#Feature Request: Expanded ingame Admin Commands and Expanded RCON Functionality for Arma Reforger

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hollow creek Apr 18, 2025, 10:58 AM

Hello Bohemia Interactive Team,

As a long-time Arma server administrator, I'm writing to request expanded server administration capabilities in Arma Reforger. The current limited RCON functionality and ingame admin commands significantly impair server management compared to previous Arma titles.

Please consider restoring these features from Arma 3 and maybe introducing new commands to enhance the overall admin experience and moderation process :

Mission Management: Restore #mission/#missions commands for on-the-fly scenario loading
Access Control: Add #lock/#unlock to control player joins
Scheduled Operations: Implement #shutdownaftermission and #restartaftermission options
Configuration: Add #init (or equivalent) to reload serverConfig.json without restarting
Network Management: Restore #maxping, #maxdesync, and #dctimeout and other commands a3 had
Diagnostics: Implement #monitor and debugging commands for performance insights ( also to get server FPS via rcon) Restore detailed #userlist

BATTLEYE RCON FUNCTIONALITY:

Command Set: Expand beyond the current four commands (kick, restart, shutdown, ban)
Chat Support: Restore ability to send/receive ingame chat messages via RCON,Admin broadcasts
Player Information: Add Steam ID(and xbox,playstation ids), BattlEye GUIDs, IP addresses, and ping values
Ban Management: Implement comprehensive ban system with reasons and management tools
Server Monitoring: Add real-time monitoring capabilities,such as server performance and events and allow running server-side scripts and automated tasks via rcon

These expanded capabilities would greatly enhance server administration, community management, and the overall Reforger ecosystem. The limited RCON protocol is particularly constraining for larger communities and professional server hosts.
previous
Thank you for your consideration and ongoing development work on Arma Reforger.

Regards

Based on my packet analysis with Wireshark while using the official BattlEye RCON client:

Protocol Modifications • Reforger implements a modified BattlEye RCON protocol incompatible with previous titles • Packet structures and handshake procedures have been altered • Response formatting deviates from the standard BattlEye implementation

Restricted Command Set • Only 4 basic commands are supported (kick, restart, shutdown, ban) • Existing tools expect the full command set, causing failures when attempting other operations • Response handling is unreliable with the modified protocol

Player Data Limitations • Reforger only provides proprietary UUIDs rather than BattlEye GUIDs • Critical identifiers (Steam IDs, IP addresses) used by arma 3 tools are unavailable • Player information is structured differently, breaking compatibility with older tools

Connection Management Issues • Authentication sequences and connection maintenance differ from previous implementations • Packet sequencing and heartbeat expectations have changed • Standard tools fail to maintain stable connections as a result

Critical Missing Functionality • No chat transmission or monitoring capability • Absent server performance monitoring • No server configuration access

I'm currently developing my own monitoring solution and RCON client/Discord bot using a BattlEye protocol library. As a workaround, I've found the server console.log files valuable for reconstructing player sessions and gathering analytics (FPS, frame times, memory usage) which I'm storing in a database for analysis.

Even with custom development, the current limitations mean any tool can only provide basic functionality compared to the administration capabilities available in previous Arma titles.