Frontline RCON Tool 0.3.0: How we continue to develop CRCON for HLL and HLL Vietnam

Whoever has his own Hell-Let-Loose-Server operates, notices relatively quickly: The game server itself is only part of the actual operation.

Players must be managed. VIPs must be maintained. Cards and rotations should work. Moderators need reliable tools. Logs must be traceable. With several servers, a single installation quickly becomes a small infrastructure.

Exactly from this we have arisen three questions:

How do I host my eigenes CRCON as clean as possible?

How can we make CRCON better and easier in daily operations?

And how can we make professional server administration accessible to more communities?

Our answer to this is now evolving into a project of its own: the Frontline RCON Tool.

What is the Frontline RCON Tool?

The Frontline RCON Tool is our own development for the administration of Hell Let Loose and Hell Let Loose: Vietnam.

It is not created as a theoretical software project, but directly from our own game server operation. We use the platform ourselves, encounter problems, change processes, test new approaches and only adopt what proves itself in actual operation.

With Version 0.3.0 We have reached a greater interim stage.

Since v0.2.30 are in this state:

• 165 Commits
• 38 Pull Requests

eingeflossen.

However, the figure alone is not decisive for us. More important is the question: What does this improve for people who administer a server?

What problems do we want to solve with the Frontline RCON Tool?

Many tasks around game servers are not particularly complicated individually. The problem arises when more and more systems have to be combined with each other.

A typical community server can quickly need things like:

• RCON
• Web-Administration
• VIP-Verwaltung
• Moderation
• Map-Rotation
• Votemap
• Logs
• Spielerhistorien
• Discord
• Broadcasts
• Datenbanken
• Monitoring
• Updates and migrations

If you only want to operate a good server together with your community, you quickly end up with a lot of technology that has to do with the actual game operation only indirectly.

That’s why we’re not just trying to add new features.

We ask ourselves the same questions again and again during development:

Can the process be easier?

Can a moderator understand more quickly what is happening?

Can an update be carried out more securely?

Can a function still be used even if another part of the system is not reachable?

And can we run multiple games and servers without having to rebuild everything every time?

How does the Frontline RCON Tool support Hell Let Loose: Vietnam?

One of the biggest development steps in version 0.3.0 is support for Hell Let Loose: Vietnam.

At first glance, it makes sense to treat Vietnam simply like another Hell-Let-Loose dataset. In actual server operation, however, this is not enough.

HLL Vietnam bringt eigene:

• Karten
• Roles
• Fraktionen
• Weapons
• Squadtypen
• Spielmodi
• Guide rollers
• Game-related rules

with.

That is why we have implemented our own HLLV game profiles.

The suite can now be used among other things correctly between US and NVA distinguish and take into account HLLV-specific roles and units.

Support shall include, inter alia:

• HLLV-Karten
• HLLV roles
• HLLV weapons
• US and NVA factions
• Helicopter Squads
• Mortar Squads
• Conquest
• Domination
• fractional offensive modes
• HLLV-Spielerprofile
• Votemap
• VIP-Funktionen
• Live and team views

Our goal is not to force Hell Let Loose: Vietnam into the existing HLL logic in any way.

Hell Let Loose and Hell Let Loose: Vietnam should be understood correctly within the same suite as their own game.

What does the administration look like during an ongoing match?

One focus of the suite is the Live view.

Server admins need context during an ongoing match. A long list of data is only helpful if it quickly shows what is happening on the server.

The live view therefore combines different information in one place.

These include, for example:

• Current Players
• Teams
• Roles
• Squad affiliations
• Live events
• Serverinformationen
• Spielerstatus
• Moderationskontext
• relevante Protokolle

So we're trying to answer the question:

How can we give an administrator the information they actually need for a decision as quickly as possible?

Especially with a full server, speed is important. A moderator should not have to open several subpages to understand what happened.

Why are we developing a new car balancer?

A classic autobalancer can be relatively simple:

Team A has more players than Team B. So one player is moved.

For Hell Let Loose this is in our opinion too little.

A team is not just a number.

It makes a difference if a player just:

• Rifleman
• Squad Leader
• Commander
• Sniper
• Tanker
• Part of a helicopter squad
• Part of a Mortar Squad

is.

That is why we have Autobalancer V2 entwickelt.

We would like to answer another question:

How can a server balance teams without creating more unrest than the actual imbalance?

The new autobalancer therefore works more with context and protection mechanisms.

Publicly relevant are mainly three operating modes:

Shadow-Modus

In Shadow mode, the balancer observes and evaluates situations without independently moving players.

This allows us to see in real operation which proposals would have been made and how useful they would have been.

