Build traps into your base

Floor spikes, fire jets, dart launchers, exploding plants and pressure plates, as pieces in the game's build menu. They hit hostile creatures, never you.

A goblin wave runs the corridor: plants on the approach, then the pressure plate

This mod takes the game's own trap models, flames and sounds and turns them into six build pieces. You pay for them with normal materials, place them like any decoration, and anything that comes at your base has to get past them.

Needs UE4SS, RuneSchema and Vault Traps (RuneSchema add-on), the part that puts the pieces in the build menu.

What it does

• Six new build pieces: floor spikes, fire jet, wall fire jet, dart launcher, exploding plant and pressure plate. You place them with the game's own build ghost, like any decoration.
• Paid in the game's own materials: no new items. Each piece costs vanilla materials, listed below.
• They hit hostile creatures only: never players. I tested every piece with my character standing on it or in front of it while it fired, immortality off, and ran the whole check again on the 1.0.0 build: my health didn't drop. As a control, the game's own fire trap took my health down in the same test.
• Kills count as yours: you get the loot and the XP. Spikes pay Attack, fire jets and plants pay Magic, darts pay Ranged. I checked each one with a goblin kill on the 1.0.0 build.
• Pressure plates: a hostile creature on a plate fires every trap within 6 m of it.
• No ammo: each trap just waits out a short cooldown and is ready again. They are building pieces, though, so enemies can break them (more under Good to know).
• Take one down, get it all back: dismantling a trap gives back its full cost.

The six pieces

The traps in the build menu

Damage is per hit at the default Damage setting (1x). A goblin from the starting area has 70 health.

• Floor spikes (3 Iron Bar, 2 Oak Plank): spears shoot up about 1.5 m out of the floor when a hostile creature stands on the piece. They stay up for about half a second on each strike, then drop back. 20 damage, every 3 seconds. Attack XP.
• Fire jet (2 Iron Bar, 2 Fire Oil, 5 Fire Rune): a floor piece. The game's own fire trap flames burst up out of its studs when a hostile creature stands over it. 6 damage four times over about 2 seconds (24 in all), every 6 seconds. Magic XP.
• Wall fire jet (2 Iron Bar, 2 Fire Oil, 5 Fire Rune): goes on a wall and blows the game's fire trap flames about 3 m out from the wall's face, nothing behind the wall. Same damage and cooldown as the floor fire jet. Magic XP.
• Dart launcher (2 Steel Bar, 2 Iron Crossbow Limbs, 2 Oak Plank): goes on a wall and shoots a dart at the nearest hostile creature in front of it, up to 15 m away. 15 damage, every 2 seconds. Ranged XP. On its own it only shoots when it has a clear shot: in my test it held its fire at a goblin behind a wall, and started shooting once I took the wall away. When a pressure plate fires it, it shoots at a creature it can see, or straight out from the wall if it can't see one.
• Exploding plant (3 Nature Rune, 2 Fire Oil, 1 Coal): when a hostile creature comes within about 2 m, it blows up a moment later and hits every hostile creature within about 3.4 m for 40. The plant is always there to see, and when it goes off you see it go off and grow back about 30 seconds later, ready to go off again. Magic XP. The blast is the mod's own, an explosion effect plus damage that only reaches hostile creatures. I stood 0.5 m, 2 m and 3.5 m from it as it went off and took nothing, and a goblin that set it off by itself died and dropped its loot.
• Pressure plate (2 Iron Bar, 1 Oak Plank): does no damage itself. It fires the traps around it (more below).

A goblin runs into the fire jets

Wall traps need a built wall

• The dart launcher and the wall fire jet go on walls you built. The game's build ghost already refuses floors and open ground for them. In my tests they worked on a wooden wall and a stone wall.
• The ghost does let them onto some natural stone. So the mod checks every new wall trap. If it isn't on a wall you built, or it faces into its own wall, the mod takes it down, the materials drop on the ground, and you get the line "Wall traps need a built wall." That line always shows, even with messages turned off. I saw the mod take one down from the side of a foundation. Rock and a trap facing into its wall are handled the same way in the code, but I haven't seen those two in game.
• Take the wall down and the trap comes with it, with its materials on the ground as well. Nothing is left floating.
• Building around your traps is fine. I placed and took down 10 foundations and walls next to my traps and the mod left every trap alone.

