Manual Platform and Elevator Control on Thunderstore: Mod Breakdown and Configuration Guide

✨ This article was AI edited. Editorial responsibility: ChrisberGen.Blog.

Modding communities on platforms like Thunderstore frequently push game engine mechanics far beyond their original design boundaries. Across cooperative physics games like Lethal Company, Risk of Rain 2, Ultrakill, and Valheim, automated moving platforms and elevators often create frustrating bottlenecks. Whether it is an elevator doors cycle leaving teammates behind or a hydraulic lift trapped at an unreachable floor, players routinely turn to Thunderstore to take direct, manual command of environmental platforms.

1. Identifying the Game: Lethal Company vs. Risk of Rain 2 Platforms

Because Thunderstore acts as a unified package repository hosting thousands of mods across dozens of titles, player searches for “manual platform control” generally refer to two primary ecosystems:

A. Lethal Company Moving Platforms & Ship Doors

In Lethal Company, players frequently look for mods that allow manual control over the ship’s pneumatic door cycles, internal catwalk extensions, and facility elevator cages. The most prominent mods serving this function include:

• ControlCompany: Provides extensive host-side controls over dungeon apparatus, interactive apparatus rooms, doors, and facility mechanisms.
• BetterElevator / ManualShipDoors: Dedicated quality-of-life mods that override the automatic timer logic on facility lift cages and hydraulic ship doors, allowing players to activate them via configurable hotkeys or external switch toggles.
• FacilityMeltdown / InteriorControlSuite: Adds interactive terminal commands to call lifts, lower automated stairways, or lock industrial platform gates remotely.

B. Risk of Rain 2 Environmental Lifts and Geysers

In Risk of Rain 2, stages like Wetland Aspects or Commencement feature fixed vertical platforms, jump pads, and mechanical gates. Mods such as ProperSave, DebugToolkit, and custom stage physics packages allow players to bypass automated trigger volumes and spawn or toggle platform states on demand using console commands.

2. How Thunderstore Platform Control Mods Work Under the Hood

Most Unity-based games hosted on Thunderstore use the BepInEx injection framework to hook runtime game logic. When an automated platform operates in vanilla game code, its behavior is typically governed by a state machine script:

// Conceptual Vanilla Platform Controller (Unity C#)
public class ElevatorController : MonoBehaviour {
    public float cycleTime = 15.0f;
    private bool isMoving = false;

    private void Update() {
        // Vanilla auto-loop trigger
        if (!isMoving && timer >= cycleTime) {
            StartCoroutine(MovePlatformToNextWaypoint());
        }
    }
}

Platform control mods use HarmonyX patches (Prefix or Postfix injections) to intercept these update loops. By nullifying the automated timer and redirecting the invocation to a custom player input event (e.g., listening for an E key press or custom BepInEx keybinding), the mod shifts platform movement entirely into the player’s hands:

// Conceptual Harmony Patch for Manual Control
[HarmonyPatch(typeof(ElevatorController), "Update")]
public static class ManualPlatformPatch {
    public static bool Prefix(ElevatorController __instance) {
        // Block vanilla automatic timer cycle
        if (UnityInput.Current.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.F)) {
            __instance.MovePlatformToNextWaypoint();
        }
        return false; // Suppress original automated routine
    }
}

3. Step-by-Step Installation via Thunderstore Mod Manager

To safely configure manual platform control mods without corrupting your game profile, follow this installation protocol:

1. Install Thunderstore App / r2modman: Avoid extracting zip files directly into your primary game directory. Using a profile-based mod manager guarantees that vanilla files remain untouched.
2. Create a Dedicated Profile: In r2modman, name your profile Mechanics-Tweaks or similar.
3. Search for Platform Controls: Use the “Online” tab and filter by your target game. Search for Manual Control, BetterElevator, or ControlCompany depending on your game.
4. Verify Dependencies: Ensure core libraries—specifically BepInExPack and HookGenPatcher—are automatically downloaded and enabled.
5. Configure Hotkeys: Launch the game once to generate config files, then navigate to the Config Editor in r2modman. Open the target mod’s .cfg file to customize activation keybinds and avoid conflicts with sprint or interaction keys.

4. Host vs. Client Multiplayer Synchronization

A critical consideration when introducing platform mods to multiplayer lobbies is networking synchronization. Unity physics objects that sync over Photon, Steamworks P2P, or Mirror require the host to validate spatial coordinates.

If you install a platform control mod as a client in a vanilla host’s game, the server will almost certainly reject the altered platform position, resulting in player rubber-banding or lethal falls. Always ensure the lobby host runs the authoritative platform mod.

5. Troubleshooting Common Platform Mod Issues

• Platforms Freezing Mid-Transit: Usually occurs when two competing mods hook the same transform vector. Check your r2modman log for NullReferenceException warnings pointing to collider conflicts.
• Keybind Unresponsiveness: In games with raw input handling, overlay menus (such as Discord or Steam) can consume key events. Re-bind platform controls to mouse buttons or non-alphanumeric keys like BracketRight.
• Version Incompatibility: Game updates routinely alter internal class names (e.g., Unity engine transitions). Always verify that the mod’s Thunderstore page indicates compatibility with the current game build.