SKIP THIS PART IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH MOST, IF NOT ALL ADMIN COMMANDS.


Alright, with that out of the way I bring you some of the most important commands you're going to use out in the field. To start out, press F3 - located above the number 4 on your keyboard. Type in 'help' without the quotations and you'll see a list of all commands you can summon upon your players. I'll go over some of the unused and rather hidden commands that are actually very useful at times. ALWAYS ENABLE CHEATS WITH THE COMMAND 'ENABLECHEATS' WHEN YOU START THE SERVER.

Using the command 'respawnnow' will automatically send the respawn shuttle instead of having your players wait the full five minutes. Please note that the timer MUST be ongoing for this command to work.


The 'explosion' command is a little buggy, but it still works. If you're planning on damaging something like the reactor, just spam 'explosion 100' with your cursor aimed at that bad-boy and it'll overheat in no-time.


The 'power' command instantly turns on the reactor, useful for places like Prometheus Station to get the power up and running.

The 'lights' command toggles a sort of 'night vision' for you. It allows you to see through dark areas like ruins much easier.

The 'giveaffliction' command is one of the best you'll meet. Allows you to give someone a certain affliction. Example Path: giveaffliction "Husk infection" 100 "Synthia Dollinger"

Make sure not to do ANY giveafflictions near a medic (or at least anyone with a Med HUD), for obvious reasons. Also, experienced players will most likely call you out when you make someone husk instantly, as this is only possible via commands.


Both the 'water' and 'fire' commands are broken. They're only client-side, making them completely useless.



Now on to some more advanced stuff, see you up ahead!

They're always a little pesky, aren't they? Unless you're a server that likes chaos and rampages (like me). But, there's a very, very easy solution.


CHECK. THE. LOGS.


The logs are an incredibly useful tool for catching griefers, trollers and the like. When a traitor round occurs, you should always type 'traitor' in the server log to see who IS the traitor, as to not ban a traitor doing their job like sabotaging the diving masks/suits.


Speaking of welding tools, every couple minutes or so you should type 'welding fuel tank' into the server log to see if anyone is trying to sabotage the crew by putting fuel tanks into the diving masks. Usually, trollers will have this as their first priority - so before they do any more damage you can ban them ahead of time.

Remember, have NO mercy when dealing with any types of griefers. If you're not a dedicated server or just don't want these guys coming back - give them a full-on perma-ban. If you don't, they'll probably be back a moment later.


If you wanna have a little fun instead - give them a taste of their own medicine. Spawn useless items in their inventory, teleport them around and eventually they'll give in to your antics and ragequit. Believe me, it's much more effective (and hilarious) than just outright banning them.


Now you know the basics of catching the casual griefer, on to the next section!

Get to experience your true power fantasies, without getting caught!



As hard as it may sound, it's actually extremely easy to hide your abuse. I'm going to share a bit of honesty with you, I abuse the ♥♥♥♥ out of my servers. Sometimes they know, sometimes they don't. But, just remember - there's always a line to be crossed with your playerbase.



If you've played Barotrauma for a while you probably know how many Mudraptors are in a single pack - or how many Crawlers there are, Hammerheads and etc. If you have a much more elite playerbase with about more than 200+ hours they probably know these things. For example, from what I've seen three mudraptors are in a pack - so I have to spawn them out of range of the lighting around the ship so it looks natural.


You probably know that some legacy creatures were ported over to the Steam version of Barotrauma - creatures like the Mantis and the Endworm are but a few examples of the creatures that never made the final cut. There's even some creatures that aren't even from legacy that you can find in the editor. Spawning these will probably be enough for the players to know you're abusing.

There's ALWAYS a line that can, and sometimes will be crossed. Take this for example.




That's what happens when I get a little too bored.

Just keep your common sense in line when your power fantasies take over.

So, you learned about the commands, you know how to deal with griefers - but what do you do when someone has disguised themself? If you're not sure on what I just said, if you take a diving suit/mask and then swap out your card slot with someone elses', you can effectively hide your name from both the logs, and other players. I don't get why the developers wouldn't make it so the real name showed up in the logs or spectator view, but I guess you're gonna have to do some very tedious work. Check the disguised name, then put that name up into the logs - you should be able to check who stole that ID card. After you've traced who that person is, you can check to see what they're actually doing - so nobody can unwire the entire ship without you knowing anymore.

It's tedious, I know - but you gotta do what you gotta do.



So, you know how to deal with disguises - now, I'm gonna share a few tips.
Whenever someone joins in, check their profile - if it says that their Steam account isn't set up, just ban them. Might be a bit harsh, but usually these guys are griefers coming in on alts. I know from experience.



The dumb-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-♥♥♥♥♥♥-chart that I made had no actual dynamics at all.

Assume everyone on the server is a maniac, even people with mics. Make sure to be paranoid about everyone that joins the server, check their profile, their friends list... etc. If it's privated, then just keep an eye on them. If wiring is disabled, then ENABLE wiring and announce to the server that it's enabled to bait them into griefing, then bring down the ban.


Don't trust anyone.

In order to actually get some players in your server to start out, I recommend naming your server something like 'Casual Barotrauma' or 'Vanilla Barotrauma' - and don't put ♥♥♥♥ like 'PLEASE JOIN EPIC SERVER!!' I've seen it work, but it's quite rare to see a playerbase above five on these servers.
Unless you're a mini-server, place your ply-count to at least 10 or higher.

If you're going to put mods into your server, don't put too many. Nobody will join a server with 10+ mods unless they're a mental patient. Custom subs will do, just don't cycle through them trying to find the right one - if you didn't know, every time you click on a custom sub in the lobby it makes them download it and that's not fun.


Don't be a complete ♥♥♥♥ to your playerbase, respect them and be keen on finding new ideas from the players around you. If you turn a blind eye to your players you have the possibility of losing some in the process.


When going AFK for extended periods of time (5+ minutes) turn auto-restart on so the server will continue to start new rounds when people are ready. I've gone AFK for longer than 15 minutes to get some donuts - and when I came back? Poof, everyone's gone.


Set the difficulty at 55 or higher, people want a challenge and a motive - don't set it at something useless like 10 or 5. Just don't. Remember, keep your common sense in line.



Oh, and by the way - servers will crash a LOT. I mean that too. It's pretty random, but it usually has something to do with bone thresher spawns. Entire server will crash and you'll have to wait for the players to join back in (if they even bother).

UPDATE: Crashing has been fixed.

Extra stuff that you may-or-may-not be interested in.



You can cycle back to the last command you entered by pressing the up-arrow on your keyboar.d

You can automatically cycle between commands by pressing TAB - also auto-finishes commands.

Example: spawni (TAB) - spawnitem

Example: spawnitem shot (TAB) spawnitem Shotgun

Example: spawnitem Shotgun cu (TAB) cursor

If you don't wanna enter every command pitch-perfect one after the other, this may be the solution to all your problems.

This is similar to how Windows manages its command prompts, so this may be global across many games' console windows.

Well, you put up with a half-assed (slightly drunk) guide. Lucky you!


Here are some honorable mentions I'd like to make before ending this guide.


Thanks to everyone at the 'Ol Fashion Barotrauma server for putting up with my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and antics.

Thanks to Boatbomber (Submarine Bomber) for playing on my server, it means a lot!

Thank YOU for reading my second ever guide on Barotrauma!


If you want to know some more commands or are planning on setting up a dedicated server, refer to this guide.




Good luck!

Also, my entire server decided to look at my profile and now they know every abuse trick I have. ♥♥♥♥.