Adeptus Astartes | A Warhammer 40k Mod for People Playground

(UPDATE: This mod doesn't work on the 1.26 beta. Once we receive proper documentation for the API changes it will be updated accordingly and will no longer require you to disable the setting below. In the meantime remain on 1.25 for this mod to work.

Firstly, you must disable the option labeled “REJECT SUSPICIOUS MODS” under general settings.

This mod utilizes JSON files which outline sprite names and variation suffixes in the mod’s directory to modularly create space marine chapters and organize their parts. This allows me to iterate new variations of armor and attachments in just a few clicks rather than adding tons of boilerplate code to the mod script.

In order for the mod to be able to access these files, this setting needs to be turned off. This setting (while enabled,) blocks reading files from the disk, meaning the mod is unable to access and parsethe JSON files that make up space marine presets in the mod's directory, meaning the entities will be invisible. and the mod will be unable to compile. This is because the mod has to access the JSON files using the Newtonsoft.JSON DLL Assembly shipped with the game which uses System.IO calls in order to determine the path to said JSON files in the mod's folder tree and directory.

With that being said, while this setting is disabled make sure to only download legitimate mods off the workshop and avoid reposts from bad actors. If you follow those rules, you’ll be unlikely to ever run into a malicious modification. Thankfully, content like this is far and few between and I haven’t found any content on the workshop that falls into the latter category of malice while having this feature disabled, however it's important to always stay vigilant as you are disabling this feature at your own (, albeit negligible,) risk.

Secondly, if you're using a 'DRM Free' copy of the game (i.e. not on Steam) and/or installing this mod locally, please view the pinned post in this mod's discussions tab. (The discussions tab is below the title of the mod.)

Now, onto the mod description.

This mod’s focus is on implementing several hand crafted space marine chapters from Warhammer 40k alongside a vast chapter customizer.

Expanding upon the concepts introduced in the Trauma Medic Pack, this mod features NPCs that are comprised of dozens of different sprites modularly put together at runtime. This allows for several unique innovations that will be outlined below in great detail, including randomized armor combinations and complete customization of color palettes.

You can choose between outfitting your marines with regular Astartes Power Armor or Tactical Dreadnought Armor. (Terminator Armor)
Both of these units support the armor generation system which will be further explained below.

Additionally, you are provided with the option to choose between having your NPCs be based upon the Android NPC or the Human NPC. This allows plenty of possibilities for how you use these NPCs rather than constraining you to one or the other.

Want an unstoppable killing machine that will take round after round without a flinch? Or would you prefer to have your characters be slaughtered in comically gruesome ways? The choice is completely yours.

The mod ships with a set of manually designed and sprited chapters right out of the box. This includes the following:

- The Ultramarines
- The Bloodravens
- The Black Templars

These units have unique color and design variety depending on the chapter such as different face paints, patterns and colors on their helmets.

The key feature of this project is the Army Painter. Inspired by Dawn of War’s Army Painter mechanic, I have implemented a system that allows you to customize the colors of your Space Marines and Terminators to your heart’s content.

Simply spawn in the customization item and right click it to see the customization options. After choosing your colors, they will be applied to the next custom marine NPC you spawn.

The Army Painter item handles color selection and the Preset Manager item manages preset saving and loading.

In order to facilitate more diversity and possibilities for your custom chapters, there are two versions of the Army Painter and Preset Manager item as well as two versions of each customizable NPC. The simple version functions largely like Dawn of War’s customizer, where you select a few key colors which will be applied throughout the armor, while the advanced version will let you select a specific color for each piece of the character.

To make it easier to switch between your creations, you are able to also save and load presets via the army painter item’s context menu. The presets will be saved for the duration of your play session and between maps, however they will be wiped upon restart. This is due to a technical constraint regarding PPG’s shipped assemblies that I unfortunately cannot find a solution to.

You can have up to 3 simple presets and 3 advanced presets at a time. (6 in total)

If you want inspiration for chapter designs, a great source is the pictorial list of space marine chapters on 40k’s Fandom wiki.

One of the big features shipped in this mod is the armor generation system. Every time you spawn a Space Marine or Terminator, pieces will pick from a pool of different sprite variations in order to create a completely unique armor set every time you spawn one.

The aforementioned JSON file structure is designed and utilized to make creating and implementing sprite variations quick and efficient, avoiding the performance and efficiency cost that comes with hardcoding them into the NPC initiation script. With this approach, implementing new variations is as simple as changing a value in a JSON file and adding a new sprite to a folder.

Due to technical constraints with how the sprites are attached to the model and how prefabs are spawned, Space Marines/Terminators will have their sprite rotations reset when copy & pasted/spawned via contraptions. This is unfortunately the price that must be paid for advanced NPCs like this.

I hope you enjoy using this mod. It is the result of several months of work at this point. I always aim to go above and beyond my previous works when creating new content, so I apologize for the amount of time it has taken to put out new content. Despite all this, I hope it was worth the wait as I think this my best release yet.

If you plan on using this mod in a video, showcase, article, or anything else of that nature; please link the mod page and credit me as it helps both me as a developer and your viewers who might want to experience the mod for themselves.

Thanks in advance and have fun.

• Bug fix

Version 04.09.22 for People Playground

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