Create / Modding reference / Base content catalog

Base content catalog

Every id and asset the base game ships, so your mod can reference them instead of guessing. Five registries matter to a mod author: section prototype ids (what source: Prototype("<id>") can name), ship ids (what hull: Prototype("<id>") can name - tabled in Ships), style ids (what a hull's style: can name), scenario ids (what NextScenario and campaigns can target), and base asset paths (what dep://base/<path> can reach). All of it is generated from the Rust builders by cargo run content gen into assets/base/**/*.content.ron - the generated RON is the shipped truth, and content -- lint checks your references against it.

base is the IMPLICIT universal dependency: every mod may reference base content and dep://base/ assets without listing base in meta.dependencies. Declaring it explicitly is allowed and also resolves - the shipped portal mods do - but it is never required.

Section prototypes

A prototype id is used two ways: a ship's section list references it compactly (source: Prototype("<id>") resolves the whole config, meshes and sounds included), and a mod Section item that reuses the id REPLACES that part everywhere. See Ship sections for mods for the Section grammar and the overlay flow.

Ids are lowercase snake_case. Core editor parts use the <variant>_<kind>_section form. Shipped semantic ship parts use <ship>_<part>, for example racer_fuselage and cargoa_engine_port. Section kinds are Hull, Thruster, Controller, Turret, and Torpedo.

Core sections (the editor palette)

id	kind	display name	health	notes
`reinforced_hull_section`	Hull	Reinforced Hull Section	200	the armor workhorse
`basic_thruster_section`	Thruster	Basic Thruster Section	70	magnitude 1.0; authored 1x1 shell bell; one socket on the `-Z` mounting face; cone plume starts at `Z = 0.51` with radius 0.24 and exits `+Z`
`vector_thruster_section`	Thruster	Vector Thruster Section	480	3x3x2 collider and footprint; magnitude 9; nine `-Z` mounting sockets; one vectoring bell and plume
`capital_thruster_section`	Thruster	Capital Thruster Section	1250	5x5x3 collider and footprint; magnitude 25; 25 `-Z` mounting sockets; one capital bell and plume
`basic_controller_section`	Controller	Basic Controller Section	100	steering lag 0.5 s, max torque 1501.0; the hull derives its own turn ceiling from that torque, its inertia and its length
`light_hull_section`	Hull	Light Hull Section	60	scavenger-grade hull
`pdc_kinetic_turret_section`	Turret	PDC Turret (Kinetic)	130	the one turret every craft mounts, on a 0.5 mount box; fits any hull face. Kinetic 4.0/hit at 100 rps, ammo 500, +200 after 3 s idle
`pdc_pierce_turret_section`	Turret	PDC Turret (Pierce)	130	the same 500-round, +200 after 3 s idle gun loading penetrators: Pierce 2.0/hit, dealt to every section it rakes through
`torpedo_section`	Torpedo	Torpedo Bay (Serpent)	100	blast 750 dmg / 30 u, ordnance 10 hp, ammo 6 restoring +1 after 10 s idle; loads the WEAVING Serpent - 32 u/s, ~390 PDC rounds an intercept, killed ~40 u out
`lance_torpedo_section`	Torpedo	Torpedo Bay (Lance)	100	the same six-round, +1 after 10 s idle bay and warhead loading the straight-running Lance: no weave, 35 u/s, ~116 PDC rounds an intercept, killed ~114 u out
`heavy_torpedo_section`	Torpedo	Siege Torpedo Bay Section	100	blast 2000 dmg / 45 u, armored ordnance (5000 hp), unlimited ammo; loads the crimson siege Breaker (70 u/s, a shallow weave); scene dressing, hidden in the editor

Every shipped prototype authors its damage effects by kind, and the whole catalog follows one rule: Hull wears ([Cracks]) (the default, so it is omitted), Controller, Turret and Torpedo wear ([Cracks, Sparks]), and Thruster wears ([Cracks, Sparks, Plume]). The semantic ship parts below use the same rule. No shipped mod authors the field at all, so base is the worked example.

Cladding (not a prototype)

A ship's outer SKIN is DERIVED from the structure it wraps, as a pure function of it: nothing places a plate, no id names one, and none is saved. Build the structure and the skin follows. There is nothing here for a mod to reference.

A ship asks for it with one field - skin: true on the ship's hull - and gets destructible cladding: each plate carries its own health and mass, comes off when it is shot out, and leaves the hull behind it bare. Build the hull out of the unit-cell sections above; the semantic ship parts are modelled shapes of their own sizes and are not on the lattice the derivation reads.

What the cladding LOOKS like is a style, which IS content and does have an id.

