So you decided to buy a Graalonline playerworld?

Welcome to the world of playerworld management. This document will run you through the basics, and vital points to consider now that you have brought a Graalonline playerworld. Use the contents table to navigate your way through the document:

Basics

Logging on your playerworld:

By now you should have received an e-mail to say that your application for a Graalonline playerworld has been accepted. Your server will be named "Dev <accountname>". There are two ways to get access to your playerworld:

RC (Remote Control): Used by staff to perform certain actions [Click connect on your Playerworld, make sure you double click it, or you may attempt to connect to the wrong one]

Graal Client: The Game Program. Either click on the new server in the list if you are the owner of the server, or type the playerworld name into the drop-down menu at the bottom of the serverlist and press connect. Once you are connected you can press F6 to use the administration tools directly from within the game.

To download the Graal client go to the Graalonline.com download page at http://www.graalonline.com/downloads/index.php and select your operation system. To download the RemoteControl connect to the serverlist, click on "Start" at the bottom left corner of the game screen, select "Install packages" and choose a RemoteControl version (only available on Windows and Linux).

Admin-Account

Once your are logged onto your account, and connected to your server for the first time, you will receive full rights on your server and the IP range for your account will automatically be set to include your current ip and computer id.

The IP range is used for security so that later other people cannot abuse admin rights even if they somehow steal your password. See Section 5.1 about how to find an IP Range!

Adding Other People

Making a playerworld takes time, and man-hours. Because of this, it's best to form a staff team, with good working people who you can trust and know well. Staff may need RC to help aid them with their job. RC should not be given to every staff member, and rights should be given to people who need them only. Nobody but the manager and the owner should have full rights, and high rights to other staff members should not be delegated generously.

To give someone access to your playerworld via RC you first need to tell the server that they are allowed to log on via RC. This is done via a serveroption which is read by the server, and is used to load and keep certain settings.

Here's how to add an account:

Click the Icon in the RC window on the right with a picture of the world and a spanner.
Now the serveroptions have loaded. Look for the one that says: staff=
In here you can add the accounts to be allowed on RC
They are separate via a ',' like this: account1,account2,account3,account4,
After adding an account into the staff line, click 'Send' to update the serveroptions
Finally you need to add an IP Range and Rights using: /openrights accountname

The three things important when adding an account are:

Adding to staff= serveroption
Setting an IP/IP Range
Giving the correct amount of rights, keep them to a minimum for security

The account you have setup is now also ready to be used. The account can log on RC which is downloadable from the Graalonline.com downloads section. Some rights will only work in the graal client, but we will come to that later. Keep in mind that staff need a Playerworlds gold subscription to connect.

Security

IP Ranges

One of the most important security risks with playerworlds today, is no IP Protected Accounts. You should have already protected your account with an IP/IP Range and every account you have made should have IP/IP Ranges. If you stick by this rule it guarantees you a good secure playerworld. Some playerworlds either forget to add them, or choose not to. If you do not add IP ranges to all RC accounts, then you are at risk of someone logging onto that account, and potentially causing damage. See Section 5.1 about how to find an IP Range!

When you create an IP/IP Range, make sure that you remember to have a good IP range, and not something like: 64.*.*.*, instead have something like: 64.120.45.* The less stars you use, and the more numbers, the more secure the account is.

With a recent change in the server you may now use computer ids instead of IP ranges. In the IP Range field put "pc:<computerid>", computerid can be found by using "/openaccess account" while the player is online. This is useful for people who have constantly changing IPs, such as AOL users. For more information see this thread.

Note: When you add new staff to the server and forget to set an ip-range then their ip-range will automatically be set to the current ip and computer id on first login

Account Rights

When you setup an account, think about what this account will be used for. If the account will only be used by someone to upload levels, they do not need any higher than a level one RC. Every right available can be used against the server one way or another, which is why each staff member should only have what they need, and nothing else. Be strict with rights, do not give into people begging for them, do not allow your playerworld to be attacked.

NPC-Control Rights

The most common problem after attacks on playerworlds is the NPC Database. Due to its backup restrictions (no quick way to backup) people dont backup NPCs as often, and so, they are often deleted over levels. To protect yourself against this, NPC-Control has access rights as well as levels. With these you can limit what access people have. You will need to add this serveroption to active NPC Rights.

