How to Kick and Ban Players on Your Ground Branch Server

You remove players from a Ground Branch server through the in-game admin menu. In addition, the configuration files let you define how long bans last by default, when team killers get banned automatically and whether players may vote to kick someone.

Note

You need admin rights with the kick and ban permissions. See Add Admin for how to grant them.

Kick or ban a player

1. Join as an admin
   Join your server — see Join Server. Without admin rights the following options are not available to you.

2. Open the admin menu
   Press F8. Alternatively open the ESC menu and select the admin button there, or enter the command admin in the console (`).

3. Select the player
   Pick the player in question from the player list.

4. Choose an action
   Select Kick to disconnect the player from the server, or Ban to lock them out. In both cases you can optionally state a reason.

5. Confirm the ban duration
   When banning, the server asks you for the duration. It is prefilled with the value from the Ban.ini, which you can overwrite. A ban can be temporary or permanent.

Note

A kick only disconnects the player — they can rejoin immediately. Only a ban locks them out for the given duration.

Set the default ban duration

How long a ban lasts by default is controlled in the Ban.ini.

1. Stop the server
   Stop your server via the dashboard.

2. Connect via SFTP
   Connect to your server via SFTP.

3. Open Ban.ini
   Open the following file:

   /GroundBranch/ServerConfig/Ban.ini

4. Enter the duration
   Adjust the value in the section [/Script/RBZooKeeper.ZKBan]. The value is given in minutes:

   [/Script/RBZooKeeper.ZKBan]
   DefaultBanDuration=720

5. Start the server
   Save the file and start your server.

Conversion

Value	Equals
60	1 hour
720	12 hours (default)
1440	1 day
10080	7 days

Ban team killers automatically

Ground Branch can ban players on its own if they kill their own teammates too often. The related settings live in the TeamKill.ini:

/GroundBranch/ServerConfig/TeamKill.ini

[/Script/RBZooKeeper.ZKTeamKill]
MaxTeamKills=3
BanTime=60
TeamKillExpireTime=30

Value	Meaning
MaxTeamKills	Number of team kills after which a player is banned
BanTime	Duration of the automatic ban in minutes
TeamKillExpireTime	Time in minutes after which a single team kill expires again

Note

With the default values a player is banned once they kill three of their own teammates within 30 minutes. Such a ban is lifted with the unban command, just like any other ban.

Configure player votes

The Vote.ini defines what players on your server may vote on — including a kick.

/GroundBranch/ServerConfig/Vote.ini

[/Script/RBZooKeeper.ZKVote]
VotingCommands=kick
VotingCommands=changemap
VotingCommands=nextmap
VotingCommands=missionsettings
VotingCommands=restartround

Value	Meaning
VotingCommands	One line per allowed vote. Only kick, changemap, nextmap, missionsettings and restartround are available
VoteDuration	Duration of a running vote in seconds
MinPlayers	Minimum number of players required for voting
VoteSucceededTimeout	Cooldown in seconds after a successful vote
VoteFailedTimeout	Cooldown in seconds after a failed vote
MapVoteTimeout	Cooldown in seconds between map votes
bAllowVotingOffMapList	Allows voting for maps outside the map list
PermittedGameModes	Game modes in which voting is allowed

Warning

To disable vote kicks entirely, remove the line VotingCommands=kick. Otherwise players can throw each other off the server without any admin rights.

Lift a ban

Ground Branch has the admin command unban. It removes a player from the ban list based on their unique player ID (SteamID64). You use it like the other admin commands through the admin menu — see Add Admin.

Note

The exact console syntax of unban is not officially documented. Note down the SteamID64 of the player before you ban them — without it you cannot lift that specific ban.

Whitelist

Ground Branch does have a whitelist — when it is active, only admins and whitelisted players can join. Everyone else gets a message when joining that the server uses a whitelist.

Note

You manage the whitelist in the admin menu under Whitelist. The file name and format on the server are not officially documented, so maintain it in the game rather than via SFTP.

What Ground Branch does not offer

No RCON

Ground Branch does not offer an RCON interface. Kicks and bans run exclusively through the in-game admin menu.

Important

All files in the ServerConfig folder are only read on server start. Stop your server before editing them and restart it afterwards.