Z-Bridge — server side of the ZMenu client mod
Demo
Coming soon: ZMenu in 4 languages (French, English, Spanish, German), chosen by each player with flags in the menu. This version is ready, but CurseForge has paused publishing for all ARK mods until the game's Unreal Engine 5.8 update: it will be released on November 5, 2026 at the earliest.
Z-Bridge only works together with the ZMenu client mod (CurseForge project 1664975: https://www.curseforge.com/ark-survival-ascended/mods/zmenu). On its own it does nothing.
ZMenu is an in-game menu made for players who cannot comfortably type chat commands — console players first. A click in the menu composes the command (
/zp health 25, /zdc 0 79, /info...). But a client mod cannot send chat to the server; the only channel that goes through is the game's NetExec call. Z-Bridge listens on that channel and hands the text to the server exactly as if the player had typed it: same parsing, same checks, same answers. A click is worth a typed line, nothing more.Plugins with a ZMenu tab
Each of these free plugins adds its own tab to the menu as soon as it is installed next to Z-Bridge:
- Z-Points: the Z-Points tab, spend level-up points (the player's or a dino's) without typing.
- Z-Colour: the Z-Colour tab, recolour your tamed dinos (only for players allowed to use Z-Colour).
- Z-Info: the Z-Info tab, the server's rates and breeding settings.
- Z-Chat: the Z-Link tab, link a Discord account (needs a Discord bridge, such as the one in Z-ARK). A plugin that is not installed simply has no tab. Only our plugins have tabs in the menu.
Install
1. Add the ZMenu mod (1664975) to your server's mod list; players get it like any other mod.
2. Drop the
Z-Bridge folder into ShooterGame/Binaries/Win64/ArkApi/Plugins/.3. Install the plugins whose tabs you want — each tab shows only if its plugin is loaded on THIS server:
- Z-Points tab — Z-Points
- Z-Colour tab — Z-Colour (and only for players allowed to use it)
- Z-Info tab — Z-Info
- Z-Link tab — Z-Chat (optional, needed only for this tab)
Requires AsaApi 2.03+. We recommend
HooksDoNotThrow: true in AsaApi's own config.json, as for any plugin that places hooks.Answers inside the menu
With
Reply.Enabled, the chat answers of the server (for example the result of /zp or a /zlink code) are mirrored back into the menu for WindowSeconds after a click; they still appear in the chat as usual. The Z-Link tab also shows the Discord name a player is linked to. Z-Bridge reads it from liens-discord.json in Z-Chat's exchange folder (<ExchangeFolder>/<Cluster>/), a file written by an external Discord bridge such as Z-ARK. Without Z-Chat, or without that file, the tab simply shows nothing.Security: a whitelist
This channel is NOT trusted: any player can forge the call without having the mod — it is client traffic, like chat. So:
- only a text starting with
/AND whose first word is inGeneral.AllowedCommandsis passed on; anything else is refused (otherwise the channel could be used to spam global chat); - every command still checks its own rights, exactly as when typed. The whitelist only filters: adding a command to
AllowedCommandscreates no button in the menu.
Configure (config.json)
General.Enabled—falseturns the bridge off without unloading it.General.CommandName— the channel name used by the mod (ZMenu). It is the protocol: keep it.General.MaxLength— longest text accepted (200).General.LogRefused— log what is refused, with who sent it.General.AllowedCommands— the whitelist.Reply—Enabled,Name(protocol name, keepZMenuReply),WindowSeconds.MenuBuff— grants the menu buff of the mod to every living player who lacks it, everyCheckEverySeconds. Does nothing if the mod is not in the server's mod list.Diagnostics.LogForActor— debugging only, off.
RCON commands
ZBridge.Status— state, channel name, and three counters: received / passed on / refused. The first thing to check when a button "does nothing".ZBridge.Caps <eosid>— what the menu would be told for that online player (which tabs, linked Discord name).ZBridge.Reload— re-reads config.json without restarting the server.
Compatibility
Built and tested against AsaApi 2.03 (ARK: Survival Ascended dedicated server, Windows).
External connections and data
- No network connection of its own. Z-Bridge only uses the game's own client-server connection: the ZMenu mod sends each menu click as a
NetExeccall namedZMenu, and the answers shown in the menu go back the same way (ZMenuReply). Nothing is sent anywhere else: no web request, no telemetry, no licence check, no update check. - Whitelist. That channel is client traffic and is not trusted: only a text starting with
/whose first word is inGeneral.AllowedCommandsis passed on, exactly as if the player had typed it, and every command then checks its own rights. Anything else is refused, and logged in the server log with the sender's EOS id whenLogRefusedis on (default). - Files written, in its own folder:
langues-joueurs.json, the menu language each player picked (EOS id and FR, EN, ES or DE). Itsconfig.jsonis never rewritten. - Files read: its own
config.json; for the Z-Link tab only, Z-Chat'sconfig.jsonandliens-discord.jsonin Z-Chat's exchange folder (EOS id and Discord name, written by an external Discord bridge such as Z-ARK). Read-only. - When Z-Colour or Z-Points is loaded, Z-Bridge calls a function each of them exports (may this player use Z-Colour; has this player turned Z-Points off) to decide which tabs to show. It exports one function itself, which gives our other plugins the player's menu language. All inside the server process.
- No registry access, no external program started, no other data collected.
Dependencies and limitations
- Requires the ZMenu client mod (CurseForge project 1664975) in the server's mod list: without it, Z-Bridge does nothing.
- Tabs exist only for our plugins installed on the same server: Z-Points, Z-Colour, Z-Info and Z-Chat (the Z-Link tab, which also needs an external Discord bridge).
- Game hooks: the two server functions that receive
NetExeccalls, and the functions that send chat messages and on-screen notifications to a player (to mirror the answers into the menu for a few seconds). MenuBuffgrants the mod's menu buff to every living player who lacks it, everyCheckEverySeconds.
Updates
Z-ARK (server manager, https://z-ark.fr/en/) checks for new versions of this plugin and installs them from its dashboard.
Without Z-ARK: click Watch at the top of this page to be notified of every new version; what changed is listed in the Updates tab. To update, stop the server, replace the plugin's .dll and PluginInfo.json, keep your config.json, then start the server again.
Built with AI, knowingly
This plugin was written with an artificial intelligence, and we would rather say it plainly. It is not code thrown together at random: behind it is someone from the trade (software development, server operations, community management) who decides every feature, reviews it and puts it to the test on a real cluster, with real players, before it reaches you. The same goes for the ZMenu client mod. Bugs reported in the Discussion tab get fixed.
