ai_suggest` with who asked, the model and the tokens used. To try it without a key, run `python3 tests/dWebTests/mock_claude_api.py --port 8765` and set `claude_api_base=http://127.0.0.1:8765`. ### Chat log and chat bridges The **Chat Log** page (GM 3+, `chat_view`) shows what players say, newest first and live: zone chat, messages sent in from the dashboard or a chat bridge, and messages the chat filter stopped (marked; nobody saw them). Whispers and team chat are there too for staff with `chat_private` (GM 8+). Filter by channel, character, zone or one world of a zone, or "only what the filter stopped"; **Account** on a row goes to the sender's account to mute, warn or ban them. The Related card on account and character pages has their recent messages. Settings: `log_chat` (on), `log_private_chat` (on), `log_chat_days` (90), and `chat_bridge_filter` (on: messages sent into the game go through the chat filter like players' do). **Bridging chat to Discord or another service.** Make an account for the bot with a GM level that has `chat_view`, `chat_send` and `api_access`, create an API token on its account page, and: - Read: `GET /api/chat?after=` with `Authorization: Bearer ` returns the messages newer than that id, oldest first, and `last_id` for the next call (`zone` and `instance` narrow it to one zone or one world). Or connect to the `/ws` WebSocket with the same header and subscribe to the `chat_message` topic to get each message as it's said (`{"event":"subscribe","subscription":"chat_message"}`). - Write: `POST /api/chat/send` with `{"message": "hi", "name": "Bob", "label": "Discord"}` (and `"zone": 1200`, plus `"instance"` for one world of it, to post in one place only). Players see it as `[Discord] Bob: hi`; the label is always shown (`Web` when left out), so a bot can't pass for a player. `tools/chat-bridge` is an example bridge that uses only this API (Python, with Discord, console and webhook adapters and a place to add others). It relays zone chat only by default, skips what the chat filter stopped and its own messages, rate limits both ways, and resumes from the last id after a restart or a dropped WebSocket. See its README for setup and a systemd unit. A message the chat filter stops when sent in with `/api/chat/send` is not marked as stopped in the Chat Log. ### Leaderboards **Leaderboard moderation** (GM 5+, `leaderboards_manage`): on the Leaderboards page, remove one character's score (for example a cheated one) or clear a whole board. Both go in the audit log. Columns and their names are the ones the game shows for the activity's leaderboard type, and the order is the game's. A foot race's Time is the time left on the race clock at the finish, so more is better; Monument Race and racing times are time taken, so less is better. ## Properties **Today's Top Properties** (Properties page, permission `feature_properties`, default GM 5). The game's news screen has four "Today's Top Properties" slots, one per small property world: Block Yard, Nimbus Rock, Chantey Shanty and Raven Bluff (from the client's PropertyTemplate and PropertyEntranceComponent tables). A slot only displays what the server sends it, so it can show a property of any property world, small or medium (every world a property entrance leads to, such as Avant Grove or Nimbus Isle). Only approved public properties are shown, and never the same one in two slots. - *Full auto* shows the four approved public properties with the most reputation across every property world, in slot order. The per slot settings are kept for when you switch back. - *Per slot*: each slot has a *location* (the property world it shows a property of; the slot's own world by default) and is *Auto* (the location's approved public property with the most reputation, the default), a *picked* property (search by the property's name, description or owner; only approved public properties of the location, and not one another slot already picked), or *Empty* (locked). Picks are placed first; the Auto slots then take, in slot order, the best property of their location that isn't shown yet, so two Auto slots on one world show its first and second. A pick that later becomes private, rejected, or loses its owner falls back to Auto the same way. A slot with nothing left to show stays locked. "Showing" on each slot is what players see. The game's tooltip on a slot always names the slot's own world (and its description), even when it shows another world's property; a property without a name shows the slot world's default name. Players see changes the next time they open the news screen, within 30 seconds. Changes are audited as `feature_property`. API: `GET /api/featured_properties`, `POST /api/featured_properties {full_auto}`, `GET /api/featured_properties/:template/candidates?location=&search=`, `POST /api/featured_properties/:template {location, mode, property_id}`. ### Properties in 3D **Open 3D view** on a property page (or *View in 3D* next to a model) shows every placed model on the zone's terrain, drawn like the game draws it: the whole zone, with its ground textures blended by the zone file's blend maps. The blue line is the build area from the zone file, where the owner may place models. Pick the level of detail, turn terrain and shadows on or off, and go full screen. Click a model, or pick it from the list, to see its details and behaviors: each state's strips with their trigger and actions. **Interact**, **Attack** and the chat buttons fire a model's triggers and play its behaviors the way the server runs them (moves, waits, smashing and rebuilding, chat bubbles, state changes); sounds, spawned enemies and drops are listed in the log. Actions the server doesn't support are shown in red. Terrain needs `client_location` to be set. **Layers.