Enshrouded User Groups, Passwords and Permissions
How Enshrouded user groups set what each player can do, how to manage groups and their passwords in the panel, what each permission allows, and reserved slots.
How Enshrouded decides who can do what
Enshrouded has no admin list and no whitelist. Instead, a server has user groups, and every group has a password and a set of permissions. When a player joins, they type a password, and the group that password belongs to is the group they play in for that session.
So the way to make someone an admin is to give them the Admin group's password, and the way to keep visitors from touching your base is to give them the password of a group that cannot edit it.
Every group can fight, gather and do quests in the open world. Permissions only control the extras below.
The groups a new server starts with
A new GameGrid server starts with Enshrouded's own four groups. Each gets a 16-character password of letters and digits generated for your server alone, so no two servers share a password and no group starts empty.
| Group | Kick/ban | Access inventories | Edit world | Edit base | Extend base | Reserved slots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 |
| Friend | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 0 |
| Guest | No | No | Yes | No | No | 0 |
| Visitor | No | No | No | No | No | 0 |
You can change, add and delete groups as you like.
What each permission allows
| Permission | Key | What a player in the group can do |
|---|---|---|
| Kick/ban | canKickBan | Kick and ban players, in game |
| Access inventories | canAccessInventories | Open storage, workstations and other containers inside player bases. It does not cover chests out in the world |
| Edit world | canEditWorld | Dig, build and change the world outside bases |
| Edit base | canEditBase | Build, remove and reshape inside any player base |
| Extend base | canExtendBase | Place, remove and upgrade Flame Altars, which set how far a base reaches |
Reserved slots (reservedSlots) hold places on the server for a group. When the only places left are another group's reserved ones, the server counts as full for everyone else. A group's reserved slots cannot be more than your server's Player Slots.
The sixth permission you will see in the log
When somebody joins, the Console lists their permissions, and there are six, not five. The extra one is CanReceiveEXP, which lets a player earn experience.
It is not missing from the panel by oversight: Enshrouded's settings file cannot set it. The game drops the key if it is written, and every group has it. So the five above are all there is to configure.
Why GameGrid always writes the groups
Left to itself, a server with no groups defined invents a single group called Default, with Friend-like rights including the ability to extend bases. That is why GameGrid writes the four groups with generated passwords when your server is created, rather than letting the game fall back.
Two password rules
- Every password must be different. Enshrouded refuses to start when two groups share a password ("user groups passwords must be unique"). GameGrid will not save two groups with the same password, or two with none, and tells you which groups clash. Capitals count:
Secretandsecretare different passwords. - Never leave a password empty. The game accepts an empty password, and a group anybody can join is an open door: on the Admin group, it would make every player who finds your server an admin.
Managing groups in the panel
Open Settings, go to the Admin tab and find User Groups. The groups are listed in a table, with each saved password masked. This table is the one place groups are managed: an Enshrouded server has no Player Management tab.
To see a group's password (to hand it to the players who should join as that group), press Show beside the mask. The password appears in that row, with Copy to put it on your clipboard and Hide to cover it again. It is hidden again when you press Save Changes or leave the page. Showing a password needs the same permission as changing your server's settings, and every time one is shown it is recorded in your audit history (which group and who asked, never the password).
To add a group:
1. In the add form, pick one of Enshrouded's group names that you do not have yet (Admin, Friend, Guest or Visitor), or choose Custom and type your own name.
2. Type a password, or press Generate for a random one. Show lets you see it before you add the group.
3. Set its reserved slots and tick its permissions. Add stays greyed out until everything is valid.
4. Press Add, then Save Changes.
To delete a group, press Delete on its row. Nothing changes on the server until you press Save Changes, and until then Undo brings it back.
To change a group's password or permissions, delete the group and add it again under the same name with the new password and permissions, then press Save Changes. To find out a group's current password, use Show on its row; there is no need to replace it.
A server can have up to 32 groups. Group names must be unique (ignoring capitals), 1 to 64 characters, and cannot contain [, ], = or ..
From Discord, /settings table list shows your groups with passwords masked, /settings table show-password shows one group's password in a reply only you can see, and /settings table password changes it in a private form. See The GameGrid Discord Bot on Enshrouded. Integrations use the Customer API: The Customer API on Enshrouded.
Rules worth knowing
- Changes reach players when they next join. The server reads the groups when it starts, and a player's group is decided by the password they typed when they joined. After saving (the server restarts if it was running), have players rejoin with their group's password.
- Changing a password takes it away from everyone who had it, at their next join. There is no way to take a group from one person and leave it with another; that is what separate groups are for.
- Event Manager windows never change groups or passwords. A scheduled settings event changes gameplay values only.
- A backup holds the groups and passwords, and restoring one puts back the groups it holds. Check them after a restore.
Kicking and banning
There is no console for Enshrouded, so kicking and banning are done in game, in the Social tab, by a player whose group has the Kick/ban permission. A kicked player can rejoin straight away; a banned one cannot. The game keeps the ban list in the server's settings file, and it is not shown on the Settings page. See Managing Players on Enshrouded.