Ship Comms

Three purchasable ship upgrades for Lethal Company: a microphone that broadcasts into the facility, a receive-only radio speaker, and an auxiliary power supply that protects both from apparatus interference.

Ship Intercom — 250 credits by default

Buy ship-intercom at the terminal and confirm. Hold the red button's interaction key (E by default). The indicator turns yellow while the 1.2-second PA announcement tone plays inside the facility. Wait for green, then speak while continuing to hold the button. Voice, nearby sound pickup, and transmission static stay closed until startup finishes. Every living player inside the facility can hear you; they do not need a walkie-talkie. Release the key to stop. Releasing during the tone cancels startup; the next press starts a new complete tone. Leaving the ship, moving away from the mic, dying, or disconnecting also stops the broadcast.

The button works as push-to-talk even if you normally use the game's voice key. Your microphone must be enabled in the game settings. It does not change your saved microphone setting. Once the light is green, the held microphone also picks up other living players talking nearby and local world sounds. The default pickup radius is 4 metres, with quieter pickup toward the edge. Nearby players use their normal voice controls; the intercom does not force their microphones open. Release the button to stop all pickup.

The intercom has a PA tone, while the receiver uses a narrower, grittier radio tone. Both effects can be adjusted. The intercom is one-way: people inside need an ordinary walkie-talkie to radio back to the ship receiver.

Radio Receiver — 150 credits by default

Buy radio-receiver at the terminal and confirm. Press its red button to switch ON or OFF. The green indicator and button interaction prompt show its state; the small body label always says RADIO RECEIVER. It starts OFF when spawned or when loading a save.

When ON, it plays active walkie-talkie transmissions nearby in the ship, including voice and environmental audio carried by the game's radio system. Receiver voice, effects, and static originate at the model's speaker and follow it when moved or rotated, including saved furniture positions. You do not need to hold a walkie to listen. It cannot transmit and does not open your microphone. The speaker has a limited audible range and can be heard near the ship entrance too. A powered personal walkie retains its own listening path when it provides the stronger reception.

Eyeless Dogs can hear the receiver while it is playing a transmission. Switch it OFF to silence it for everyone and stop the noise it generates for enemies. Its power button is silent. Closed ship doors use the game's normal noise attenuation. Nearby speech, carried walkies and other ship noises still follow their normal rules. Interior intercom broadcasts also generate noise near listeners for enemies that hear sound. The intercom startup cue generates noise only near facility listeners and is silent at the ship.

Auxiliary Power Unit — 300 credits by default

Buy auxiliary-power-unit at the terminal and confirm. This passive ship upgrade automatically protects every Ship Comms intercom and receiver from apparatus interference as soon as it is purchased. It has no model, collider, indicator, sound, or controls and takes up no space in the ship. No placement or activation is required.

You can buy it after the apparatus has already been removed to restore normal communication. One purchase protects the whole ship and persists through the normal ship unlockable save system. Existing purchases from older versions are kept, including units previously left in storage; the old cabinet disappears after updating. Auxiliary power cannot be moved or stored. It follows the game's usual purchase resets, including firing and challenge-run resets.

Apparatus interference

Removing the facility's docked apparatus damages both communication channels unless auxiliary power has been purchased. Voices fall to roughly half their normal level, with stronger filtering, distortion, and short irregular cutouts. Static becomes much louder during received speech. Buying auxiliary power restores normal voice levels and removes the cutouts immediately, even after the apparatus is gone. With the apparatus still docked, communication stays normal without auxiliary power. Handling an already loose apparatus or one stored in the ship does not trigger the effect. Interference resets on returning to orbit or beginning a new moon.

Both ordinary and heavy static follow received voices. An idle powered receiver, a silently held intercom button, and relayed environmental sounds alone produce no static. The intercom's static is heard only by living players inside the facility, never at the ship or outside. Receiver static comes from its physical speaker and follows it when moved. Your own outgoing microphone and locally muted voices do not trigger static for you.

Actual receiver broadcasts still alert Eyeless Dogs near its speaker. Switch the receiver OFF to silence it. Intercom broadcasts alert sound-sensitive enemies only near listeners inside the facility; there is no artificial intercom noise source at the ship. Ordinary speech near the ship still follows the game's normal enemy-hearing rules. Relayed environmental sounds retain their normal broadcast behavior. Local volume sliders do not disable enemy hearing. A powered personal walkie keeps its independent reception when it supplies the stronger voice route.

Installation and use

All players need the same Ship Comms version, BepInEx and LethalLib. Update everyone to 1.1.6 for matching interference, static routing, and passive auxiliary power behavior; versions before 1.1.3 use a different state-message format. Install through your mod manager, or import the supplied Thunderstore ZIP as a local mod. Restart the game after installing.

