Getting Started¶

Northstar supports the creation of many user mods. This guide will teach you the basics of modding to get you started.

Check out the usage section for further information, including installation.

Basics¶

This guide assumes you have basic understanding with programming and know how to use developer environments. Listed below are tools useful for exporting file formats.

If you'd like a more lengthy set of tutorials covering many topics. Look at: NoSkill modding guide

Tools¶

To get started with modding for Northstar, we recommend getting yourself some tools. Check out the tools section for more information.

Quick Start¶

In order to get started with making your mod, create a folder in R2Northstar/mods. While it isn't required, it is best practise by mod authors to follow the naming scheme Author.ModName, such as Northstar.Client.

After making this folder, inside it add a folder named mod and a file named mod.json.

Provided is a template mod.json, for a detailed list of values read the cheatsheet

{
   "Name": "Yourname.Modname",
   "Description": "Woo yeah wooo!",

   "LoadPriority": 0,
   "ConVars": [],
   "Scripts": [],
   "Localisation": []
}

Inside the mod folder, existing files found in the engine's virtual file system will be overwritten and new files can be added. If you need to define new Squirrel files (.nut/.gnut) they must be declared in the "Scripts" array in mod.json. An example for this might be:

"Scripts": [
    {
        "Path": "path/to/file.nut",
        "RunOn": "( CLIENT || SERVER ) && MP"
    },
    {
        "Path": "path/to/another_file.nut",
        "RunOn": "( CLIENT || SERVER ) && MP",
        "ClientCallback": {
            "Before": "ClientPreMapspawnThing",
            "After": "AfterMapspawnClientThing"
        },
        "ServerCallback": {
            "Before": "ServerPreMapspawncrap",
            "After": "ServerAfterMapspawnWoo"
        }
    }
]

"Path" indicates where the script is, "RunOn" is the Squirrel VM context (see ../native/sqvm) as an expression, and "ClientCallback" and "ServerCallback" specify a function call that can be "Before" and/or "After" map-spawn.

Detailed `mod.json` architecture¶

Located at your mod's root folder, the mod.json file is the entrypoint of your mod; it contains human-readable information about it, which scripts to load, and a bunch of interesting stuff.

This guide will dig into each of the possible mod.json fields. Please note that mod.json keys must start with an uppercase letter.

This is what a well-formatted mod.json looks like:

{
    "Name": "Northstar.CustomServers",
    "Description": "Attempts to recreate the behaviour of vanilla Titanfall 2 servers, as well as changing some scripts to allow better support for mods",
    "Version": "1.5.0",
    "LoadPriority": 0,
    "ConVars": [
        {
            "Name": "ns_private_match_last_mode",
            "DefaultValue": "tdm"
        },
        {
            "Name": "ns_private_match_last_map",
            "DefaultValue": "mp_forwardbase_kodai"
        }
    ],
    "Scripts": [
        {
            "Path": "sh_northstar_utils.gnut",
            "RunOn": "CLIENT || SERVER || UI"
        },
        {
            "Path": "mp/_classic_mp_dropship_intro.gnut",
            "RunOn": "SERVER && MP"
        }
    ],
    "Localisation": [
        "resource/northstar_custom_%language%.txt"
    ]
}

Note

The real Northstar.CustomServers mod contains more convars and scripts, some have been removed for the readability of the example.

Name and description¶

Those ones are pretty self-explanatory. Both fields are used by Northstar itself to display in-game information about your mod in the main screen Mods menu.

Best pratice for your mod's name is to use the Author.ModName convention.

Version¶

This field specifies version of your mod using X.Y.Z scheme; this field must be updated each time you release a new version of your mod.

Common use is to increase Z when you publish a fix (e.g. 1.5.0 to 1.5.1), and increase Y when you release new features (e.g. 1.5.1 to 1.6.0).

Best practise is to follow semantic versioning (https://semver.org/).

LoadPriority¶

This field defines the order in which all mods will be loaded by Northstar. For example, a mod with "LoadPriority": 1 will be loaded after a mod with "LoadPriority": 0.

If your mod uses code from another mod, make sure to set a greater LoadPriority than the mod you're using code from.

ConVars¶

This field lists configuration variables, that can be set by servers owners to modify behaviour of your mod.

Each configuration variable must have a "Name" and a "DefaultValue". ConVars can also have an optional "Flags" field which specifies special behaviour and an optional "HelpString" field which specifies the usage of the ConVar which can be view in-game by running help <convar>.

You can access configuration variables from squirrel code using GetConVarInt, GetConVarFloat, GetConVarBool or GetConVarString calls.

Warning

No matter the type of your variables, they have to be JSON strings, otherwise game won't start!

Example¶

If I don't want to wait 15 seconds for matches to start on my server, Northstar.CustomServers mod exposes a ConVar named ns_private_match_countdown_length in its mod.json manifesto:

"ConVars": [
    {
        "Name": "ns_private_match_countdown_length",
        "DefaultValue": "15"
    },

    ...
]

I can setup the ns_private_match_countdown_length variable in my R2Northstar/mods/Northstar.CustomServers/mod/cfg/autoexec_ns_server.cfg configuration file.

When starting a match, Northstar.CustomServers mod will retrieve the configuration variable value, or its default value if it hasn't been specified in configuration file:

// start countdown
SetUIVar( level, "gameStartTime", Time() + GetConVarFloat( "ns_private_match_countdown_length" ) )

Note

All Northstar.CustomServers ConVars are listed on this page

Flags¶

You can assign flags to configuration variables; to use several flags at once, just add their values.