Manual-Modus

In manual mode, suggestions become visible, but the actual decision remains with the administrator.

Auto-Modus

In automatic operation, the balancer can work independently within the rules provided for this purpose.

In addition, the system takes into account, among other things, protection times, security limits and a volunteer phase.

The time of a possible change is also relevant. As far as possible, players should not simply be torn from an ongoing combat situation.

We deliberately do not publish the exact evaluation and decision logic. What matters to us is the principle:

Automation must remain traceable and controllable.

How do we connect Discord and server moderation?

Much of the communication of a gaming community takes place in Discord anyway.

Many moderation processes therefore look something like this today:

1. A player reports an incident.
2. A moderator reads the message in Discord.
3. Then he has to open another tool.
4. There he looks for the player again.
5. After that, he carries out the actual action.
6. The result may have to be documented again in Discord.

We want to reduce these media breaks.

Version 0.3.0 therefore contains a Discord Report Bot, which is more closely connected to the RCON administration.

A report can be presented in a structured manner and adopted by a moderator.

Depending on the permissions, administrative actions are then available, such as:

• Send message
• Punish
• Kick
• Temporary ban
• permanenter Bann
• Squad-Kick
• Squad resolution

The actions executed are logged in the operation.

The goal is not to make Discord the full admin panel.

Rather, the question is:

Which steps of a moderation process can we meaningfully connect with each other so that less information has to be duplicated and maintained?

What role does AI play in moderation?

The Discord integration can also be optional AI-assisted analysis verwenden.

Possible or already envisaged analyses of:

• Chatnachrichten
• Spielernamen

For us, one limit is particularly important:

An AI should support moderators, not decide independently about players.

It can help to classify information faster or make flashy content visible.

However, the actual moderation decision remains part of the normal moderation process.

The providers and models used should also remain selectable.

At the same time, we reduce unnecessary analytics calls if identical information has already been processed.

We deliberately do not publish internal prompts, precise decision logic and protection mechanisms.

How do we improve player and VIP management?

With HLL and HLL Vietnam, another practical problem arises:

A player remains the same person even if he switches between both games.

This is why we have developed the player profiles further.

HLL and HLLV profiles can be linked within the platform.

This improves, among other things, work with:

• Spielerinformationen
• VIP
• Moderation
• Historien
• Serververwaltung

The player overview has also been revised and supports different presentations.

Also at VIP we deal with a simple question:

Why should administrators have to maintain the same information multiple times?

Frontline VIP verification has therefore been further secured and extended for Vietnam.

Our long-term goal is to ensure the cleanest possible connection between community member, player profile, VIP status and game server.

How do we manage multiple servers?

A single server is comparatively clear.

Once multiple servers, games or separate community environments are added, operations quickly become more complicated.

The Frontline RCON Tool is therefore designed for different operating models:

• Einzelserver
• Mehrserver-Installationen
• getrennte CRCON-/RCON-Instanzen
• getrennte Discord-Installationen

It is important to us that an update does not automatically change existing operating modes.

New functions are therefore not simply activated unasked.

After an update, an administrator should still know which functions are active and which are not.

Why do we put so much work into performance and stability?

Many of the changes in version 0.3.0 can not be seen in any screenshot.

They are still a big part of the development.

Among other things, we have worked on the following areas:

• Redis-Last
• Log-Historien
• Steam-Anreicherung
• CPU-Spitzen
• Hintergrunddienste
• Caching
• CORS
• Routen
• Datenbankmigrationen
• Rollbacks
• RCON-Fehlerbehandlung
• deploymentspezifische Sicherheitsmechanismen

Warum?

Because an administration tool is especially valuable if you can rely on it.

A nice dashboard helps little if it unnecessarily consumes resources under load or if several other functions fail in the event of an error.

Can the administration continue when the game server is offline?

This was also a concrete question from our company:

What happens if the Hell-Let-Loose RCON endpoint is just not reachable?

Previously, such dependencies can lead to the fact that the administration interface is no longer usable correctly.

This is exactly the moment when you actually need it.

This is why we have further improved error handling.

The web access and important management functions should be able to deal more robustly with an offline game server.

For us, this is a good example of what the suite is all about:

Not only develop new functions, but also make existing processes better under real conditions.

How safe is version 0.3.0 tested?

The suite does not only run in a local development environment.

Version 0.3.0 was validated, among other things, by:

• erfolgreiche Backend-CI
• erfolgreiche Admin-UI-CI
• erfolgreiche Public-UI-CI
• 150 gezielte Tests about autobalancers, players and game profiles
• Productive tests with HLL and HLL Vietnam
• Tests on: vier getrennten RCON-Instanzen
• HLLV smoke tests for US and NVA
• Tests with helicopter and mortar squads
• joint tests of Discord report and moderation worker with the RCON platform

This does not mean that the development is complete.