Skin styles

id	what it is
`industrial`	a working hull: exposed services, corrugation, radiators, safety-yellow paint on its edges
`armoured`	flat plate, a belt down every straight edge, sensor blisters
`civilian`	the racer's: pale satin paint, a cobalt livery rail, lit cabin windows
`salvage`	the raider's: mismatched patches, weld beads, a lashed drum, a whip antenna
`placeholder`	scaffolding, in deliberately garish magenta: four placeholder greebles wired to four rules that exercise the whole plate vocabulary. It makes no art decision

A ship names one with style: Some("<id>") beside skin: true on its hull. A mod declaring a Style with the same id replaces that look everywhere; a new id is a new look. See Ship skin styles.

Semantic ship parts

These prototypes are in the editor palette, and mods can reference them. Their tight primitive colliders and authored link points are part of each prototype - and those link points are what places one: a part attaches only where its own sockets meet another's. Ships use the suffix as the instance id: prototype racer_engine_port normally becomes instance engine_port.

There is no *_turret_* suffix in this table. The ten per-craft turret prototypes carried no mesh of their own - all of them were the same PDC on the same joint tree - and they are GONE from the catalog along with their _light twins. A mod naming one no longer resolves. Use pdc_kinetic_turret_section or pdc_pierce_turret_section: one gun that fits any hull face, in a Kinetic and a Pierce loadout.

family	prototype suffix	kind	health
Racer	`engine_port`, `engine_starboard`	Thruster	70
Racer	`wing_port`, `wing_starboard`	Hull	180
Racer	`nose`, `tail`	Hull	120
Racer	`fuselage`	Controller	240
CargoB	`engine_port`, `engine_starboard`	Thruster	70
CargoB	`pod_port`, `pod_starboard`	Torpedo	350
CargoB	`pod_port_lance`, `pod_starboard_lance`	Torpedo	350
CargoB	`nose`	Hull	180
CargoB	`tail`	Hull	150
CargoB	`fuselage`	Controller	300
CargoA	`engine_port`, `engine_starboard`	Thruster	70
CargoA	`pod_port`, `pod_starboard`	Hull	350
CargoA	`nose`	Hull	180
CargoA	`tail`	Hull	150
CargoA	`fuselage`	Controller	350

Prefix each suffix with racer_, cargob_, or cargoa_. Input mappings use the instance id, such as "turret_port" or "pod_starboard". The old coordinate-named cube prototypes do not exist.

Turret MOUNTS are not in this table because they are not prototypes. A craft names where a gun goes; the gun is always pdc_kinetic_turret_section, seated on the face it stands on. A scavenger-grade craft flies the SAME gun with a SetHealth(60.0) modification on the mount - that is all that is left of the old _light variants.

The shipped assemblies cast the hulls by role: the cargoa is the campaign's armed corvette (turrets on the pod shoulders), the cargob its torpedo-and-PDC gunship, and the racer an unarmed civilian (the yacht the story protects). The racer keeps its two mount POINTS, so a mod can bolt the shared PDC onto its wings, but no shipped racer mounts a gun.

The cargob's pods come in two: the base id loads the weaving Serpent, and the _lance twin loads the straight-running Lance. Nothing else about the pod changes. A ship does not mix them - the two loads are two catalog SHIPS, cargob and cargob_lance (see Ships) - and the campaign flies both: the chapter-two gunship takes Lances so a player's first torpedo fight is one point defense can answer, and the Final Tally flagship takes Serpents.

Scenario ids

What NextScenario((scenario_id: ...)), a Campaign member list, and the Scenarios picker can target. A hidden scenario stays off the picker but is launchable by id.

id	display name	hidden	what it is
`shakedown_run`	Shakedown Run	no	the New Game tutorial (chapter 1)
`broadside`	Broadside	no	chapter 2 part 1: the corvette ambush
`broadside_gunship`	Broadside: Rust Tally	yes	chapter 2 part 2: the gunship boss
`lifeline`	Lifeline	no	chapter 3 part 1: convoy defense
`final_tally`	Final Tally	yes	chapter 3 finale: the anchorage
`menu_waystation`	Waystation Traffic	yes	menu backdrop: hauler convoy (carousel: hands off to the gauntlet)
`menu_gauntlet`	Torpedo Gauntlet	yes	menu backdrop: a doomed point-defense stand (hands off to the weave)
`menu_weave`	Asteroid Weave	yes	menu backdrop: waypoint run through a dense rock band (hands off to the duel)
`menu_duel`	Duel Cycle	yes	menu backdrop: a duel ended by a siege torpedo (hands off to the waystation)

One campaign ships: nova_protocol ("Nova Protocol"), members shakedown_run, broadside, broadside_gunship, lifeline, final_tally in play order. There are no other content kinds - a content file holds Section, Scenario, Campaign, Ship, and Style items only; factions are not content. The base ship ids are tabled in Ships, the style ids above.