Name	Value	Description
FCVAR_UNREGISTERED	1	If this is set, don't add to linked list, etc.
FCVAR_DEVELOPMENTONLY	2	Hidden in released products. Flag is removed automatically if ALLOW_DEVELOPMENT_CVARS is defined.
FCVAR_GAMEDLL	4	Defined by the game DLL
FCVAR_CLIENTDLL	8	Defined by the client DLL
FCVAR_HIDDEN	16	Hidden. Doesn't appear in find or auto complete. Not deterred by ALLOW_DEVELOPMENT_CVARS.
FCVAR_PROTECTED	32	It's a server cvar, but we don't send the data since it's a password, etc. Sends 1 if it's not bland/zero, 0 otherwise as value.
FCVAR_SPONLY	64	This cvar cannot be changed by clients connected to a multiplayer server.
FCVAR_ARCHIVE	128	Save this ConVar's value to vars.rc - this works both server and client-side.
FCVAR_NOTIFY	256	Notifies players when this ConVar's value was changed.
FCVAR_USERINFO	512	Changes the client's info string
FCVAR_PRINTABLEONLY	1024	This cvar's string cannot contain unprintable characters ( e.g., used for player name etc ).
FCVAR_UNLOGGED	2048	If this is a FCVAR_SERVER, don't log changes to the log file / console if we are creating a log
FCVAR_NEVER_AS_STRING	4096	never try to print that cvar
FCVAR_REPLICATED (AKA FCVAR_SERVER)	8192	This value is set by server and replicated by clients.
FCVAR_CHEAT	16384	Do NOT allow changing of this convar by console, unless sv_cheats is 1.
FCVAR_SS	32768	causes varnameN where N == 2 through max splitscreen slots for mod to be autogenerated
FCVAR_DEMO	65536	Record this cvar in a demo.
FCVAR_DONTRECORD	131072	Don't record this.
FCVAR_SS_ADDED	262144	This is one of the "added" FCVAR_SS variables for the splitscreen players
FCVAR_RELEASE	524288	This value is available to the end user.
FCVAR_RELOAD_MATERIALS	1048576	If this cvar changes, it forces a material reload
FCVAR_RELOAD_TEXTURES	2097152	If this cvar changes, it forces a texture reload
FCVAR_NOT_CONNECTED	4194304	cvar cannot be changed by a client that is connected to a server
FCVAR_MATERIAL_SYSTEM_THREAD	8388608	Indicates this cvar is read from the material system thread
FCVAR_ARCHIVE_PLAYERPROFILE	16777216	Save this, but to profile.cfg instead - meaning this only works for clients.
FCVAR_ACCESSIBLE_FROM_THREADS	33554432	used as a debugging tool necessary to check material system thread convars
FCVAR_SERVER_CAN_EXECUTE	268435456	the server is allowed to execute this command on clients via ClientCommand/NET_StringCmd/CBaseClientState::ProcessStringCmd
FCVAR_SERVER_CANNOT_QUERY	536870912	If this is set, then the server is not allowed to query this cvar's value (via IServerPluginHelpers::StartQueryCvarValue).
FCVAR_CLIENTCMD_CAN_EXECUTE	1073741824	IVEngineClient::ClientCmd is allowed to execute this command. Note: IVEngineClient::ClientCmd_Unrestricted can run any client command.

Note

Some flags have been skipped due to them being generally useless unless you have very specific requirements.

Scripts¶

The scripts field lets you declare an array of Squirrel files to import into your mod.

Each script entry must have a "Path" value and a "RunOn" value.

"Scripts": [
    {
        "Path": "path/to/file.nut",
        "RunOn": "( CLIENT || SERVER ) && MP"
    },
    {
        "Path": "path/to/another_file.nut",
        "RunOn": "( CLIENT || SERVER ) && MP",
        "ClientCallback": {
            "Before": "ClientPreMapspawnThing",
            "After": "AfterMapspawnClientThing"
        },
        "ServerCallback": {
            "Before": "ServerPreMapspawncrap",
            "After": "ServerAfterMapspawnWoo"
        }
    }
]

Path¶

Path of the Squirrel file to import, without mod/scripts/vscripts prefix (that's where your script files should go).

RunOn¶

A boolean expression which tells the game when and in which context to compile the script.

Name	Description
SERVER	Server script VM, recompiles on map change
CLIENT	Client script VM, recompiles on map change
UI	UI script VM, recompiles on when `uiscript_reset` is ran
SP	Singleplayer
MP	Multiplayer
DEV	Value of developer convar
LOBBY	True in mp_lobby. (Server and client VMs only)
MAP_mp_box	True if the given map name is being loaded
GAMEMODE_at	True if the given game mode is being loaded

CLIENT && !LOBBY - Compiles on client and not in the lobby. So during actual singeplayer and multiplayer gameplay.

CLIENT && MP && !LOBBY - Compiles on client, only in multiplayer and not in the lobby.

( CLIENT || SERVER ) && MP - Compiles on both client and server only in multiplayer.

CLIENT && SP && MAP_sp_boomtown - Compiles only on client in singleplayer only when the map sp_boomtown is loaded. ( Here SP isn't needed as sp_boomtown is singleplayer only )

CLIENT && GAMEMODE_aitdm - Compiles on client on both singleplayer and multiplayer only when the aitdm gamemode is set. ( aitdm is attrition which is multiplayer only so this script only compiles on multiplayer )

ClientCallback / ServerCallback¶

Specify methods that will be called before/after map spawn.

Localisation¶

This field is an array listing localisation files relative paths.

For more info about localisation works on Northstar, read the localisation section.

Note

This project is under active development.

Getting Started¶

Basics¶

Tools¶

Quick Start¶

Detailed mod.json architecture¶

Name and description¶

Version¶

LoadPriority¶

ConVars¶

Example¶

Flags¶

Scripts¶

Path¶

RunOn¶

ClientCallback / ServerCallback¶

Localisation¶

Detailed `mod.json` architecture¶