Developing Effects

Effects in this mod are coded in RedScript, ocassionaly with helper functions in native (Rust) or CET (Lua). If you want to code your custom effects in a different language, you can make an addon instead.

Effect contributions are very welcome, no matter how small!

Basics

Effects are grouped by "topic" in subfolders of scripts/redscript/effects/. Every effect consists of two classes:

• the "info" class extending the ChaosEffect base class
  • describes the effect, handles it's registration and instantiates the runtime class
• the "runtime" class extending the ActiveChaosEffect base class
  • implements the actual effect's logic

Base classes are located in scripts/redscript/effects/ChaosEffect.reds, look in that file for more details.

Important

Your effect must have unique name (id)!

Template effect

The following is a very simple effect that you can use as a template. There are other public methods you might want to override in the base classes, see bellow.

module ChaosMod.Effects.MyDrunkEffect
// ^ proper module if you're contributing

// Import the base classes
import ChaosMod.Effects.*

// The info class
// The effect ID is generated as "MyDrunk"
public class MyDrunkEffect extends ChaosEffect {
    // Obligatory method that creates the effect runtime
    public func ActivateEffect() -> ref<ActiveChaosEffect> {
        // Don't do any logic here unless needed, just return the instance of the class bellow
        return new MyDrunkActiveEffect();
    }
}

// The runtime class
private class MyDrunkActiveEffect extends ActiveChaosEffect {
    // Called when the effect is started
    public func OnStart() {
        // Your custom code
        let player = GetPlayer(GetGameInstance());
        StatusEffectHelper.ApplyStatusEffect(player, t"BaseStatusEffect.Drunk");
    }
}

Effect Info

ID of effects is by default the info class's name without trailing "Effect". This is used for identification and localization of the effect's name (e.g. ChaosMod-Effects-MyDrunk is the localization key for the above effect).

Note

Every effect must have a localization, otherwise it's name won't be displayed in game.

If contributing, effect names are defined in localizations/ folder.

The info class MUST override the ActivateEffect method shown above, but there are more methods you might want to override:

• public func GetIncompatible() -> array<CName>
  • Returns an array of IDs of incompatible effects.
  • Example: return [n"MySober"];
  • Default is empty list (everything is compatible).
• public func GetDuration() -> ChaosTimedType
  • Returns the type of effect's duration.
  • Use ChaosTimedType.Normal for effects that should end after some time. Or .Short for very annoying(?) effects.
  • Default: return ChaosTimedType.Instant - the effect doesn't last and OnStop is called immediately.

Other methods that can be useful for addons can be overridden, see scripts/redscript/effects/ChaosEffect.reds. In the base mod the above mentioned methods should suffice.

Effect Runtime

The runtime class must override OnStart method, that is called when the effect starts. Instant effects usually don't need any other methods, but timed effects also need OnStop, which is called when the effect ends and should do the "clean up".

There is also the OnUpdate method which is called on every timer update (~60 times a second). However, if your effect runs periodically, you might often want to have control over the delay, see Spammy Vehicle Doors effect for an example of a periodic effect.

// TODO: Describe support services