Server owner FAQ

1. Sign up at playeranalytics.org and start your 14-day free trial.
2. In the dashboard, click Add Server — you'll get an API key (shown once, so copy it).
3. Click Download Plugin and drop PlayerAnalytics.cs into oxide/plugins/ (or carbon/plugins/ on Carbon).
4. Open the plugin's config (oxide/config/PlayerAnalytics.json), paste your key into the "SaaS — API key" field, and reload with oxide.reload PlayerAnalytics.
5. Data starts flowing within a minute or two. Everything else is set up on the website.

Yes — the same plugin runs on both Oxide (uMod) and Carbon.

No — tracking is automatic. Players can optionally sign in with Steam (free) to see their own stats, and link Steam ⇄ Discord with /link for rewards, but nothing is required for analytics to work.

Yes — the live demo is a real server's dashboard with no login. Use the bar at the bottom to switch between the Admin and Player views, open 👑 Owner settings to see how setup works, and try 🎫 Tickets and the 🎒 Loot buttons on the online players. Nothing you do in the demo touches a real server.

Yes — PlayerAnalytics is on the App Store for iPhone, with your stats, tickets and alerts. Android is in testing.

It's 14 days, free, on the monthly plan. You add a payment method at checkout but aren't charged until the trial ends — cancel any time before then and you pay nothing.

$9.99 / month per server. Prepay and save:

• 3 months — $26.99 (~10% off)
• 6 months — $49.99 (~17% off)
• 12 months — $89.99 (~25% off — about 3 months free)

Prepaid plans bill up front and don't include the 14-day trial.

Per server. Two servers on monthly = $19.98/mo, and so on. Monthly plans prorate instantly when you add or remove a server; prepaid plans lock your price for the term.

From the Billing card in Account Settings → Manage Billing. You can switch between monthly and prepaid plans right from the dashboard — even during your trial — and cancel any time.

Yes. Prepaid plans get a reminder email about 7 days before they auto-renew, showing the upcoming amount.

When a new version is out, each of your servers on My Servers shows a gold "Plugin vX is ready" bar. Click Send Update to Server — no download, no FTP. The bar turns blue while the server picks it up (usually within a minute), then green ✓ when it's running the new version.

• Needs plugin v3.2.5 or newer on that server; older versions are updated by hand once (Download Plugin, replace the file).
• Remote updates can be switched off per server in the plugin config: "Allow the dashboard to send plugin updates to this server".
• If an update fails, the bar turns orange — hover the button to see why. The previous version is kept as PlayerAnalytics.cs.bak.

It's a digital signature that proves the plugin file genuinely came from PlayerAnalytics and wasn't changed. From v3.2.8, the plugin refuses any dashboard-sent update that isn't signed by us — so even if someone broke into our hosting, they couldn't push code to your server.

You don't need to install it — if you copy it into your plugins folder anyway, Oxide and Carbon simply ignore it.

In Server Settings → In-game Leaderboard, switch it on, pick the chat command (default /lb) and choose which boards show. Then grant players the permission in your server console:

oxide.grant group default playeranalytics.leaderboard

Players type the command to open an in-game dashboard — server totals, top-10 boards, and clickable player profiles with achievement progress. The numbers come from the same place as your website, so they always match; boards refresh about every 5 minutes.

• They haven't done the thing that board tracks yet this wipe — boards reset with your wipe.
• Boards show the top 10 — they may be just below it. My Profile in the leaderboard shows their exact ranks.
• They opted out of tracking from your public server page — opted-out players stay off all boards.
• They're on your leaderboard-exempt list (staff are often hidden on purpose).
• They lack the playeranalytics.leaderboard permission — then the command won't open for them.

Yes — the whole leaderboard can live as a tab inside ServerPanel instead of its own window. In ServerPanel's config or in-game editor, add a category (or a page) set to:

• Type: Plugin
• Plugin Name: PlayerAnalytics
• Plugin Hook: API_GetServerPanelLeaderboard

The leaderboard must still be enabled in Server Settings, and players need the playeranalytics.leaderboard permission. The chat command keeps working alongside it.

No — for security we only store a scrambled (hashed) version. Open the ⋯ menu on the server card → Rotate API key, paste the new key into the plugin config and reload. The old key stops working immediately.

• If the plugin logs "Invalid API key" (401) — the key is wrong or was rotated. Paste the current key and reload.
• If there are no requests at all — your server can't reach api.playeranalytics.org (firewall/DNS).
• Check your subscription or trial is still active.

Players open a ticket in Discord, in-game (/createticket) or on the dashboard — and it stays one conversation across all three. Each ticket gets its own private Discord channel: staff just type in it and the player sees the reply in-game. Admins get an in-game toast the moment a ticket lands.

Turn tickets on in Server Settings → Tickets (needs the bot — see below). Try it in the ticket demo.

The moment a ticket opens, PlayerAnalytics freezes the player's last 30 minutes into it: where they were (on a map), who they killed and how far, how they died, what they built and looted, and their chat. Staff open the ticket and the context is already there — no "what time was this?".

Yes. Images posted in a ticket are saved permanently (Discord's own image links expire within a day), and every closed ticket becomes a transcript with names, Steam IDs, avatars and the whole conversation. Closed ticket channels can delete themselves after a delay you choose — the transcript stays.

On each player's profile you'll see cheat flags and a risk score built from PvP only:

• headshot rate per weapon, compared with your own server's average for that weapon
• long-range headshot kills and PvP kills per hour played
• F7 reports from other players (counted once per reporter)
• Rust's own anti-cheat violations (flyhack, speedhack and so on)

It's a decision aid for your staff, never an automatic ban. Players on your leaderboard-exempt list are never flagged.