** The property 3D view (and the showcase's) fills the window with its panels scrolling inside; its **Layers** tab has the same switches as World 3D where they apply: detail, Terrain, Scenery, Sky, Placed models, Build area, Shadows and Hidden objects (off by default), remembered per account. **Scenery.** The property 3D view (and the showcase's) draws the zone around the property as the game does: every scene object's model and the zone's sky, from the game client's files (needs `client_location`). Models load nearest first; the detail setting picks the model level of detail, how far objects are drawn (1400/800/450 units), texture sharpness and a memory budget. Switch it off with *Scenery*. The 3D world view draws the same as its *Models* layer (on by default, Medium detail), plus the terrain's flairs. Converted models are cached in memory (64 MB) and in `dDashboardServer/scenery_cache` next to the server (at most 512 MB); nothing needs ImageMagick. Converting a model the caches don't have yet (a big "glom" file takes a moment) happens on a few worker threads, so the dashboard keeps answering everything else meanwhile: the route hands the request to a worker (`Web::Defer`) and the web thread sends the answer when it is ready. Flairs and small models (up to 256 KB) go first, and one of the threads only takes those, so the grass around the camera never waits behind a big model; models of 4 MB and more wait behind smaller ones. A model asked for twice at once (two viewers) is converted once. When a zone's scenery or flair manifest is asked for, the zone's models are also converted ahead of time onto the disk cache, flairs and smallest first, at the detail its viewer last used: only when nothing else waits, on at most half of the threads besides the flairs' one, stopping when nobody has viewed the zone for 90 seconds or the disk cache is three quarters full (it never evicts for this). The number of threads is `scenery_workers` in `dashboardconfig.ini` (Settings > Dashboard > Web server; 0, the default, picks half the CPU cores, 2 to 4; read at startup). The same threads build a zone's data the first time it is viewed (its terrain chunks and layers, scene objects, paths, scenery and flair manifests, deflated bodies) and convert terrain textures with ImageMagick, so opening a new zone doesn't hold up the rest of the dashboard; what is built already is answered at once. Each is built once, even when asked for twice at the same time. Workers never query the CDClient, read settings or touch the network: the tables they need (ZoneTable, render components, flairs, object names, terrain textures) are read at startup. Endpoints: `/api/properties/:id/scenery`, `/api/world3d/:zone/scenery`, `/api/world3d/:zone/flairs`, `/api/scenery/:zone/mesh/:asset?lod=`, `/api/scenery/:zone/texture/:asset/:slot?lod=`. The world view's other data: `/api/world3d/:zone/scene` (objects and scenes), `/terrain_chunks` and `/terrain_layers` (the terrain file; sent deflated when the browser takes it, about a tenth of the size) and `/paths`. ### Property showcase **Property Showcase** (`/showcase`) lets players browse each other's properties that the owner made public and a moderator approved: name, owner's character name, description, world, number of models and reputation, with a search, a world filter and sorting by reputation, recent changes or name. **Look around in 3D** opens the same viewer as above, read only (no model downloads, no link to the owner's character). Private, friends-only, waiting and rejected properties never show; one that is rejected or made private drops out within seconds. It needs the `showcase_view` permission (every account by default; raise it on the Permissions page to take it away). Set `showcase_public=1` (Settings, Dashboard, Public pages) to let visitors who aren't signed in see it too; they're rate limited per address. ## Economy reports **Economy & Map** (GM 3+, `reports_view`) shows where coins, U-score and items come from and go, what players did each day, trades and mail between players, item traces by object ID, duplicate scans, and a world map of where things happen. Every table can be downloaded as CSV. Items that change hands in a trade or in mail between players get a new object ID, as on live (a whole item keeps its data; part of a stack joins the other player's stack). Trades and mail record the old and the new ID ("Received as"). **Trace Item** follows an item through every recorded trade, mail and move between a player's own inventories. The item gets a new object ID at each of these (as on live), so enter any of its IDs: the trace goes back to the first recorded ID and forward to the latest (up to 200 hops) and shows a timeline (time, how, from → to, world, count, coins, old → new ID), where each ID is now and which IDs still exist. When a stack was split, every part is shown (the other parts greyed out). A stack that went into one the receiver already had is marked *merged*; that stack's