LooseEnds

Latest release	1.1.1
Download	GitHub · Thunderstore
Requires	MelonLoader 0.7.3, S1API Forked 3.1.1

A MelonLoader (IL2CPP) mod for Schedule I that makes dead bodies actually matter.

🛟 Need help or found a bug? Get support at support.doodesch.de/looseends.

In vanilla, police and citizens walk over a corpse like it isn’t there, and a body drags around as if it weighs as much as a plastic bag. Loose Ends fixes both:

1. Witnesses react. A living NPC who actually sees a dead NPC reacts. A civilian witness pulls out their phone and calls the police over the game’s own ~4 second call window - phone out, a progress icon over their head. That window is your chance: knock the witness out or kill them before the call connects and it stops, silencing the only witness. When the call connects, officers are sent to the scene (the body) and the game’s own “Investigating” behaviour walks them there, searches, and only escalates to arresting you if an officer actually spots you - otherwise it times out and the case is dropped. A police officer who finds a body reports it instantly (you cannot phone-block a cop). A body hidden from sight - in a dumpster, behind a wall, indoors, underwater, behind cover - is never seen, so nothing happens. That is the whole point: hide your bodies or face the heat.
2. Corpses are heavier. While you drag a body it resists being pulled - it lags behind the carry point and drags sluggishly (and is heavier to throw), scaled by a configurable multiplier. It does not slow you down; the weight is in the body, not your legs.

Everything is configurable in UserData/MelonPreferences.cfg, including how punishing the police response is.

Requirements

• MelonLoader (IL2CPP build of Schedule I)
• S1API (Il2Cpp) Without it the mod still works; settings live in UserData/MelonPreferences.cfg under [LooseEnds_01_Main].

How it works

• The mod keeps a small live set of NPC corpses (updated instantly on death and reconciled every ~2 s). When there are no corpses, it does effectively nothing, so there is no idle cost.
• A throttled scan asks each nearby living NPC whether it can see the body. There are two sight checks: the NPC’s own vision cone (VisionCone.IsPointWithinSight, field-of-view + occlusion) within a believable BodySightRange, and a close-range notice within NoticeRadius (NPCs never look down at their feet, so a body lying flat is below their forward cone - this is what makes someone standing over a corpse actually react). Close-range line of sight is resolved by the game’s own visibility solver (EntityVisibility), so a body in a dumpster / behind a wall / in bushes stays hidden, and partial cover counts as hidden.
• On the first sighting, after a short reaction delay, the witness reacts. A civilian/employee witness pulls out their phone via the game’s native CallPoliceBehaviour (~4 s call, visible progress icon) - interruptible: down the witness before it connects and no police are called. A witness in active combat with you holds at “seen” and calls once the fight ends (a panicking witness still calls, exactly like vanilla). A police witness reports instantly.
• When the call connects (or for the instant police/WitnessCallsPolice off path), the suspect is raised to the configured pursuit level and officers are redirected to the scene: the suspect’s LastKnownPosition is set to the body, so the game’s Investigating behaviour sends officers to search there rather than chasing your live position. They escalate to arresting only if they actually spot you.
• Every body a witness sees gets its own response (OncePerCorpse); there is no global throttle, so a body left in front of someone is never silently ignored.
• Killer attribution is captured at attack time (the game stores no “killer” on a corpse), so the heat goes to whoever actually did it; a knockout falls back to the recent attacker. If the killer is unknown (an environmental or NPC-vs-NPC death), single-player blames the local player so there is still a response; co-op falls back sensibly.
• Getting arrested settles the whole spree: the killer registry is cleared and every tracked body is marked resolved, so you are not re-arrested for each corpse you left lying around.
• It is host-authoritative: detection and all police/pursuit writes run only on the server/host and use the game’s own networked calls, so they replicate to clients. In a real co-op lobby the system stays off until you opt in (EnableInMultiplayer) and test it with two players.

Settings (category LooseEnds_01_Main)

Master

• Enabled (true) - master switch.
• EnableInMultiplayer (false) - keep off in real co-op until tested with 2 players.

