DeathMessage

Says what killed a player, and where - in everyone's chat, on everyone's screen and in Discord.

Vanilla Valheim tells nobody when a player dies, and a Discord bridge can only say "Astrid has died." DeathMessage says "Astrid was killed by Troll ★1 at (120, 34, -560)": fell, drowned, burned, poisoned by a Blob, crushed by a tree, hit by another player - whatever it was.

One DLL, for the players' games and the server.

Screenshots

In the chat box of every player, with the mod or without:

In Discord, through DiscordConnector, with the cause and the place of death:

What happens when you die

1. Your game works out the cause from the last hits your character took: who or what, the damage by type, and what was left of your health.
2. You see it in the middle of the screen: "Killed by Troll ★1 — last hit: 42 blunt".
3. Your character shouts it, so it is an ordinary chat line for every player on the server: "Astrid: was killed by Troll ★1 at (120, 34, -560)".
4. The server shows every other player "Astrid was killed by Troll ★1 at (120, 34, -560)." in the top-left message feed, which is also kept in the Compendium's message log.
5. With DiscordConnector on the server, Discord gets "Astrid was killed by Troll ★1. Coords: (120, 34, -560)" at once, in place of "Astrid has died."
6. The death is added to your own history: /deaths in chat lists the last 10, /deaths hits adds the hits before each. The last 30 are kept in BepInEx/config/liekos47.deathmessage.deaths.txt.

Also in the mod, both off until you turn them on:

• A shorter respawn. The game waits a fixed 10 seconds on the death view and then at least 8 more at your bed. Two settings in your own game shorten both.
• /grave. When the server allows it, pay coins to be taken back to where you last died.

Who installs it

Installed in	What you get
The dying player's game and the server	Everything above
The dying player's game only	The on-screen cause, the history, the shout in everyone's chat, the shorter respawn
The server only	Nothing yet: only a player's own game knows what hit them

Players without the mod still read other players' deaths in chat and in the top-left feed. Their own deaths are announced by nobody and go to Discord as DiscordConnector's usual message.

Install

Needs BepInExPack Valheim. Install it with a mod manager, or put DeathMessage.dll in BepInEx/plugins/ by hand. It goes in the game of each player who wants it, and in BepInEx/plugins/ on the dedicated server. DiscordConnector is optional and only belongs on the server.

Configuration

BepInEx/config/liekos47.deathmessage.cfg, written on the first start. The [Client] settings are read in a player's game, the [Server] settings on the server (or in the game of a player hosting the world). Changes to the file are picked up within 30 seconds, without a restart.

In a player's game: [Client]

Setting	Default
LocalLog	true	Show the cause in the middle of the screen and keep the history
ShoutDeath	true	Shout the cause when you die, so it is in every player's chat
ShoutFormat	{cause} at {pos}	What is shouted. The game puts your name in front
SendToServer	true	Report your deaths to the server, for its announcement and Discord
DeathViewSeconds	10	Seconds on the death view before the respawn starts. The game's own is 10, the least is 1
RespawnLoadSeconds	8	Least seconds waited at your spawn point. The game's own is 8, the least is 3

On the server: [Server]

Setting	Default
Announce	true	Show the other players a message when someone dies
AnnounceFormat	{player} {cause} at {pos}.	The message
AnnounceWhere	TopLeft	TopLeft = the message feed. Center = across the middle of the screen
Discord	true	Put the cause and the place into DiscordConnector's death message
DiscordMessage	%PLAYER_NAME% {cause}. Coords: {pos}	Replaces DiscordConnector's "Player Death Message"
DiscordFirstDeathMessage	%PLAYER_NAME% {cause}. That was their first death. Coords: {pos}	Replaces its "Player First Death Message"
GraveTeleport	false	Allow /grave
GraveTeleportItem	Coins	What a trip costs, by prefab name
GraveTeleportCost	100	How many. 0 = free

[General] has DebugLog (false), which logs every report and what is done with it.

What goes in the messages

{cause}	"was killed by Troll ★1", "drowned", "died from poison (from Blob)"
{pos}	Where they died: x, height, z
{biome}	"Black Forest"
{player}	The player's name. AnnounceFormat only
%PLAYER_NAME% and the like	DiscordConnector's own variables. The two Discord messages only

Discord

The mod has no webhook of its own; it works through DiscordConnector. Whether deaths are posted at all, the first-death event, the death counts and the webhook stay DiscordConnector's settings. What changes when a cause is known:

• The text is this mod's DiscordMessage, not DiscordConnector's "Player Death Message". Nothing is written to DiscordConnector's config files.
• The message goes out the moment the player dies. By itself DiscordConnector only notices a death when the player has respawned, ten or more seconds later.
• The coordinates are where the player died. DiscordConnector's own are read after the respawn, so they are the player's bed. They are left off these messages.
• The shouted copy of the cause is not passed on to Discord as a shout.

Turn Discord off, or leave DiscordMessage empty, to get DiscordConnector's own message back.

A shorter respawn

DeathViewSeconds and RespawnLoadSeconds shorten the game's two fixed waits after a death, in your own game only; 3 and 5 take the usual 18 seconds down to about 8. Loading is not skipped: the game still holds you until the area around your spawn point is ready.

Do not set RespawnLoadSeconds very low on a slow connection. If you are put down before the server has sent your base, the game finds no bed, resets your spawn point and sends you to the start of the world. Back at 8 it behaves as vanilla.

/grave

With GraveTeleport on, a player with the mod types /grave in chat to be taken to where they last died, once per death.

• The price is taken from what the player carries. Someone who has just died carries nothing, as their coins are in the grave, so they fetch the price from a chest first.
• The usual portal rule applies: no trip while carrying ore and the like.
• A change to these settings reaches the players' games within two minutes.
• As with a portal, the trip and the payment happen in the player's own game.

Other mods

• Valheim Vanilla Plus, Valheim God Mode: their death log already shows the cause in the middle of the screen, so this mod leaves that message to them.
• DiscordConnector: made for 3.1.3. If a later version moves things, the mod says so in the server log and deaths go to Discord as DiscordConnector sends them.

Known limits

• A death by a player without the mod has no cause, in the game or in Discord.
• The shout is a real shout: the text also appears over the player's head, and a player who has blocked chat from someone on their platform does not see that player's line.
• /die and other deaths without a hit are reported as "died of unknown causes".

Building

dotnet build DeathMessage.csproj -c Release

refs\ (not committed) holds the assemblies to compile against, in a dedicated-server layout: valheim_server_Data\Managed\ with assembly_valheim.dll, assembly_utils.dll, assembly_guiutils.dll, UnityEngine.dll, UnityEngine.CoreModule.dll, and BepInEx\core\ with BepInEx.dll and 0Harmony.dll.