older history is left out unless you switch on *Also show the history of stacks it merged into*. Items that later joined the item's stack are listed as *joined the stack*. Gaps are marked: mail sent before sending was recorded, a hop that starts with someone the previous hop didn't give the item to, or a hop without a new ID. Nothing before the first recorded hop is known (loot, vendors, missions, or trades from before the ledger). You can open a trace by clicking an item in a character's inventory, an ID in the Object ID column on Trades & Mail, or an item in the trades and mail on character and account pages. Inventory moves are recorded for traces only and don't show on Trades & Mail. **Give it back** mails the item under its latest ID when there is only one. The **World Map** tab draws a heat map over the zone's minimap (or its terrain) for one kind of event: enemy kills, item drops, coin drops, player deaths (listed by what killed them), coins players dropped when they died, smashables smashed by players and quickbuilds completed. Events are kept in 4×4 unit squares; with the whole zone in view they are merged into bigger squares so each one shows, and split again as you zoom in. Properties run one copy of their zone per property, so the reports keep each property apart (by the property's clone, which the world records with every event and statistic). On the **World Map**, property zones are listed under *Properties* ("Block Yard properties"); pick *All properties* to see them together (different builds on the same ground, so only good for totals) or one property to see its own map, drawn with its build area (dashed) and its placed models (blue squares), with its owner, links to the property page and 3D view, its totals and (with `players_history`) who was seen there. The **Activity** tab has a *Where* picker (everywhere, all properties, one property zone's properties, one property, one world), and its per-world table folds properties into *All properties* and one row per property zone. The 3D view's heat map has the same property picker. Events recorded before properties were told apart show as *Unknown property* rather than under a property. A property's page links to its economy data, and a character's page to what happened on their properties. Powerups are recorded too: where they drop and where players pick them up (a teammate can pick up the same drop). The World Map and Activity tab show them by what they restore (health, imagination, armor, or their effect, such as speed), worked out from each powerup's skills in the client database. The **Activity** tab charts those events per day, plus daily totals of the statistics every character keeps (smashables smashed, quickbuilds and missions completed, pets tamed, times smashed, distance travelled, races finished, ...), overall and per world. Statistics the client reports on its own are left out, since a modified client could send anything. The *Include staff* switch applies to the statistics; world events always include everyone. World servers keep running totals and write them every few seconds (added into daily rows, so storage grows with active players and places, not with events). Each night, shortly after midnight UTC, [scheduled tasks](#scheduled-tasks): - flag unusual coin income, item spikes and duplicated items (thresholds: `anomaly_*` settings; the duplicate scan can be switched off with `economy_duplicate_scan=0`), - merge daily detail (and player statistics) older than `economy_detail_days` (180; map data: `economy_map_days`, 90) into monthly totals, - delete trades and mail older than `economy_transfer_days` (730), - delete log rows older than `log_activity_days`, `log_command_days`, `log_audit_days`, `log_cheat_detection_days`, `log_chat_days`, `log_login_address_days`, `health_days` and `log_task_days` (0 keeps everything). Flags can be marked dismissed or actioned (`reports_review_flags`, GM 3+); `reports_run_checks` (GM 8+) runs the checks by hand. A duplicate is the same item (the same LOT) under one object ID in more than one place. Old data sometimes gave one object ID to two different items: those show separately as **Object ID collisions**, are not dupes and are not flagged. The nightly check dismisses any open duplicate flag whose ID turns out to be a collision, recorded as the system. Trace shows the item for each copy. Object ID collisions come from saves made before item IDs were made unique (character version below 8, the `` value in the character's XML). The next time such a character logs in, the game gives all its items new, unique IDs, which clears the collision. Each copy shows its character's version and whether it gets a new ID at the next login, and each collision shows whether it resolves on login and whose login is needed. The nightly economy check dismisses duplicate flags that are really collisions, with a note saying who needs to log in, and raises an "ID collision" flag only for collisions that logging in will not fix (both characters already migrated, or a copy is in mail). A real duplicate (the same item twice) is still flagged even when one copy is on an old save: the login gives it a new ID but keeps both copies, so check it before then. ### Saved views and report emails On the Economy page, **Views** saves the current tab, range, staff toggle and item filter under a name, so you can go back