Studio doesn't run the HUD client binder in Edit view, so an authored SurvivalHud shows its static template there — full bars, blank readouts, and only the shipped default icons (an icon override isn't visible until Play). The admin plugin now has a footer with **Preview HUD** / **Clear** that paints, in Edit, what the running game would render, so owners tune-and-see without pressing Play. - plugin/HudPreview.luau (new): mirrors the engine binder's resolution — per-bar `Icon` attribute › the stat's effective icon (config/admin override else shipped default) for icons; FillAxis-aware sample fill; per-stat ValueFormat for the readout; a sample counter value. Every property is snapshotted once before the first write and clear() restores them exactly (so it's fully reversible); apply() takes an optional hud root for testability. Skips the Assets registry tier (runtime-only, empty in Edit) and never guesses engine-owned invert/dangerHigh. - StatAdminUi: a footer bar with Preview / Clear buttons + a status readout. - init.server: wires both through ChangeHistory (each is one undo step). - Verified in Studio: synthetic-HUD logic test (icon resolution, sample fill/value, exact restore) + a live visual pass. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
5.5 KiB
Survival Stats admin plugin
A small Studio plugin that gives the experience owner a friendly form to tune the survival
stats — instead of hand-editing Attributes on the SurvivalStatsConfig instance in the Explorer.
It's the first slice of the Builder / Admin plugin.
Install
This is a Studio editor tool, not game content — so syncing the engine does not install it. A Rojo sync (or the drop-in
SurvivorCore.rbxm) populates a place'sReplicatedStorage. The plugin is different: it lives in Studio's local plugins folder and runs in the editor across every place you open. You install it once, separately from any place.
Build it straight into your local plugins folder:
rojo build plugin.project.json --plugin SurvivorCoreStatAdmin.rbxm
The --plugin flag writes the built model into Studio's plugins folder for you:
| OS | Plugins folder |
|---|---|
| macOS | ~/Documents/Roblox/Plugins/ |
| Windows | %LOCALAPPDATA%\Roblox\Plugins\ |
(Prefer to place it by hand? Build to a file instead — rojo build plugin.project.json -o SurvivorCoreStatAdmin.rbxm — and drop it into that folder, or open it from Studio → Plugins tab
→ Plugins Folder.)
Then restart Studio — a brand-new plugin's toolbar only registers when Studio loads it. (After
this first install, re-running the --plugin build hot-reloads the plugin live, no restart needed.)
A SurvivorCore › Survival Stats button then appears on the Plugins ribbon tab; click it to
toggle the dock widget.
Open a place that has the engine in it. The plugin tunes the stats of whatever place is open, reading the live roster from
ReplicatedStorage.SurvivorCore— so sync the engine (or drop inSurvivorCore.rbxm) first. With no engine present it opens to an instructional empty state and writes nothing. Note that restarting Studio drops an unsaved Rojo-synced place, so reconnect Rojo and re-sync (or save the place before restarting) to bring the engine back.
Using it
Each stat shows the seven tunable fields, each displaying its effective value (your override if you've set one, otherwise the live engine default):
- Rate / second — how fast the stat drifts (the headline knob).
- Max, Start, Warn at % — range, spawn value, warning threshold.
- Display — whether it shows on the HUD.
- Icon — the HUD icon asset id.
- Value format —
fraction(99/100) ·percent·value·none.
Edit a field (type a number / click to toggle or cycle) and it's applied immediately. The dot at the left of a row is filled + blue when that field is overridden, hollow when it's following the engine default. Click the dot to reset the field. Every edit is a single undo step.
It reads the stat roster + defaults live from the engine in the place, so it always reflects the version you're running. With no engine synced it shows an instructional empty state and writes nothing.
Preview the HUD in Edit mode
Roblox doesn't run the HUD's client binder in Studio's Edit view, so an authored SurvivalHud
normally shows its static template there — full bars, blank readouts, and only the shipped default
icons (an icon override you set above isn't visible until you press Play). The footer's Preview
HUD button paints, in Edit, what the running game would render: each bar's resolved icon
(including your overrides), a sample partial fill, and a sample value readout — so you can tune and
see the result without pressing Play. Clear restores the HUD; both are a single undo
step. (Preview resolves icons exactly like the engine — per-bar Icon attribute › the stat's
effective icon — and edits the SurvivalHud in StarterGui, so on the Rojo-mounted demo a re-sync
also resets it.)
Why your tuning is "locked" — it survives re-syncs and engine updates
This is the important part. The engine resolves each stat as engine default → Config.override →
the SurvivalStatsConfig instance (highest priority), and it only ever seeds that instance
when it's missing — it never overwrites it. The plugin builds on that with a deltas-only rule:
- It writes an attribute only when you change a field from the engine default.
- Resetting a field (or typing the default back in) removes the attribute, so the field goes back to following the engine default.
So two good things hold across a SurvivorCore update:
- Your explicit overrides are never lost — they live on your instance, which the engine never overwrites.
- Fields you didn't touch keep following engine defaults — so a future release that improves a default rate reaches your game, instead of being frozen at today's value.
The plugin can tune only the seven owner-facing fields above. It deliberately cannot touch
Invert or DangerHigh — those are engine-owned stat semantics (which way a bar fills / which end
is dangerous); the engine ignores them on the instance, and a guardrail in the plugin makes it
impossible to write them.
Caveat — the engine's own demo. In this repo's demo,
SurvivalStatsConfigis Rojo-mounted, so arojo servere-sync reverts plugin edits there. That's a demo artifact: a real game seeds the instance once (install-if-absent, not Rojo-managed), so the plugin's edits persist across engine updates — which is the whole point.
See also: Survival Stats + HUD · Design Language.