Joining the Family
Joining the Salty Zombies Team
“Expectations, Daily Responsibilities, and Guides.”
Table Of Contents
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Welcome to the RUST Moderators Manual. On this page, I have written a guide/to-do list of things we expect from a RUST Moderator at Salty Zombies. In essence, you guys are the first line of defence when it comes to upholding the server rules and the morale of our community. We must keep them happy, feel like they are being looked after, and keep their gaming experience positive.
70% of being a moderator is being present, talking with the community, bringing positive vibes, listening to the community and making sure they feel heard. But also bringing the community together, bridging the gap between players who may otherwise never talk to each other. Moderators can have powers to deal with any smaller issues, but mostly just being there, playing and being helpful.
What is expected from you as an SZ mod?
Tickets and Support
One of the many things the community find impressive at Salty Zombies is how fast we fix issues and respond to tickets. It’s something we pride ourselves on to make the community feel supported and looked after. We have a ticket system in our Discord. When a player creates a ticket for their selected game, it will ping those moderators for that game. Moderators of other games will not be able to see these tickets.
If a ticket opens for 7D2D and you get pinged, please respond to it as quickly as possible. Even if they haven’t written anything yet, ask them, “What can I help you with?” And if it’s an issue that you are unsure of or cannot solve. Just let them know that someone is looking into it. By tagging the person you believe could solve the issue.
Presence on the server
We expect a certain amount of time played on your designated server or game. So having a presence on the server is very important. Community members playing on the server will be happier knowing a moderator is present. You get a unique moderator colour in-game chat. So every time you speak, they will see that a moderator is present.
Being active in Discord coms
Similar to the one about “Being Present On The Server”. We want our moderators to chat in public and be present in Discord voice channels. So even if no one else is in there, jump in the coms, and people will join you. If you see a channel that hasn’t had much chatting, write something like “How are we all doing today?” or “Has anyone seen the new Fast & Furious 19 movie yet?”. People who join our Discord will usually take a quick look around. If they see an inactive Discord, they might leave. However, they will most likely stick around if they see a Discord with new chatter and many people in the voice channels.
Phase 1 Becoming Mod Recruit
As a Mod Recruit, you will be on probation, usually around 2 to 3 months, depending on how long you have been at Satly Zombies. During this time, you will have access to the RUST tickets and help the community with any issues they might have. If you are unsure how to answer a ticket, just respond as soon as possible, letting them know an Admin will get to them as quickly as possible.
As a RUST Mod recruit, you will get access to 2 commands that will enable you to help the community more efficiently. However, only use these commands when a community member needs help. Any abuse of these commands outside these parameters will result in losing your position as an SZ Moderator. For example, we give out RUST Mods the ability to teleport to players if they need help. Therefore, using this command to teleport to your friends or players to trade or help them on a raid/event would be considered abuse.
Commands specific to Mod Recruits
These commands are console commands. So to use them, you have to press F1 to bring up the console, and then you can type in the commands as needed.
Abusing these commands for personal gain will result in your removal as a Moderator and possibly as a member of the Salty Zombies community.
Teleport To Players
You can teleport to any player if they need assistance with an in-game issue. It’s not to be used to Teleport to your friends or players to do events or missions together. There are various teleport commands:
teleport “playername” – This will teleport you to the player. If they have a space in their name, you must use quotations, as shown in the example.
teleport “playername1” “playername2” – This will teleport one player to another player.
teleport2me “playername” – This will teleport the player straight to your location.
Mute/Unmute Players
RUST has a reputation for being extremely toxic, and it’s true. However, at Salty Zombies, we try to stamp that out, especially on our RUST PVE servers.
Banter here and there is ok, but anyone being disruptive, breaking the rules in terms of talking about politics, religion etc. or an argument between people that’s just gotten out of hand or gone on for too long.
mute “playername” – Warn them first to drop it if they continue. Mute them with this command.
unmute “playername” – Once things have settled, you can unmute them.
Becoming a Full Moderator
Once you have made it past the 2 months probation period, you will get access to a lot more information about the servers and the players. We use a tool called RUSTAdmin which is like a desktop application you will need to install on your computer.