To do this, open the serveroptions (far right icon with world and spanner on it) then:

Start a new line where you want the serveroption to go
Input the following: npcrightsenabled=true (if it's not already there)
Then click send to update the settings

Now when people access the NPC Server, they need the right to edit or view any NPCs. To edit these, please read section 2.4 to learn about configuration of NPC Control Rights.

Guest RCs

A guest RC is an account allowed onto a playerworld RC, but does not work for the playerworld. Some people allow these people on if they want them to look over something, or help with something else. The best thing is not to have these RCs, as they are a real security risk.

If you still wish to have these RCs then please make sure you do the following:

Have a very secure IP range: #.#.*.* (#.#.#.* would be better)
Do not let them keep rights, remove them after they are finished
Remove them from staff= after they are finished

You can always re-add them, and their rights. Its best to keep doing this, as you may forget about them and they may come back in the future to cause problems or damage to the playerworld.

Name Change

Currently there is no way to change the playerworld name yourself. Somebody, most likely Stefan, will drop by if there is a playercount on your playerworld and you still have a default name: playerworld##, and ask you what you would like the playerworld to be called.

In the future it should be added to your Control-Panel on http://www.graal.net

Notifying The PWA of the Managers

The PWA (Playerworld Administration) is in control of sorting out problems on playerworld, enforcing certain rules and to help you if you have problems. They try to have an updated list of managers and co-managers so that they know who to contact if they have any problems. Please try and e-mail all of your manager information to a PWA member, set out like the following:

Playerworld Name: (PW Number)
Payer: Nick (Account)
Manager: Nick (Account)
Co-Manager: Nick (Account)

e.g:

MyWorld: (99)
Payer: Payday (Rick_Rich)
Manager: Ken (Ken2003)
Manager: SoulChild (SC_UK)
Co-Manager: Mou (MouKay)

Please Note: You do not need to do this until your playerworld has had a name change.

Configuration

Ways to configure your playerworld

Configuration of a playerworld makes your playerworld more practical for you, and easier to use. The most common configuration methods are:

Serveroptions
Folder configuration

Server options

Serveroptions are just that, options, which the server reads to output certain features, functions and settings. When you log onto your playerworld, some of the following serveroptions should already be in your serveroptions:

#Gameplayoptions
startlevel=
startx=
starty=
unstickmelevel=
unstickmex=
unstickmey=
staffguilds= 
heartlimit=
swordlimit=
putnpcenabled=
setbodyallowed=
jaillevels=
bushitems=
baddyitems=
healswords=
#bigmap=
#minimap=
aptime0=75
aptime1=150
aptime2=300
aptime3=600
aptime4=1200
aptime5=2400
staff=
playerlisticons=Online,Away,DND
npcrights=true

Each one of these can be altered, changed and removed. It's best to keep most of these as they are the basic default server options to tell the server where new players should start etc. See Server options for a full list of them.

Folder Configuration

The folder configuration can be found in the RC window. It is the top right button, with a picture of two folders on it. This is used so that the server knows where to find certain things, such as: Heads, Swords and Shields. The default folder configuration when you log on will be something like this:

body    bodies/*.png
head    heads/*
sword   swords/*
shield  shields/*
level   *.graal
level   *.nw
level   *.gmap
file    *.png
file    *.mng
file    *.gif
file    *.gani
file    *.wav
file    *.txt
file    *.gmap
file    images/*.png
file    images/*.gif
file    images/*.mng

If you want to add a folder you put the following on a new line in folder configuration:

type location/allowed_filetypes

If you want a folder for heads, then you would do something like:

head staffheads/*.png

This would allow .png images to be read as heads from the location:

levels/staffheads

When you add a folder, the 'levels' is a default thing. So you do not do the following

head levels/staffheads/*.png

Instead you just put:

head staffheads/*.png

Folder configuration should be used at all times when you want a new folder. The idea of this is so that you can limit the file-types that can be put into it, and it is read correctly by the server, so that it knows where the heads are, and which folders contain levels for example.

Access to the folders

To upload into this folder, you need to give yourself or the other staff member's access to it. To do this, say: /openrights accountname in the RC text field at the bottom.

