TowRope

INSTALLATION

1. Copy the complete BigDaddy-TowRope resource folder into your server's resources directory.
2. Enter your product key in [licensing] → key1 inside settings.ini.
3. Confirm OneSync is enabled and review the [towing] settings.
4. Choose whether towing should require ACE permission in [settings].
5. Add the following to server.cfg, then start or restart the resource:

ensure BigDaddy-TowRope

Keep the resource folder named BigDaddy-TowRope.

USING TOWROPE

CONNECTING VEHICLES

1. Stop both vehicles and exit your vehicle.
2. Run /towrope and choose Attach tow rope or Attach winch.
3. Walk to the front or rear bumper of the towing vehicle or winch anchor. Press E at the orange marker to select the first end.
4. Walk to a bumper on the vehicle being recovered and press E to select the second end.
5. Wait for the success notification. The initial connection notice means setup is still waiting for the cable and vehicle controller.

Press Escape or run the command again to cancel selection. Selection also cancels when you enter a vehicle, die, or exceed its two-minute time limit.

Both vehicle centres must initially be between MinLength and MaxLength apart. The selected bumper gap must also fit within MaxLength. Initial cable length is based on the bumper gap with a small allowance, bounded by the configured limits. Very large vehicles with bumpers more than 6 metres from their origins are outside the supported attachment range.

TOWING

Enter the first vehicle and drive slowly. The tow rope applies a bounded spring pull at the selected bumpers when loaded. A second driver may remain in the recovered vehicle to steer and brake.

Empty recovered vehicles have their parking and service brakes released by the current controller while connected, including when the cable is slack. Their captured parking-brake state is restored during cleanup. Occupied vehicles retain driver-controlled braking. Unattended steering and braking assistance are not included.

WINCHING

Park or brake the first vehicle so it acts as the anchor. Hold Page Up to reel in or Page Down to pay out. You can also open the panel and hold the corresponding buttons. Release the key or button to stop.

Reeling takes up slack before pulling the recovered vehicle toward the selected anchor bumper. Paying out adds slack and does not push the recovered vehicle away. Winching slows near WinchMinLength; the motor does not drive the anchor vehicle.

The display separates DISTANCE, the measured bumper gap, from CABLE OUT, the cable paid out. Reel-in take-up follows the controller's measured closing progress with a small tension allowance. If the vehicle stops closing for about one second, the panel shows Under tension. Pulling continues while reel-in is held so recovery can resume if the obstruction clears. Missing or stale measurements pause cable take-up.

Closing the panel, releasing a control, or losing browser focus stops the panel's held operation. Heartbeat checks also stop winding when control messages cease.

CONTROLS

CONTROL	ACTION
/towrope	Opens or closes the management panel; cancels an active attachment selection. Configurable with Command.
E	Selects the marked bumper during attachment.
Escape	Cancels selection or closes the panel.
Hold Page Up	Reels the winch in. Rebindable in FiveM settings.
Hold Page Down	Pays the winch out. Rebindable in FiveM settings.
Panel hold buttons	Reels in or pays out while held.
Detach rope	Removes your connection through the panel.
towropedebug in F8	Prints read-only winch diagnostics after licensing succeeds.

Only the connection's creator can operate or detach it, and must be near either vehicle in the same instance. The server uses a vehicle-centre proximity range of AttachDistance + 6 metres for operation. Changing who drives a vehicle does not transfer connection ownership.

CONFIGURATION

All settings are in BigDaddy-TowRope/settings.ini. Restart the resource after changes. Invalid [towing] values are logged and replaced with defaults bounded to the accepted limits.

LICENSING AND ACCESS

SECTION / SETTING	SHIPPED VALUE	DESCRIPTION
[licensing] key1	Your product key	Enter your licensed product key.
[settings] UseAcePermissions	false	When true, requires the configured ACE for creating and operating connections.
[settings] AcePermission	command	ACE permission checked when permission restrictions are enabled.
[settings] debug	false	Enables additional diagnostic logging.
[settings] DesyncKey	Supplied value	Internal license synchronization setting. Leave unchanged.

