Major Infrastructure Overhaul

We've been working behind the scenes on quite a few big changes over the past month or so, and wanted to share what's new.

Our website has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. The old site was running on super outdated PHP code that was 15-20 years old. The new site is built modern and lightweight. All your same content is there, including news/announcements and the admin roster which now pulls live data from our bans system API. Redirects were added so old links still work.


We've replaced the dated SourceBans system with a brand new custom-built bans platform at facebans.com. This is a modern PHP Laravel application that handles bans, admins, and all related data through a clean API rather than the old approach of game servers accessing our database directly.

Password-based logins have been replaced with Steam Login across the board -- for admins, ban protests, and ban submissions. The entire ban protest cycle has been rewritten for a smoother experience:

• Protesting a ban: Log in with Steam, select your ban, enter your protest, and see the live review status (approved, rejected, or ignored).
  
• Submitting a ban: Log in with Steam, fill out the ban submission and send.
  
• Server list: Check out our current servers at https://facebans.com/servers.

The old XenForo forum has been archived and converted to custom HTML pages at archive.facewan.com. While we're no longer actively posting on the old forum in favor of Discord, all the historical content is preserved and searchable there.


We've written a set of custom SourceMod plugins to eliminate the need for game servers connecting directly to the database:

• Admin System Plugin: Replaces the old SQL-based admin system. Loads admins from the FaceBans API instead of hitting a database.
  
• Ban Checking Plugin: Replaces SourceBans integration on the server side. Checks connecting players against the FaceBans API in real time.
  
• Chat Bridge Plugin: A brand new real-time chat bridge replacing the old one, with modern webhooks to Discord for in-game chat integration both ways.

• Ban Checking Plugin: Checks connecting players against the FaceBans API in real time, tying the Rust server in with the Source servers.

The short version: security, reliability, and keeping things running smoothly. Running 20-year-old PHP code and letting game servers query our database directly wasn't a sustainable long-term plan. This overhaul makes everything more secure, performant, and puts FaceWAN in current standards. It also allows us to have servers in more locations without the overhead and complexity of having to deal with database timeouts crashing game servers.

Have fun and pwn face!