Pressure plates

From the gate tower: enemies step on the pressure plate and the corridor fires

One step on the pressure plate: fire from the floor and both walls

• 6 m reach: when a hostile creature steps on a plate, every trap within 6 m of it fires (if it's off cooldown). In my test traps 4.6 m and 5 m away fired from the plate, and traps 7.4 m and 7.9 m away didn't. A trap with two plates nearby belongs to the nearest one.
• Plate traps wait for the plate: by default a trap with a plate within 6 m fires only from the plate, so you can set an ambush. Turn Plate traps wait for the plate off and they also fire on their own.
• No linking to do: placing the plate is all it takes. There's no menu and nothing extra saved.
• Tested in a real walk-in: in my test fort a goblin walked from outside to the gate on its own and the plate fired all eight traps in the corridor. It took 21 of its 70 health on that walk: a moving goblin doesn't stand in the flames for long, so a corridor softens creatures up more than it kills them in one go. For the pictures on this page I sent waves of goblins and Black Knights down the same corridor, and they set off every kind of trap, from the plate and on their own.

Settings

All live in Mod Menu (Esc > MODS > Vault Traps), or in config.txt in the mod folder. Mod Menu changes are built to apply without a restart. Edits to config.txt need a restart.

• Enabled: on. Off means no trap moves or fires. The pieces you built stay where they are.
• Floor spikes, Fire jets, Dart launchers, Exploding plants, Pressure plates: all on. Each kind of trap on or off. Fire jets covers both the floor and the wall jet.
• Plate traps wait for the plate: on. On: a trap with a pressure plate within 6 m fires only from the plate. Off: it also fires on its own.
• Damage: 1.0 (0.25 to 3, steps of 0.25). The traps' damage, times the normal amount.
• Show messages: on. The line on screen. The wall trap line always shows.
• Verbose log: off. Extra lines in UE4SS.log, for bug reports.

A few more are in config.txt only:

• PlantNativeBlast: false. False: the exploding plant's blast is the mod's own, an explosion effect plus damage that only ever reaches hostile creatures. True: the game's own plant grows on the piece and does the blast. It spares the player who owns it, but it also goes off when you walk up to it yourself, so a plant next to where you work sits spent most of the time. I haven't tested it with other players around.
• Targets: hostile. Hostile means creatures that are after you. All means any creature, for testing. Players, mounts and pets are never hit either way.
• TestHooks: false. For test runs only. Leave it off.

Install

1. Install UE4SS for RSDragonwilds. I tested with the UE4SS 3.0.1 "latest" build (f6d5f942).
2. Install RuneSchema (link at the bottom of this page). The traps are build pieces, and RuneSchema is what adds them to the build menu. I tested with RuneSchema 0.7.7.9m.
3. Extract this project's zip into your game folder (the one that has RSDragonwilds inside). It puts the VaultTraps folder into RSDragonwilds/Binaries/Win64/ue4ss/Mods/, and the VaultTrapsBuild folder (the build pieces) and the VaultTrapsIcons folder (their icons) into RSDragonwilds/Content/Paks/~mods/.
4. Extract the zip from Vault Traps (RuneSchema add-on) into RSDragonwilds/Binaries/Win64/ue4ss/Mods/RuneSchema/mods/. It holds one VaultTraps folder.
5. Optional: install Mod Menu for the settings in game.
6. Start the game. In my tests RuneSchema added the line VaultTraps : 1 to its runeschema.txt by itself. If the pieces don't show up, that file is the place to look (1 turns an add-on on, 0 turns it off).

Dedicated servers and co-op

I tested one piece of 1.0.1 on a dedicated server. A joined player placed an exploding plant, a hostile goblin set it off on the server, it hit once for 40 at the default Damage 1x, the plant was back after 30 seconds, and my health stayed flat. The other five pieces and a co-op guest on a server are not tested. An earlier attempt to join my test server failed, and that was not this mod: my character had unlocked a journal entry that exists only in a client-side mod pak the server did not have, so the server refused the whole character. If a server will not let you in, check that it has the same extra paks you have. The server also loaded the mod: its UE4SS.log showed running as server and 6 of 6 trap pieces found. If you want to try it on a server, this is how the files split:

• Server: UE4SS, RuneSchema, the VaultTraps folder in ue4ss/Mods, the RuneSchema add-on (RuneSchema/mods/VaultTraps) and the VaultTrapsBuild folder in Content/Paks/~mods. The VaultTrapsIcons folder only holds the build menu pictures: my server loaded fine without it.
• Each player: both pak folders (VaultTrapsBuild and VaultTrapsIcons) and the RuneSchema add-on, with RuneSchema and UE4SS under it.

Back up your character saves first. RuneSchema removes items it doesn't know from the saves it loads. My test server had only this add-on in its RuneSchema, and when it started it went through a character save on the same PC and took out an item from another RuneSchema mod of mine (RuneScape Bags) that the server didn't have. So every RuneSchema install that touches a save needs the same add-ons: give the server the same RuneSchema add-ons as your players.

