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⏳ ArkBossCooldown

ArkBossCooldown puts a server-wide cooldown between boss starts. Boss arenas are entered by crafting a tribute item, and nothing stops a group from crafting several in a row — the teleports stack up and players arrive in the arena dead. This plugin makes the server refuse a boss start until the cooldown from the last one has expired.

It is deliberately small: one cooldown, one message, one list of tribute items.

What it does

  • One cooldown for the whole server. The first boss tribute craft arms it; every other tribute craft is refused until it expires. It is not per player or per tribe — if one group starts a boss, everyone waits.
  • The refused craft costs nothing. The tribute item is not consumed and no teleport happens, so a player who hits the cooldown can simply try again once it has passed.
  • Tells the player why. A configurable chat, notification, or broadcast message shows the remaining time. It can also be turned off to refuse silently.
  • Works on any map, and with mods. The tribute items that arm the cooldown are just a list of blueprint paths in the config, so you can add modded arenas or remove bosses you don't want gated.
  • Nothing else. Items other than the ones you list craft completely normally.

ℹ️ This is a debounce, not a boss lockout. BossStartCooldown defaults to 5 seconds — long enough to swallow a burst of spam clicks, short enough that nobody notices it. If you want a real "one boss per hour" limit, set it to a much larger number and read the note on restarts and reloads first.

Requirements

Requirement Notes
ArkApi 3.51 or newer The plugin will not load on older API versions.
MySQL / MariaDB The plugin connects on startup, so valid credentials are required — but ArkBossCooldown itself stores nothing there. See Common Configuration.
A Bytemart license key Nothing activates until the key authenticates.
Outbound HTTPS Needed for licensing.

Installation

  1. Make sure you have ArkApi 3.51+ installed on your server.
  2. Set up a MySQL/MariaDB database — see Common Configuration. The database must already exist.
  3. Download ArkBossCooldown.zip from your Bytemart Dashboard.
  4. Stop the server (run saveworld first), or unload any previous version with plugins.unload ArkBossCooldown.
  5. Extract the archive into an ArkBossCooldown folder inside ShooterGame/Binaries/Win64/ArkApi/Plugins/.
  6. Open config.json and fill in your LicenseKey and Database credentials. The defaults for everything else are usable as they ship — see Configuration.
  7. Start the server and confirm there are no errors during startup.
  8. Craft a boss tribute twice in a row to check that the second attempt is refused and the message appears.

💡 Playing on a map or mod that isn't in the default list? Turn on TestMode, craft the tribute once, and copy the blueprint path the console prints into Bosses. Then turn TestMode back off.

Updating

  • Manual: plugins.unload ArkBossCooldown, replace the files, then plugins.load ArkBossCooldown.
  • Automatic (hot-reload): rename the new ArkBossCooldown.dll to ArkBossCooldown.dll.arkapi and drop it into the plugin folder — ArkApi loads the new version and unloads the old one automatically.

ArkBossCooldown repairs its own config on load: missing keys are added with their defaults and your original is backed up to config.json.bak first. A type mismatch (a string where a number belongs) aborts the load instead, with an error naming the key.

Commands

Console and RCON access is admin access by definition, so these need no extra permission.

Command Channels Description
ArkBossCooldown.help [page] Console, RCON Paginated list of every registered command.
ArkBossCooldown.reload Console, RCON Re-read config.json without restarting the server.

ArkBossCooldown.reload rebuilds the boss list, the cooldown length, TestMode, and the message settings from disk. It does not clear a cooldown that is already running — reloading is not a free boss start. To clear one, unload and reload the plugin. It also does not re-run the config repair pass, so validate your JSON before reloading.

Troubleshooting

  • The cooldown never triggers — the tribute you're crafting probably isn't in the Bosses list. Turn on TestMode, craft it, and read the path from the console.
  • Plugin doesn't load, error code 1114 — a JSON syntax error in config.json. Run it through JSONLint. The long Bosses array makes a stray comma easy to miss.
  • "License key is missing" — LicenseKey is still the placeholder value.
  • The message doesn't appear — check CooldownMessage.Enabled is true, and note that Scale only applies to the Notification channel.
  • Anything else — set LogToFile to true and reproduce; the plugin writes its own rotating ArkBossCooldown.log next to config.json. Then ask in the Bytemart Discord.

Next steps: