Modding in Titanfall and Titanfall 2 is possible by unpacking VPK files (which store game assets) and then modifying the contents before repacking. This can be done for a variety of reasons, though primarily to create new skins and textures for the game.
Guide
The purpose of this guide is to walk you through the fundamentals of VPK modding by teaching you how to change the ejection messages of your Titan in Titanfall 2.
Preparation
First and foremost, it is essential that you make a backup of the two vanilla VPK's that we will be working with. If you replace them and then make a mistake in future you will likely end up having to redownload 2GB of files.
Navigate to your Origin Games\Titanfall2\vpk folder and find these two VPK files:
- client_frontend.bsp.pak000_000.vpk
- englishclient_frontend.bsp.pak000_dir.vpk
There will be multiple client_frontend.bsp.pak000_00x.vpk files, but you only need the one listed above and can ignore the rest. Copy these two files and paste them in an empty folder somewhere else.
You will also need Cra0kalo's Titanfall VPK Tool, the program which will allow you to open and repack Titanfall VPK files.
Unpacking
Now that these files have been backed up and everything installed, open the VPK Tool and go to File > Open. Navigate to your Origin Games\Titanfall2\vpk folder and open the englishclient_frontend.bsp.pak000_dir.vpk VPK file. This is the directory VPK for the client_mp_common VPK, and will allow you to access it's content.
At this point, make a folder called "TF2" or something easy for you to identify at the location where you intend to extract the contents of the VPK.
Back in the VPK Tool, click "Extract All" (second from the right on the top bar) and navigate to your newly created folder. Select the folder to extract your files.
After the extraction is complete, open the folder where you extracted your files and delete the "extracted_logs" folder.
Editing the eject message
To find the ejection message strings, navigate to the resources folder. Inside, about midway down, you will find a number of text files that are named r1_english.txt, r1_french.txt, r1_german.txt and so on. As our game is in English, we will be editing r1_english.txt.
Open the file in the text editor and search for "COCKPIT_EJECT". You should find the following lines:
"COCKPIT_EJECT_PROMPT" "SELF_DESTRUCT:"
"COCKPIT_EJECT_CONFIRMED" "EJECTING"The two lines above represent are the messages that appear on the Titan's main screen, the ones below are the ones located under the main screen.
"COCKPIT_EJECT_COMMON_0" "PILOT EJECTING"
"COCKPIT_EJECT_COMMON_1" "EJECT NOW EJECT"
"COCKPIT_EJECT_COMMON_2" "CORE BREAK IN PROGRESS"
"COCKPIT_EJECT_COMMON_3" "DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ENGAGED"
"COCKPIT_EJECT_COMMON_4" "EJECT-SYSTEM ENGAGED"
"COCKPIT_EJECT_COMMON_5" "PROTOCOL [03]"
// COCKPIT_EJECT_COMMON_COUNT = 6
"COCKPIT_EJECT_RARE_0" "It was fun."
"COCKPIT_EJECT_RARE_1" "Ain't over till it's over."
"COCKPIT_EJECT_RARE_2" "Until next time, then."
"COCKPIT_EJECT_RARE_3" "Second star to the right."
"COCKPIT_EJECT_RARE_4" "Go get 'em, tiger."
"COCKPIT_EJECT_RARE_5" "Make it so."
"COCKPIT_EJECT_RARE_6" "See you on the other side."
"COCKPIT_EJECT_RARE_7" "Wait for the wheel."
"COCKPIT_EJECT_RARE_8" "Do not throw your shot."
"COCKPIT_EJECT_RARE_9" "Drop and burn 'em up."Only edit the text on the right side, it's important that you leave the keys on the left side untouched. Once you have edited the messages to your liking, save and close the file.
Repacking
Now that this has been completed, open up the VPK Tool once more and go to Tools > Repacker. For the first box, browse to the location of the folder where you put all of the extracted Titanfall content and select it. For the second box, select the location where you want your two VPKs to be created. Leave the VPK file name as is, and then click "Build VPK".
Once the VPK files have been built, navigate to their location. You will find two files named pak000_000.vpk and pack000_dir.vpk.
- Rename pak000_000.vpk to client_frontend.bsp.pak000_000.vpk.
- Rename pak000_dir.vpk to englishclient_frontend.bsp.pak000_dir.vpk.
Place both of the renamed files back into the Origin Games\Titanfall2\vpk directory and then launch the game. The changes should now be visible when you eject from your Titan.