Connecting Your ER:LC Server
The one piece that makes everything else — live player counts, in-game commands, session automation — actually work: your server's own API key.
Table of contents
A good chunk of what Varko can do around ER:LC depends on one thing: your private server's own API key, saved into Varko's settings. Without it, features that need to actually talk to the game (live player counts, running commands, the live status in a started session) simply can't — everything else still works, it just can't reach the game itself.
Getting the key
It comes from inside your own ER:LC private server's settings, in-game. Copy the entire string — this is the single most common setup mistake, pasting something that isn't actually the key (a server link, a different field entirely) rather than the key itself. If something that's supposed to show live player data just won't work, this is the first thing worth checking: open the dashboard, paste the key back in fresh, and confirm it.
Saving it
Dashboard → ER:LC tab → paste the key in. It's write-only from the dashboard's side on purpose — once it's saved, the form shows that a key exists, not what it actually is. Nobody with dashboard access, including you on a later visit, can read it back out; only re-paste over it.
What turns on once it's connected
Live player count (shown on the status command and feeding the session hub's live "server started" message), relaying join/kill/command logs into whichever channels you've set up for them, running in-game commands straight from Discord, and the alerts — the server filling up, going empty, nobody moderating, a sudden spike in kills. None of these function without a working key; all of them work immediately once one's saved.
Who can run commands
Running a raw in-game command from Discord is gated separately from everything else — it needs an explicit role list set in settings, and it defaults to nobody but the server owner. That's deliberate: this reaches directly into a live game server, and "works for everyone the moment it's turned on" is the wrong default for that.
Peacetime
A simple on/off flag, announced in whichever channel you've picked for it, with its own on/off message template. Flip it from the dashboard or in Discord; both update the same stored state, so the status command and the CAD always agree on which way it's currently set.
More in Guides
Managing the Roster
Editing a member's callsign, department, and rank, suspending someone, and reading the roster the way staff actually need to.
The Dispatch Board: Calls, BOLOs, and Priorities
Creating and running a call from the moment it comes in to the moment it closes, and keeping BOLOs current while you're at it.
The Moderator Panel: Infractions and Cleanup
Two different screens that both sound like moderation — logging discipline against a person, and cleaning up records and BOLOs. They're gated by different permissions on purpose.