Install LethalConfig for the in-game settings menu. It is optional; without it, edit the config file below.

All three upgrades are always offered under ship upgrades, are purchased separately, and use the game's ship unlockable save system. The intercom and receiver are movable furniture: look at the cabinet and press B to move it, R to rotate, B to place, or X to store. Retrieve stored furniture through the terminal. Release the intercom button before moving it. Auxiliary power activates automatically when purchased and has no furniture. Only one of each is needed. The host controls button state, auxiliary protection, and prices.

The intercom and receiver retain the 20% model enlargement from version 1.1.4, including controls, labels, speaker positions, and placement bounds. If loading furniture last moved before 1.1.4, move and place it once with B to seat its enlarged base correctly; the game saves the placement box's center.

Configuration

Open LethalConfig → Ship Comms for separate IntercomVolume and ReceiverVolume sliders. Volume changes apply without a restart. The normal player-list volume sliders and mute controls also affect that player's voice over both upgrades.

Launch once to create BepInEx/config/sockpoop.shipcomms.cfg:

[Prices]
IntercomCost = 250
ReceiverCost = 150
AuxiliaryPowerCost = 300

[Audio]
IntercomVolume = 0.9
ReceiverVolume = 0.9
IntercomEnvironmentVolume = 0.65

[Sound Effects]
IntercomStartChimeEnabled = true
IntercomStartChimeVolume = 0.8
IntercomProcessing = 0.7
ReceiverProcessing = 0.8
ApparatusInterferenceEnabled = true
NormalStaticVolume = 0.035
ApparatusStaticVolume = 0.32

[Intercom]
PickupRange = 4

Prices accept 0–100000 credits. Set prices in the host's config and restart the game; host prices are synchronized to clients. Volume settings accept 0–1 and affect only your own listening volume. Lowering local volume does not silence the physical speaker for enemies; use its OFF button for that.

The host's IntercomStartChimeEnabled switch enables/disables the PA startup cue inside the facility, including its enemy noise. Disabling it skips the cue and waiting phase on the next press; an existing startup finishes normally. IntercomStartChimeVolume is a separate local slider, multiplied by IntercomVolume; zero mutes the cue for you but keeps the transmission delay. The host deadline and local cue playback must both finish before the light becomes green and speech opens. These setting names are retained for compatibility. Prices and existing volume values are preserved when upgrading.

PickupRange is controlled by the host, accepts 1–12 metres, and updates the lobby immediately. The button operator stays audible even with a small radius. IntercomEnvironmentVolume adjusts picked-up world sounds separately from voices. IntercomProcessing and ReceiverProcessing control filtering and mild distortion from 0–1; zero restores the original transmission tone when apparatus interference is inactive. These local audio controls are also sliders in LethalConfig.

ApparatusInterferenceEnabled is a live host setting for the apparatus effect, including quieter voices, cutouts, stronger processing, and heavy static. Disabling it restores normal communication. NormalStaticVolume and ApparatusStaticVolume are separate local sliders for ordinary and heavy static during received speech, multiplied by the device volume. Set either to zero to mute that layer for yourself; broadcasts still generate enemy noise. All players should use the same Ship Comms version.

Compatibility

Built against Lethal Company v81 and LethalLib 1.2.0. Facility detection uses the game's normal inside/outside state, including interiors loaded by LethalLevelLoader and JLL. The mod does not modify interior generation.

The radio and intercom reuse the game's received Dissonance voice streams and preserve individual-player mixer volumes. No voice recording files or separate voice service are used. When a powered inventory walkie or Always Hear Active Walkies supplies another receive path, the receiver keeps one shared voice stream at the stronger listening level. Switching the ship receiver off leaves ordinary walkie reception available. Mods that replace player voice playback or ship furniture handling may need their own compatibility work.

Intercom environmental pickup relays nearby spatial AudioSource clips and sounds passed through the game's walkie one-shot hook. It excludes UI audio, player-voice playback, and communication speakers to prevent feedback. Mods that use custom sound playback outside those paths may need additional support.

Source and checks

Source is supplied separately. Build with the .NET 10 SDK and local game/profile references:

.\build.ps1 -GameDir 'C:\Games\Lethal Company' -ProfileDir 'C:\path\to\mod\profile'
dotnet run --project .\tests\Tests.csproj -c Release

The DLL uses the installed game's managed assemblies; no game binaries are redistributed. The package models are original geometry generated by this plugin.

The startup recording is the selected 1.2-second edit of "School Announcement Sound Effect" by ALexis KB Sounds. Its source and separate rights information are documented in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt; the code's MIT license does not grant rights to that recording.

The build profile should contain LethalLib 1.2.0 and LethalConfig 1.4.6 to supply the compile-time references; LethalConfig remains optional at runtime.

Development used AI assistance. See CHANGELOG.md for the validation performed for this release.