🎮 Better Auto Play

A smart card sorting plugin for Vampire Crawlers that optimizes auto-play by prioritizing mana generators and utility cards before attacks.

✨ Features

• Mana-First Strategy: Mana-generating cards (Empty Tome, etc.) are played first to enable more plays
• Utility Buffing: Utility/buff cards are played before attacks to maximize damage output
• Smart Combo Chain: Keeps same-cost mana-generator chains alive before stepping up to the next mana cost
• Crawler Support: FCC companion cards are intelligently slotted into the play order
• Auto-Play Optimization: Automatically enables Combo sorting mode during auto-play

📋 How It Works

Cards are classified into five priority tiers:

Role	Priority	Examples
Mana Generator	0 (highest)	Empty Tome, Mana gain cards
Utility	1	Candles, stat buffs, support
Crawler	2	FCC companion cards
Attack	3	Whip, Runetracer, damage cards
Unknown	4 (lowest)	Unclassified cards

Combo Algorithm

1. Starting Card: Picks the best card that continues an existing combo, or the highest-priority card available
2. Combo Chain: Selects next cards based on:
   • Mana generators that maintain mana cost
   • Cards that increase mana cost, with mana generators prioritized inside that step
   • Cards that decrease mana cost (last resort)
3. Remaining Cards: Sorted by role → mana gain → mana cost → evolved status

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📦 Installation

Step 1: Install BepInEx

IMPORTANT: This mod requires BepInEx to be installed first. BepInEx is a framework that allows modding games.

1.1 - Download BepInEx

1. Click the link below: https://github.com/BepInEx/BepInEx/releases/latest

2. You will see an "Assets" header on the page with several files below it.

3. If your computer is 64-bit (most likely):

   • 📥 Download BepInEx_x64_6.0.0-be.661.zip (or similar version)

4. If your computer is 32-bit (rare):

   • 📥 Download BepInEx_x86_6.0.0-be.661.zip (or similar version)

1.2 - Locate Game Folder

Now let's find where Vampire Crawlers is installed:

1. Open Steam
2. Go to the Library tab
3. Find Vampire Crawlers in your game list
4. Right-click on the game
5. Select "Properties..." from the menu
6. Click on the "Installed Files" tab
7. Press the "Browse..." button

🎉 You are now in the game folder! Keep this window open in the background.

1.3 - Extract BepInEx to Game Folder

1. Find the downloaded .zip file (should be in Downloads folder)
2. Right-click the zip file → "Extract All..." or "Extract here"
3. Extract to the game folder you just opened
4. When done, the game folder should look like:

   Vampire Crawlers/
   ├── BepInEx/
   ├── GameAssembly.dll
   ├── UnityPlayer.dll
   └── ... (other files)
   

1.4 - Run the Game Once

1. Launch Vampire Crawlers from Steam
2. When you reach the main menu, close the game
3. This step allows BepInEx to create necessary files

✅ BepInEx installation complete!

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Step 2: Download the Mod

1. Go to the "Releases" section on this GitHub page
2. Download the BetterAutoPlay.dll file from the latest release
3. The file is small (~15 KB), download will be quick

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Step 3: Install the Mod

1. Go to the game folder you found in Step 1.2
2. Open the BepInEx folder
3. Open the plugins folder
4. Create a new folder here: BetterAutoPlay
5. Copy the downloaded BetterAutoPlay.dll file into this new folder

It should look like this:

Vampire Crawlers/
└── BepInEx/
    └── plugins/
        └── BetterAutoPlay/
            └── BetterAutoPlay.dll  ← Put it here!

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Step 4: Test

1. Launch the game
2. The mod should load automatically
3. To verify it's working:
   • Open the BepInEx/LogOutput.log file in the game folder
   • Search for "Better Auto Play loaded"

🎮 Enjoy the game!

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🛠️ Building from Source

Prerequisites

• .NET SDK 6.0+
• BepInEx IL2CPP must be installed (follow Step 1 above)
• Vampire Crawlers must be installed on Steam
• Il2CppDumper - to generate interop DLLs

Build Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/BetterAutoPlay.git
   cd BetterAutoPlay

2. Generate Interop DLLs with Il2CppDumper:

   Why? Vampire Crawlers is built with IL2CPP. We need to dump the game's DLLs to get type definitions like CardModel, PlayerModel, etc.

   1. Download Il2CppDumper (e.g., Il2CppDumper-win-v6.7.46.zip)
   2. Extract it somewhere (e.g., C:\Il2CppDumper)
   3. Run Il2CppDumper.exe
   4. Select file: Navigate to your game folder and select GameAssembly.dll
   5. Select folder: Choose C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Vampire Crawlers\BepInEx\
   6. A new DummyDLL folder will be created - rename it to interop
   7. Move interop folder into BepInEx\ (if not already there)

   Result should look like:

   Vampire Crawlers/
   └── BepInEx/
       ├── core/
       └── interop/
           ├── Assembly-CSharp.dll
           ├── Pancake.dll
           ├── UnityEngine.CoreModule.dll
           └── Sirenix.Serialization.dll
   

3. Check your Steam path:

   The project expects the game at:

   C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Vampire Crawlers
   

   If your game is installed elsewhere, open the .csproj file and update all the HintPath entries to match your path.

4. Build the project:

   dotnet build -c Release

5. Copy to game:

   # Windows (PowerShell)
   Copy-Item bin\Release\BetterAutoPlay.dll "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Vampire Crawlers\BepInEx\plugins\BetterAutoPlay\"
   
   # Or manually copy the DLL to:
   # <Game Folder>\BepInEx\plugins\BetterAutoPlay\

6. Output: bin/Release/BetterAutoPlay.dll is now ready to use!

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🐛 Troubleshooting

Mod not loading?

• Make sure you installed BepInEx IL2CPP (not Mono)
• Check the BepInEx/LogOutput.log file
• Ensure the DLL is in BepInEx/plugins/BetterAutoPlay/ folder

Game won't start?

• Make sure you're using the IL2CPP version
• Update BepInEx to the latest version
• Verify game and BepInEx version compatibility

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📄 License

MIT License - Copyright (c) 2025 CriticalRange

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or pull requests.

📜 Changelog

v0.1.0

• Initial release
• Mana-first card sorting
• Combo chain optimization
• Auto-play integration

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Made with ❤️ for the Vampire Crawlers community