Hydra is the editor suite built into the server. It runs in a browser like any
other station, it edits the content on disk, and it is how everything in Horizons was
made.
Opening it
Hydra appears on the station selection page in its own
Hydra Studio group, as Studio. That entry only appears
when the Hydra module is enabled, because the editor's screens are contributed by that
module. Without it, the Hydra entry under Admin opens
the platform settings and none of the editors.
Open it from the server machine itself — http://localhost:1864/ — or
from another browser on your network. Saving content needs an API token, and the
server writes it into the editor pages when it serves them, so there is nothing to
set up.
How the shell works
Hydra is a shell with a tab strip, not a set of separate pages. The left column is
the platform navigation — module list, content directories, extensions, themes,
device controllers, server stats. Opening a document (a module, a vessel, a mission)
adds a tab, and that tab brings its own section list into the second
column.
Tabs are dirty‑tracked: an edited document is marked, and Ctrl+S saves the
active one. There is a command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) for reaching any action by name, which is
usually faster than hunting through sections, and Ctrl+P jumps straight to a module,
vessel class, mission, map or other record by name.
Documents can also be popped out into their own window, which is how you get a
mission and the vessel it uses side by side.
What you can edit
| Editor | Edits |
|---|
| Modules | A content module and everything in it. The top of the tree. |
| Mission | One mission: objectives, objects, events, encounters. |
| Vessel Class | A ship type: hull, roles, components, cameras, decks. |
| Component | A device that goes on a ship. |
| Component Part | An upgrade that fills a component's upgrade slot. |
| Shipyard | Fitting components to a hull's hard points, and placing its cameras, docks, lights and effects. |
| Archetype | An NPC commander's role: standing tasks, reflexes, temperament. Read‑only for now. |
| Task Plan | Authored steps that replace how a task type is carried out. |
| Campaign | A sequence of missions with carried state. |
| Map | A star system or surface: what is where. |
| Models | Browsing art with a live preview, and registering it and its materials, each model in its own tab. |
| Sound Bank | Named, layered audio definitions. |
| Effect | Visual effects built from renderer layers. |
| Gallery / Files | Browsing what the loaded modules provide. |
| Package | Sealing a finished module for distribution. |
Three rules that apply everywhere
1. Saves are whole records, not patches. An editor reads a record,
you change part of it, and the whole thing is written back. Nothing merges. If a
field was not loaded into the editor you are using, saving can write it away
— which is why sub‑editors that open a slice of a record are the place to be
careful, and why two editors open on the same record at once is a bad idea. Save one,
reload the other.
2. Records are keyed by name. Renaming is not a rename; it is a new
record. The editors handle this by deleting the old one for you, but it means a
rename breaks anything that referenced the old name — missions pointing at a vessel
class, vessels pointing at a component. Search before you rename.
3. There is no undo. The editors write to disk. Keep your modules
in version control, or copy the module folder before a large restructuring.
Where content lives
Everything is files under a module folder, and the folder names are the categories:
Missions, Objects (vessel classes), Components,
Maps, Campaigns, Models, Textures,
Sounds, Music, Video, Dialog,
Factions, Pedias, Html, World, and
Scripts for code the module's mission scripts share (see
Mission Scripting).
You can edit those files by hand, and for bulk changes that is often quicker.
The editors and the files are the same content — there is no database in between.
See Modules for how several modules layer on top of each other.
