Development Environment Setup

1. Recommended Tools

Text Editor

VSCode (Visual Studio Code) is recommended.

Always use UTF-8 encoding.

Excel Editor

The latest version of WPS is recommended.

Unity Engine (Optional)

Version: Unity 2020.3.48f1

Download:

https://unity.com/releases/editor/archive

Version Control

GitHub is recommended.

2. Setting Up a MOD Project

1. Overview and Project Type Comparison

There are two MOD project types: Simple MOD Project and Professional MOD Project. The difference is whether Unity is required for development and packaging.

Choose the project type according to your MOD development needs.

Feature differences:

Feature	Simple MOD Project	Professional MOD Project
Requires Unity	No	Yes
One-click generate and package	Yes	Yes
Upload to Steam Workshop	Yes	Yes
Project basic info configuration	Yes	Yes
Replace game login screen	Yes	Yes
Game config tables	Yes	Yes
Use the face editor to define NPC appearance	Yes	Yes
Edit skills	Yes	Yes
Map editing Available in story campaign mode	Yes	Yes
Resource management: path rewrite	Yes	Yes
Resource management: plain text	Yes	Yes
Resource management: binary files	Yes	Yes
Resource management: images	Yes (only png and jpg formats)	Yes
Resource management: texture atlas merging (batching optimization for images)	No	Yes
Resource management: audio	Yes (only ogg format)	Yes
Advanced audio management (such as mixers and spatial audio effects)	No	Yes
Resource management: particle effects	No	Yes
Resource management: 3D models and animations	No	Yes
Edit multiple MODs at the same time	No	Yes

2. Simple MOD Project

After creating a “Simple MOD Project” in game, the project directory has the following structure:

• ABS: Unity packaged resource directory, only effective for Professional MOD Projects.
• Config: MOD config file directory.
• default.json: main MOD config file.
• gamemodes.xml: campaign dependency definition file, only required for story campaign MODs.
• publishfileid.txt: Steam Workshop item ID. It is filled automatically on first upload; if empty, a new Workshop item is created by default.
• workshopitem.json: Steam Workshop upload configuration, saved automatically from the player’s operation options.
• Excel: config table directory.
• Interface: interface collection.
• overrides.txt: resource override rule definition file.
• RES: resource directory for images, audio, and other files.
• preview.jpg/png: MOD preview image.
• valuebundle: Excel packaging definition directory.
• default.xml: Excel include file list.
• INDEX.xml: Excel-to-reg mapping rule list.

3. Professional MOD Project

After creating a “Professional MOD Project” in game, the project includes a Unity project and resource packaging directories. Use this project type when you need AssetBundles, particles, 3D models, animations, or a fuller resource workflow.

3. MOD Editor

From the game main menu, go to Mods -> MOD Development to enter the MOD editor.

MOD editor main panel

The MOD editor main panel may vary by version.

It is divided into several parts. You can:

1. Create and open projects.

2. Use project operation tools to edit, build, and upload.

3. Use debugging tools to start a new game debug session for the current project or debug from a loaded save.

4. View current editing logs.

Configure the Log Tool

You can use “Start Debug Log Tool” in the MOD editor to view log output during debugging. It must be configured first.

Find Tools/HSDebugTool/0_setup.bat under the game directory, right-click it, and run it as administrator.

This only needs to be done once. After that, the debug log tool can be used directly.