Batteries & accessories

Batteries#

Every phone, pair of NovaBuds and speaker has its own battery, which travels with the item. Batteries are tracked by the server once a minute.

• A carried phone uses a little power on standby, more with the screen on, and more again on calls, video calls, with the camera open, with a Maps waypoint set, while sharing a Personal Hotspot, while tuned in to the Radio app, and per MB of mobile data. Wi-Fi costs nothing extra.
• At 20% the phone offers Low Power Mode (Settings → Battery), which uses less power, shortens Auto-Lock and turns video calls off. It warns again at 10%.
• At 0% the phone turns off. It opens only to a "Connect to power" screen, does not ring (callers hear that it is unavailable) and shows as offline in Locate. It turns back on by itself at 3%.
• Players can also turn a phone off by hand with its side button. It still charges, but stays off until they turn it on again; see Power off and on.
• Battery health loses 1% every three full charges. A worn battery still shows 100% when full, but drains and charges faster. Below 80% health, Settings → Battery recommends a new battery.
• Screen condition loses 1% for every 12 hours the screen is on, and Settings → Battery shows it. Other resources can damage a phone with the DamageDevice export, such as after a fall, and repair it with RepairDevice; see Exports & integrations.
• Optimised Charging (Settings → Battery) stops charging at 80%.
• The Device status widget shows the battery of the phone and of the NovaBuds, speakers and power banks the player carries.

All battery rates are in Config.Charging in config/charging.lua, including cyclesPerHealthPoint (3) and conditionWearMinutes (720) for the wear above. Set enabled = false there to turn the battery system off.

Chargers#

Add the three charger items from Installation. Phone stores in the city sell them, together with NovaBuds, speakers and Wi-Fi routers; see Phones & inventory.

Whatever sits on the pad shows as its own model:

• A phone lies flat as its own model, whichever phone it is: a Wolfden Phone or Wolfden Phone Pro in its own colour, or a Wolfden Phone Secure.
• NovaBuds sit in their charging case, in White or Black, and Nova Studio as the headphones themselves (each model's pad in config/novapods.lua).
• A speaker shows as its own prop, such as the Nova Mini or the Nova Boom (its prop in config/speakers.lua).
• A power bank lies on it as its own model.

The models of the charging pad, the power bank and the NovaBuds cases ship with Wolfden Phone. If a model is missing, a GTA prop stands in (contentModels in config/charging.lua).

Charging pads, and whatever sits on them, stay after a restart and keep charging. A phone on a pad still rings and plays its notification sounds for players near it; pick it up while it rings to answer. Only the player who placed a pad can pick it up, once it is empty. Each player can place up to three pads.

Repair shops#

Two Digital Den Repairs counters, in Mirror Park and Vespucci, sell a new battery (350, health back to 100%), a screen repair (250, condition back to 100%) and a new NovaBuds battery (150) for each phone or pair the player carries. Players use the counter through ox_target or an [E] prompt.

Move counters and change prices in Config.RepairShops in config/charging.lua.

NovaBuds#

NovaBuds (earbuds, in White or Black) and Nova Studio (over-ear headphones, in five colours) are items. Using one puts it on or takes it off, and other players see it worn. Nova Studio headphones hang around the neck while carried.

Pair them to a phone in Settings → Bluetooth. While worn, charged and paired to the phone a call is on, that call is:

• Hands-free: the character does not hold the phone to their ear.
• Private: speakerphone is refused, and only the wearer hears the phone ring.

Music and notification sounds also play only for the wearer.

• Noise control. Noise Cancellation all but silences nearby players' voices and music, and quiets game sound. Transparency lets everything through. Players switch per pair in Settings → Bluetooth, or press U while wearing them.
• Audio sharing. The wearer can let a nearby player who also wears NovaBuds listen in on the phone's calls.
• Owned by an account. The first pairing on a phone signed in to a Nova Account makes the NovaBuds that account's and names them after the player ("Sam's NovaBuds"), which players can change in Settings → Bluetooth. Only that account's phones can pair them afterwards, and Locate shows them, with a notification if the player walks away from them. To sell or give them away, the owner chooses Remove from Nova Account in Settings → Bluetooth or Locate.
• Battery. They drain while worn and come off when empty. They charge three times faster than a phone, using the same chargers.

NovaBuds do not work with Wolfden Phone Secure. Change battery use, noise control and sharing in config/novapods.lua.

Props. NovaBuds and Nova Studio models in every colour ship with Wolfden Phone, and a GTA headset shows if one is missing. To use your own, add your .ydr files under stream/ and name them in each model's props in config/novapods.lua. With Config.Debug = true, line them up in game with the on-screen editor /novapods_edit, or with /novapods_adjust, which prints the config line.

Wi-Fi routers#

The Wi-Fi Router (nova_router) gives free internet within 30 metres, so joined phones use no mobile data.

1. Place it by using the item: scroll rotates, E places, Backspace cancels. Routers stay after a restart. The router's model ships with Wolfden Phone.
2. Buy a package in the Routers app from Nova Store. A router without one gives no internet.
3. Share the password. Other players join in Settings → Wi-Fi, and their phones remember it.

In the Routers app, the owner can rename the network and change the password, which signs every phone off. Only the player who placed a router can pick it up, with ox_target or an [E] prompt, and it keeps its network, password and package. Each player can place up to three.

Public Wi-Fi#

Free, unlimited hotspots work automatically with Wi-Fi on at hospitals, police and sheriff stations, the Diamond Casino, City Hall, the airport and Legion Square.

Add, move or remove spots in Config.Wifi.public in config/wifi.lua. Each needs a unique id, a name, coords and a radius. Adjust the coordinates to your MLOs, and give a spot a password to make players join it like a router.

Wolfden Phone Secure never uses Wi-Fi.

Personal Hotspot#

Any Wolfden Phone or Wolfden Phone Pro can share its mobile data as a Wi-Fi network that moves with the player carrying it.

1. Turn it on in Settings → Personal Hotspot with Allow Others to Join. Each phone gets its own network name and password, which the player can change. Passwords are 8 to 32 characters.
2. Share the password. Phones within 15 metres of the player see the hotspot in Settings → Wi-Fi and join it like a router. Up to five phones can join one hotspot.
3. Manage it. Settings → Personal Hotspot shows how many phones joined. Remove All Devices, or a new password, signs every phone off.

• The hotspot is on the air while the switch is on and the player carries the phone, powered on and out of airplane mode. It comes back on its own after a restart.
• Everything the joined phones use comes from the host's mobile data, so the host's plan, signal and data left decide whether they have internet. When they have none, the host's Settings says why.
• A hotspot shares only mobile data, never a Wi-Fi network the host is on, so hotspots cannot be chained.
• Sharing drains the host's battery faster, on top of the usual cost per MB.
• The status bar shows a link icon on a phone joined to a hotspot, and a green one on the phone sharing it.
• Erasing the phone deletes its hotspot. Wolfden Phone Secure cannot share one.

Change it in Config.Wifi.hotspot in config/wifi.lua:

hotspot = {
    enabled = true,
    range = 15.0,   -- metres around the player carrying the phone
    maxDevices = 5, -- phones that may join one hotspot
},

The extra battery use is Config.Charging.drain.hotspot in config/charging.lua (0.15 % per minute by default). The hotspot needs Wi-Fi itself to be on (Config.Wifi.enabled = true).