ALiVE.OS · ALiVE 3 Development

War Room

The campaign companion website that turns your missions into a persistent, trackable war. Being rebuilt. The first part is live: game servers can now send signed data to alivemod.com, and groups register their servers in the [War Room](/warroom/#servers).

In testing

ALiVE 3 is in active development. This briefing describes work in progress, and the behaviour it covers is subject to change as testing continues. Check the changelog at the foot of the page for what has moved recently.

On this page

Overview

What War Room does

The War Room is ALiVE's companion website. As a persistent campaign plays out, missions send their data up to it, and it presents the whole war back to a group: unit rosters and ORBAT, individual player profiles and stats, a log of operations with after-action reports, casualty and performance charts, and leaderboards. It is what makes a long-running ALiVE campaign visible and shareable between sessions, rather than something that only exists inside a single mission.

The original platform was showing its age. Rather than patch a decade-old codebase, it is being rebuilt from a clean slate on a modern stack as part of the wider ALiVE 3 work.

How it works

The War Room network

The War Room is a network, not one website, and its parts are named the way a military headquarters is. A group's game servers send to its TOC (Tactical Operations Centre), the group's own War Room server, which keeps the full data and sends summaries to the JOC (Joint Operations Centre), which is alivemod.com. People watch the COP (Common Operational Picture), the live map and replays in a browser, and orders go back into the mission the same way. Solid green is working today; dashed is still to come. The numbered padlocks mark where it is kept secure.

Game serversAn Arma 3 dedicated server running ALiVE and the @alive_wr server mod. It signs everything it sends with its own key and keeps it on disk until it's accepted. One group can have several. Working today.
TOC (Tactical Operations Centre): a group's own War Room serverKeeps the group's full mission data, replays and its own pages, and feeds its live map. A group without one uses the hosted TOC the ALiVE team runs. Still to come.
JOC (Joint Operations Centre): alivemod.comGroups, server keys and join codes, and the signed records coming in: working today. Next it sends each group a signed policy (which features it gets, what is public) and keeps the summaries behind the public boards.
COP (Common Operational Picture): the view in a browserThe live map of a running operation and the replay of a finished one, with each side seeing only its own picture and the public view running behind real time. Orders sent from it are signed by the group and checked by the server before the mission acts on them. Still to come.

How it is kept secure

Safe to run on your server. Today data only goes out: alivemod.com answers each record with accepted or refused, and nothing it sends runs in your game server or your mission. Every record is signed with your server's own key, only servers your group has approved can send, and you can cut any of them off at any time. Players install nothing.

The game server and its DLLWorking today: the server makes its own key pair the first time it runs. The private half stays in a file on the server (fob.key) and no command can read it out. @alive_wr runs only on the server, never on players' machines. Still to come: the mod checks the extension DLL's code signature before loading it, so a changed DLL is refused, and the extension turns away calls that don't come from ALiVE on the server.
Every recordWorking today: signed with the server's key over a hash of its contents, a timestamp and a one-time number, and sent over HTTPS. alivemod.com refuses an unknown or revoked key, a bad signature, anything more than 5 minutes out, a one-time number it has seen before, anything over 1 MB, and more than 600 records a minute from one server.
Who can joinWorking today: groups sign in with Discord. A server joins only with its group's join code or a key pasted by the group's owner. The owner can revoke a server straight away, or retire the join code if a download is passed on. The test download only opens for approved groups, and every change and download is logged.
Each group's policyStill to come: alivemod.com signs each group's policy (its features, the oldest extension version allowed, what is public). Group servers check the signature and fetch a fresh one at least daily, so a revoked key stops working everywhere.
Orders into a missionStill to come: only a group member with the right Discord role can send one, and it is signed by the group. The game server checks the signature, the time, the one-time number and that the group's policy allows that order. The mission only runs orders from a fixed list, through ALiVE's own functions, never incoming text as code, and every order is logged with who sent it.
Who sees whatStill to come: each side sees only its own units and the enemy it has spotted, the public view runs behind real time, and players in the mission can be kept off the live view while they play, so it can't be used to cheat.

Signing proves which server sent a record, not that its numbers are honest: a group running changed code could still send made-up data. That is why alivemod.com decides what goes on its public boards. Until TOCs exist, every game server sends straight to alivemod.com.

Capabilities

What it handles

LIVE

Signed records from your servers

Each game server has its own key, made by the War Room extension (alive_wr). Everything it sends is signed with it, so alivemod.com takes records only from registered servers and turns away a copied or replayed one. ALiVE Statistics already sends its mission events this way: the operation starting, kills, deaths, shots and vehicle use.

LIVE

Nothing lost in an outage

Records wait on the server's disk until alivemod.com accepts them, so a dropped connection or a server restart doesn't lose them: they go out oldest first when the link is back. Sending runs off the game's own thread, so the mission never waits on it.

