Left 4 Dead 2 – How to Create Dynamic Aliases for Existing Commands – Project-Smok

Introduction

This guide explains how to create dynamic aliases for existing commands in detail using the project_smok add-on. Everything about this add-on is documented in it’s github.com – https://github.com/semihM/project_smok. This guide was made for versions of project_smok v2.0.0 and higher.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2229460523

Follow each section in order to successfully create a custom command. If you have any questions, suggestions or issue reports, feel free to ask, share and report them in the add-on’s discussions:

• https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/2229460523/2965021152089567424/
• https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/2229460523/2965021152089554499/
• https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/2229460523/2965021152089552207/
• https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/2229460523/3146305075701950313/

This topic is a quite complicated compared to any other feature project_smok provides. If you get lost or get error messages, feel free to ask questions!

This guide will updated in the future to include more complicated examples.

Aliases in project_smok

Aliases in project_smok were meant to be created for making commands more customizable an enable various features that allow commands to be called in ways that isn’t possible otherwise.Some of these features are:

• Delayed command calls: Wait a certain time before executing the command. A similar thing is actually possible with the wait console command, but this is much easier and dynamic.
• Repeated commands calls: Repeat the command execution given times with given delays. Allows commands to be called more than once with a single call, allowing custom delays between calls.
• Expressional arguments: Compile expressional arguments to get dynamic values. Use the returned result of evaluated expressions as arguments. This is basically the same thing using $[expression] format as your command arguments.
• Alias variables: Access to some variables easily. Let’s you access to command caller player’s information and some other features using $variable format.

Locating the configuration files

project_smok lets you customize settings and create commands and much more through the configuration files. These configuration files are created after you start a map at least once.

You can locate the configuration files under the directory

\Steam\steamapps\common\Left 4 Dead 2\left4dead2\ems\admin system

The \aliases folder allows you to alias commands with dynamic settings.

In this folder, there are at least 4 files:

• example_alias_file.txt: An example alias file introduced in v1.0.0
• example_alias_file_v{x}_{y}_{z}.txt: An example alias file introduced in v{x}.{y}.{z}
• file_list.txt: List of file names to include from this folder

You can read/edit the example files with any text editor.

Creating a new alias file

Create a new text file and name it however you want with .txt text file extension.

Start editing the file you’ve created with a text editor ( notepad, VS Code etc. )

Alias file format

Alias files follow the table data type syntax of Squirrel language:

// Things after "//" characters are comments, lets you take notes // Key-value pairs enclosed with { and } characters { key = value // value's type may vary }

Collapsed definition of a basic alias table

The alias tables must contain certain key-value pairs in order for them to be a valid alias. Names of the keys in these pairs are given in the following table. Default value column shows what value is used when key is not present or value type is incorrect.

Expected key-value pairs for table data typed values are given as below. All of these pairs in these tables are optional.

Help table

Help.param_{x}tables

Parameters table

Commands table

Commands.{command_name}tables

Alias variables

There are variables available for each alias call which are accessible using $variable format inside Commands table of the alias table. This format can be used directly as a string.

{ key = "$variable" }

These variables can also be used inside a $[expression] format. In this case all known $variable variables will be replaced using sub-string replace methods, meaning both values will be treated as strings during replacement process.

// These variables don't exist, named to self-document { key = "$[ \"$non_string\" + \"concatenated string\" ]" // - Used \" to use as strings key2 = "$[ $string_variable ]" key3 = "$[ $string_variable.len().tostring() ]" }

All available variables are given in the table below.

Variables (dynamic)

"$repeat_id"

$repeats_left

integer

Repeat number left of the current command call. Starts Commands.{command_name}.repeat, decreased by 1 at the start of the repeat.

$last_call_timefloatStores last repeat’s Time() at the start of that repeat. Will be same as Time() call for the first command call

"$last_call_time"

Variables (non-dynamic)

,”$[ $param_1 == 5 ? \”is 5\” : \”not 5\” ]”

"$param_1"

$caller_entVSLib.PlayerCommand’s caller as VSLib.Player, can be used to access to this classes methods.

"$[$caller_ent.GetSteamID()]"

$caller_idintegerCommand’s caller’s entity index.

"$caller_id"

$caller_charstringCommand’s caller’s character name fist character capitilized.

"$caller_char"

$caller_namestringCommand’s caller’s steam name.

"$caller_name"

$caller_targetVSLib.Entity or nullCommand’s caller’s target (object they’re aiming at) or null. Uses GetLookingEntity() method.

"$caller_target"

Full view of the basic alias table shown in last section:

NOTE: This alias won’t work since existing_command_1 isn’t really a command(unless you create one yourself!)

Registering the alias

After the alias table file is created, you need to write the file name of the file name without the extension to the file_list.txt file to register the aliases in that file.

Check your console to see if the aliases were registered.

Some basic examples

Contents of my_alias_file.txt are given below.

// Make sure to: // + Start with a { character // + End with a } character { my_basic_alias = { MinimumUserLevel = PS_USER_ADMIN Help = { docs = "a cool alias" param_1 = "used as 1st argument" param_2 = { name = "second_param" docs = "is passed as 3rd argument" when_null = "nothing is passed to 3rd argument" } } Parameters = { param_1 = "default_value_1" param_2 = null // no default value } Commands = { // Calls below will be equivelant: // !my_basic_alias arg1 arg2 // !existing_command_1 arg1 static_value arg2 existing_command_1 = { start_delay = 0 repeat = 1 delay_between = 0.5 arg_1 = "$param_1" // Use param_1's value arg_2 = "static_value" arg_3 = "$param_2" // Use param_2's value } } } }

Here are some other very basic alias tables:

// Some basic alias table examples { throw_grabbed = { MinimumUserLevel = PS_USER_ADMIN Help = { docs = "alternative command to yeet command" } Commands = { yeet = {} } } random_francis_line = { MinimumUserLevel = PS_USER_SCRIPTER Help = { docs = "speak a random line by Francis" } Commands = { randomline = { arg_1 = "self" arg_2 = "francis" } } } }

This is all about Left 4 Dead 2 – How to Create Dynamic Aliases for Existing Commands – Project-Smok; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!