Server Messages for DayZ

DayZ Server Messages – Introduction

Having the ability to send messages and execute commands on your DayZ dedicated server is extremely important. Whether you’re advertising a website or preparing the players for a shutdown, this feature gives you more control. All of this is accomplished by editing a single configuration file, known as messages.xml. Understanding how to properly tweak its settings is critical, as you wouldn’t want errors occurring. With this in mind, we’ve created this Nitrado guide to show you how to create server messages in DayZ!

Warning

Avoid using the “Automated Restarts” option on your DayZ dedicated server, as this can cause major problems. Examples include the server being unable to startup eventually and inventory glitches being highly likely. Due to this, we strongly recommend using the messages.xml file for your stop server task. Afterwards, you can create an automated task to start the server at specific time intervals – guaranteeing your server reboots successfully.

Messages.xml Config

Whether you want to inform players about your Discord server, website, or other automatic messages, the messages.xml file needs to be configured. This document is located in your Nitrado File Browser (FTP) web interface tool. Upon a successful installation of DayZ on your dedicated server, the content of messages.xml is “commented out” – resulting in commands existing, but not active. Essentially, removing these comments will activate the command.

DayZ requires multiple server restarts a day for the game cache storage to function properly. Without doing this, your gameplay experience will have high ping, lots of lag, time out issues, and/or player desynchronization. With this in mind, the developers suggest rebooting 4-6 times per day to ensure performance for all players. The following section displays the default configuration for the messages.xml file, then showcases examples to create commands.

Default File

Remember, you must first delete any comments in the configuration before commands are functional. These are indicated with the “1)” or “2)” message lines, which can be safely removed.

Locate this file by navigating to the following directory: dayz/mpmissions/dayzOffline.chermarusplus/db/

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

See https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/DayZ:Server_Messages for more information

Example messages:

1) following message will be displayed to every player in countdown manner and shuts down server in 10 hours from its start

    <message>
        <deadline>600</deadline>
        <shutdown>1</shutdown>
        <text>#name will shutdown in #tmin minutes.</text>
    </message>

2) following message will be displayed every 15 minutes to every player

    <message>
        <repeat>15</repeat>
        <text>You're playing on my server (#name). Thank you.</text>
    </message>

3) following message will be displayed every 50 minutes to every player and 10 minutes after player connect

    <message>
        <delay>10</delay>
        <repeat>50</repeat>
        <onconnect>1</onconnect>
        <text>Check our web page at www.dayz.com</text>
    </message>

4) following message will be displayed once and 2 minutes after player connect

    <message>
        <delay>2</delay>
        <onconnect>1</onconnect>
        <text>Welcome to my server #name</text>
    </message>

Command Flags

Here are the important command flags to keep in mind when editing the messages.xml file.

Command Properties

Any server message cannot exceed more than 160 characters long. You’re allowed to use three different placeholders in the text, which are the following:

• #name | used for displaying the server’s name
• #port | used for displaying the server’s port number
• #tmin | used for displaying the number of minutes in countdown

Additionally, here are the time-related properties to server messages with minutes:

Command Examples

Here are two popular examples of commands for the messages.xml file for DayZ servers:

Server Stop

This example will stop the server in ten hours, while sending countdown messages.

	<message>
		<delay>> 0 </delay>
		<repeat> 0 </repeat>
		<deadline> 600 </deadline>
		<onConnect> 0 </onConnect>
		<shutdown> 1 </shutdown> 
		<text> Hello, #name will be stopped in #tmin minutes! </text>
	</message> 

Discord Server / Website

This example displays a server message every 30 minutes and to incoming players.

	<message>
		<delay> 5 </delay>
		<repeat> 30 </repeat>
		<deadline> 0 </deadline>
		<onConnect> 1 </onConnect>
		<shutdown> 0 </shutdown>
<text> Hello, welcome to #name! Visit our website at https://nitrado.net or our Discord server https://discordapp.com/invite/dayz </text>
	</message>

DayZ Server Messages – Conclusion

Setting up automatic messages, shutdown commands, and more is all possible with the messages.xml file for DayZ servers! You have the ability to further customize to whatever you want, including advertising websites or other features in-game. If you have any questions or concerns regarding server messages and commands, contact our Support Team for assistance. We’ll be sure to resolve any issues you may have about this topic – along with others!

 
 

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