Project Zomboid Script Support

Language support for Project Zomboid script files (media/scripts/*.txt), up to date with Build 42.21.

The extension knows the scripts the way the game reads them. Its parser follows the game's own script parser, and its knowledge comes from the 1,004 vanilla scripts and from the properties the game code actually reads. It covers items, craft recipes, entities and components, fluids, energies, fixing, evolved recipes, timed actions, models, sounds, vehicles and templates, xui skins, character traits and professions, ragdolls, physics shapes…

Features

Validation

Errors and warnings as you type, each with a quick fix when one exists:

• Missing commas: the game silently merges the two lines.
• // comments: the game has no line comments and reads that text as script. The quick fix converts them to /* */.
• Unbalanced braces, unterminated comments, text outside any block.
• Unknown properties, for example Wieght, which the game silently ignores. You get a "did you mean Weight?" suggestion. Property names are case-insensitive, like in the game.
• Build 41 leftovers:
  • Type = Weapon is converted to ItemType = base:weapon;
  • tags without a namespace (Hammer) are converted to base:hammer.
• Invalid values: booleans, numbers, and values outside the game registries (item types, tags, body locations, display categories, weapon categories, recipe categories and tags).
• Recipe lines: resource (item, fluid, energy), amount, mode:, and input/output flags[...].
• Unknown block types, unknown components and duplicate properties.

The vanilla scripts produce no diagnostics.

Completion

• Script blocks at module level, sub-blocks and components.
• Properties of the current block, with the most useful ones first. In an item, the properties typical of its ItemType (food, weapon, clothing…) come first.
• Values: registry values (base:weapon, base:hammer…), booleans, common vanilla values.
• Recipe lines: item/-fluid/energy line templates, item ids in [...], tags[...], flags[...], mode:, mappers[...].
• Module.Item ids of vanilla and of your workspace.

Hover and navigation

• Documentation of properties: description, value type, how often vanilla uses them, and their most common values.
• Hovering a reference shows its definition: Base.Plank, timedAction = Making, -fluid 1.0 [Water], entityStyle = ES_….
• Go to definition (F12 / Ctrl+click) across vanilla and your mod.
• Outline of the document: modules, objects and sub-blocks.

Formatting

Re-indents blocks and aligns the = of consecutive properties. Only whitespace changes: statements, values and comments are kept as written.

Highlighting

Block headers, properties, numbers, booleans, Module.Item references, namespaced ids (base:hammer), recipe line keywords. // lines are shown as errors.

Settings

Files under a media/scripts folder are recognized automatically, as are .txt files starting with module X. The PZ Script: Re-index scripts command rebuilds the index.

Updating to a new game version

The knowledge of the game lives in data/schema.json. It is generated from an installed game:

npm run generate-schema                     # finds the game through Steam
npm run generate-schema -- "D:/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/ProjectZomboid"

The generator reads the vanilla scripts and the string constants of the script classes in projectzomboid.jar. It reports the block kinds whose properties it cannot fully verify.

Development

npm install
npm test                  # unit tests + checks against every vanilla script (when the game is installed)
npm run test:integration  # end-to-end test in a real VS Code

Press F5 in VS Code to run the extension in a development host.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome on GitHub.

Supporting the Project

If you find this extension helpful, please consider supporting its development. Your donations help me stay motivated and show my wife that all the time spent away from her is worthwhile! 😊

Support me

License

MIT