Information

01What it is

Information isn't a system you switch on. It's a cheat sheet for admins. When you're writing a custom message somewhere in Surge and can't remember whether it's {playername} or {player}, this is where you look.

Open Features > Information and you'll land on the Variables / Placeholders tab.

02How placeholders work

A placeholder is a word in curly braces, like {playername}, that the bot swaps for a real value right before the message goes out in game chat. So Welcome back {playername} turns into Welcome back Zander.

• Type them exactly as shown, curly braces and all.
• Upper or lower case doesn't matter. {PlayerName} works the same as {playername}.
• Each placeholder only works in the messages it's listed for. Dropping {kd} into a Book A Ride message won't do anything.

03What's on the page

Placeholders are grouped by system, and each group tells you which message boxes it applies to:

• Zorp: {playername} for Zorp messages and zone enter or leave messages.
• Auto Kits: {playername}, {kitnickname} and {cooldown}.
• Book A Ride: {playername}, {transport}, {cooldown} and {fuelamount}.
• Store purchases: {playername}, {itemname} and {kitname}.
• Killfeed: {playername}, {killer}, {victim}, {entityname}, {Totalkills}, {totaldeaths}, {kd}, {streak} and {distance}. Killfeed Discord messages can also use {server}.
• Docked Cargo: {eventname}.
• PVP Events: {eventname}, {playername} and {totaleventkills}.
• Skip Night: {votecount}, plus optional {playername}.
• Leaderboard: {playername}, {totalkills}, {totaldeaths} and {kd}, filled in rank order.
• Greeting messages: {PlayerName} (same as {playername}) in the welcome and goodbye in-game lines.

Monitors and crate event messages are listed too, marked as having no placeholders. They're sent exactly as you write them.

04The tricky ones

• Killfeed PvP `{playername}`: the first one is the killer, the second one is the victim. Use {killer} and {victim} if you want them the other way round.
• Killfeed stats: {Totalkills}, {totaldeaths}, {kd} and {streak} are always the killer's numbers.
• Leaderboard: each placeholder steps down a rank every time you use it. The first {playername} is #1, the second is #2, up to #4.

05Tips for writing messages

Every message box in Surge comes with an in-game preview right under it. Use it. It shows colours, sizes and line breaks roughly the way players will see them, and warns you about common slip-ups.

• <b>bold</b>, <i>italic</i>, <u>underline</u> and <s>strikethrough</s> all work.
• <color=#FFD700>text</color> for colour. Don't forget the # in front of hex codes.
• <size=35>text</size> for size. It needs a number.
• <br> starts a new line.