ServerSilencer

A BepInEx mod for Holdfast: Nations At War that hides the chat lines the server posts on the admin channel. Slays, revives, teleports and weapon grants all produce one. A server mod that respawns bots can generate hundreds in a session and bury the chat pane.

Nothing else is touched. Broadcasts, player chat and private messages all behave normally.

This is a client-side mod. It changes nothing for anyone else on the server, works on any server you join, and nobody else needs it installed.

Install

With a mod manager. Install through r2modman or Thunderstore Mod Manager and launch the game from the manager. BepInEx is pulled in as a dependency, so there is nothing else to set up.

By hand. Install BepInExPack into the game folder and run the game once so it creates its folders. Then download ServerSilencer.dll from the latest release and put it here:

Steam\steamapps\common\Holdfast Nations At War\BepInEx\plugins\ServerSilencer\ServerSilencer.dll

Did it work?

Open BepInEx\LogOutput.log and look for:

[Info   :   BepInEx] Loading [ServerSilencer 1.0.0]

If it is not there, the mod was not loaded. See Troubleshooting.

Settings

BepInEx\config\com.ryannlt.serversilencer.cfg, written on first run. Edits apply within a second, no restart needed.

For an in-game editor instead of a text file, ConfigurationManager works, but only after setting HideManagerGameObject = true under [Chainloader] in BepInEx\config\BepInEx.cfg. Holdfast's BepInEx pack ships that as false, which stops ConfigurationManager drawing at all.

What it hides

When a server mod sends you a private message, Holdfast shows it twice, once as the message and once as an admin-channel echo. ServerSilencer removes the echo and keeps the message, so server mods that reply to your commands still work.

Troubleshooting

Nothing in the log at all, or no log. BepInEx is not running. Check that winhttp.dll and a BepInEx folder sit next to Holdfast NaW.exe. If you use a mod manager, launch the game from it rather than from Steam.

Mod loads but nothing changes. Check BlockAdminChat in the config file has not been turned off. If the log shows the mod loading but chat lines still appear, open an issue with the log attached.

The game crashes on launch after adding the mod. Remove the .dll, launch to confirm the game is fine, then open an issue with BepInEx\LogOutput.log attached.

Building

Only needed if you want to change something. Otherwise use the release above.

Requires: the game installed, BepInEx installed in an r2modman profile, and a .NET SDK for the compiler.

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\build.ps1

That compiles the mod and copies the .dll into the r2modman profile's BepInEx\plugins\ServerSilencer\. Restart the game to load it. Add -NoDeploy to build without copying, which is useful while the game is running and holding the file. -ProfileName picks a profile other than Dev.

package.ps1 builds the same way and stages an uploadable Thunderstore zip in Package\.

The script expects the default install path:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Holdfast Nations At War

Edit $GameDir at the top of the script if yours differs.

The .csproj is for IDE support only. build.ps1 is the real build. It drives csc directly, which avoids needing a targeting pack installed.

Why there is no CI build

Building needs Assembly-CSharp.dll from a real install. Those are AGS files, not mine to redistribute, so they cannot be committed here and a GitHub Actions runner has no way to get them. Releases are built locally and uploaded by hand.

Compatibility

Built against Holdfast on Unity 2022.3.62f2 with BepInEx 5.4.23.5 (Mono). It patches named methods rather than offsets, so it usually survives game updates. If AGS renames or restructures the chat system it will stop working rather than misbehave. Open an issue if that happens.

Licence

MIT. Do what you like with it, no warranty.