So you’ve decided to volunteer as a 7 Days to Die server administrator or moderator… thank you! As you already know (or will soon find out), servers are made popular or unpopular by their admins and mod team. You play a CRITICAL role in the success of the game server you’ve been assigned to. As the founder of this community (and someone who has worked in Information Technology for over 20 years), I can appreciate the amount of time that goes into what you do. So for that, I am VERY thankful. Thanks again!
Expectations for Server Admins and Moderators
- SERVER DIFFICULTY SETTINGS. For 7 Days to Die, our settings should always focus on more difficult and challenging settings. I have no interest in running servers that are stupid easy. This particular game is a survival game so the player should struggle. And not just at the beginning. No matter whether you run a vanilla server or a modded server (that is inherently more difficult), the settings you configure should give the player a reasonable/realistic chance of survival, but aim to slow progression and exploration. This includes limiting the ways advanced players give free handouts to new players. I want people to help eachother. And I don’t mind high level players helping out lower level players, but a level 80 player shouldn’t be handing out motorcycles and augers to people who just joined. Discourage excessive helping, and if needed make a rule about it. We want people to experience a full and challenging game.
- ADMIN BUILDING. Traditionally custom prefabs (POIs) are created for the players to enjoy. This can be a Safezone, a Horde Base, an event POI, or just fun POIs (eg. racetrack). Admins are encouraged to keep the game interesting for players by customizing the server with these types of structures. HOWEVER, it should not be done in a way that cripples gameplay. For example, if a Safezone is created to keep new players safe, it should be restricted to new players and it shouldn’t be able to be abused as an invincible horde base. Or if a Horde Base is created, it should not be ridiculously fortified so that it is an XP harvesting machine. Players should expend their own ammo, make their own repairs (within reason), and be at risk of being overwhelmed. Special POIs for events or fun should not have rare items, loot containers, etc. that can be taken by players unless it is a specific (and reasonable) award for accomplishing something challenging. ie. players should not be given a level 6 auger simply for participating. In short: admin building should be used to enhance gameplay, not negate the challenges of gameplay.
- DEBUG MENU (dm) AND CREATIVE MENU (cm). The dm and cm commands may be used by administrators and moderators as needed to support players that are bugged, glitched, or at risk of leaving the server because they’re overwhelmed. Flying, teleporting, spawning, destroying zombies for them, etc. are NOT things that admins/moderators should be doing just because they’ve asked for help. For example, if someone dies and can’t get to their pack because it’s blood moon, an admin/mod should NOT kill all of the zombies around them while they get their pack. The player should wait until the horde night has ended. If someone gets stuck in a ravine, they should teleport home. Acceptable use of admin/mod powers would be for things like someone can demonstrate a known bug and you have to destroy and respawn something for them, or looking into a griefing complaint, or flying around to find a land claim block. Admins and mods are not player helpers, they are server fixers.
- ZOMBIE SPAWNS AND KILLS. Admins/mods should not be spawning zombies for players unless related to fixing a bugged quest or for a special event. If for a special event (which would include horde nights at an admin-built Horde Base), zombies should only be spawned and killed by one admin at a time unless approved by me (the founder). This is one of the few perks I’ve reserved for myself and I don’t like seeing it abused. So if I am in game I will decide whether or not I’m going to put on a show. If I decline or I’m not available, it will be up to the designated server admin that is in game. If no admin is in game, then a special event should not be running. Moderators should not be running special events by themselves. At no time should administrators or moderators be admin killing zombies. If for some reason you believe it is unavoidable, it should be done minimally and only as absolutely necessary.
- PERSONAL BENEFIT. Admins and Mods should never use their powers for personal benefit (ie. as a normal player). Do not do anything a normal player can’t do themselves. ie. if you’re playing fair and square like any other player and trying to build a super high wall, do not enable debug menu so that you can fly and finish the wall. You are required to build scaffolding and risk falling to your death just like anyone else. If you get overwhelmed by zombies, don’t enter debug menu and fly away. Don’t spawn yourself special dev items, cosmetic items, or special resources/weapons. If you’re doing something legit, then as soon as you’re done with the items, fly into the ground and drop them into the world so they despawn. Do not keep them in your inventory!!
Game Server – This is the 7 days to die dedicated server software provided by The Fun Pimps through Steam. This is the core game server code. It does not come with any modlets or mods. Not even Allocs Server fixes.
Modlets – These are server-side mods. Meaning they are changes to the game server that are only required on the server. Any changes you make for modlets are automatically downloaded to players. Modlets are made to be compatible with a specific version of the game (ie. A18.2 Stable). Just because it was made for an earlier version of the game doesn’t mean it will automatically work for the new version. But it also doesn’t mean it won’t work. Every modlet is different so you need to verify with the modlet creator if it’s compatible or just test it yourself. The best way to implement new modlets is to add them one at a time. Remove modlets that cause problems or errors. The server must be rebooted everytime a modlet is added or removed.
