What is the Better Chat plugin?
Better Chat (BC) is a RUST plugin that allows server owners and admins to design a new chat system within RUST, adding color, style, size, or even titles to the overall experience. Currently updated and supported by LaserHydra, Better Chat is a free-to-use plugin available for download on uMod. It is trendy among the modded server community due to its appeal to potential supporters.
Potential reasons to use the Better Chat plugin
Better chat effectively replaces the default in-game chat. Admins may wish to use the plugin and its integrations to add some of the following features to their server’s chat system:
- Customizable formatting for font types, text colors, and background colors
- Emotes and emoticons that can provide more expressions
- Chat tagging, in which players can tag one another in chat, making it possible to direct message specific individuals
- Chat filtering to help censor inappropriate and offensive language
- Custom chat channels to allow for the organization of conversations
- Server announcements which are easily identifiable to all players across the server
- Private messaging between players and admins
- Voice Chat integrations with platforms like Discord
Better Chat can add color and flair to an otherwise plain experience, allowing admins to emphasize important information by changing its style to stand out from the normal. This chat mod can conflict with others and cause duplicate messaging, so it is crucial to pick one mod and stick with it. But beyond that, you can get quite creative with the features it enables. The above list is only a start.
How to install the Better Chat plugin
As with all uMod plugins, the server you intend to install them on requires uMod (Oxide) to be installed to facilitate their function. For a step-by-step perspective on how to install this plugin, please reference the following list:
- First, you must have uMod/Oxide installed on your server. Use our Installing uMod (Oxide) on Your RUST server guide if you need help; otherwise, if you use a third-party hosting, their user interface will have instructions on how to get started. It may be tooled explicitly to their platform, so reach out to your host for details.
- Acquire the latest version of the plugin from uMod’s Better Chat plugin page, or download the CS file directly.
- Locate the downloaded
BetterChat.csfile, install the plugin on your RUST server, or follow your host-specific instructions. - Once Better Chat is installed in the plugins folder, and if the server is actively running, uMod will immediately create an alternate
BetterChat.jsonfile in your config folder. It is essential to differentiate these files and not mistake them, as you must make configuration changes in the .json file in the config folder.
Additional dependencies
Like many other uMod plugins, Better Chat may work as a standalone mod or in conjunction with many other select mods. A partial list of such mods includes:
- Admin Chat
- Admin Deep Cover
- Anti Spam
- Better Chat Filter
- Better Chat Flood
- Better Chat Global Mute
- Better Chat Ignore
- Better Chat Mentions
- Better Chat Mute
- Better Chat Toggle
- Biome Chat Prefix
- Bulletin Degree Tags
- Caps No Caps
- Chat Command Prefix
- Chat To Console
- Chat Translator
- Clan Tags
- Clans
- Coloured Chat
- Death Chat
- Discord Chat
- Discord Logger
- Discord Messages
- Emote
- HW Clan Tags
- Notify To Discord
- Password
- Player Rankings
- Pound Bot Chat Relay
- QRTL
- Quests
- Rustcord
- Server Armour
- Smart Chat Bot
- UFilter
Permissions
As with all plugins you might try installing, Better Chat has a small list of permissions. Make sure you reference our Oxide Permissions guide to understand the oxide.grant permission system.
Specific permission command lines include:
| Command | Description |
| betterchat.admin | Required to use the chat command |
Activation
Once installed and permitted to use the mod, players may activate additional chat commands as follows: (preface with / if using in chat)
| Command | Description |
| chat group add group | Creates a new chat group |
| chat group remove group | Removes a chat group |
| chat group set group setting value | Alters a chat group setting |
| chat group list | Displays list of all current chat groups |
| chat user add ‘player or SteamID’ group | Adds a player to a specified chat group |
| chat user remove ‘player or SteamID’ group | Removes a player from the specified chat group |
Manually Setting Up Groups
Assuming that permission has been granted, you may now use the command ‘/chat’ in the chat to start creating or editing a group.
