ATG Core

What the mod does

ATG Core carries the parts more than one ATG mod needs, so they are written and fixed once rather than copied. Four things today:

• The settings system — a way for a server owner to change any ATG mod’s settings by editing a plain text file on the server, with no mod of their own and no Workbench. See Configuration.
• Server messages — rotating and daily lines posted to chat, configured the same way. See Server messages.
• One logging level for every ATG mod, so a noisy server is quietened in one place rather than mod by mod.
• The ATG tab in the game’s settings menu, where ATG mods put the preferences each player answers for themselves.

It is not a gameplay mod, and it ships with no messages configured. Loading it on its own changes nothing you can see — the ATG tab appears only once a mod has put something on it.

The ATG settings tab

Anything a player chooses for themselves goes here, and nothing on it reaches the server. It is the counterpart to the settings system above, which is what a server owner governs.

The tab is built from whatever mods are loaded, so it shows the rows those mods contribute and nothing else. A mod that has no client preferences adds nothing, and with none loaded the tab does not appear.

A row is either a yes-or-no switch or a pick from several named options, and a change is kept in the player’s own game settings.

Why a mod would depend on it

Every ATG mod works standalone. Its settings live in its own config file, which you can override the ordinary Arma way — by making a mod of your own and overriding the file in it. That works, and it needs the Workbench tools installed, a mod built, and a rebuild each time you change your mind.

With ATG Core loaded, the same settings become readable from a JSON file in the server’s profile directory. Nothing is rebuilt, nothing is uploaded, and one server’s tuning is a file you can copy to another. See Configuration.

The dependency is soft in both directions. A mod that supports the system runs normally without Core; Core does nothing on its own. Nothing breaks either way.

Load order matters

ATG Core must load before any mod that uses it. This is the one setup detail that bites, because getting it wrong does not produce an error message.

A mod compiles its Core support in only if Core is already present when that mod is compiled. Load Core second and every mod that depended on it silently drops to its own config file — and because the server and its clients can disagree about that, the symptom is usually players being rejected for a content mismatch rather than anything pointing at load order.

If ATG mods are ignoring their JSON file, check load order before anything else.

Mods that use it

• ATG Scenario — objectives, placement and faction score.
• ATG Garmin Vitals for ACE — wrist-worn vitals monitor.
• ATG Faction Progress — arsenal stock and loadouts behind progression tiers.
• ATG UI — nametag ranges, killfeed and notification policy.
• ATG Map — terrain detail, the discovered set, and a row on the ATG tab.
• ATG Displays — two rows on the ATG tab, for drawing the map on device screens and for their brightness.
• ATG Link — the connection to the ATG API. Takes its logging level from Core, but reads its own settings file rather than registering a config.
• ATG Commands — the shared /atg chat command.

Every one of them also takes its logging level from Core unless it sets one of its own.