Game settings via command-line arguments

[Twinki14]

This came up in https://github.com/thijsvanloef/palworld-server-docker/issues/40#issuecomment-1902791711

Since Palworld uses UE, instead of modifying the PalWorldSettings.ini directly, we should be able to pass in arguments in the start script

This would offer a FAR better alternative than modifying PalWorldSettings.ini directly, and would only really require a new environment variable and documentation, such as INI_ARGS or ARGS

[thijsvanloef]

Trying that now!

[xHyperElectric]

Trying that now!

Any update on if this works?

[thijsvanloef]

@xHyperElectric Have not been able to get it working sadly, but I haven't had the time to work on it much.

[MSpreckels]

Hey @thijsvanloef @Twinki14,

I've now been trying all kinds of different versions of the argument for around 2.5hours.

I cannot get it to work. :(

Some of the arguments ive tried:

STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:Pal:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:RCONEnabled=True"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:PalWorldSettings:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:RCONEnabled=True"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:PalGameWorldSettings:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:RCONEnabled=True"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:Pal.PalGameWorldSettings:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:RCONEnabled=True"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:PalWorldSettings:RCONEnabled=True"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:PalGameWorldSettings:RCONEnabled=True"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:/palworld/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini:RCONEnabled=True"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:/palworld/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings:RCONEnabled=True"

STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:Pal:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:Game:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:Engine:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:GameUserSettings:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:RuntimeOptions:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:GameplayTags:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:palworld:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:/palworld/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:/palworld/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini://Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini://PalWorldSettings:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:/palworld/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini:ServerName=TEST_TEST"
STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:/palworld/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings:ServerName=TEST_TEST"

[Twinki14]

Hey @thijsvanloef @Twinki14,

I've now been trying all kinds of different versions of the argument for around 2.5hours.

I cannot get it to work. :(

Since the OptionSettings is a full object, try this

-ini:PalGameWorldSettings:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:OptionSettings=(Difficulty=None,DayTimeSpeedRate=2.0,NightTimeSpeedRate=1.5,ExpRate=0.5,PalCaptureRate=1.2,PalSpawnNumRate=0.8,...)

[MSpreckels]

Right..that would make sense. :D

I'll have a look again tomorrow after work

[MSpreckels]

Hey, IT WORKS....kind of..

I can get it to work with one parameter but as soon as a add a second one or ALL (which made sense to me because thats basically the file via CLI) it will not work anymore.

Currently I've only tried using the RCONEnabled parameter. Next I wanna try to connect to my local server to see if other params are even set.

Here are some things i tried:

# using the default palworldsettings file
# does not work??
#PARAMS='Difficulty=None,DayTimeSpeedRate=1.000000,NightTimeSpeedRate=1.000000,ExpRate=1.000000,PalCaptureRate=1.000000,PalSpawnNumRate=1.000000,PalDamageRateAttack=1.000000,PalDamageRateDefense=1.000000,PlayerDamageRateAttack=1.000000,PlayerDamageRateDefense=1.000000,PlayerStomachDecreaceRate=1.000000,PlayerStaminaDecreaceRate=1.000000,PlayerAutoHPRegeneRate=1.000000,PlayerAutoHpRegeneRateInSleep=1.000000,PalStomachDecreaceRate=1.000000,PalStaminaDecreaceRate=1.000000,PalAutoHPRegeneRate=1.000000,PalAutoHpRegeneRateInSleep=1.000000,BuildObjectDamageRate=1.000000,BuildObjectDeteriorationDamageRate=1.000000,CollectionDropRate=1.000000,CollectionObjectHpRate=1.000000,CollectionObjectRespawnSpeedRate=1.000000,EnemyDropItemRate=1.000000,DeathPenalty=All,bEnablePlayerToPlayerDamage=False,bEnableFriendlyFire=False,bEnableInvaderEnemy=True,bActiveUNKO=False,bEnableAimAssistPad=True,bEnableAimAssistKeyboard=False,DropItemMaxNum=3000,DropItemMaxNum_UNKO=100,BaseCampMaxNum=128,BaseCampWorkerMaxNum=15,DropItemAliveMaxHours=1.000000,bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers=False,AutoResetGuildTimeNoOnlinePlayers=72.000000,GuildPlayerMaxNum=20,PalEggDefaultHatchingTime=72.000000,WorkSpeedRate=1.000000,bIsMultiplay=False,bIsPvP=False,bCanPickupOtherGuildDeathPenaltyDrop=False,bEnableNonLoginPenalty=True,bEnableFastTravel=True,bIsStartLocationSelectByMap=True,bExistPlayerAfterLogout=False,bEnableDefenseOtherGuildPlayer=False,CoopPlayerMaxNum=4,ServerPlayerMaxNum=32,ServerName="Default Palworld Server",ServerDescription="",AdminPassword="",ServerPassword="",PublicPort=8211,PublicIP="",RCONEnabled=True,RCONPort=25575,Region="",bUseAuth=True,BanListURL="https://api.palworldgame.com/api/banlist.txt"'

# works, i can run rcon-cli info
#PARAMS='RCONEnabled=True'

# works
#PARAMS='ServerPlayerMaxNum=1'

# rcon-cli info does not work anymore
#PARAMS='ServerName=Hello World,RCONEnabled=True'

# rcon-cli info does not work anymore
#PARAMS='ServerName="Hello World",RCONEnabled=True'

# rcon-cli info does not work anymore
#PARAMS='ServerName=\"Hello World\",RCONEnabled=True'

# thought it might be the ServerName but doesnt work either
#PARAMS='ServerPlayerMaxNum=1,RCONEnabled=True'

# this works but the ServerName is still "Default Palworld Server"
#STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:PalWorldSettings:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:OptionSettings='(ServerName=\"Hello World\")'"
#STARTCOMMAND="${STARTCOMMAND} -ini:PalWorldSettings:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:OptionSettings='(RCONEnabled=True)'"

edit: ive set ServerPlayerMaxNum=1 and its being applied. It seems that only one param can be set. Now that we have a discord maybe we can have a chat/call later on :)

[Twinki14]

Hey, IT WORKS....kind of..

Might be a limitation with UE, interesting 🤔

I think for now the best thing to do would be to only support ini file editing & the few things we can pass via args, I thought perhaps this would offer us something solid and easy

OR we look into tools such as https://github.com/bitnami/ini-file / https://github.com/dbohdan/initool, feeding & reading environment variables into such a tool would be fairly simple, but providing default values would be harder (Assuming that if we set ANYTHING in the ini file, all defaults get overriden)

[MSpreckels]

Another option would be to prefill the ini file with environment variable placeholders and use envsubst to set those.

You could set a default there.

-ini:PalGameWorldSettings:[/Script/Pal.PalGameWorldSettings]:OptionSettings=(Difficulty=${DIFFICULTY:-None},....

Link: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2013589