Z-Chat — one global chat for all the maps of a cluster
Demo
Players on TheIsland talk with players on Ragnarok as if they were on the same map. Z-Chat needs no database and opens no network connection of its own: every server writes its own small exchange file in a shared folder and reads the files of the other maps every second, from where it stopped. Nothing else to install besides Z-Chat and Z-Messages.
Only global chat travels. Tribe chat and local chat stay where they were said, and commands (
/zp, /info...) never leave the server.Works with the ZMenu mod (optional)
Coming soon: ZMenu in 4 languages (French, English, Spanish, German), chosen by each player with flags in the menu. This version is ready, but CurseForge has paused publishing for all ARK mods until the game's Unreal Engine 5.8 update: it will be released on November 5, 2026 at the earliest.
ZMenu is a free client mod by the same author: https://www.curseforge.com/ark-survival-ascended/mods/zmenu With ZMenu on your server, a Z-Link tab: players link their Discord account without typing a command (this needs a Discord bridge, see /zlink below). Handy for console players.
- ZMenu talks to the server through Z-Bridge, a free plugin made for it: it carries the menu clicks to the plugins and brings their answers back into the menu. Install Z-Bridge too, or the menu stays empty.
- Each of these plugins adds its own tab to ZMenu: Z-Points the Z-Points tab, Z-Colour the Z-Colour tab, Z-Info the Z-Info tab, Z-Chat the Z-Link tab. A tab only shows when its plugin is installed.
- Without ZMenu, everything still works through the chat commands below.
Install
1. Drop the
Z-Chat folder into ShooterGame/Binaries/Win64/ArkApi/Plugins/ on every server of the cluster.2. Install Z-Messages as well: Z-Chat displays its lines through it (declared dependency).
3. In each server's
config.json:General.Cluster— the SAME name on every server that shares the chat.General.ExchangeFolder— the SAME folder on every server, reachable by all of them (servers on one machine, or a shared folder).General.Map— a name UNIQUE to this server, shown in front of its messages (it is also the name of its exchange file).
Requires AsaApi 2.03+. Settings are re-read every second: no restart needed after a change.
What a chat line looks like
Fully configurable with
General.Format and these fields: {map}, {pseudo} (player name), {plateforme} (platform icon), {tribu} (tribe), {admin} (icon for admins), {heure} (time), {message}, and {couleurmap} (the colour of the map the message comes from, see MapColors). Colours use the Z-Messages formatting tags, e.g. {c:255,255,255}text{/}.General.Label— what the game shows at the head of the line (plain text only). Default: the map name.General.TakeOverLocalChat—trueso that messages from your own map look like those from the other maps (one style in the chat window).General.AdminIcon— what{admin}shows for an admin.Platforms— what{plateforme}shows for each platform number given by the game (1 Steam, 2 Xbox / PC Game Pass, 3 PlayStation).MapColors— an[R, G, B]colour per map name;General.DefaultMapColorfor the others.General.MaxSizeKB— past this size an exchange file is emptied. Messages are short-lived.
/zlink — link a Discord account (optional)
/zlink gives the player a 4-digit code valid 10 minutes, to paste in your Discord channel (General.DiscordChannel). Z-Chat itself does not connect to Discord: it drops the request in <ExchangeFolder>/<Cluster>/liaisons/ and an external Discord bridge picks it up (Z-ARK provides one). Without such a bridge, simply ignore this command. A code typed by mistake in game chat is kept private: it is neither shown nor relayed./zlink help— explains the command before giving a code.
Files written in the exchange folder
<Map>.txt— the recent messages of each map (trimmed atMaxSizeKB).registre/<Map>.txt— players who spoke on that map (EOS id, name, platform, tribe), used to keep platform icons right across maps.liaisons/attente.txt— pending/zlinkrequests (only if players use it).
Configure (config.json)
General.Enabled—falseputs the plugin to sleep without unloading it.General.Language— EN, FR, DE, ES or your own block underTexts(the /zlink messages).- Every key is explained in
_helpat the bottom of the file.
RCON commands
ZChat.Reload— re-reads config.json.ZChat.Status— version and state.
Compatibility
Built and tested against AsaApi 2.03 (ARK: Survival Ascended dedicated server, Windows).
External connections and data
- No network connection of its own. Z-Chat never connects to Discord or to any web service. The servers share the chat through files in one folder that you choose (
General.ExchangeFolder): a local folder when all the servers run on one machine, or a network share (Windows file sharing) between machines. - Files written in the exchange folder (
<ExchangeFolder>/<Cluster>/):<Map>.txt, the recent global chat lines of this map (map, player name, platform, tribe, admin mark, message), emptied pastMaxSizeKB;registre/<Map>.txt, the players who spoke on this map (EOS id, name, platform, tribe, admin mark, time), one line added only when one of these changes, and never trimmed by the plugin;liaisons/attente.txt, the pending/zlinkrequests (code, EOS id, name, expiry after 10 minutes), only if players use/zlink. - Files read: the files of the other maps in the same folder, every second, and its own
config.json(rewritten only to rename setting names of older versions, values kept). - When Z-Messages or Z-Bridge is loaded, Z-Chat calls functions they export, inside the server process.
- No game hook, no registry access, no external program started, no other data collected.
Dependencies and limitations
- Requires Z-Messages: Z-Chat displays its lines through it.
- Every server that shares the chat must reach the same folder. Across machines, the network share and its access rights are yours to set up.
- Only global chat travels; tribe chat, local chat and commands stay on their server. Messages arrive within about a second.
/zlinkneeds an external Discord bridge (Z-ARK provides one); without it, ignore the command.
Updates
Z-ARK (server manager, https://z-ark.fr/en/) checks for new versions of this plugin and installs them from its dashboard.
Without Z-ARK: click Watch at the top of this page to be notified of every new version; what changed is listed in the Updates tab. To update, stop the server, replace the plugin's .dll and PluginInfo.json, keep your config.json, then start the server again.
Built with AI, knowingly
This plugin was written with an artificial intelligence, and we would rather say it plainly. It is not code thrown together at random: behind it is someone from the trade (software development, server operations, community management) who decides every feature, reviews it and puts it to the test on a real cluster, with real players, before it reaches you. The same goes for the ZMenu client mod. Bugs reported in the Discussion tab get fixed.
