How to Edit Rust Plugins

in Rust

By Nathan Young

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Overview

Many Rust server owners try out plugins to customize their gameplay experience, such as making crafting instantaneous or adding announcements. Although, configuring their respective settings are typically required to achieve your desired goals. This means plugins aren’t always ready-to-go after installing them, making the setup process trickier to accomplish. Following this, some owners may find themselves searching for solutions to start configuring options. This can become difficult or overwhelming if you’re new to server management. Luckily, our easy-to-use panel editor allows you to smoothly change any plugin configuration file. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to access or view their files. Due to this, we’ll explore how to edit Rust plugins on your server in this Apex Hosting tutorial.
 

Getting Started

Editing plugins require them to be installed properly on your server, allowing their files to be generated. Changing these to your liking may involve tweaking values or texts, depending on what you want. Whether you’re altering messages or toggling unique features, it’s all done through config files via the FTP panel. However, some may have in-game customization options. For example, commands could be used for making changes. We’ll be focusing on accessing and editing plugin files since most are controlled through it.
 

Accessing Plugin Files

The first step is to view your server files, then locate the plugin files to prepare for editing them.

1. Head towards your Apex server panel and click FTP File Access, near the top left.
   

   Important: Use the correct Server Profile for this process.

2. Login with your password, then navigate to the oxide directory.
   
3. Locate and enter the config folder, revealing .json configuration files.
   

   Note: In some cases, plugins may generate these files in the “data” folder.

Editing Plugin Configs

Now it’s time to start making changes to your plugin configuration files.

1. Inside of the config or data folder from the FTP File Access area, locate your desired file.
2. Once found, press Edit on the far right to view its contents.
   
3. Start making your necessary changes, then press Save at the top.
   
4. Confirm if the file(s) kept these edits by refreshing the page.

Edit Suggestions

The following are examples of popular changes to implement in your plugin configuration files.
 

Some plugins will have sections that have placeholder values or defined messages to edit. These are important, as they allow owners to completely customize the in-game chat. In some cases, these are configurable through commands instead of the file.

This depends on the type of plugin you’ve installed, but using the FTP to make these changes is universal.
 

Almost every single Rust plugin has values to edit for specific settings, typically in the form of numbers. These are important, as they tend to tailor particular features to your liking.

Whether it’s changing the max amount of entities or a cooldown for an ability, configuring the values gets the job done.
 

Other times, plugin settings can be togglable through being true or false. This is extremely common and makes up a significant portion of the options. Normally, these are used to disable features or functions that the plugin offers.

It’s best to toggle what you want and keep everything else disabled or on their default settings, unless you want to try new aspects out.
 

Applying Changes

After saving your newly changed file, it’s ready to load on the server.

1. When all your file changes are saved, return to the main server panel.
2. At the top, press Restart and wait for everything to load.
   
3. Once this finishes, join and start testing your changes in-game.

Common Issues

Unable to See Files
In cases where you’re unable to view any plugin configuration files, then double-check your server profile. This must be the correct one that contains your Rust data, which will likely have them in the FTP File Access area. Otherwise, the issue could be that you haven’t restarted the server after installing the plugins. Without doing this, some files may not entirely generate and result in the problem. On rare occasions, they will not appear due to the plugin’s design or are held in the data folder instead of the config directory. Using these solutions will certainly help resolve this scenario.
 
Files Aren’t Saving or Applying
After making any file changes, make sure to Save them at the top of the panel editor. Once saved, you can confirm that it worked by refreshing the page. If you see the recent edits, then proceed to Restart the server and join to try it out in-game. However, sometimes settings or options will not apply after saving them due to potential formatting issues. This is when you mistyped a value or accidentally removed quotation marks, among other format-related text. Ensure the file isn’t broken by typos or problematic entries, then continue to test out the changes.
 

Useful Links

How to Make a Rust Server
How to Add Plugins on Rust Servers
Connecting to a Rust Server via FTP
Becoming an Admin on Rust Servers