Once the edit rights window appears, the box below the checkboxes can be used to input which folders you want this person to have access to. There are two main rights for each folder:

R (Read-Only) RW (Read and Write)

For an example, the default levels folder is: /levels/ To give someone full access to this folder, you would put: rw levels/*

However, RW is a security risk, as it allows people to delete all of the contents. Some servers may wish to setup a folder, where staff can upload levels into, and someone else can transfer them into the main folder. To do this they would need rw to the upload folder, and r to the main folder, so they could download all of the files, but not edit or delete them.

Please also note that if you want access to the following two folders:

/levels/folder1/
/levels/folder1/

Then this will not give you access to it: /levels/* The star is the file type your allowed to see, a star means all, but it could be *.png So you would need:

rw levels/folder1/*
rw levels/folder2/*

Folders outside of levels/

If you want to create a folder that does not begin with levels/ then you do not need to use folder configuration, you can just give the rights to the person, such as:

rw newfolder/

which makes:

newfolder/

Please note that files in these folders are not available to game clients. Levels, GFX, GANIs, etc for the playerworld should be in the levels/ folder.

NPC Control Rights

The NPC Control rights work exactly the same as folder rights. It may be a good idea to read 2.3.1 if you are still unsure after reading this. Because NPC Server is such a big part of RC, there are three types of rights: Weapons, Classes and NPCs.

To give someone access to everything, you have to grant them access to view and edit everything and give them the NPC Control right. To do this say in RC: /openrights accountname or go through the top left icon in RC into the player list, and then right click an account and click Edit Rights.

The NPC Control checkbox is at the top. And the NPC Control Rights are put into the window below called Folder Rights.

To give them access to everything put in:

rw WEAPONS/* (Weapons - Icon with sword)
rw WEAPONS/*/* (Weapons - Icon with sword)
rw CLASSES/* (Classes)
rw NPCS/* (database NPCs)

If you want to restrict access, to lets say only NPCs beginning with their name, you could put:

rw WEAPONS/staffname/*
rw CLASSES/staffname*
rw NPCS/staffname*

If you want them to access more than one type of NPC starting name you can put:

rw WEAPONS/staffname/*
rw WEAPONS/system/*
rw WEAPONS/player/*

This will work fine. And don't forget that these rights work in the same way as folder rights, so you do not always need to put rw, you can just put r.

Graal.net Control Panel

This is the central point for your playerworld. Here you can control certain things, and view stats on your playerworld, to help you manage your playerworld with ease.

Getting to your control panel

In the same e-mail you had the username and password for your account, you can log into the control panel with it. First of all the URL given to you should be put into your web browser. When you have loaded this page you will be asked for the username and password, once you have put this in, you are into your control panel.

What you can do with your control panel

Once inside you will see stats on the NPC Server and the G-Server (graal server). You can click either of these words and be taken to a page where you can perform certain actions such as: Stop, Start, Restart the NPC Server or G-Server. You will also see stats such as how much CPU and memory you are using.

Guides

Getting RC

To get RC go to the following URL: http://www.graalonline.com/downloads/index.php
Click on the setup you want (Windows, Linux, Mac OSX)
After setting up the location of the download you are asked to choose a mirror
Choose Graalonline.com
Then when you have a list of available parts to download, make sure the developer does not say skip and instead is a version number, e.g: 1.0.0-7
Click Next and it should start downloading

RC Icons

Please look at the document 'The Insides of Remote Control' for information on how to use Remote Control (RC) and what each icon does.

RC Rights

What can I use? Depending on what rights you have, and what your job is, you may only use a few icons, as they will not be useful to your job. Each Icon has been put there for your use, and the best way to find out what they are, is to have a go.

The best way to find out what you can and can not do it to say the following in the RC text field at the bottom:

/openrights myaccountname (e.g: /openrights mark_45)

Depending on what rights you have, you may or may not be able to change them. To change them you will need either: Change Rights or Edit Folder Rights

Every right Explained? [Back to top]

Anyway, when the Edit Rights window opens, look what you have got (checked) and then look below to see what it is, and how it works:

Warpto x y: When in the Graal Client in a level, say: warpto x y (where x+ y use number positions to warpto) e.g: warpto 10 30 = Warps player to x=10, y=30, of same level
Warpto player: When in the Graal client, say: warpto accountname = warpto that person
Warp Players: When in RC click the top left button, right click a player, click warp, enter the level name and the X and Y position for the player to be warped to.
Update Level: When in Graal Client, say: update level - Updates to original settings - e.g: Removal of things that are not in the level normally such as money, baddies, dbnpcs.
Disconnect Players: When in RC click the top left button, right click a player, click disconnect the players connection to the playerworld will be terminated, useful after banning someone, or if they need to reconnect for a change to be made.
View Player attributes: When you either say /open accoutname in RC or right click and account from the top left button and go to edit attributes you can see information about this account, such as their colours, flags, open chests, weapons, IP address etc..
Set Player Attributes: This allows you to edit/alter player attributes, after opening them, to open them, see above.
Set own Attributes: This allows you to open and edit the attributes of your own account using the top left button and the player list, or saying /open myaccountname in RC.
Reset Attributes: This clears all of the attributes, and will take away everything so that this account is like when it first logged on. To use this either go through the top left button in RC, onto player list and then right click account and finally click Reset.

Or simply say in RC: /reset accountname

Admin Message: This is a little popup in the graal client, which people must press enter on to clear it. Its often a good way to send very important messages, but can be annoying. To use this, go to the top left icon in RC, into the player list. Then you can either send it to just one person by right clicking the account and going to Admin Message or click the Admin Message to All button at the bottom of the player list window.
Set Server Flags: This allows you to edit or add .server scripting flags into the icon with the Flag and the World. This is useful if you have a NPC which is trying to read the server flag and you need to create one yourself first of all.
Change Rights: This allows you to change rights of peoples accounts if you have that right too. To do this either say in RC /openrights accountname and save it by clicking Apply. Or use the top left button, and right click and account in the player list and then click Edit Rights.
Ban Players: This stops a user logging on. If they have gone against rules or you think their actions need a punishment of a ban you can either say in RC, /openban accountname. Or right click them in the player list using the top left Icon. When you use this window, to ban them you must check the Banned check box. And in the Ban Reason you must put why they are banned, and who they are banned by. Its also a good idea to add it to their comments, for this see the right below.
Change Comments: This is used to add comments to an account. It's useful if you wish to log certain jailing, or how often this person does something. Most people use it to add the ban reason too, so everybody with RC and the right can see why that person is banned.
Change Staff Accounts: This is used when you want to alter an Admin-Playerworld## account. You can change certain things in here. One of those things is the password. If you do change your password, then please choose a random one such as: Ghu9n42 and not something simple like playerworldname or graal. To do this either use the top left icon and on the player list right click an account and click Edit Account or say: /openacc accountname in RC. Most servers don't support admin accounts anymore though.
Change Server Options: This allows you to change the serveroptions. To do this you click the icon with the world and the spanner on it, you can alter, remove and add server options to change certain settings.
Edit Folder Configuration: This allows you to change the folder configuration; information about this was in part 2.3. To change the folder configuration look over that section, and to access it click the top right icon in RC.
Edit Folder Rights: This is to change the access rights people have to folders. This is the bottom box in the Edit Rights window. You can alter folder rights for someone by using the top left icon, going into the player list and right clicking and then click Edi Rights, or just say in the RC text field: /openrights accountname. More Information is in 2.3.1
NPC-Control: This right allows you access to the thirteen icons instead of just eight. If you have this you have a lot more access to other things. You may need NPC Server rights to perform certain actions. More information can be found in 3.1.1

RC Shortcuts

If you say one of the following in RC, it will allow you to perform certain actions, but quicker. Here is a list of all of the shortcuts from the /help action.

Available commands for the NPC-Server:

/stats: displays server info
/reloadscriptlibs: reloads the script libraries
/loadlang: reloads the translations into memory
/loadlevellist: reloads the level list
/savenpcs: saves all database npcs
/clearnpcs levelname: deletes local db npcs from a level (including gralats)
/npc<command param>: commands to the control-npc
/style weapon/npc/class name: formats the script
/listscriptlogfunctions: lists all loggable script functions
/functionprofilestart: start/restart the function profiler
/functionprofilestop: stop the function profiler
/functionprofileshow weapon/npc/class name: stats about functions
/scripthelp text: print help for a server side function
/scriptscan weapons/npcs/classes/levels/all text: scan scripts
/npcshutdown: closes the server

Available commands for GServer:

/stats: displays server info
/playerinfo accountname: displays info about an online player
/open accountname: opens the player attributes window
/openrights accountname: opens the rights
/opencomments accountname: opens the comments
/openaccess accountname: opens the (new) ban info
/openacc accountname: opens the account
/openprofile accountname: opens the profile
/reset accountname: resets the account
/localbans: lists all local bans (requires RC2)
/staffactivity accountname: lists staff actions (requires RC2)
/find filepattern: searches for a game files in levels/
/finddef filepattern: searches for default (classic) game files
/global text: global command (only for high admins)
/updatelevel level[,level]: reloads levels form hard disk
/refreshfilelist: scans the folders again (only use when /find is not working correctly)
/clientstats accountname: shows client stats (requires Graal v6)
/npcstart: starts the npcserver
/npckill: stops the npcserver (use this if /npcshutdown and /npcstart are not working)

Serveroptions

See Server options.

How to use the file manager

This guide will teach you how to use the file manager. Most people will use file manager if they are staff on a playerworld at least once, so its important that everybody knows what it is, and how to use it.

What is file manager

File manager is the built in section within RC which acts as a FTP Client. It is used to send files from the client to the server, and vice versa. This can be found using the top left icon, the one with the two folders on it.

How to create folders within the file manager

This was explained before in the document. To create folders you use folder configuration to tell the server where the folder is, and what its used for. If you cant remember, or didn't read it, please look at section 2.3 and section 2.3.1.

How to access the folders in file manager

To access a folder, you need the rights to do so. This is inputted into the Edit Rights window. Either use the player list and right click the player then click Edit Rights or say in RC: /openrights accoutname. The bottom window is where the rights go; please note you will need Edit Folder Rights to edit anything in the bottom window.

There are two main rights for each playerworld:

R (Read-Only) RW (Read and Write)

For an example, the default levels folder is: /levels/ To give someone full access to this folder, you would put: rw levels/*

However, RW is a security risk, as it allows people to delete all of the contents. Some server may wish to setup a folder, where staff can upload levels into, and someone else can transfer them into the main folder. To do this they would need rw to the upload folder, and r to the main folder, so they could download all of the files, but not edit or delete them.

So if your folder is: /levels/upload/ The folder configuration will be: level upload/* (Where star is, put available file types e.g: *.png) While the rights for access to it will be: rw levels/upload/* (Could be just r)

How to upload files into the file manager

To upload files into a folder you have rights and access to, you first need to find the files. Lets say the files are in: /graal2001/my_uploads

1)First of all go to this folder in a new window (/graal2001/my_uploads) 2)Second highlight the files you wish to upload 3)Then go back to RC, Click on the file manager Icon 4)You then go back to the folder where the files are and drag the files into the file managers' right window.

There are many ways to do this, you can drag the files down to the open windows bar, and then into file manager. You can alternate through the open windows (Alt+Tab for Windows) and then into the file manager. Or you can make is so both windows are visible, by re-sizing them. Sometimes it is a good idea if you drag the file manager away from the RC, as sometimes the RC goes over the top of the File Manager, and you cant drag the files in.

How to download files from the file manager

Downloading is basically as easy as uploading. Once you have the file you want to download, go to it in file manager, and then simply drag it out of file manager to a folder to the desktop. Another way is to right click and click Edit and then you can save it somewhere when it opens.

How to delete files from the file manager

Sometimes you may have to delete the file before you can upload; this is sometimes a problem that rarely occurs. Or maybe you just want to delete the file. Once you have made sure you do not need the file, or have got a backup in case you need it again, simple right click the file in file manager, and then click delete.

Sub-Folders

Sub folders are easy to create and easy to access. Here is an example of a few sub folders:

/levels/staff/
/levels/staff/staffmember1/
/levels/staff/staffmember2/
/levels/staff/staffmember3/
/levels/staff/staffmember4/

It is exactly the same as creating a normal folder. But for the folders above, you would put the following into folder configuration:

level staff/staffmember4/*

Where the star is, put available file types e.g: *.png

And in Folder Rights you would put:

rw levels/staff/staffmember4/*

Where star is, put available file types e.g: *.png

And to navigate through sub-folders you will see either a + or a - sign. The + sign means that there are sub-folder within this folder, and you can click it to expand them. And the - sign means you can see the sub folders, and you can press it to hide them.