On Game Pass: use the BE version of UE4SS with the SCO signature, the normal build does not load there. Game Pass also installs the game under Binaries/WinGDK/ instead of Binaries/Win64/, and the zips are laid out for Steam. So on Game Pass move the VaultTraps folder to RSDragonwilds/Binaries/WinGDK/ue4ss/Mods/ by hand. The RuneSchema add-on has to sit inside your RuneSchema folder, so move that one too. As far as I know the VaultTrapsBuild and VaultTrapsIcons folders stay in RSDragonwilds/Content/Paks/~mods/. I haven't tested Game Pass.

To uninstall, take your traps down first to get the materials back, then delete the VaultTraps folder, the VaultTrapsBuild and VaultTrapsIcons folders and the add-on's VaultTraps folder inside RuneSchema's mods folder. The mod adds no items, so there is nothing in your bag or chests that the game won't know. I haven't tested removing the mod with traps still built. With my Dwarf Cannon, which adds its build piece the same way, the world loaded fine and the placed piece was simply gone.

Good to know

• Solo and host. The traps run on the game that owns the world: yours when you play alone or host. A co-op guest's own copy does nothing and leaves the traps to the host. I haven't tested a co-op guest, so I can't tell you yet that a guest is safe from the traps. A dedicated server is tested only as described above.
• Everyone in the world needs the pieces. They come from the paks and the RuneSchema add-on, so I expect every player in a multiplayer world to need those, the same as with other RuneSchema mods. Not tested yet.
• They guard while you're around. A trap is built to fire only when a player is within 60 m of it, and that player gets the kill. They don't defend an empty base while you're away.
• Enemies can break your traps. Traps are building pieces, so creatures can break them like any other piece of your base, and you build them again. In my test waves, goblins and Black Knights broke a pressure plate, a dart launcher, a wall fire jet, a floor fire jet and some exploding plants in the middle of the fight. With its plate gone, a trap goes back to firing on its own. I haven't checked whether a broken trap gives back any materials.
• Players, mounts and pets. Players are tested (see above). Mounts and pets are left out of the targets in the code, but I haven't stood a Pet Rock or a ridden mount in a trap yet.
• Controller. I built the traps with a gamepad: D-pad down opens the build menu, LB/RB switch tabs (the traps are on the Decoration tab), X places, hold LT to rotate, hold Y to dismantle (full cost back in my bag) and B backs out. A wall trap went onto a wall the same way. Not tested yet on the pad: picking a piece with A, which is the game's own select button, and changing settings in Mod Menu.
• Saved by the game. The pieces are normal build pieces, so the game saves them with your base. After a save and a restart all my traps were back and working.
• The floor fire jet is hard to see. When it's idle it's a set of small dark studs flush with the floor. Remember where you put it.
• Sounds. The traps use the game's own trap sounds. I haven't checked them by ear yet.
• Performance. I measured frame time with 6 traps and with 20 traps built and couldn't see a difference.
• Not sure it's running? UE4SS.log shows [VaultTraps] v1.0.1 loaded (loop running). After you enter a world it adds 6 of 6 trap pieces found. If it says no trap piece found, the VaultTrapsBuild folder or the RuneSchema add-on is missing.

Tested on RuneScape: Dragonwilds 1.0 (Steam, build CL-248854) with UE4SS 3.0.1 (build f6d5f942) and RuneSchema 0.7.7.9m, solo, on a test character. Tested in game: all six pieces in the build data with their costs, placing and paying, dismantling for the full cost back, wall traps on a built wall and refused on floors and open ground, the wall rule removing a trap from a foundation side, a wall taken down under a trap, building and dismantling walls next to traps, save and restart, the cooldowns, the pressure plate's 6 m reach, a goblin walking into a trap corridor on its own, a non-hostile chicken left alone, and a fort with 14 traps. On the 1.0.0 build: player safety on every piece with immortality off (with a control), the exploding plant at 0.5, 2 and 3.5 m, kills paying loot and XP for each trap, darts holding fire with a wall in the way, the fire jet and wall fire jet flames, the spikes rising on each strike, waves of goblins and Black Knights running a trap corridor (they set off every kind of trap and broke some), and on a gamepad: opening the build menu, finding the traps, placing, rotating, a wall trap on a wall, dismantling and backing out. On 1.0.1: the exploding plant stood there with its plant at the default settings, went off once for 40 when a hostile goblin stood on it, and was back about 30 seconds later with my health unchanged; after my character died and respawned, the plant showed again and fired. Not tested yet: co-op, dedicated servers beyond that one plant, a raid, picking a piece with A and Mod Menu on a controller, the Mod Menu page, Game Pass.

RuneSchema: RuneSchema on Nexus Mods.

Also on Nexus Mods: Vault Traps on Nexus Mods.