Community, Discord and Herald

The Discord server #

The Open Vanilla Discord is where the community talks, gets help and hears news first. It's also how you get a realm account: Discord sign-in creates it (see Getting started).

#looking-for-group and #trade have a one-minute slow mode; #guild-recruitment allows one post per guild every six hours.

Roles #

• Access: Outsider → Recruit → Adventurer (see the gate, next).
• Badges: Level 60, Trailblazer (the first 500 Adventurers, kept forever), Supporter (tipped the realm; never buys anything in game), Creator, Alpha Tester, Beta Tester, Guild Master.
• Faction and class: Alliance or Horde, plus your main class. Pick them with the buttons and menu in #welcome; your name takes your class colour.
• Staff: Founder, Admin, Developer, Game Master, Moderator. Staff will never ask for your password.

The gate: Outsider, Recruit, Adventurer #

New members start as Outsiders and see only #welcome. This keeps bots and raids out.

1. Enter the gate. Press the button in #welcome and answer a random question about the rules (four choices). A wrong answer means a 30-second wait; three misses lock the gate for 15 minutes. Outsiders who never pass are removed after 48 hours.
2. Recruit. You can now read Start Here, ask in help, pick your faction and class, and press Create my account.
3. Adventurer. Creating your realm account with Sign in with Discord makes you an Adventurer: full access, and Herald announces you in #arrivals (silently: no pings, ever) with your adventurer number, class and faction.

Herald #

Herald is Open Vanilla's bot. In Discord he runs the gate, #arrivals and the live #server-status message (online or offline and for how long, players online, Adventurers by faction), bridges world chat and passes tickets to staff. In the game he is a character too: Herald, a Human Hunter, who signs in to test every update (graphics, art, frame rate, sign-in, vendors, trade) before players see it. He never does PvP, never plays the economy, never races for server firsts.

Herald's Discord commands #

You can also DM Herald: appeal <character> <text> appeals a moderation decision.

Let Herald play #

Herald Autopilot can play your character for you: a desktop app (Herald Autopilot.bat) and, in game, the Herald addon's Let Herald play button or /herald (and /herald stop or Take back control). It drives the realm's own playerbot self-bot with rules and a gear simulator. It isn't an AI chatbot and doesn't hide from staff. Autoplay is currently off on the official realm; it works in the offline demo and on test and your own realms. See herald.html for the showcase.

World chat between Discord and the game #

The in-game World tab and Discord's #world are one conversation.

• In game: type /world <text> or /4 <text>, or press Enter with the World tab open. Discord lines show as [D] Name: text. Lost the tab? /cpchat world brings it back.
• In Discord: Adventurers and staff can talk into the game from #world (one message every 3 seconds, 12 a minute, 255 bytes).
• Mutes and ignore lists work both ways.

Link your guild's chat #

1. In Discord, a guild officer types /guild discord #your-channel. Herald replies with a 6-digit code.
2. In game, the guild master or an officer types /guildlink <code>.
3. Guild chat and that channel are now bridged. /guild unlink #your-channel ends it.

Get help: tickets #

Stuck in a wall, dead in a bad spot, talents broken? Open a ticket in game: Help → Talk to a GM.

Herald posts it to the staff queue within about 30 seconds with a suggested fix (unstuck, revive, reset talents, reply). When a GM approves, it runs on the realm, you get an in-game mail saying what was done, and the ticket closes. Can't log in at all? Post in the help forum on Discord instead.

Report a bug #

Use the bug-reports forum on Discord: what happened, what you expected, the steps to make it happen again, and a screenshot if you can. Staff can turn a good report straight into a tracked issue. Security problems go privately instead: see security.html.

Report a player #

• In game: right-click their name → Report. The report includes the chat around it, so staff see context.
• On the website: realms, Workshop addons and streams have a report option.

Herald sorts reports and suggests an action; humans decide (dismiss, warn, mute, kick, ban). The only things Herald does by itself are hiding repeated spam and a 10-minute mute for hard spam or gold selling, and both can be undone. Appeal with /appeal <text> in game or a DM to Herald.

Tips: supporting the realm #

Open Vanilla is free and run by volunteers. Tips keep it that way.

• Where: ko-fi.com/orionvanilla (card or PayPal, once or monthly), also linked from Support the realm on the site and in the launcher.
• Where it goes: hosting first, then fixes and features, community developers, Herald's test runs and community goals. The site's Starfall Giving section shows the buckets and the public receipts.
• What you get: the Supporter role on Discord and a vote on what gets built next.