to it in one click (links look like `/reports#view=Name`). Ranges stay relative ("last 7 days"). A saved view can be emailed to you every day or every Monday around 07:00 UTC with the totals, top sources, most created items, top earners and open flags; that needs email set up and a confirmed address on your account. ## Public pages and players ### Public server status Off by default. With `public_status=1` (Settings, Dashboard, Public pages) anyone can see, without signing in: - `/status`: a page with whether the server is up, players per world, uptime, server health and the top leaderboard places; - `/api/public/status`: the same as JSON for server lists (any site may fetch it); - `/status/widget`: a small box other sites may show in an iframe (``; add `?theme=light` for light pages). Turn it off with `public_status_widget=0`. What it shows is up to you: `public_status_players` (players per world, on), `public_status_names` (character names by world, off; staff are never named but are counted), `public_status_uptime` (how long it's been up, and how much of the last day and week, from the Server Health samples; on), `public_status_health` (whether login and chat are up and how many worlds run; on), `public_status_leaderboard_top` (places per leaderboard, 3; 0 leaves them out) and `public_server_name`. It never shows account names, addresses, instance or property IDs. The status is worked out at most every `public_status_cache_seconds` (60) however many people ask, and each address is limited to 120 requests a minute. The public pages are `/status` and the [property showcase](#property-showcase) with `showcase_public=1`; both are off by default. The sign-in page links to the ones that are on. ### For players Every account can sign in to the dashboard (unless `min_dashboard_gm_level` keeps them out). Players see their own account and characters, including: - their properties and whether each is approved, with the moderator's reason if it was rejected; - their pets and whether each name is approved, waiting or rejected (with the reason); - their character name requests and what happened to them; - their characters' missions and progress, and their strikes; - **Leaderboards** for every activity, ranked the same way the game ranks them, with their own characters highlighted and a search to find anyone's place; - the [property showcase](#property-showcase) of other players' approved public properties. Players who forget their password can reset it by email (when set up) or, with two-factor login, with a [recovery code](#forgotten-passwords). ## Vanity The **Vanity** page (GM 8+, `vanity_manage`) looks after the extra NPCs, props and plaque texts the world servers add from the **vanity files**, `vanity/*.xml` next to the server binaries, and shows what the worlds load with the [scheduled events](#scheduled-events) that change them. Vanity is off entirely while `disable_vanity` is set. **Files & NPCs** tab: - **Vanity files**: the worlds start at `root.xml` and load each file that a loaded file switches on (``), each once; any file can include others. The list shows them that way, with a switch for each include, and files nothing includes apart (**Include** adds one to `root.xml`, switched off). Each file says whether it is loaded and, when not, why. A badge says how many events use it (the tooltip says which, and how: as their overlay file, or switching it on or off), and *on now* / *off now* when an event that is on loads it differently from what the files say. **New file** makes an empty one, switched off in the file you pick. - **NPCs**: pick a file to edit its includes and NPCs: each NPC's name, look (LOT and equipment), what it says, its config and where it stands (zone, position, facing, chance, scale; or one of its locations at random). Nothing is written until **Save file**, which checks every NPC the way the worlds read them and keeps the previous file as `.bak`. An NPC that an event replaces or takes out has a badge linking to that event. - **Vanity events** lists the events with vanity changes, and **New vanity event** starts one. - **Plaque texts**: `TESTAMENT.md` (the plaque by the Nimbus Station launch pad), `CREDITS.md` and `INFO.md` (the `/credits` and `/info` commands). **Respawn in game** makes every running world load the vanity files again, with the events that are on. ### Vanity changes in events A vanity part of a scheduled event changes the vanity NPCs only while the event is on: a Halloween look for October, a werewolf on full-moon nights. The vanity files themselves are never changed: - **File switches** turn vanity files on or off, as `root.xml`'s switches do, wherever a loaded file names them. A file switched on loads even if nothing names it (after the others, by name); a file switched off doesn't load, nor do the files only it includes. Halloween can switch `halloween.xml` on and `summer.xml` off. - **Overlay file**: a vanity file that `root.xml` doesn't load, edited on the Files & NPCs tab like any other (naming one that doesn't exist yet makes it empty when the event is saved). Its NPCs are laid over the others: an NPC with the same name as a vanity NPC replaces it, all of its locations, so to give an NPC a different outfit, lines or place, copy it into the overlay file and change it there. Unnamed objects (props, decorations) are always added. - **NPCs to take out**: