NetworkCore

The foundational plugin for KweebecNet. Every other plugin on the network depends on this one.

What it does

Cross-server messaging over Redis pub/sub, so plugins running on different Hytale servers can talk to each other (party invites, queue handoffs, global chat, etc.)
Server presence, so every server knows which other servers are online and what role each one plays
Metrics, so we can graph and alert on what the network is doing in real time (player counts, RPC latency, message volume, JVM health)
RPC, so a plugin can ask another server a question and get an answer back

If this plugin isn't running, nothing else on the network works correctly. Chat won't cross servers. Parties break. Queues can't allocate matches. Metrics go dark. Treat it like the load-bearing wall it is.

Why this is critical

This isn't a feature plugin you can disable to debug something else. If you stop NetworkCore on one server, that server falls off the network from everyone else's point of view within ~15 seconds. If Redis goes down, the entire mesh stops communicating until it's back.

Things that look fine in isolation but break the network if you get them wrong:

Different NETWORK_AUTH_TOKEN on one server vs the others (silent message rejection)
Pointing one server at a different Redis instance than the rest (servers can't see each other)
Disabling the plugin "just to test" on a production server (leaves a hole in the mesh)
Changing redis.key_prefix on one server (lives in its own private network)

Before you touch this

Read the docs in docs/ first. The full reading order is in docs/README.md. At minimum, read:

01_Overview.md - what this owns and why it's split out
03_Configuration.md - every config field and what changing it does
09_Operations_And_Security.md - threat model, common failure modes, ops checks

If you're making changes to NetworkCore itself, or to how a dependent plugin uses it, talk to a higher-up before merging. This is one of those rare pieces of infrastructure where a "small fix" can take down the whole network in ways that are not obvious until production traffic hits it.

If you're new and unsure, the safe move is to ask first. Nobody will mind. Everyone will mind if you break the bus.