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Setting up your customized Everon Life server

This document is a detailed step-by-step guide to setting up a customized Everon Life server for your own community. It will go through the basic setup of how to make a mod based on the Everon Life framework, how to publish it and how to get it running on a dedicated server.

Prerequisites

  • You must own Arma Reforger and have it as well as the Arma Reforger Tools and Arma Reforger Server installed on your pc.
  • You will need a BI account to publish the workshop item. You can register one here if needed.
  • Make sure you have launched the game at least once.

Subscribe to Everon Life & dependencies

The Everon Life workshop item will be the basis for your server. It contains all the base functionality and a small amount of roleplay-related assets to build your server with. By building on top of the existing workshop item you can automatically receive new features, bug fixes, and compatibility updates for future game versions. Because of the way the framework is designed, you still have the freedom to customize all aspects of your server easily. To subscribe to the item, launch the game and click Workshop in the main menu. On the top right enter Everon Life and download the workshop item published by Everon Life Team. You might also need to download the dependencies in the same way. Now you can close the game.

Custom server mod

To do custom mapping or to add any new assets (pictures, models, sounds, scripts) to your server you will need to have a mod specifically built for it. If you are coming from Arma 3 you might have previously done this via a so-called mission file that was supplied by the server. These do not exist anymore in Arma Reforger. When people want to join your server any missing mods are automatically downloaded though, so there is no downside to you having a custom server mod.

Creating your custom server mod

Open the Workbench by launching Arma Reforger Tools via Steam. It shows up with a list of all your mod projects.

Project creation

First, you need to add EveronLife and the other dependencies to your project list. To do this click the Add Existing button and navigate to Documents\My Games\ArmaReforger\addons\EveronLife_59636E668EA37AD7 and select the EveronLife.gproj. Alternatively, if you downloaded the framework source directly, add that as an existing project. Repeat the same process for the dependencies.
Now you want to create a new mod. To do this, click the bottom left Create New button. The Workbench will ask you for a project name. You can for example name it after your community. The name can be changed later with a bit of effort, but you can save yourself some time by getting it right the first time. You can leave the location default value or save it somewhere else. It does not really matter.
The important step here is to check the box next to EveronLife under Dependencies. Now click Ok.

Preperations

The workbench opens and you are greeted with the main screen, showing you several quick launch buttons. First, you need to do some preparations. Select your mod folder in the top left Resource Browser and in the bottom half of it, you will see an addon.gproj file. Right-click the addon.gproj and rename it to your mod name - e.g. MyCustomServer.gproj. (Should you restart the workbench you will need to add your project to the list again by selecting the renamed file)
Right-click in the same bottom window and create a new folder called Worlds in it.

Creating the world file

Now you can use the quick launch button to open up the world editor. By default, it opens up a new empty world. Now you need to choose which map (world) you want to base your server on. Navigate to File > Load World and search for the base world you want to use. For Everon you want to search for Eden.ent (ArmaReforger > worlds > Eden > Eden.ent). Select it and click Ok. After the map is loaded you navigate to File > New World and choose the option Sub-scene (of current world) and press Ok. Once loaded you may or may not be in the middle of nowhere or in the water. Go into the left Hierarchy view unfold the parent world (e.g. Eden) and select any of the default layer objects. Now press F or right-click it and Focus selection. Now you should be able to see the map. To make sure that you do not accidentally edit the parent world, you can right-click its layers (e.g. default) and choose Lock. Before doing anything else you want to save the empty map via File > Save World. Navigate to your mod's Worlds folder (e.g. MyCustomServer/Worlds) and for the name, you can again put your community name (e.g. MyCustomServer). The file is then saved as MyCustomServer.ent If it's not saved, save it via File > Force Save All. You should now see the files in your folder.

Adding the game mode

Now it is time to connect the map with the game mode. To do this, all you need to do is place two prefabs. Prefabs are a bundle of map objects and script components that are your primary building blocks when mapping for your server. You need two prefabs for now. GameMode_Roleplay.et and SpawnPoint_LIFE.et. You can find both by searching for them in the Resource Browser at the bottom middle of your screen. You can locate them manually via Prefabs > MP > Modes > Roleplay > GameMode_Roleplay.et and Prefabs > MP > Spawn > SpawnPoint_LIFE.et.
You simply drag and drop them from the Resource Browser into the world view above. They will appear in the Hierarchy view on the left afterward. Move the SpawnPoint_LIFE to where you want your players to spawn. The position of the GameMode_Roleplay entity does not matter. It is recommended to teleport it to 0 0 0 using the object transformation properties on the right when selected.
To test if everything so far has been working, you can quickly press the play button in the top menu bar. You should spawn where you placed the spawn point and be able to control your player. You can close the world editor for now.

Setting up the mission config

For servers to be able to use the map you just created they need a mission. Back in the main workbench window, you want to add a folder next to your Worlds folder called Missions. Go inside the folder and create a new mission config by doing Rightclick > Create Resource > Config file. You can again name this after your community. Hit Enter. Now it asks you which type of config you want to create. Search for SCR_MissionHeader and select it.
Note: Because of a known issue you must provide your own (placeholder) image in the following step. Simply drag and drop a JPG or PNG from Windows into the Resource Browser to MyCustomServer/Missions. That will create the .edds file you need.
Now double click the newly created .conf file. Adjust the following settings:

  • World -> Select the .ent world file you saved under MyCustomServer/Worlds
  • Name -> Name that will be displayed in the mission section of the mod/server. You can just name it after your community.
  • Author -> Name of the author. You personally or your community.
  • Game Mode -> You might want to replace Sandbox with something like Roleplay
  • Icon -> Choose the placeholder image mentioned before.
  • Loading Screen -> Choose the placeholder image mentioned before.
  • Preview Image -> Choose the placeholder image mentioned before.
  • Player Count -> The amount of players the mission is designed for. You can just put 256 there.
  • Default Game Flags > Metabolism -> Tick the box Now save the file.
Optional: Finishing touches

  1. If you want to, you can go back into the world editor, load up your map and create two new layers (layers can be created via right-click on your sub-scene) called Gamemode and Spawnconfig and move the GameMode_Roleplay and SpawnPoint_LIFE objects into their respective layer. This helps to keep things organized later. You can also lock those layers to not accidentally break the core functionality.

