rHelp Plugin

A Rust server plugin that sends players a welcome message on join and provides a configurable help command with a per-player cooldown.

Details

• Plugin Name: rHelp
• Author: Ftuoil Xelrash
• Version: 0.0.43
• Description: Displays help information and server commands on join and via !help / /help commands

Features

• Welcome Message - Automatically sent to players when they join the server
• Help Command - Players can type !help or /help to view available server commands
• Per-Player 5-Minute Cooldown - Prevents spam; each player has their own independent cooldown timer
• Private Messages - Help responses are sent only to the player who requested them
• Multi-line Configuration - Easy-to-edit help message content in the config file
• Plain Text Format - Compatible with Rust's text limitations

Commands

!help / /help

Shows the Player Commands Guide with all available server commands and features. Both commands are identical in behaviour and share the same per-player cooldown timer.

• Cooldown: 5 minutes (per-player; each player tracks their own cooldown independently)
• Silent: Neither !help nor /help is visible to other players in chat
• Permission: None required (available to all players)
• Output: Private message (only visible to the player who issued it)

Configuration

The plugin creates a configuration file automatically on first run. You can customize:

• Enable !help Command - Toggle the command on/off
• Command Cooldown (minutes) - Set the cooldown duration
• Join Message - Multi-line message list shown when players connect (supports placeholders)
• Join Message Color - Color code for join message in chat (default: 00FFFF - dark blue)
• Send Join Message to Console - Send join message to F1 console (default: true)
• Help Message - Title - Title of the help guide
• Help Message Color - Color code for help message in chat (default: FFFF00 - yellow)
• Send Help Message to Console - Send help message to F1 console (default: true)
• Help Message - Content - Multi-line list of commands and info

Default Help Message Includes:

• Player Stats (/stats)
• Economics (/balance)
• Raidable Bases (/buyraid)
• Sign Artist (/sil, /silt, /silrestore)
• Population (!pop)
• Scheduled Restarts (!restart)
• Quick Tips

All of these are fully customizable in the config file.

String Placeholders

Both the join message and help message support the following placeholders that are automatically replaced:

• {player} - Name of the player joining
• {server} - Server name (from server hostname setting)
• {online_players} - Current number of online players
• {max_players} - Maximum player capacity
• {sleeping_players} - Number of players sleeping
• {player_count} - Formatted as "online/max" (e.g., "15/50")

Single-Line Examples:

• "Welcome {player} to {server}!"
• "Welcome {player}! Server is at {player_count} capacity."
• "Welcome {player}! There are {online_players} players online."
• "Join us {player}! {online_players}/{max_players} slots filled on {server}."

Multi-Line Example (as configured in JSON):

"Join Message": [
  "Welcome to the server {player}!",
  "Type !help to see available commands and features available on {server}."
]

This will display as two separate lines in chat and console.

Help Message Example with Placeholders:

"Help Message - Content": [
  "Server: {server}",
  "Players Online: {player_count}",
  "",
  "Welcome {player}!"
]

Placeholders work the same way in help messages as they do in join messages.

Color Codes

Colors are specified as hex codes (without the # symbol). Some examples:

• 00FFFF - Cyan (dark blue)
• FFFF00 - Yellow
• FF0000 - Red
• 00FF00 - Green
• FFFFFF - White
• FFA500 - Orange

The full message will be displayed in the specified color in chat.

Console Messages

Both join and help messages can be sent to the F1 console for easier reading. This is enabled by default and can be toggled in the config:

• Send Join Message to Console - (default: true)
• Send Help Message to Console - (default: true)

Installation

1. Save rHelp.cs to your oxide/plugins/ directory
2. Restart the server or use oxide.reload rHelp command
3. Configure via the generated config file (edit as needed)
4. Reload the plugin again to apply config changes

Configuration File Location

The config file is automatically generated at:

oxide/config/rHelp.json

Notes

• Messages should use plain text only (Rust has limitations with special characters)
• The cooldown is per-player - each player has their own independent 5-minute cooldown timer
• Neither !help nor /help is visible to other players in chat (both are fully silent)
• Join messages appear as private messages to each connecting player
• The help message can be as long as needed with multiple lines

Technical Details

• Uses OnUserConnected hook for join messages
• Uses OnPlayerChat hook to detect !help commands; returns non-null to suppress from public chat
• Uses [ChatCommand("help")] for /help slash command alias
• Per-player Dictionary<string, DateTime> tracking for cooldown, keyed by UserIDString
• JSON configuration file for easy editing
• Proper cooldown time formatting (seconds/minutes/hours)
• Fixed JSON deserialization issue that was causing duplicate message content in loaded configurations