Friends

In-game friends with requests and presence, merged with the player’s platform friends such as Steam into one list.

Every field, its default and every member you can call: Friends reference.

Setup

1. Give player prefabs a VtPlayerIdentity and check Use Friends on their unit definition. A VtUnitFriends component attaches on spawn.
2. Choose where friends and known players persist before players connect:

VtFriends.Store = new VtJsonFriendsStore();
VtPlayerDirectory.Store = new VtJsonPlayerDirectoryStore();

The defaults keep everything in memory. An online game implements IVtFriendsStore and IVtPlayerDirectoryStore against its database.

The player directory records every player the server sees, so requests and mail can find someone by name after they log off.

Runtime

var friends = player.GetComponent<VtUnitFriends>();

friends.SendRequest("Bob", out var reason);
friends.Incoming;
friends.Accept(requesterPlayerId, out reason);
friends.Decline(requesterPlayerId, out reason);
friends.Cancel(recipientPlayerId, out reason);
friends.Remove(friendPlayerId, out reason);

var rows = new List<VtFriendView>();
friends.GetView(rows);
friends.OnFriendsChanged += record => Redraw();
friends.OnFriendPresenceChanged += (friendId, online) => Redraw();

A request reaches an offline player and waits in their inbox. If both players request each other, they become friends at once. Unanswered requests drop after Friend Request Expiry Days. Lists cap at Friends Max Count, and inboxes at Friend Requests Max Pending. Renaming a player updates what friends and requesters see.

Reasons: NoIdentity, PlayerNotFound, CannotBefriendSelf, AlreadyFriends, RequestPending, FriendListFull, TargetFull, NoRequest, NotFriends, and AuthorityNotLocal on a networked client.

Steam and other platforms

Platform friends are known only on the player’s own machine; a game server cannot read them. Vantage therefore keeps two kinds of friends:

Implement IVtPlatformFriendsProvider on the client and set VtFriends.PlatformProvider. GetView then merges both into one list. A friend on both appears once, marked as both. When player ids are SteamIDs the rows merge on their own; otherwise map ids with VtFriends.PlatformIdToPlayerId.

A provider for Steamworks.NET looks like this. It is an example, not part of the package:

public sealed class SteamFriendsProvider : IVtPlatformFriendsProvider
{
    public string PlatformName => "Steam";
    public event Action OnChanged;

    public void GetFriends(List<VtPlatformFriend> results)
    {
        int count = SteamFriends.GetFriendCount(EFriendFlags.k_EFriendFlagImmediate);
        for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            CSteamID id = SteamFriends.GetFriendByIndex(i, EFriendFlags.k_EFriendFlagImmediate);
            bool playing = SteamFriends.GetFriendGamePlayed(id, out FriendGameInfo_t game)
                           && game.m_gameID.AppID() == SteamUtils.GetAppID();
            results.Add(new VtPlatformFriend
            {
                platformId = id.m_SteamID.ToString(),
                displayName = SteamFriends.GetFriendPersonaName(id),
                online = SteamFriends.GetFriendPersonaState(id) != EPersonaState.k_EPersonaStateOffline,
                playingThisGame = playing,
            });
        }
    }
}

Joining a Steam friend’s session and Steam invites are handled by your transport and lobby code, not by the friends module.

Multiplayer

The co-op sample’s friends sync sends each player its record and friend presence. Every call from a client travels as a command and is checked on the server.