as-badlads

BadLads server plugin host API implementation in AssemblyScript. Proper documentation coming soon!

What is as-badlads?

as-badlads is a BadLads WebAssembly host implementation, used for BadLads server plugins. The as prefix stands for AssemblyScript, which is what the API is written in.

What isn't as-badlads?

as-badlads is not Javascript! There is no Javascript here.

Prerequisites

Node. While we don't use Javascript in any way whatsoever, we require the npm package manager which is bundled with node.

Example plugins:

• https://github.com/ChemicalHeadsStudios/as-badlads-template

Creating a BadLads plugin from scratch with as-badlads

1. Find your BadLads plugins folder, named BadLadsPlugins, under Windows clients it'll be located under C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\BadLads\Saved or YourServerDirectory\BadLads\Saved\.
2. Create a new directory in BadLadsPlugins, this will be the root directory of your plugin. Go inside your new plugin directory.
3. Create a workspace with npm init
4. Install AssemblyScript with: npm install --save-dev assemblyscript
5. Install the BadLads API with npm install @chemicalheads/as-badlads
6. Setup your AssemblyScript workspace with npx asinit .
7. Create a plugin.json file. Must be all lowercase! Here's a template.
8. Add exportRuntime: true to the release and debug targets in asconfig.json. That might sound confusing, so here's a copyable example..
9. You are done with the setup process. Congrats. Let's move on to the fun part!
10. Open your favorite TypeScript compatible IDE (mine being VSCode), and add the plugin directory as a workspace/folder/whatever.
11. Open up the assembly/index.ts file and start cracking. Here's an example index.ts.

If you want to explore the plugin API's functionality, middle click on one of the imports at the top. That will take you the plugin definitions, filled with documentation and goodies. Make sure to scroll down to skip the rough stuff.

13. Compile, run npm run asbuild. You can open the Sandbox mode in BadLads and start working, by default the game has hot reload enabled.

If you want to check for new plugins while the game is open, run the /reloadplugins command in chat. The game will tell you when you have hot reloaded, or if you have any weird errors.

---

Listening for events. Check out the top in the as-badlads/assembly/badlads.ts file for all the available event functions.

// BadLads searches for matching functions on plugin load, when listening 
//...for a specific event your function event has to match...
//...it's name/param types/return types.
export function onPluginStart(pluginId: i32): void {} 

Decoding string buffers. Certain event functions have an ArrayBuffer as a param, most of the time that's a string buffer. You can convert an ArrayBuffer to a string with.

const myString: string = decodeString(stringBuffer);

What are the __host functions?

Functions starting with __host are linked with the the BadLads API at load time. They aren't very convenient to work with, that's why there's a wrapper for almost each one. If you know what you are doing, go ahead and touch them.