KF2 Server: Ban Players with BannedIDs (After Dec 2020)

After the December 2020 update, Tripwire disabled the WebAdmin features that some server owners used for auto-kicks, and bans by Steam ID through the console stopped working reliably. This guide, written by a server owner, shows a roundabout way to ban troublemakers by editing the server ini file. For other ways see /en/gamedb/killingfloor2/hosting/server-ip-ban-iptables-without-webadmin/.

Background

Some owners used auto-kick to enforce a play style (such as banning certain perks) that Tripwire did not intend. Instead of patching that misuse, the developers disabled the feature for everybody, and the tilde console only sometimes works with Steam IDs rather than names. Hence the workaround below.

How to ban

You only need the player's Steam ID, from your server logs (if you enabled logging) or from their profile when viewed from the Steam app in a game. The example below uses a made up number.

1. Take the Steam ID shown in WebAdmin, for example 16561198233885840.
2. Open https://steamidfinder.com/lookup/<SteamID>/. The page returns the SteamID3, usually [U:1:27453258880] or [U:0:27453258880]. The number you need is the one after the second colon (8 to 10 digits). The 0 or 1 after "U:" does not matter here.
3. Edit the dedicated server file PCServer-KFGame.ini and find the [Engine.AccessControl] section. The author found banned lines start right after GamePassword=.
4. Add:

BannedIDs=(Uid=(A=27453258880,B=17825793))

A is that 8 to 10 digit number from SteamID3. The author does not know what B means, but it has been the same (17825793) for all of the old bans on their servers. 5. Save the ini and restart the server so it reads the file.

Several bans

Add one line per ID:

BannedIDs=(Uid=(A=27453258880,B=17825793))
BannedIDs=(Uid=(A=27453258881,B=17825793))
BannedIDs=(Uid=(A=27453258882,B=17825793))

Credits

The author thanks Steam ID Finder, which as far as they knew was the only way to get the SteamID3 value, and hopes Tripwire fixes the underlying problem so that nobody needs this method.