EscapistsReintroduced/docs/configuration.md

Base mission configuration

The independent Core scenario loads Configs/ERR/VanillaFactions.conf through ERR_GameMode.m_FactionDefinition and Configs/ERR/EveronSites.conf through the scenario component. Both are successor resources. Changing a configuration requires restarting the scenario; the live round is not repopulated.

Factions and assets

The catalog explicitly selects the player faction, enemy faction, prisoner character, guard group and extraction helicopter. Current defaults are unarmed US prisoners, Soviet guards and the vanilla unarmed Mi-8 transport. Both factions must exist in the world's faction manager and consider one another hostile. Required prefab resources must resolve. The extraction resource must be a helicopter with a pilot position and at least twelve pilot/passenger seats; invalid extraction setup rolls back prepared sites before players spawn. Guard groups must have the catalog's enemy affiliation; an incompatible group is rejected rather than relabelled.

This provides an injection boundary, not automatic support for arbitrary addons. A different faction also needs matching characters, inventories, world manager configuration and companion support compositions. The current mortar crew remains a vanilla Soviet composition and rejects a different enemy faction.

Supply/guard placement and finite stock are described in site authoring.

Administration

Open the normal game chat and enter a command. Core provides:

Command	Access	Effect
/esc status	Server administrator	Current objective or startup failure cause; adds HQ status when Chat is loaded
/esc killais	Server administrator	Kill AI characters within 1,000 m of your living character; preserve players and vehicles
/esc settings	Server administrator	Current shared settings and values
/esc mission radio show	Server administrator	Radio defence duration in seconds
/esc mission radio set N	Server administrator	Save a whole-number duration from 30 to 1800 seconds
/esc mission time show	Server administrator	Current clock and saved next-round time/speed
/esc mission time set HH:MM	Server administrator	Save next-round start time, 00:00–23:59
/esc mission speed show	Server administrator	Current clock and saved next-round time/speed
/esc mission speed set N	Server administrator	Save next-round time progression, 1–24×
/esc spectate next	Spectating player	Select the next surviving friendly player
/esc spectate previous	Spectating player	Select the previous surviving friendly player

The server derives administrator status from the requesting controller's authenticated player ID. Clients cannot send an administrator flag through the RPC. Requests are limited in length and rate; malformed numbers and out-of-range values leave the previous setting intact. Saved values belong to the server profile, not client profiles. Changing radio duration affects the current defence calculation, so configure it before starting the transmission.

Clock settings apply once at the next round startup; changing them does not jump the current clock. Older valid settings files load the new defaults (14:00, 1×) without being rewritten. See mission time.

AI and Intel register their own providers with the Core command service; the full Chat scenario loads both. Existing HQ interval/squad/radius and Intel carrying/reveal aliases remain available, as do hq show and hq log. They use the same authenticated authorization path.

Additional AI commands:

Command	Effect
/esc hq memory	Show bounded delivered-report beliefs, confidence, uncertainty and travel estimates
/esc hq stinger show	Show the saved one-in-N initial equipment chance
/esc hq stinger set N	Set 0 to disable, 1 for every eligible actor, or 2–10000 for one in N; affects actors that have not rolled yet
/esc hq convoy show	Show the finite deployment task, retained vehicles, native cargo insertion results and stop reason
/esc hq convoy start	Deploy the next unused slot in this round’s configured convoy allowance after physical force admission
/esc convoys show	Show the saved count and active fleet
/esc convoys set 0..20 / /esc convoys set random	Save the next round’s convoy count; default 3; also available on the Mission page

Convoys automatically deploy after prison escape by default, travel between friendly military bases, and use the original infantry dismount/flank/reboard behavior. Each has six vehicles, 25 soldiers and finite random faction-arsenal cargo. Startup and losses consume slots permanently. The existing automaticConvoyEnabled=0 preference remains respected. See Supply convoys for configuration, timing and validation limits.

The command parser and setting mutations have native service tests. Actual remote RPC ownership, chat usability and pre-spawn presentation still need multiplayer/UI acceptance.

Failed preparation

If the faction/catalog setup or authored site preparation fails, the mode retains the reason, stops its services and refuses progression or spawning. It does not fall back to a partially prepared mission. A local hint describes the failure and /esc status gives administrators the cause. Correct the resource/configuration and restart the scenario. There is no automatic retry that recreates stock or forces after failure.

Waiting for normal site preparation does not consume a player's spawn retry budget. Once ready, actual failed spawn requests are bounded. This does not remove the one-life or identity requirements.

Core also provides /esc mission abandon: an administrator-only explicit defeat and normal restart for an active round. See recovery policy.