names of vanity NPCs that are gone while the event is on. When several events that are on switch the same file or change the same NPC, the one with the higher priority wins. The Scheduled Events page lists the events that could meet like that, and warns when events that are on now do. The world servers read the events each time they spawn their vanity NPCs (when they start, and on a respawn): they load `root.xml` with the file switches of the events that are on, then lay each event's overlay file and removals over that, in priority order. So a world that starts during an event has it. When a vanity part starts or ends (its event turns on or off, or it is changed while on), the dashboard respawns the vanity NPCs in every running world; the old ones are removed first. ### Preview The **Preview** tab shows what the worlds would load at any date and time, or with the events you pick: the events in the order they are laid on, which vanity files are loaded and why (as the files say, or switched on or off by which event, highlighted where an event made the difference), how many NPCs there are with and without events, the conflicts between events, anything that couldn't be read, and the merged vanity XML. The dashboard and the worlds load vanity the same way (one function in the server code), so the preview is what the worlds get. **Preview** on an event opens it with just that event. ## API Everything the dashboard does is available as a JSON API. Create a token on your account page and send it as `Authorization: Bearer `. The **API** page lists every endpoint your GM level can use, and each can be tried out there. A token acts as its account with the account's current GM level, so every request needs the same permission as the page it matches (for example `/api/zones` needs `characters_rescue`). Using the API at all needs the `api_access` permission (every account by default); raise it on the Permissions page to turn the API off for players or lower staff levels. Tokens can only be made from a signed-in browser session, not with another token, so a leaked token can't make itself a new one. ## Developer tools Two pages for people writing scripts and content, under **Developer Tools** in the menu (GM 8+ each). ### Game message inspector **Message Inspector** (`dev_message_inspector`) shows the game messages one online player's client sends and receives, live, and keeps every capture so it can be opened again later: the message's name, direction, time, the object it is for, its size, its bytes (up to 2 KB of each) and its fields where the server reads the message with a typed struct (skills, projectile impacts, using and picking up things). - Start a capture with the character's name, for 30 seconds up to 15 minutes, optionally only messages in one direction, only some messages (`REQUEST_USE, 154`: names or numbers) or never some (`READY_FOR_UPDATES`). It stops by itself at the end, or with **Stop**. At most 4 captures run at once, one per character. - The world server the player is in captures, and sends what it caught through master in batches four times a second. It keeps at most 200 messages a second per capture (and 1000 waiting); the viewer marks where it left some out. - When the player changes zones or logs out the capture waits, and carries on in whichever world they turn up in until its time is up. Each world also stops a capture on its own at the time limit, so one can't be left running even if the dashboard goes away. With no capture running, the world servers do no extra work. **Saved captures.** The dashboard saves each capture in the database while it runs (every second): who was captured (character and account), who started it, its filters, when it started and ended and why, the worlds it was captured in (zone, instance, clone), and each message with its raw bytes and decoded fields. A capture keeps at most 100,000 messages and stops when it reaches that. If the dashboard stops, a capture that still has time left carries on when it starts again (messages sent while it was down are lost); others are marked ended. The **Saved captures** tab lists them, newest first, filtered by character, account, the staff member who started it and date, sortable by start, character, staff, messages or size, a page at a time. Click one to open it in the viewer. **The viewer** is the same for running and saved captures: - Filter by message (part of a name or an ID, several separated by commas, `!NAME` to hide one), direction, object (or click an object ID in the table) and text in the decoded fields or hex bytes; **Only decoded** hides messages without fields. **Counts by message** shows how many of each message were sent each way; click one to show only it. - **Follow newest** keeps the newest message in view (scrolling up stops it); **Pause** holds new messages back while you look and **Resume** adds them. **Time since the start** shows times relative to the start of the capture. - The table only draws the rows in view, so captures with tens of thousands of messages stay quick. A yellow edge marks a message with others left out just before it; a blue line marks where the player moved to another world. - Click a message (or move with the arrow keys) for its fields, where it was, and a hex dump with offsets and an ASCII column (hovering a byte highlights its character). **Copy hex** and **Copy JSON** copy