Mods (overhaul mod) – These are basically a completely different game. Examples are Mods like Ravenhearst and Darkness Falls. These mods come in two pieces: (1) one for the server files (2) and one that the player downloads on their computer. One cannot work without the other. The server needs to be setup, a mod applied to it, and then the players need to download and apply the mod on their computer. To mod a server, you first need to install a fresh copy of the vanilla server at the version the mod is made for (ie. A18.2 Stable vanilla). You would then apply any critical “mods” like Allocs Server Fixes or CSMM Patrons Mod (CPM). Finally would then apply the mod files on top of that, overwriting any files that have changed. The overhaul mod files are the very last thing that gets applied. THE SERVER MUST BE SHUT DOWN AND STOPPED BEFORE APPLYING NEW FILES! Files that are locked or still running won’t get changed and it’ll cause problems. Sometimes major problems!
WARNING—If you join a modded server with vanilla files (or a vanilla server with modded files), you are likely to either get banned by EAC or corrupt your character. Be very careful when switching between types of servers.
Bot – The bot is code that runs completely separate of the game server and adds features to it such as teleports, a shop, announcements, and Discord integration. Examples of server bots include CSMM, Botman, and CBSM. The bot is setup and managed separate from the game server, but must be configured to connect to the server so it can see what’s going on. Some bots such as CSMM have addons like CPM that enhance the features of the bot (and the game server). The bots communicate with the game server through either the telnet port or the web API and reads the game server log.
There are two main parts to setting up a new server or reconfiguring an existing server:
- The game server files
- The bot settings
GAME SERVER FILES
Currently we are hosted at BlueFang. BlueFang has a control panel called Overseer that is used to start and stop the server process. This control panel also has information on how to change game server files through FTP. The control panel can be accessed at
https://www.bluefangsolutions.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=overseer-panel-services-summary\
FTP (eg. Filezilla) is what you would use to change settings in the config/serverconfig.xml, download the log, add a modlet, or add someone in saves/serveradmins.xml.
The lower the number, the higher the rank. 0 = server owner, but is typically used for all admins. Permissions can be as customized as you want it to be.
BOT SETTINGS
Currently we are using CSMM. CSMM has all kinds of documentation so you can read through that if you need help. The bot is responsible for all of your announcements, automated tasks such as scheduled reboots each morning, the amount of teleports the player gets, the cost of using things like teleports, etc. You can also configure the player shop through the CSMM web portal. You can access it at
A player cannot be made an admin in the bots eyes until it joins the server. So if you are a server admin in the serveradmins.xml file, the bot will not let you do bot admin things until you join the server, and then edit your player in the CSMM web portal to change your status from Player to Admin (or Moderator).
For bot permissions, you must configure roles and assign a numeric value to each role. The lower the number the higher your bot rank. You can only have one bot rank.
Standard commands
These commands are run from inside of the game by hitting the F1 key and opening the developer console. (You can also send console commands from the CSMM dashboard)
Full list of commands: https://7daystodie.gamepedia.com/Command_Console
For any of these commands you can put the word “help” in front of it and read about all of the options for that command before you run it.
dm = debug menu, used to fly and do admin-y things
cm = creative menu, once enabled in F1 console you can hit ‘U’ to spawn items or ‘F6’ to spawn zombies.
spawnsupplycrate = spawns a supply crate at your current location, good for if someone didn’t get a vote crate, you can just fly to their location and spawn one on you that they can have
tele = used to teleport players
settime = used to set the game time, useful for skipping horde nights if someone logged out during a horde night. WARNING – never fully skip a horde night. If you advance the time, fast forward to just before horde night ends, so that the horde night can properly end and the server can know that the horde night completed. If you don’t do this, you may get repeated horde nights over and over again until the server catches up!
CPM Commands
These commands are enhanced commands run through F1 Console just like the Standard Commands. They’re added when CPM (CSMM Patrons Mod) is installed as a mod on the game server. If CPM isn’t installed, these CPM Commands won’t work.
Full list of commands: https://docs.csmm.app/en/cpm/console-commands.html
Some of the commonly used ones are:
cpm-brender brender => Renders a Prefab on given location
cpm-bundo bundo => Undo last prefab command
cpm-chatgroupcolor chatgroupcolor cgc => Manage chat color by groupmembership.
cpm-fblock fblock => Fill a defined area with a specific block
cpm-mvw mvw => Move player to waypoint.
cpm-shutdownba shutdownba => Timed shutdown with bloodmoon awareness.
cpm-tprotect tprotect => Set protection to a location in same way as trader.
cpm-wpc wpc => Manage CPM waypoints
Notice the space between the commands. These are aliases. So the cpm-brender command is the same as the brender command. It’s backwards compatible. All of the new commands use the cpm- prefix, but either will work.
Each command has parameters. These are values that you must provide to the command. Missing parameters will give you an error and the command will fail. Bad parameters and you’ll make weird stuff happen. So be very careful when entering commands!
CSMM Bot Commands
These are commands that are run from inside of the game by typing them into chat. All of these commands start with an exclamation point (!). These commands are typically for players, but sometimes a custom command can be setup for donors or moderators. Custom commands are configured in the CSMM web portal.