LIVE

Groups and server keys

A community signs in with Discord, makes its group and registers up to 10 servers. The owner can revoke a server's key at any time, and that server stops sending straight away. [Register your servers](/warroom/#servers).

LIVE

Windows and Linux servers

The extension comes in 64-bit and 32-bit builds for Windows and Linux. The Windows 64-bit and 32-bit builds and the Linux 64-bit build have been tested sending to alivemod.com.

Replays

Watch an operation back on the map: every unit and vehicle, shots, hits and kills, markers and objectives, with a timeline to scrub through and jump between events.

Live map

Follow a running operation on the site's own terrain maps, with ALiVE's layers: the AI commanders' objectives, logistics, civilians, intel and tasks. A view can be limited to one side, and delayed, so watching doesn't give positions away.

PLANNED

Orders into a running mission

The aim is two-way: from the live map, send orders and data back into the operation while it runs, signed the same way so a mission only acts on its own group's commands.

PLANNED

Campaign records and stats

Records that last the whole campaign, across operations: unit rosters and ORBAT, player profiles, an operations log with after-action reports, casualty charts and leaderboards. These were the old War Room's pages, and they come back built on the new data.

How to use it

Getting started

The War Room server mod (@alive_wr) is in testing and not yet part of ALiVE. These steps are for groups taking part in the test.

Get the server modSign in at the [War Room](/warroom/#servers) and make your group. Once the ALiVE team has added your group to the test, a Download button appears on its Servers tab. Unzip @alive_wr into the server folder next to your other mods and add -serverMod=@alive_wr to the server's command line. Players don't need it.
Start the serverLoad any mission. The server registers itself with your group under its server name and shows up on the War Room's Servers tab with Last heard set. The server log says ALiVE War Room: registered this server with your group, <group> and start record accepted. In a mission with the ALiVE Data module on Database Source Local, it also says War Room link found, and Statistics sends that mission's events.
If it couldn't registerCopy the line starting ALiVE War Room: this server's key is from the log and paste it into Add a server by hand on the War Room's Servers tab, then restart the mission.

Server owners

Register your servers

Groups and their servers are now looked after in the War Room itself. Sign in there with Discord, make your group, download the server mod and register your servers on its Servers tab.

Open the War Room's Servers tab →

Overhaul

What's planned

A clean rebuild on a modern stackThe decade-old platform is being rebuilt from scratch on the current alivemod.com stack rather than patched, so it is fast and maintainable.
One modern databaseThe old split across two separate data stores is being replaced with a single, properly indexed modern database, which is the main fix for the old slowness.
Part of the main siteThe rebuilt War Room will live inside the main alivemod.com site, reusing its accounts and hosting instead of standing alone.
A cleaner link from missionsHow missions feed the War Room is being redesigned alongside the game's own persistence, so the two fit together properly.

Status

Where it stands

Delivered

Assessed and scoped

The old platform has been reviewed and the direction is set: a clean, modern, single-database rebuild.

Planned

The rebuild

Rebuilding the campaign dashboard, personnel, operations, ORBAT and leaderboards on the modern stack.

A live home again

Standing the War Room back up on the main site so groups can track a campaign once more.

Testing

How you can help

Testing so far: a 64-bit and a 32-bit Arma 3 dedicated server sent signed records to alivemod.com and every one was accepted (51 in a row each), and the Linux build loaded and sent from a Linux server. An ALiVE mission's operation start then reached alivemod.com from a dedicated server, with the real time and server name. Replays, the live map and stats pages come next.

Spotted a problem? Please report it on the ALiVE issue tracker on GitHub, with the map, rough location and what the units were doing so it can be reproduced.

Changelog

Updates to this page

2026-11-03
With an ALiVE Data module on Local in the mission, a test server now sends ALiVE Statistics' events to alivemod.com: the operation starting, kills, deaths, shots and vehicle use, each signed. The server log says War Room link found when it starts.
2026-11-03
The network diagram spells out what TOC, JOC and COP stand for, and calls the game servers game servers.
2026-11-03
The network diagram now shows how it is kept secure: six numbered checks, from the server's key and DLL to who sees the live map, each marked working today or still to come.
2026-11-03
Added a diagram of the whole War Room network: game servers, each group's own War Room server, alivemod.com and the live map, with what works today in green.
2026-11-03
Servers set up from a test group's download now register themselves with a join code; pasting the key is the fallback. Owners can get a new join code if a download is passed on. Added a planned card: orders into a running mission.
2026-11-03
Groups in the War Room test can download the server mod from the panel. Getting started is rewritten for it: no in-game commands, and the key is copied from the server log.
2026-11-03
What it handles now says what works today (signed records, the outage queue, groups and server keys, Windows and Linux servers) and what comes next (replays, a live map, campaign records and stats).
2026-11-03
Register your servers: groups sign in with Discord and register each game server's key, and the page has setup steps for servers taking part in the test. The War Room is now in testing.
2026-07-27
Page added: the War Room is offline and scoped for a clean modern rebuild.