To do that, sign up at RustAdmin.com. I will then need the username you used to sign up with to give you access. Here is an easy-to-use interface to see players’ information and kick/mute them, teleport yourself or the player somewhere. Very self-explanatory.
Wiping The Rust Servers
We have a lot of mods on our RUST Servers, even though some are supposed to auto wipe the data when we make a new make. They usually don’t. For example, Backpack mod doesn’t always delete the data and people start a new wipe with what they had in there from the previous map. So to make sure this doesn’t happen, we need to clear the data folders of specific plugins manually. We must also run a few commands once or twice to ensure it clears the information. XP and TCLimiter, for example.
STEP 1 – Running Wipe Commands
Before you turn the server off, you must run 2 commands to clear those mod’s data files. One is the XP mod to reset everyone’s XP, and the other is the TClimiter mod command to remove the mod’s TC records. The commands are:
/xpResetAll – This will clear all the XP of players. Run the command once, then wait a few minutes and rerun it just to be sure.
/WipeTC – This will remove the player TC history/data since the plugin will think they already have a TC down from the last wipe if you don’t do this.
Step 2 – Deleted Previous Player Data
After you have run these commands a few times on all the servers (doable via console as well), turn the servers off. Then go into the file manager and to /Oxide/Data and delete the following:
Back Packs
Go into the Backpacks folder and delete the contents of the “Player Data Folder.” Don’t delete the folder itself. Just what’s inside it. Using the PingPerfect file manager to do this only allows you to delete 5 rows at a time. Using FTP allows you to delete it all at once.
Vote Rewards
In Oxide/Data, there isn’t a folder but a file called EasyVote.json. Delete this file to wipe the history of everyone’s votes for the next wipe.
Kits
Go inside the kits folder under Oxide/Data. You will see 2 files: kits_data.json and player_data.json. Delete the player_data.json file to clear all players’ history of claiming kits. (DO NOT DELETE KIT_DATA)
Skinshop
Inside the PlayerSkins folder in Oxide/Data, there are 3 files. Delete the Userdata.json file to reset everyone’s skins that they purchased.
Step 2 – Deleted Previous Map Data
To delete all the previous player data, like the Blue Prints and map data. You have to go to the PingPerfect file manager and go to the server/pingperfect folder. KEEP THE FILES INSIDE THE RED BOX in the image here. Everything else can be deleted.
Step 3 – Adding Custom Map
We have a variety of custom maps, and happy to keep buying more. When it’s time to wipe, and we know what map we will use. Upload the map files to Dropbox and put the download share link into the
The URL should look something like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rn8e722v04yqfs7/mapname.map?dl=0
Change the dl=0 in your URL to dl=1
- Click “Configuration Files”
- Click “Text-Editor”
- Locate the levelURL= setting. Add your Dropbox custom map download link into this setting.
- Next, locate the serverLevel= setting. Set this to the serverLevel used when creating your custom map. Either Procedural Map, Barren, Hapis, Craggy Island, or Savas Island.
- Locate the server.seed and server.worldsize settings and put a # in front of them.
- Save the file in the top left and start up your server.
Step 4 – Updating Server
When the RUST update has finally been released, you must update the server via steam and Umod. There is one button I have circled in the image here that does both in one click. However, it works 90% time, which is good. But has been known not to install the update from Steam or Umod fully. So alternatively, you can do each individually via the buttons I have underlined and marked with a cross.
Step 5 – Turn the Server On
Once you have turned the server on, I will not leave the computer and mark the wipe as complete. They are usually issues that arise that a noticed within the first few hours. For example, sometimes a mod conflicts with another, and you must unload it until the mod developer has put in a fix. It’s usually the busiest time before the first weekend, so it would be good to resolve any issues beforehand. Once things settle, I would say this is a good time to do anything else you need to.
Rust Server & Plugin Maintance
On the RUSTAdmin app, it will tell you if the plugins need updating or not. It will also tell you if the server needs updating. So if any of our Umod plugins need updating, please do it if a premium/bought plugin needs updating. Let me know, and I will update it or send you the plugin to update it.