How to make guilds

Guilds are very easy and simple to make. First of all the guilds should be placed in the correct folder. This has changed recently, the new folder is: /levels/guilds/

Making filename

To make a guild you use something such as notepad, to save as a .txt file. You then have to call it what you want to call it, like this: guild<guildname>.txt (e.g: guildGP.txt)

Inside File

Inside you need to use the following format for everyone who you want to have the guild tag:

account:nickname

So lets say someone with the account bob and the nickname ralf needs a tag (GP) you would make the following:

Filename: guildGP.txt
Inside: bob:ralf

Which gives us: ralf (GP) (for account bob)

More accounts inside

If you want more people inside, you simply just put them on a new line inside: account:nickname account:nickname account:nickname account:nickname account:nickname

Making it a staff guild

If you want this guild to be a staff guild, simply put the tag name into the staffguilds=serveroption like this:

staffguilds=GP,FAQ,Manager,LAT

Frequently Asked Questions

How to find a PC ID

To find the PC ID of a specific account, that account first has to be online. Once that player is online use the command "/openaccess accountname" to open that users ban options. Once opened you can find the PC ID by look at the very top, to the right of "Edit Access of account (computer:#####)

Using a PC ID

Once you've retrieved the ID, insert the numbers in the selected players rights as "pc:pcidnumbers".

Using a PC ID should be your primary option while giving RC access to your staff. IP Ranges should be a secondary option, and more information about IP Ranges can be found below.

How to find an IP/IP Range

First of all you need to know the difference. An IP is a number with 4 parts, while an IP Range is a number with open parts where different numbers can go, and open have more than one set of IPs in them.

Finding your IP

First of all you need to find out your IP, to do this go to a website such as: http://whatismyip.com/

For dial-up users your IP endings will change, but the start may stay the same. You will then need to vist this site a few times to write down your IPs. Always on connections can just put in the IP, and alter it later, as it should stay like this for a long enough period of time. Dial-Up users will need to write down about 15-20IPs.

Sorting my IPs

Lets say you have the following IPs

64.124.42.44 
64.124.88.52 
64.74.963.25 
64.123.67.32 
78.225.96.34 
78.125.46.34 
78.62.45.32 
64.124.85.32

The first thing to do is put them in numerical order, so 64.*.*.* > 78.*.*.*

Once you have put them in order, you need to look at what changes and what doesn't. In this case it's the first and some of the second parts of the IP address.

Which means this IP range for someone with those IPs would be:

64.124.*.* 
64.74.*.* 
64.123.*.* 
78.642.*.*

And in order they are separated via a comma to produce the following: 64.124.*.*,64.74.*.*,64.123.*.*,78.642.*.*

Now many people will just do the following: 64.*.*.* (if the other numbers seem to change a lot) Ideally if you can have a tighter IP range such as: 64.124.*.* then it will be more secure.

Ideally you should take IPs over 2-3days so that it is a greater IP range.

Remember: You can always edit or change the IP range, but you can't always get back the Levels and NPCs deleted by an intruder.

Naming your Playerworld Files

Several times have there been problems wherein servers have uploaded files with the same names as files on other servers. When players visit these other servers, these more-recently-uploaded files will overwrite the normal files from the other servers in your webgifs directory. This is a problem, especially when files from official servers such as Graal Kingdoms are being overwritten. While reading, take this opportunity to remind yourself of the recommendation that when uploading graphics and sounds to your server, you prefix (or suffix) them with the name of the server where it is being uploaded. A recent example: instead of uploading some modified 'bomyload.wav' file to your server, you should rename it to (yourservername)_bomyload.wav or bomyload_(yourservername).wav. However, you should not be using bomys anyway, so you might want to use a name which actually fits what you are using the new file for.

This will prevent the overwriting from happening and also will help when there are issues with one server stealing another's graphics. By following this recommendation, you will also avoid the awkward problem where two different people on one server might see a single NPC as having a different graphic, depending on which other servers they may have already visited. A good example of this would be a file with a simple name like 'speaker.png'. Several months ago, I visited a playerworld with a different (and newer) speaker.png file than Era's, so whenever I was on Era I ended up seeing the other server's speaker.png. It was much bigger than Era's, so you can see how it would be a problem. That problem has been solved, but many other such problems keep appearing. So, please, take care when naming files.

Creation/Management/Playerworld Guide