Private Server Changes

Recently, Roblox made some changes to “Private Servers” which were reverted.
I think Roblox’ decision to revert this update is good. However this gave me the idea to write a post about what would be good to see for private servers in the future.

As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to filter who can join my private server with a link/or control my server while players are inside.

If Roblox is able to address this issue, it would improve my development experience because I could host more “community” events with people in my community.

It would be nice if Roblox allowed Private Server owners to choose who can join their private servers (including who can use the links). - There are communities that hunt random private servers & use them for their own advantage without the server owner’s consent.

Here’s what could be done:

  1. Allow the links to be shareable with only few groups of people:
  • Communities (require groupId)
  • Friends
  • Trusted Friends
  • Whitelisted users (users we add on the private server list) - Allow us to add people to private servers even if they’re not in our friends list, if their private settings allow
  1. Built-in Server commands & Permissions
  • Allow Private server owners to kick, ban & mute people in their own private servers. These permissions can be disabled by the game developer if they choose to
  • Allow us to change the server’s user size. I know this might sound controversial, but the “maximum” size for the server should stay as the maximum set by the developer. We can only change the “minimum” player size.
  1. Add “Server Moderators”
  • Add a new API that can read who is a Private Server moderator, so that Game developers can configure their private servers with in-game commands, to allow for more people to use menus and more
  • Moderators could be added just like whitelisted users, however they would have a few permissions, these including “server shut down/restart” (if the host/ps owner is not in the server), “kick & mute permissions” & “change server link”.
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This sounds great tbh, I could find some great uses for features like this within my own projects.

And yeah, private server security really could use some touchups. I’ve seen plenty of streamers make private servers to play games with their audience only for bad actors to attempt to “troll” said streamer by breaking the rules within their private server or hog up server slots by idling…

Being able to configure private servers with more options would be a huge boon towards fixing this kind of problem.

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