7 Days to Die
    American Truck Simulator
    ARK: Survival Ascended
    ARK: Survival Evolved
    ARK: Survival Evolved Official Save Game
    ARK: Survival of the Fittest
    Arma 2
    Arma 3
    Arma Reforger
    Assetto Corsa Competizione
    Astroneer
    Atlas
    Avorion
    Battlefield Hardline
    Chivalry 2
    Citadel
    Conan Exiles
    Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
    Craftopia
    Dark and Light
    DayZ
    Dirty Bomb
    Don't Starve Together
    DUCKSIDE
    Dune: Awakening
    ECO
    Empyrion
    Enshrouded
    Euro Truck Simulator 2
    Factorio
    Farming Simulator 17
    Farming Simulator 19
    Farming Simulator 22
    Farming Simulator 25
    FiveM
    Garry's Mod
    Half-Life 2 Deathmatch
    Hell Let Loose
    ICARUS
    Killing Floor 2
    Last Oasis
    Left 4 Dead 2
    Life is Feudal
    LOTR: Return to Moria
    Medieval Engineers
    Minecraft
    Mordhau
    Myth of Empires
    Outpost Zero
    Palworld
    Pantropy
    Path of Titans
    PixARK
    Project Zomboid
    Red Orchestra 2
    Retired Games
    Risk of Rain 2
    Rust
    Satisfactory
    SCP - Secret Laboratory
    SCUM
    Sons Of The Forest
    Soulmask
    Space Engineers
    Squad
    Starbound
    StarMade
    Subsistence
    Team Fortress 2
    Terraria
    The Forest
    The Isle
    Unturned
    V Rising
    Valheim
    Wreckfest
    Ylands
    Zescape
  • webinterface
    • Account
      Customer Support
      FTP
      Other Services
      Security
  • WEBINTERFACE
    1. home /
    2. guides /
    3. server messages for dayz

    Guides

    Category A-Z
    configuration
    DayZ
    Gameserver
    question
    Wiki

    Server Messages for DayZ

    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.

    player admiring the landscape

    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 Flag Description
    onconnect Displays the message when players join the server
    repeat Repeats an existing server message to all players
    countdown Server message will be sent to all players in a countdown manner (minutes): 90, 60, 45, 30, 20, 15, 10, 5, 2, 1
    shutdown Server will initiate a shutdown after the Countdown Flag reaches zero. Can ignore the flag to immediately execute it

    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:

  • Delay | Applied when the “onconnect” flag is used, value indicates number of minutes before message is sent, with a value of zero representing an instant execution
  • Repeat | Applied when the “repeat” flag is used, with the value representing the control frequency of message repetition
  • Deadline | Applied when the “countdown” flag is used, indicating the countdown duration before reaching zero 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!

     
     

    Rent a DayZ Server!

    DayZ Server Messages – Introduction

    - Warning

    Messages.xml Config

    - Default File

    - Command Flags

    - Command Properties

    - Command Examples

    DayZ Server Messages – Conclusion

    Related articles

    DayZ – Can’t Compile World Script Module

    read the full article

    Share this article


    #configuration
    #DayZ
    #Gameserver
    #question
    #Wiki
    12/1/2022

    Grab your very own game server now.

    Order game server
    1. home /
    2. guides /
    3. server messages for dayz
    Pay the way you prefer
    Klarna Payment Badge
    Our memberships
    RIPE NCC - Ripe Network Coordination Centre Women in Games
    v1.30.0-168-g6f64a707 © 2025 marbis / Nitrado USA, Inc.. All rights reserved. All prices are shown as gross prices and include VAT.