With the supplied permission name and UseAcePermissions=true, an example grant is:

add_ace group.admin command allow

To control towing independently, set AcePermission=bigdaddy.towrope and grant that permission instead:

add_ace group.admin bigdaddy.towrope allow

Assign the intended users to the appropriate group or principal through your server's ACE setup. Permission checks and licensing are separate. Players without operation permission can still see synchronized ropes.

TOWING SETTINGS

All values below belong to the [towing] section. Distances are in metres.

SETTING	DEFAULT	ACCEPTED VALUES / EFFECT
Command	towrope	Menu command without /. Starts with a letter; remaining characters may be letters, digits, or underscores. Maximum 32 characters.
WinchingEnabled	true	Enables powered winching. Set to false to offer tow ropes only.
AttachDistance	3.0	1–5. Maximum player-to-bumper distance during attachment selection.
MinLength	2.5	1–5. Minimum initial vehicle-centre separation and minimum tow-rope cable length.
WinchMinLength	0.5	0.25–MinLength. Minimum winch cable length for close recovery. Initial vehicle-centre separation still uses MinLength.
MaxLength	20.0	MinLength + 1 through 40. Maximum cable length and initial vehicle-centre separation.
BreakDistance	30.0	MaxLength + 2 through 80. Vehicle-centre separation at which the connection breaks.
WinchSpeed	0.7	0.1–2 metres per second. Cable winding rate and motor closing-speed limit.
SpringStrength	2.5	0.1–8. Tow spring response; also influences winch slowdown near the anchor.
Damping	1.2	0–5. Damping response, including lateral drift during winching.
MaxAcceleration	5.0	0.5–10. Bounds tow acceleration and controls the winch's commanded-speed ramp.
MaxConnections	32	1–64. Maximum simultaneous connections server-wide.

The winch maintains a commanded cable speed against resistance. Its acceleration setting controls how that command ramps, rather than capping every corrective velocity update. Test tuning with your actual vehicle handling, mass, and terrain.

MULTIPLAYER AND CONNECTION LIFECYCLE

The server stores cable state and validates access, vehicle identities, routing buckets, proximity, connection limits, and cable-length requests. A creator can have one connection, and each vehicle can belong to one connection at a time.

A connection becomes ready after the creator confirms a native cable and the server-confirmed network controller of the recovered vehicle confirms simulation control. Incomplete setup times out after 12 seconds and removes the partial connection. Empty vehicles receive ownership requests as needed; occupied vehicles retain their current controller.

Clients create their own local rope visuals from synchronized state. Late joiners receive current connections, and cable visuals are recreated when both vehicles return to streaming scope. Physics follows network ownership rather than running independently on every observer.

Connections are temporary. Detaching, creator disconnect, vehicle deletion or identity change, routing-bucket changes, revoked operation permission, exceeding BreakDistance, license desynchronization, and resource shutdown remove affected connections and release their local state. No database persistence is used.

TROUBLESHOOTING

SYMPTOM	CHECK
Command or gameplay unavailable	Confirm successful licensing, OneSync, the exact folder name, packaged runtime files, and the configured Command. Review client and server startup logs.
Permission denied	Check UseAcePermissions, AcePermission, and the creator's ACE principals. Existing connections are removed if required permission is revoked.
Cannot select or connect vehicles	Exit your vehicle, stop both vehicles, choose distinct networked vehicles in the same instance, and check attachment reach, centre separation, bumper gap, and existing connections.
Winch button unavailable	Check WinchingEnabled. Reel controls require a ready connection in winch mode.
Connection times out	Check F8 and server logs for the reported setup stage. Confirm vehicles are streamed, rope textures can load, and the recovered vehicle is unfrozen and can obtain network control.
Cable tightens but recovery does not move	Park the anchor, check obstructions, driver braking, frozen state, and other vehicle-control scripts. Hold reel-in for at least three seconds, release it, then run towropedebug in F8.
Connection unexpectedly disappears	Check the creator's connection and permission, vehicle existence, routing buckets, BreakDistance, licensing, and resource restarts.
Cable does not follow custom terrain correctly	Confirm local world collision is streamed. Ground support does not provide object wrapping; test the map's roads, bridges, and slopes in game.

The WinchDebug output includes network control, frozen and brake state, the last pulling result, velocity before and after the motor update, frame time, and movement over a one-second window. Opening F8 preserves the last pulling sample for inspection. and map.