  2. You can give your mod a project logo to be recognizable in the projects list. First, close the whole Workbench and launch it again. If your mod is missing from the list, you need to add it again as an existing project by locating your MODNAME.gproj file. Once it appears in the list again you right-click it and choose Set thumbnail to add a square .png as the logo for it.

Publishing your mod

Your mod is now ready to be published. To publish it, first, open your mod project in the Workbench. Then make sure you are logged in with the correct user. The user who publishes it owns it, and there seems to be no way to transfer it later. You might want to create a BI account just for your server team to share access. You log in via Workbench > Workshop Member Area > Login

Now you navigate to Workbench > Workshop Member Area > Publish project and the publishing window will open.

  • Project Name -> Could/Should be the same name as your project. If you are unsure about it, now would be a good time to decide on it.
  • Working Dir -> A folder for temporary files. Must not be the same as your source folder. It is suggested you point it to something like C:/Users/<USER>/Documents/My Games/ArmaReforger/publish/MyCustomServer/
  • Preview Image -> The image that is shown when browsing mods.
  • Screenshots -> Screenshots that are shown on top of the mods detail page. Choose them with care or leave them empty for now. There might not be a way to delete them again.
  • Category -> It is suggested you only tick SCENARIOS_MP
  • Tags -> Comma, Separated, List of tags relevant to the mod. Could include your server name and things like roleplay and life
  • Version -> It is recommended to change this from 1.0.0 to something like 0.0.1 while you are still early in your server's development. The versions increase automatically later. You can not choose a different version pattern.
  • Visibility -> You can have it on public or even only as unlisted. When joining your server it will be downloaded regardless.
  • Summary -> Short summary of the mod shown in the mod browsing section.
  • Description -> Full description shown on the mod detail page. This would be one possible way to correctly give credits for using the Everon Life framework, by including something like Powered by or Built with Everon Life Framework Now click Bundle and then Publish

If you get the error message: Asset bundle manifest is invalid when publishing. It could be because some characters are not supported in the workshop. Make sure that the Summary and Description do not contain any illegal characters!

Setting up your server

Before setting up your server you need two pieces of information: Your mod GUID and the path of your mission config.
You get the Mod GUID by double-clicking your MyCustomServer.gproj file while inside the workbench. It opens up a window called Options which will display the GUID as GUID property under Unsorted at the very top. The Mission config path can be optiained by navigating to your MyCustomServer.conf file inside MyCustomServer/Missions rightclicking the file and choosing Utils > Copy Resource Name(s)

Go into the installation directory of your dedicated server e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma Reforger Server and create a file called launch.json in the same folder the ArmaReforgerServer.exe is located in and put the following content into it:

{
	"region": "EU",
	"bindAddress": "",
	"bindPort": 2001,
	"publicAddress": "",
	"publicPort": 2001,
	"a2s": {
		"address": "",
		"port": 17777
	},
	"game": {
		"name": "Roleplay - MyCustomServer",
		"password": "",
		"passwordAdmin": "roleplayftw",
		"scenarioId": "{5C552F6B07B10383}Missions/MyCustomServer.conf", <----- Mission config path mentioned in the previous step
		"maxPlayers": 64,
		"visible": true,
		"gameProperties": {
			"serverMaxViewDistance": 2500,
			"serverMinGrassDistance": 50,
			"networkViewDistance": 1000,
			"disableThirdPerson": false,
			"fastValidation": true,
			"battlEye": true
		},
		"mods": [
			{
				"modId": "597563C79DA08617", <------------ Mod GUID you located before this step
				"name": "MyCustomServer", <--------------- Name of the mod you entered in the publisher window
				"version": "0.0.1" <---------------------- Your mod version here (likely to be 0.0.1 at first if you followed this guide.
			}
		]
	}
}

Make sure to remove the helper arrows from the file before saving. Now create a file called launch.bat and put the following content into it:

ArmaReforgerServer.exe -config ".\launch.json" -profile ArmaReforgerServer

Doubleclick the launch.bat and wait for your server to start. It will automatically download your custom mod and save everything in C:\Users\<USER>\Documents\My Games\ArmaReforgerServer. You can find more parameters and information about the dedicated server setup here.

Joining your server

The last step is quite simple. Launch your game, choose Multiplayer and use Direct join or search for the server. When you attempt to join it will prompt you to download the mods it uses. Note: If the mod download appears to be stuck wait a few seconds and then press ESC to exit the overlay. Open Workshop and go the the Downloaded tab. There you should see your mod. Click onto it and download any updates available and make sure it is Enabled (toggle in the top left corner). Now attempt to join the server again and it should work.

Something is not working?

Go through the steps again, maybe you overlooked something. Otherwise, compare your setup with the example files repository that can be found here. If that does not help, reach out to us via discussions or Discord