- To create a group, type:
/chat group add adminin the chat. - To set its priority, type:
/chat group set admin priority 0in chat – if you are included in multiple groups, this prioritizes your configuration based on the numerical value you put on the end. Lower number = higher priority. - Manually add yourself to the group, type:
/chat user add 'your name or SteamID' adminin chat. - Set up your desired title, type:
/chat group set admin title [Admin (or whatever you like)] - Configure the color you’d like to use for this title. Type:
/chat group set admin titlecolor blue - You have now established a very blue [Admin] title. Colors may be either hex format or very basic color descriptors such as red or blue.
- The same with your name:
/chat group set admin namecolor red - Because the default group is always set to priority 0, it is essential to alter it after the fact so that your new Admin title takes precedence, so type:
/chat group set default priority 1
Other group commands and functions are as follows:
| Command | Description |
| ChatFormat | Format/order of the chat message |
| ConsoleFormat | Format/order of the chat message when displayed in the console or logs |
| MessageColor | The color of the message |
| MessageSize | Numerical pica size shown |
| Priority | Rank of the group, which tells the plugin which group to prefer if you are in multiple 0 = highest |
| Title | The group’s title |
| TitleColor | The color of the title |
| TitleHidden | If true, the title of the group will never be shown |
| TitleHiddenIfNotPrimary | If true, the title of the group is hidden; if the group is not the one which the highest priority of the groups you are in |
| TitleSize | Numerical pica size is shown per title |
| UsernameColor | The color of the username shown |
| UsernameSize | Numerical pica size shown |
Recommended plugin configuration
By default, the configuration of the BetterChat.json file should be adequate for most server owners’ purposes. While not at all lacking in the ways of customization, the following is a default configuration, prefaced by our own warning disclaimer:
Alteration of any below values could drastically increase the chance of mod failure if not properly done. It is recommended that only those with considerable knowledge of Rust mods alter them.
This default group file is located at oxide/data/BetterChat.json
[{ "GroupName": "default", - Segregated by group name, anyone added to this group will have the listed title and their settings "Priority": 0, "Title": { "Text": "[Player]", - Change Player to whatever you want the title to be "Color": "#55aaff", - Change to whatever hex color you want "Size": 15, - This can get obnoxious, caution changing it "Hidden": false, "HiddenIfNotPrimary": false }, "Username": { "Color": "#55aaff", "Size": 15 }, "Message": { "Color": "white", "Size": 15 }, "Format": { "Chat": "{Title} {Username}: {Message}", "Console": "{Title} {Username}: {Message}" } }]
How to update the Better Chat plugin
Updating the Better Chat plugin is simple and quick:
- Visit the uMod Better Chat plugin page
- Download the latest version of the Better Chat plugin
- Overwrite the existing
BetterChat.cs filein your Oxide plugins folder.
It is best practice not to uninstall the mod, as you do not need to alter the JSON file. It will remain with your existing settings (unless the developer otherwise suggests a complete reinstall).
How to remove the Better Chat plugin
As the Better Chat plugin doesn’t impact player experience or game features necessary to run processes in the game itself, removing the plugin is as simple as deleting BetterChat.cs from your plugins folder.
A more thorough approach for removing the Better Chat plugin is to:
- Prepare and properly shut down the RUST server
- Open the Oxide plugins folder in your server directory
- Locate and delete the
BetterChat.csfile - Open the Oxide config folder in your server directory
- Locate and delete the
BetterChat.jsonconfiguration file - Restart the RUST server
Suppose you want to disable the Better Chat plugin for a short period. You can use the oxide.unload BetterChat command, which you may also run in the F1 console, RCON, or Web Console.
Disclaimer and seeking assistance
Corrosion Hour does not maintain the RUST Better Chat plugin, nor do we assist with modifying the plugin outside the config scope. Visit the plugin’s uMod page to support the plugin creators, report bugs, or propose feature requests. Please contact an admin in our Discord community for help with the steps and instructions in this guide.
