Modding:Modder Guide/Game Fundamentals

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This page explains some of the Stardew Valley fundamentals that are useful for modders. See also Modding:Common tasks.

Data structures

Net fields

The following describes the upcoming Stardew Valley 1.3, and may change before release.

A 'net type' is any of several classes which Stardew Valley uses to sync data between players, named for the Net prefix in their name. A net type can represent a simple value like NetBool, or complex values like NetFieldDictionary. The game will regularly collect all the net fields reachable from Game1.netWorldState and sync them with other players. That means that many mod changes will be synchronised automatically in multiplayer.

Net fields can implicitly convert to their underlying value type (like bool x = new NetBool(true)), but their conversion rules can be counterintuitive and error-prone. For example, item?.category == null && item?.category != null can both be true at once. Always avoid implicit casts to minimise bugs. Instead, access the underlying value using .Value (or .Pairs on a net dictionary):

NetString str = new NetString("bar");
if (str.Value == "bar") // true

The build config NuGet package should detect most implicit conversions and show an appropriate build warning.