the message. - **Download JSON** saves the capture and all its messages. **Delete** removes a finished capture and its messages (with a reason for the audit log). Captured messages are player data: only staff with `dev_message_inspector` can see the page, the saved captures and their messages. Starting, stopping, downloading and deleting captures are audited, and so is opening a finished capture someone else started (at most once an hour per staff member and capture). Saved captures are kept for `inspector_session_days` (default 30; 0 keeps them) and, when all of them together take more than `inspector_max_mb` (default 1024 MB; 0 for no limit), the oldest are deleted first. Both are under Settings, Data retention. The **Message capture pruning** task applies them every night (Tasks page); running captures are never deleted. Messages are stored as the world captured them (bytes plus the fields it decoded), so decoders added to the world server later only apply to new captures. ### CDClient browser **CDClient Browser** (`dev_cdclient`) searches and reads the game's CDClient database (`resServer/CDServer.sqlite`). Besides the raw rows, each kind of thing has a view that shows it the way the server uses it: - **Search** by name (objects by the names players see, missions, skills, activities, zones) or by ID (anything with that ID). - **Tables**: every table in the database, paged, sortable, searchable and filterable by column. Values that point at other rows (a LOT, a loot matrix, a skill, a mission, a zone, an emote, ...) are links. - **Objects**: icon, rarity and description; for items their type, equip slot, stack size, value, other currencies and crafting costs, stat bonuses, skills and item set; for destructibles their life, armor, imagination, level and coin drop; what they drop or contain, with each item's chance; a vendor's stock with prices and how it restocks; skills; starting inventory; the missions an NPC offers or takes. Then where the object comes from (smashables, packages, activity rewards, vendors, each with its chance), the missions that reward it and the mission tasks that count it. Objects built from bricks can be previewed in 3D (from the client's `BrickModels`, so `client_location` must be set); objects drawn from `.nif` meshes can't. - **Loot**: chances are worked out as `Loot.cpp` rolls them: each loot matrix entry rolls with its percent, then drops its count of items, each rolling a rarity from the rarity table (the lowest `randmax` at or above the roll) and picking evenly among the loot table's items of that rarity, or the next lower rarity it has. The page shows, per item, the chance of getting it at least once and how many on average, before live event bonuses. A vendor sells all of an entry's table when its min or max is 0, otherwise that many of its items at random, whatever the rarity. - **Missions**: tasks with their targets and parameters resolved to what `MissionTask` compares them with (objects, missions, skills, emotes, activities), rewards for the first completion and for repeats, prerequisites as the server evaluates them (each mission joined to everything after it, so brackets don't group), who offers and takes it, what it unlocks and the achievements that count it. - **Skills** with their cost, cooldown, behavior tree and the objects that have them; **behavior trees** with each behavior's template (named from the server's `BehaviorTemplate` enum), effect and parameters. - **Activities**: where they are played, what they cost, and their rewards per rating with coins and drop chances. - **Zones**: names, the player caps new instances get (the ZoneTable's, or an override set on the Instances page, shown to those who can see that page) and what uses the zone. Numbers the server has no names for (a skill's `castOnType`) or doesn't read (a loot matrix's `flagID`) are shown raw. It is read-only. Tables and columns come from the database itself; the page never sends SQL, only which table, column and value to look at. ## Checking a build `tests/smoke/dashboard_smoke_test.py` starts the whole server on a throwaway copy of your SQLite database, checks that every server comes up and connects, opens every page and API route, checks that players and moderators are refused what they shouldn't reach, and that live updates arrive. It then stops the server. It takes about half a minute: ```sh python3 tests/smoke/dashboard_smoke_test.py --build build # a copy of the configured database python3 tests/smoke/dashboard_smoke_test.py --build build --fresh # an empty database ``` For a MySQL server, start it yourself and use `--attach http://127.0.0.1:2006 --user ` with the password in `SMOKE_PASSWORD`. It creates two test accounts and deletes them again. The MySQL parity tests (`tests/dDatabaseTests`) run every migration on a fresh MySQL/MariaDB database and a fresh SQLite file and check that both database implementations return the same results. They need a running MySQL or MariaDB server and are skipped unless `DLU_TEST_MYSQL_HOST` is set: ```sh DLU_TEST_MYSQL_HOST=tcp://127.0.0.1:3306 ctest --test-dir build -R Parity # or run build/dDatabaseTests ``` `DLU_TEST_MYSQL_USER` (default `root`), `DLU_TEST_MYSQL_PASSWORD` (default empty) and `DLU_TEST_MYSQL_DATABASE` (default `dlu_parity_test`) are optional. That database is dropped and created again, so its name must contain `test`.