On the contrary: productive operation in particular shows us again and again the next points that can be improved.

How do I host my own CRCON?

This question is one of the reasons why the project was created in the first place.

If you want to operate your own CRCON cleanly today, you have to deal quickly with several technical levels.

Depending on the setup, these include, for example:

• Docker
• Datenbanken
• Umgebungsvariablen
• Netzwerke
• Backups
• Updates
• Migrationen
• Reverse Proxy
• Multiple services
• Monitoring

For experienced administrators, this is solvable.

For a smaller community, it can still be a high entry hurdle.

Our long-term answer is therefore not:

We hide every technical component.

Sondern:

We make installation, operation and updates more traceable and controllable.

A server operator should be able to understand what his system does without having to completely master every single technology behind it.

How do we want to make CRCON better?

Not with the longest possible feature list.

Instead, we are trying to solve specific problems.

The Discord report workflow was created because moderators work with Discord anyway.

The Autobalancer V2 was created because pure player numbers for Hell Let Loose do not provide enough context.

HLLV support came about because we want to run both games without creating two completely separate administrative worlds.

Performance optimizations are created because administration has to run stably in continuous operation.

Player profiles are connected because a player does not become a new person every time a game changes.

That is the approach we want to pursue.

How do we make CRCON accessible to more communities?

Not every community has its own developer or infrastructure team.

In our opinion, however, this should not mean that powerful server management is only available for large projects.

That’s why we want to bring several things together with the Frontline RCON Tool in the long term:

• Comprehensible installation
• sauberere Updates
• Better standardised procedures
• nachvollziehbare Administration
• Multiple game servers within one platform
• Integration with community tools such as Discord
• Stable and resource-saving technology

The suite is first created for our own operation.

This allows us to test functions under actual load and with real moderation processes before deriving more general solutions from them.

Is the Frontline RCON Tool ready?

Nein.

Version 0.3.0 is a big development step, but not an end point.

We will continue to work on the platform and provide insights into the development in the future.

In doing so, we want to show transparently:

• What problems we want to solve
• Which areas we are improving
• What we learn from the company
• as the suite evolves

What we won’t make public is security-related internal details, complete decision logics, or technical information that doesn’t add value for insight into development.

Conclusion: Three questions drive the development

The Frontline RCON tool was created from our own server operation.

And in essence, we try to continue to answer three questions:

How do I host my own CRCON?

By making installation, operation, updates and management more understandable and controllable.

How do we make CRCON better?

By not only adding new features, but solving actual administrator problems.

How do we make CRCON more accessible?

By not requiring efficient server management that each community has its own infrastructure and development team.

Version 0.3.0 with 165 commits and 38 pull requests is our biggest step in this direction so far.

Further insights can be found in our Hell-Let-Loose-Servern, in the area Hosting & Services and on the Community page.

FAQ about the Frontline RCON Tool

What is the Frontline RCON Tool?

The Frontline RCON Tool is our own further development of an RCON-/CRCON-Verwaltungsplattform for Hell Let Loose and Hell Let Loose: Vietnam. It combines server administration, player and VIP management, moderation functions, Discord workflows and other tools.

Does the Frontline RCON Tool support Hell Let Loose: Vietnam?

Yes. Version 0.3.0 contains own HLLV game profiles and supports, among other things, US/NVA, cards, roles, weapons, helicopter and mortar squads as well as conquest, domination and faction-dependent offensive modes.

What is the Autobalancer V2?

The Autobalancer V2 is our new approach to team balancing. It takes into account more context than pure player numbers and can be operated in Shadow, Manual or Auto mode. The internal evaluation logic is not publicly documented.

Can Discord be used for moderation?

Yes. The Discord Report Bot combines structured reports with administrative actions and logging. Optional AI analysis can support moderators, but does not independently decide on sanctions.

Is the Frontline RCON Tool already ready?

No. Version 0.3.0 is a productively tested development state, but the suite is continuously being developed.

What is the focus of further development?

On easier operation, better administration, HLL-/HLLV compatibility, stability, performance, secure processes and a lower technical barrier for communities.

Can the RCON Suite be used with an existing server?

Integration depends on game, RCON interface and hosting access. Frontline checks existing servers as well as shared hosting setups.

How are rights organized for multiple admins?

Roles and permissions are separated by task. This gives moderation, technology and leadership only the functions they actually need.