Detection

• ReactCitizens (true), ReactPolice (true), ReactEmployees (false) - which NPC types can witness (your crew ignores bodies by default).
• RequireLineOfSight (true) - use the vision cone (hidden bodies unseen). Off = pure radius (notices through walls).
• UseVisionConeRange (true) - rely on the NPC’s own sight range. Off = use DetectionRange as an explicit radius.
• DetectionRange (12 m, range 3-40) - explicit notice radius used when UseVisionConeRange is off.
• ReactionDelaySeconds (3 s, range 0-30) - delay after the first sighting before the response fires.
• ObserverCullRadius (25 m, range 5-60) - performance: only NPCs within this distance of a corpse are considered.
• BodySightRange (12 m, range 4-30) - how far an NPC can notice a body through their vision cone. Capped below normal sight range, because a body lying flat is far less conspicuous than a standing person - otherwise a corpse in the open is spotted instantly by anyone nearby.
• NoticeRadius (6 m, range 2-15) - close-range notice radius. Any living NPC this close with a clear line of sight notices a body even though it is below their forward cone (line of sight still respected, so hidden stays hidden).
• ScanIntervalSeconds (0.4 s, range 0.1-2), MaxRaycastsPerScan (64, range 8-256) - scan cadence + per-tick cap.
• ReactToKnockedOut (false) - also react to merely unconscious NPCs (not just dead ones).

Response (the “realism” dial)

• WitnessCallsPolice (true) - a civilian witness pulls out their phone and calls over the game’s own ~4 s window (visible progress icon); silence them before it connects to stop it. Off = police are alerted instantly. A police officer always reports instantly regardless.
• RequirePlayerAlsoSeen (false) - off: seeing the body is enough (hiding yourself is not enough, you must hide the body). On: the witness must also have you in sight before heat is applied (closer to vanilla crime-witnessing).
• PursuitLevel (1, range 1-4) - level to apply: 1 = Investigating, 2 = Arresting, 3 = NonLethal, 4 = Lethal.
• OncePerCorpse (true) - respond only once per corpse. Off = re-trigger allowed, subject to the cooldown below.
• ResponseCooldownSeconds (60 s, range 5-600) - per-corpse re-trigger gap, used only when OncePerCorpse is off. It does not throttle different bodies - every body a witness sees gets its own response.
• AttributeUnknownToLocalPlayer (true) - in single-player, blame the local player for an unattributed body so the investigation still has a suspect. Treated as off in co-op.

Weight

• CorpseWeightMultiplier (5, range 1-20) - how heavy a dragged body (dead or knocked-out) feels to pull. Higher = the body resists more: it lags behind the carry point, drags sluggishly, and is heavier to throw. 1 = vanilla. It does not slow the player.

Building

dotnet build -c Debug     # dev build: includes config probes + verbose logging, auto-copies to the game Mods folder
dotnet build -c Release   # release build: all dev surface compiled out

The post-build step copies the DLL to Mods/ (path set by ModsDirectory in the csproj).

Verifying in-game

A few behaviours are best confirmed live in your own save. Build Debug, load a save, then:

1. It loads cleanly. Check the MelonLoader log for Loose Ends v1.1.1 and [Core] Witness system ACTIVE (the latter appears once you are in a save on the host). No errors.
2. Make a corpse. Open the dev console and run triggerlightning <npc_id> (e.g. triggerlightning cranky_frank) to kill an NPC, or kill one yourself. The log should show [Killer] NPC died ... and [Corpse] tracked new corpse.
3. Witnessing (open). With the body in the open near other NPCs, the log should show [Witness] corpse N SEEN by observer M, then [Reaction] witness ... CALLING police .... The civilian pulls out their phone; once the ~4 s call connects the log shows [Reaction] call CONNECTED ..., your pursuit shows Investigating, and officers head to the scene.
4. Silence the witness. Knock out or kill the calling witness before the ~4 s window elapses - the log should show [Reaction] witness SILENCED before the call connected ... and no police are called. (Build Debug and press F8 to get a weapon arsenal for this.)
5. Hidden body. Put a body in a dumpster / indoors / underwater / behind cover near the same NPCs. With RequireLineOfSight on it should NOT be seen and NOT trigger - this is the core mechanic.
6. Weight. Drag the body. It should clearly resist being pulled (lagging behind, heavy to throw) without slowing your own movement, and return to normal when dropped ([Weight] drag start ...).
7. Deterministic dispatch test. Toggle the Debug config button ForceDiscoverNearest to immediately run the response on the nearest corpse, bypassing line-of-sight and the delay.

Tuning knobs to confirm against your save: ScanIntervalSeconds, BodySightRange, NoticeRadius, and PursuitLevel.

Status / known limitations

• Multiplayer is host-authoritative and off by default in co-op (EnableInMultiplayer) until a 2-player live test.
• Killer attribution covers player-inflicted deaths; environmental / NPC-vs-NPC deaths are still detected as bodies but have no player to blame (single-player can fall back to the local player; co-op falls back to no attribution).