ValheimDeathBan

Valheim Death Ban

Version 1.3.0

A configurable death-ban mod for Valheim. By default, a confirmed death causes an account ban and disconnection after a short delay. Bans use the game's native ban list, so creating another character on the same account does not bypass them.

Prefer death notifications without permadeath? Set BanOnDeath = false on the server. The death journal, chat announcements, banners and optional Discord notifications remain available.

Features

• Server-side death detection, including players whose models are not loaded on the server.
• Persistent account bans with a configurable delay and administrator immunity.
• A separate switch for death bans, enabled by default.
• Death journal with names, account IDs, timestamps and detailed reasons when available.
• Global chat announcements and queued red Norse-style banners.
• PvP messages with the killer and victim names.
• Optional Discord notifications with the result of the death-ban action.
• Optional Steam whitelist using a loaded ValheimEnforcer character database.
• Automatic reload of saved configuration changes and optional scan diagnostics.

Requires BepInEx 5. Jotunn and PvP Tweaks are not required. ValheimEnforcer is optional and only needed for its whitelist integration.

Installation

1. Install BepInExPack Valheim on the server.
2. Copy ValheimDeathBan.dll into BepInEx/plugins/ValheimDeathBan/.
3. Start the server once to create the configuration file.
4. For detailed client death reasons, chat announcements and banners, also install the mod on players' clients.

| Installation | Available features | | --- | --- | | Server only | Death detection, configured account bans, journal, diagnostics, Discord with available reasons, and the optional whitelist. | | Server and clients | Adds client death-reason reports, chat announcements and banners. |

Use 1.3.0 on the server. Clients running 1.2.7, 1.2.8 or 1.3.0 use the same protocol for reasons and announcements. Clients older than 1.2.7 cannot use these additional features with the new server; server-side detection and bans do not require the client mod.

The local-world host is always exempt from death bans. Host deaths are still recorded and announced while death processing is enabled.

Choose the action on death

Edit the server's configuration:

BepInEx/config/com.xtasy.ValheimDeathBan.cfg

The default behavior is:

[General]
Enabled = true
BanOnDeath = true

To record and announce deaths without death bans or disconnections:

[General]
Enabled = true
BanOnDeath = false

Enabled controls death processing as a whole. Keep it enabled to use the journal and notifications. BanOnDeath controls the ban/disconnect action separately.

Saved changes normally take effect within 1–2 seconds. Turning BanOnDeath off before a pending ban is applied cancels that action and stops further retry attempts. Re-enabling it does not revive cancelled pending actions or retroactively ban deaths processed with bans off. Disabling Enabled also cancels pending bans. Each separate death is still journaled and announced, even if another ban for the same account is pending. Existing native bans are not removed.

Configuration

Default values:

[General]
Enabled = true
BanOnDeath = true
KickDelaySeconds = 3
BanAdmins = false
ScanIntervalSeconds = 0.25

[Announcements]
Chat = true
Banner = true
BannerSeconds = 8
BannerFontSize = 60

[Enforcer]
IntegrationEnabled = false
WhitelistEnabled = false
WhitelistExemptAdmins = true

[Discord]
Enabled = false
WebhookUrl =

[Diagnostics]
Enabled = true
LogIntervalMinutes = 15

| Setting | Default | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | General.Enabled | true | Enable server death detection and event processing. | | General.BanOnDeath | true | Ban and disconnect after death. When false, retain the journal and enabled notifications. | | General.KickDelaySeconds | 3 | Delay in seconds from server detection to the ban/disconnect action. Negative values use zero. | | General.BanAdmins | false | When false, native adminlist.txt accounts are exempt from death bans. | | General.ScanIntervalSeconds | 0.25 | Seconds between scans; range 0.05–1. Older larger values are limited to 1 second. | | Announcements.Chat | true | Server sends shout-style death messages to compatible clients. | | Announcements.Banner | true | Server sends red death banners to compatible clients. | | Announcements.BannerSeconds | 8 | Client-local banner duration, limited to 1–60 seconds. | | Announcements.BannerFontSize | 60 | Client-local maximum font size; range 16–120. Long messages can shrink to half that size. | | Enforcer.IntegrationEnabled | false | Enable integration with a loaded ValheimEnforcer plugin. | | Enforcer.WhitelistEnabled | false | Require Steam accounts to exist in Enforcer's database; needs integration and a loaded Enforcer. | | Enforcer.WhitelistExemptAdmins | true | Exempt native administrator accounts from this mod's whitelist. | | Discord.Enabled | false | Enable server-side Discord death notifications. | | Discord.WebhookUrl | Empty | Discord webhook URL. An empty value disables delivery. | | Diagnostics.Enabled | true | Measure server death scans and periodically log diagnostics. | | Diagnostics.LogIntervalMinutes | 15 | Minutes between diagnostic reports; range 0.1–1440. |

Each installation reads its own configuration; settings are not synchronized. Configure bans, announcement switches, whitelist and Discord on the server. Banner duration and font size are configured on each client.

Automatic reload applies only to this mod's configuration. Read failures are logged and retried after 10 seconds. Changes to the whitelist affect subsequent connection attempts. The ban delay is captured when a death is detected; changing that delay affects subsequent deaths.

Administrators and bans