SUPER FORMATTING - ✨The Guide To Colored Names and More✨

Through vigorous testing and looking around at raw text data I've been able to almost reverse HELLDIVERS™ 2 markup language, but some tags seemingly not working at all and others even crashing your game if done wrong!

Anyways, you might've seen some players with interesting colored names flying about on Reddit or even in-game. I myself chalked it up as some language incompatibility or modification, but it's simply done with the use of markup, which HELLDIVERS™ 2 has its own akin to HTML/XML.
If you're unfamiliar with what a markup language is simply put, it's a way to both write text and change the formatting and structure of said text.

Currently, I've only found 4 tags that can be used. HELLDIVERS™ 2 has a quite simple and sleek design, so if that is anything to take note of I'm probably covering them all.

Bit of information and pieces of advice in no particular order:

• You won't get banned for this, but it's your account and your responsibility
  
  
• The hexadecimal numbers are not case sensitive, mix and match
  
  
• You don't have to restart the game in order for name change to take effect
  
  
• All tags work both on name and in chat
  
  
• Even though a tag might appear gone when spelled in chat you can still delete it
  
  
• By default chat messages will use the same dimensions as you name
  
  
• You don't necessarily need the closing tag for the tag to work, can save you 4 characters
  
  
• You can counteract the chat messages being modified with closing tags </s> and </f>
  
  
• The closing tag </c> works as <c=FF0000000> and </s> works as <s=20>
  
  
• You can mix all tags, you're not limited to just one
  
  
• Steam limits users to between 2 and 32 characters; make sure you're not using to many

1. 📑Structured format of tags
   
   • Code snippet of the tags shown with parameters and limits
     
2. 🖼️Game screenshot
   
   • A screenshot showcasing how it will and should look in-game
     
3. 📢Explained usage
   
   • Additional information with noting of functionality
     

Used to change color of the text:

<c=YYXXXXXX>Example</c>

1. YY: Transparency Value (2 hex digits)
   
   • 00: Fully transparent
     
   • FF: Fully opaque
2. XXXXXX: Color Value (6 hex digits)
   
   • 000000: Black
     
   • FFFFFF: White

The first 2 hexadecimal numbers are the alpha, giving you 256 shades of transparency, with the rest 6 hexadecimal characters to pick a color of the VGA standard, giving you over 16 million possibilities!

The default color for both name and chat messages is white. To find a color for yourself, use any image editing program or search "color picker" online. If you're still unsure, I picked out some colors below that can be used directly:

Used to change size of the text:

<s=XX>Example</s>

XX: Size Value (2 decimal digits)

• 00: Removed text
  
• 01: Smallest size
  
• 99: Biggest size

The default size of your name is 20. If you'd like the biggest possible name with the most clutter, ASCII characters can achieve that and will make the game scroll to display everything.

Used to change the text into bold:

<f=XX>Example</f>

XX: Index Value (2 decimal digits)

• 00: Bold
  
• 01: Also Bold
  
• 02: Invisible
  
• 03: Removed text

⚠️[Out of bounds: 04-99 will crash your game only!]⚠️





There is no noticeable difference between using 00 or 01; both achieve the same visuals.
For 02, it makes your text invisible, but 03 removes the text, making it not just invisible but removed.

Used to change the text via templates:

<i=X>Example</i>

X: Index Value (1 decimal digit)

• 1: Partially invisible (Name)
  
• 1: Player color (Chat)
  
• 2: Invisible
  
• 3: Invisible

[Out of bounds: 0 and 4-9 will display tag as text]





Partially visible, meaning your name is shown in chat and at hosting the super destroyer, but not in lobby or other places. Player color is the color you're given by the game.

This tag is intended for developers to more easily write mission briefings and dispatches for major orders and functions as a template. No new functionality is found here, where 1 seems to be yellow text, 2 is still unknown, and 3 bold text.

[This section of the guide doesn't introduce any new formatting concepts but provides additional information and examples that may assist with styling]


HELLDIVERS™ 2 actually supports a lot of both ASCII and emojis!

I'd recommend using ASCII over emojis, as emojis can be finicky and break tags.
Unsupported symbols will show up as question marks or might be invisible.
Both size and color tags work great on symbols, but the fat tag only breaks them!

Here's a small list of working symbols I coupled together:





Here are some names I formatted in what I'd consider best practice:





Big thanks to An Atheist Jew for helping me recognize the need for a dedicated section on implementation. The feedback was concise, constructive, and clear!

Much appreciated, dotlake, for a sharp eye pointing out a typo in the fat tag section!


Shoutout to WölfKann for bringing to my attention the chat functionality of <i=1>!