Mission menu

Esc → Escapists Reintroduced opens one administrator menu. Its top navigation stays visible on every page:

Page	Controls
Mission	Radio defence duration and next-round convoy count
World	Start time, Random day, time speed, date and weather
Factions	Escapists, enemy and independent faction choices; Random all
Mods	Content pack and individual faction switches
HQ	Report interval, support squad limit and response radius
Intel	Document frequency, exact-reveal chance, summary and reroll
Status	Scrollable live mission and service status
Journal	Scrollable HQ activity, pause/resume and jump to latest

Changing pages preserves drafts and never applies them. Escape returns to Mission; a second Escape closes the menu (an active text edit consumes Escape first). Server authorization and capability checks still control every mutation.

Optional content

Use Esc → Escapists Reintroduced → Mods for server-admin RHS and individual faction switches. Selections apply after mission restart, while Workshop dependencies remain loaded. See content packs and the modder registry.

Random settings

Every editable setting on Mission, World, HQ and Intel has a Random button. It selects the draft; press Apply to save it. You can still enter a fixed value. The start-time row also offers Random day.

• Random start time: any whole minute from 00:00 through 23:59.
• Random day: a whole minute strictly between the island's sunrise and sunset, calculated after the selected date is applied. If no daylight interval is available, preparation fails rather than silently starting at night.
• Random date: any valid date in the world's authored year (1900–2050), including leap days where applicable.
• Random weather: clear, overcast or rain, with equal probability.
• Other fields: a uniformly selected integer within the range displayed beside the field, including zero where allowed. Random speed uses 1–24×.

The server retains the Random choice in its profile and selects a fresh value for each mission instance. Reads and menu polling reuse that value. Applying the same Random choice again does not reroll it; changing to a fixed value and then back to Random does. Live settings retain their existing apply timing; clock, calendar, weather and speed still apply only on the next round. Saved Random values for live settings also show the resolved number in the menu.

Text commands accept random in place of any of these ten values, for example /esc hq squads set random or /esc mission weather set random. Time additionally accepts /esc mission time set random day (or random-day). Existing numeric, clock, date and named-weather values remain supported. Storage uses -1 for Random and -2 exclusively for Random day; these are saved modes, never concrete values passed to gameplay or the world clock. Existing settings files keep their fixed choices without migration or an automatic rewrite.

Generated camps and map discovery

Everon generates a fresh clear-terrain prison, radio camp and four mortar sites each round. Partial intel shows question marks; exact discoveries use site icons. The prison is never marked. See generated sites and debug commands for placement limits, authoring fields, failure behavior and validation.

/esc cheat intel is an administrator-only command that places six fresh intel folders on clear ground within about 4.3 metres of the current living prisoner. It requires being on foot on terrain with enough nearby space. All six positions are checked first; a spawn failure removes the partial batch. Picking up the folders uses normal intel discovery and the configured reveal chance.

The initial prison patrol contains 3–5 soldiers, chosen once during preparation from the selected enemy faction roster. An existing RTO is retained. If that roster has no large radio, one soldier is equipped with a physical manpack (US/USAF: AN/PRC-77; otherwise R-107M). Preparation waits for that radio to be present. The guards start at separate random clear positions 12–24 m around the prison and remain frozen until it is unlocked; other site squads keep their configured size.

Airfield extraction and site icons

Everon extraction uses the airfield pad at 4800.953 / 11487.412. Site authors set RequireAirfield 1 and AircraftOffset 0 0 0 on that extraction definition. Preparation checks airfield anchors, terrain and clearance before creating the aircraft, and refuses an invalid pad without relocating it elsewhere.

Identified sites use helicopter, radio, artillery, building, medical and supplies icons. Partial intel shows a question mark at an approximate position; the prison remains hidden regardless of discovery. The western guarded UAZ/crate site is removed; the medical stash provides the second radio-intel source. See implementation and validation.

See mortar intel, original messages and perimeter guards for the four-site configuration and validation.

Permanent radio security

Radio sites require a guard squad. HQ permanently reserves that squad for the radio's 20 m defend area; it cannot be dispatched on searches, reinforcements or courier work. The generated Everon radio and table sit inside a full-size tent, with standing room for interaction. See radio camp security.

Everon also sets ScoutCount 10 in its scenario definition. This creates ten finite hilltop sniper/scout posts with radio-equipped ammunition packs; see hill scouts for terrain criteria, loadouts and reporting. Other authored scenarios default to zero.

Search helicopter: heliTimerMinutes defaults to 15 minutes after prison escape and after aircraft loss. Use /esc hq heli show, /esc hq heli timer set 15, or /esc hq heli return. See search-helicopter.md.