When a player's risk reaches High, PlayerAnalytics opens a staff-only ticket by itself with the evidence and their 30-minute capture attached. The flagged player can't see it and is never added to its Discord channel. One ticket per player per wipe, updated if the case gets worse.

It's on by default for servers that use tickets — change the trigger level or switch it off in Server Settings → Tickets. Needs plugin v3.2.8.

Yes — turn on Mod Mode and you get Warn / Mute / Kick / Ban on each player profile, with reason templates, auto-escalating warnings, a Mod Log and optional Discord mirroring.

Yes — click Loot next to an online player on the Overview (or on the live map). You'll see their inventory laid out like the game, and can give items, ServerRewards points or Economics money in two clicks, or save your own quick-give presets.

Owners can also remove an item (a reason is required and shown to the player); admins can too if the owner allows it in Server Settings. Everything is audit-logged.

Yes. Open an achievement in Server Settings → Achievements and add one or more rewards — ServerRewards points (RP), Economics money, an item (picked from every Rust item), or custom console commands. They're granted in-game the moment a player completes it, with a chat message and sound.

Custom commands support {id} (Steam ID), {name} and {amount}, e.g. inventory.giveto {id} scrap 1000. Per-wipe achievements pay each wipe; lifetime ones pay once. ServerRewards / Economics rewards need those plugins installed.

Players type /link in game and confirm their Discord. Linked players can automatically get an in-game perk group, join your Discord with a role, and get a 💜 booster badge if they boost. You can also nudge unlinked players and pay an on-link bonus or a daily linked reward.

Open Linking on your server card for the setup checklist, the linked-player list and boosters.

• Cows, bulls, calves, sheep and lambs — tame them in game (about 5 minutes of handling). The animal belongs to whoever has handled it most.
• Calves and lambs born to your animals count as bred.
• Chickens living in a Chicken Coop you placed are yours.
• Horses — lead one on a rope to claim it straight away, or ride it for 1 minute. It stays yours until someone else claims it the same way.

A rage quit is an actual logoff — not just a death. When a player disconnects, the plugin looks at their last few actions: if 2 or more were deaths, the session counts as a rage quit.

• Only voluntary logoffs count — kicks, bans and timeouts never do.
• Suicides don't count toward the death streak.

Real rage quits are fairly rare, so these numbers are usually low — a quiet or PvE server may show none at all.

Once your server has about 30 player sessions and a few deaths — usually within the first day. It's a 0–100 score blending: how many players come back (counts the most), how long they stay, how active they are (scaled to your slot count), lifetime playtime and rage-quit rate. It updates live and is shown to your players too.

A separate, owner/admin-only score for how "sticky" your community is: returning players, new-player retention, engagement, link rate and how many engagement features you use. It has a daily trend and needs at least 5 active players in the last 30 days.

Webhooks for the chat mirror, wipe recaps with podiums, achievement unlocks, welcome-back, moderation and server offline/online alerts — plus Steam ⇄ Discord linking with auto-join and roles, and support tickets. Some need the bot in your Discord — see below.

Click the button, pick your Discord server and authorize (you need Manage Server in that Discord).

Add the Bot to Discord

The bot powers Discord auto-join and the ticket channels. Then finish setup on your server card → Linking: turn on Developer Mode in Discord (User Settings → Advanced), right-click your server icon → Copy Server ID, paste it into Server (guild) ID, optionally add a Role ID to give on join, and save.

The bot shows as offline in your member list — that's normal. If you give a join role, drag the PlayerAnalytics role above it in your role list. Missing /close? Click the button again — re-authorizing adds it without changing anything.

Set a Custom URL in Server Settings (lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens). Your page goes live at playeranalytics.org/s/your-name with leaderboards, reviews, who's online, the wipe schedule and your branding. Opt in to Browse Rust servers to be listed for new players.

Yes — generate a Stats Embed Key in Server Settings. It's read-only (the same stats a player sees, no admin data) and your developer pulls it from their back-end. Full guide: Stats Embed API.

Yes. In Server Settings, set "Is this a PvP server?" to Yes. The map then hides everything a rival could use to scout — deaths, combat, gathering, loot, builds, bases, raids and team activity — from players. NPC kills, vending and monument events stay visible. You and your admins always see the full map; the hidden data is stripped on our side, so it can't be pulled out another way.

Yes — open Members on your server card. Invite staff by email or with an admin invite link, and share a player invite link with your community. Staff get admin or viewer access and are never billed — they ride on your subscription.

No. Adding servers, billing, rotating keys and deleting a server are owner-only. Admins help run your existing servers.

The plugin detects the wipe and wipe boards start fresh. Your Wipe Summaries and a recap are kept for players to look back on, and lifetime totals and badges carry over.

Yes — owners get Reset Stats in Server Settings → Danger Zone. Choose current wipe only (keeps past Wipe Summaries, lifetime totals and earned achievements) or everything. Settings, members, keys, webhooks, linked accounts and achievement definitions are untouched.

It isn't a wipe: nothing is archived, no rewards are paid and nothing is posted to Discord. It can't be undone.

Gameplay events — sessions, kills and deaths, activity and server events — tied to Steam IDs. Payment data never touches your game server; billing is handled entirely by Stripe. See the Privacy Policy and Terms.

Players can do it themselves at playeranalytics.org/my-data — sign in with Steam, see every server holding their stats, download a copy, and erase themselves from any or all (which also stops future collection). Owners/admins can also do it from the player's profile in Mod Mode → Erase player data. Bans and mutes are kept.