AutoSort

AutoSort — Physical Submarine Logistics

Configure what should be stored in exact cabinet slots, press AutoSort, and let your character physically move the existing items around the submarine.

No spawning. No cloning. No cabinet-to-cabinet item teleportation.

MULTIPLAYER BETA 3

AutoSort works in multiplayer, including dedicated servers.

Sorting is server-authoritative: the server validates the real items, containers, slots, and character actions involved.

Your own character is temporarily controlled by HumanAI while sorting and is returned to you after COMPLETE or STOP.

The same AutoSort version must be installed on the server and clients.

Beta 3 uses multiplayer protocol v3 and is not network-compatible with Beta 2.x.

RESERVE STORAGE

An entire cabinet can be marked as RESERVE.

Reserve cabinets act as central storage for your working cabinets:

• normal cabinets always have priority;

• required resources are physically taken from Reserve first;

• if Reserve does not contain enough, AutoSort continues with other valid sources;

• after normal destinations are satisfied, leftover resources can refill Reserve;

• a Reserve is allowed to end a sorting run completely empty;

• SORT directly from a Reserve cabinet replenishes it from free/unmanaged sources without stealing correctly stored items from managed working slots.

Example:

Engineering A → steel MAX
Engineering B → steel MAX
Reserve       → 20 steel

If no other steel is available, the engineering cabinets receive 10 each and the Reserve ends at zero.

FEATURES

Exact Slot Rules

Rules are assigned to specific physical inventory slots:

slot 0 → steel MAX
slot 1 → copper 8
slot 2 → rubber MAX

Fixed keeps a specific amount in that slot.

MAX fills that exact slot to its real capacity, including container restrictions and stack-size modifiers.

Unconfigured slots remain UNMANAGED. AutoSort does not treat them as empty destination slots.

Fair Resource Shortages

If there are not enough items to satisfy every configured destination, AutoSort distributes the available amount fairly between the slots that need them.

Every new SORT scans the actual current world state again.

Physical Sorting

After pressing SORT, your character:

• walks to the real source;

• picks up an existing Item;

• physically carries it through the submarine;

• deposits it into the exact configured slot.

Large jobs use batching and can temporarily borrow an existing empty portable container when doing so actually reduces travel.

Protected Inventory

Player inventory slots can be marked as Protected.

AutoSort will not use items from protected slots. Protecting a top-level slot also protects the contents of a bag or another nested personal container stored inside it.

Individual slots inside personal storage can also be protected.

Cabinet Schematics

Save the complete layout of a cabinet as a Schematic and apply it to another compatible cabinet or another submarine.

Schematics contain only layout and rules — never Item IDs or world state.

MAX is recalculated for the destination container.

Physical Staging

AutoSort can physically gather large items at a chosen point or room:

• Ammo Boxes — Full / Partial / Empty / Any

• Railgun Shells — selected shell type

• Crates — Empty / Non-empty / Any

Target total and ALL are supported.

DEFAULT CONTROLS

Shift + MouseWheel over a cabinet slot Configure that slot.

Shift + MouseWheel over a player inventory slot Toggle Protected.

Shift + P Open Physical Staging at your current position.

RES: OFF / RES: ON Toggle Reserve Storage for the whole open cabinet.

SORT Start physical sorting.

KEYS Configure hotkeys.

STOP Immediately stop AutoSort and return control to the player.

Important: MouseWheel means scrolling the wheel, not clicking the middle mouse button.

WHAT AUTOSORT DOES NOT DO

AutoSort:

• does not spawn items;

• does not clone items;

• does not teleport items between cabinets;

• does not increase container capacity;

• does not take items from other characters' inventories;

• does not decide where your resources should be stored.

The player designs the storage system. AutoSort only executes it.

AutoSort does not save hidden sorting progress. Every run rebuilds its plan from the items that actually exist in the current world state, avoiding persisted transfer state that could become unsafe after a save rollback.

POSSIBLE ISSUES

Physical Staging relies more heavily on Barotrauma's vanilla HumanAI and pathfinding.

On unusual custom submarines, the AI can occasionally choose strange routes or have trouble with ladders, hatches, or a staging point.

If AutoSort behaves incorrectly, use STOP.

The normal slot-based sorting system is considerably more deterministic.

Large sorting jobs can take time because item transport is intentionally physical.

For an important long-running campaign, making a backup before first use is still recommended.

WHY THIS MOD EXISTS

AutoSort started after moving to a new submarine during a long campaign.

The old submarine already had an organized storage system and a huge stockpile of resources. After buying a more powerful submarine, almost everything had to be manually sorted again.

After spending hours reorganizing it, I lost the progress and realized I really did not want to do the same work twice.

That became AutoSort.

The goal is not to remove logistics from Barotrauma. It is to remove the most repetitive part of maintaining it.

For any questions, please contact me on Discord: chigankrey228