Startup parameters and environment variables

Most of this is not needed

Except for -demo and -adminpanel, most of these settings can be changed more conveniently in the admin panel at Configuration → System — see System configuration. Start parameters and environment variables are meant for special cases and experienced users.

Start parameters

Parameter	Description
-autostart	Automatically initializes the game servers and starts the TCP listeners of all (sub-)servers
-reinit	Recreates and reinitializes the database. Has no effect when -demo is used.
-version:[season6|0.75|0.95d]	Defines the version of the game client. Only has an effect with -reinit or -demo and affects the initial data creation. Default: season6
-demo	Instead of an external database, in-memory repositories are used and the data is initialized at each start. Only for testing, not for production — player progress is not saved.
-deamon	Deactivates handling of console inputs
-adminpanel:[enabled|disabled]	Defines whether the admin panel is available. If disabled, -autostart is applied automatically. Default: enabled

-resolveIP

Defines how the server's own IP address is determined, which is reported back to the game client when it requests to connect to a selected game server (server selection screen) or to the chat server (when starting a chat with the in-game messenger).

This is helpful if the server runs in an environment where the public IP is not reachable from the outside (e.g. because you share an IPv4 address or are behind a firewall) and you want to use it within your computer or private network.

Value	Description	Example
public	Default value if nothing is specified. The public IP is determined automatically by an external API.	-resolveIP:public
local	Determines a local IP. If none is found, a loopback IP is used (127.127.127.127).	-resolveIP:local
loopback	For testing on the same machine, a loopback IP is used (127.127.127.127).	-resolveIP:loopback
an IPv4 address	A custom and constant IP address or a host name.	-resolveIP:140.82.118.4

Environment variables

These may be helpful when running the server in a container or under Linux.

Variable	Description
RESOLVE_IP	See the -resolveIP parameter — same values apply. Only considered when there is no -resolveIP parameter.
ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT	If neither a -resolveIP parameter nor a RESOLVE_IP variable is defined, this variable is considered to find the optimal IP resolver. If the value is Development, loopback is used, otherwise public.
ASPNETCORE_URLS	Defines the address of the admin panel, e.g. http://+:80
DB_HOST	Host name/address of the postgres database
DB_ADMIN_USER	User name of the admin user of the postgres database
DB_ADMIN_PW	Password of the admin user of the postgres database
Database__AssumeExternallyProvisioned	When true, an already-provisioned (empty) database is kept and only its schema is built via migrations, instead of dropping and recreating it. Default: false. See below.

Externally provisioned database

By default, when no database exists yet, the server drops and (re-)creates it before building the schema. This requires the connecting database role to be allowed to create and drop databases — upstream the connection strings use the postgres superuser, optionally overridden via DB_ADMIN_USER/DB_ADMIN_PW.

In managed environments — a Kubernetes operator, infrastructure-as-code, or a managed cloud database — the database is often provisioned ahead of time and the connecting role is intentionally not permitted to create or drop databases (least privilege; it only owns its own database). In that case, set this in appsettings.json:

{
  "Database": {
    "AssumeExternallyProvisioned": true
  }
}

…or, equivalently, the environment variable Database__AssumeExternallyProvisioned=true.

The server then keeps the existing (empty) database and only builds its schema via migrations, instead of dropping and recreating it. An explicit -reinit always drops and recreates, regardless of this setting.

Logging

Logging can be configured in the appsettings.json file. By default, not a lot is configured. To extend the configuration, have a look at the Serilog documentation. The server makes good use of scopes, so you can configure it to log only the actions of certain players, for example.

Settings priority

The same option can be set in different ways, so there is a clear priority:

1. Start parameters
2. Environment variables
3. Settings in the admin panel (Configuration → System)

The idea is that start parameters and environment variables should only be used in special cases by experienced users.