Skip to content

How cosmetics work

Players earn credits in runs, spend them on hats, accessories and body patterns in the main menu, and wear what they equipped in every match. Each cosmetic is one Data Asset, and one list on the game instance decides which ones exist.

This page is the mental model. The pages after it are the recipes.

Where players buy

CUSTOMIZE in the main menu opens WBP_Customization, and so does clicking your own line in the lobby. The screen shows the credits, one tab per slot and a grid of tiles. The robot mannequin of the menu level (BP_CosmeticPreview) tries on the selected item before you pay. To buy, the player holds the BUY button. Leaving the screen puts the saved outfit back on the mannequin.

A player wears one item per slot. The slots are the entries of E_CosmeticSlot: Hat, Accessory and Pattern. The tabs are built from that enum, so a new entry is a new tab with no graph to open.

Where credits come from

Source How much
A fresh profile Starting Credits on BP_FriendslopGameInstance, 0 shipped: a new player earns everything in runs
The end of a run The team's extracted value split evenly between the players. Each share is added to that player's credits with AddCredits
The arena Kill Reward (100) per kill and Win Reward (300) to the winner, on BP_FriendslopGameState. Added to that player's share at the end of the run. See The Last Loser Standing arena

The run side is on How a run works.

To show an amount on your own customization or recap screen, call FormatCredits from BPFL_Credits. It takes an integer Amount and returns Credits as text, with the $ sign and a space between thousands: 1250 becomes $ 1 250. The customization screen and the main menu display credits with it.

The pieces

Piece Where it lives What it does
BP_CosmeticDataAsset one DA_Cosmetic_* per item, in Blueprints/DataAssets/Cosmetic/Childs/ Name, slot, icon, Price, mesh and socket, or pattern
Cosmetic Catalog BP_FriendslopGameInstance, Settings\|Cosmetics The only list of cosmetics. The shop shows it, the server checks against it
BP_CosmeticComponent BP_FriendslopPlayerState Holds what the player has equipped
BP_CosmeticVisualsComponent BP_FriendslopCharacter, and the menu mannequin Attaches the equipped meshes to their sockets
BP_PlayerColorTintComponent BP_FriendslopCharacter, and the menu mannequin Draws the player colour and the equipped pattern on the body. The mannequin keeps its own colour
SG_FriendslopProfile one save slot on each player's machine Credits, owned cosmetics and the saved outfit

Hats and accessories attach to a socket of the character mesh: HatSocket on the head bone, BackSocket on spine_04. The socket is the offset. There is no offset field. The meshes copy the visibility flags of the body they sit on, so you never see your own hat in first person.

Dispatcher When it fires Fires on
OnCosmeticsChanged on BP_CosmeticComponent The equipped set changed, or arrived every player

The profile and your own save

Credits and ownership go through BPI_PlayerProfile, which BP_FriendslopGameInstance implements. GetCredits, TryPurchase, IsCosmeticOwned, AddCredits and the rest all read and write SG_FriendslopProfile, in the slot named by Profile Slot. The profile is loaded when the game starts and written again on every purchase, outfit change, settings change and credit gain.

To keep the profile somewhere else, reimplement SaveProfile and LoadProfile on your game instance. Nothing else in the template needs to change.

On your own character

  1. Add BP_CosmeticComponent to your player state.
  2. Add BP_CosmeticVisualsComponent and BP_PlayerColorTintComponent to your pawn. Target Mesh left empty dresses the first skeletal mesh of the actor.
  3. Add HatSocket and BackSocket to your skeletal mesh, or use your own socket names in the Data Assets.
  4. If you use your own game instance, implement BPI_PlayerProfile on it and give it the catalogue. See Use your own game framework classes.

To add a hat, an accessory, a pattern or a new slot, see Add a hat, an accessory or a pattern. Emotes and faces are on Add an emote or a face, player colours on Player colours, nameplates and pings.

Join the Discord