New Game is base-owned: new_game_scenario: Some("shakedown_run") in assets/base/base.bundle.ron is honored only from the base bundle; a mod declaring it is warned and ignored.

Assets: what dep://base/ can reach

dep://base/<path> resolves against the base bundle's own folder (assets/base/<path>), gated on <path> being in the base bundle's declared resources list - an undeclared path is a lint/merge Error, not a silent 404. A #Scene0-style gltf label is stripped before the membership check, so dep://base/gltf/hull-01.glb#Scene0 is fine.

The editor reads this same list. A row holding an image, a sound or a model opens a picker of the files the installed bundles declare, writes the dep:// ref for the one you pick (with the #Scene0 label where a mesh needs it), and marks a dep:// path no bundle ships - so you never type one of these paths from memory.

The declared list, complete:

Meshes (26 glb)

Named meshes:

gltf/hull-01.glb - the core hull (use label #Scene0)
gltf/turret-yaw-01.glb, gltf/turret-pitch-01.glb, gltf/turret-barrel-01.glb - the turret joint meshes
gltf/torpedo-bay-01.glb - the torpedo bay

Semantic ship meshes use #Scene0 and live under gltf/parts/:

gltf/parts/racer/ - engine_port, engine_starboard, wing_port, wing_starboard, nose, tail, and fuselage.
gltf/parts/cargob/ - engine_port, engine_starboard, pod_port, pod_starboard, nose, tail, and fuselage.
gltf/parts/cargoa/ - the same seven CargoB mesh names.

Cladding ships no meshes and never will: a ship's skin is derived from its structure and built at run time - see Cladding.

Greebles (54 glb)

The decoration models the base styles scatter, under dep://base/gltf/greebles/, named <kit>_<piece>.glb: the four authored kits - armoured_* (10), civilian_* (12), industrial_* (14), salvage_* (14) - plus the four garish magenta placeholder_* pieces that prove the pipeline. All are generated from committed JSON recipes (scripts/gen-greebles.py, scripts/greeble-recipes/), and a mod can ship its own .glb the same way.

Sounds (13 wav)

All under dep://base/sounds/: dry_fire.wav, explosion.wav, impact.wav, lock_off.wav, lock_on.wav, radar_deny.wav, radar_retarget.wav, rcs_loop.wav, safety_on.wav, salvage_pickup.wav, thruster_loop.wav, torpedo_launch.wav, turret_fire.wav.

(UI chrome sounds - menu clicks, objective chimes - are engine assets, not base bundle resources, and are NOT dep-referenceable.)

Images (9)

textures/cubemap.png - the stock skybox (chapter 1)
textures/cubemap_alt.png - the alternate skybox (chapters 2-3)
textures/asteroid.png - the asteroid surface texture
thumbnails/shakedown_run.png, thumbnails/broadside.png, thumbnails/broadside_gunship.png, thumbnails/lifeline.png, thumbnails/final_tally.png - the picker plates
banner.png - the base mod's banner

Skybox .png.meta sidecars (the cube reinterpret) ride along with their image automatically and are never listed or referenced directly.

The overlay rule

How a mod item interacts with this catalog (implemented in crates/nova_assets/src/merge.rs):

The matching key is the id string per kind - Section matches on base.id; Scenario, Campaign, Ship, and Style on id. Names and file paths never participate.
Same id as base (or an earlier bundle) = REPLACE, whole item. It is not a field-level patch: an overlay must restate every field it wants to keep. Sections replace in place, so the editor palette order is preserved.
New id = ADD alongside the catalog. Prefix your own ids with your mod's name (example_* in the shipped example mod) so they cannot collide.
Same id twice within ONE bundle = a conflict: the first item is kept, the duplicate skipped and logged.
Merge order is catalog order (base first), then downloaded mods, then a topological pass so a dependency merges before its dependents - so a mod overlays base and everything it depends on, and the last independent mod wins.

See the source

The builders behind this page live under crates/nova_authoring/src/base_content/: sections/standard.rs owns generic section prototypes, sections/ordnance.rs the torpedo types, styles.rs the skin styles, ships/ owns semantic parts and complete craft, scenarios/ groups mainline and main-menu scenarios, and campaigns.rs owns campaign membership. If this page and the generated RON ever disagree, the RON is the truth and this page has a bug - the content_ron_parity test pins the RON to the builders.