Flash Notifier

A CounterStrikeSharp plugin for CS2 that notifies players when they get blinded by a flashbang — showing who flashed them and how long the effect lasts. Also allows players to disable the blind effect and the notifications entirely.

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✨ Features

• 📢 Blind notifications — attacker name and duration
• 🎨 Full color customization — tag, main text, "You" word, "for" preposition, T/CT names, seconds number, seconds unit, and dots
• 🔢 Flexible duration format — choose decimal places, including a "no dot" mode
• 🔤 Configurable unit form — s / sec / seconds (and language equivalents)
• 🌍 Proper pluralization — 1 second vs 2 seconds, 1 секунду vs 2 секунды vs 5 секунд
• 🕹️ !blind command — toggle the blind effect (screen whiteness) on/off
• 🔔 !blindinfo command — toggle notifications on/off
• 🌐 Localization — English and Russian included, easy to add your own
• 🛡️ Permission control — restrict commands to specific admin flags

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📦 Requirements

Component	Minimum version
CounterStrikeSharp	1.0.305
.NET Runtime (server)	10.0
CS2	any current version

⚠️ The plugin uses Microsoft.Extensions.Localization, which ships with CounterStrikeSharp. No extra dependencies are required.

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🚀 Installation

1. Download FlashNotifier-v1.0.1.zip from the Releases page.

2. Extract the archive into your plugins folder:

   csgo/addons/counterstrikesharp/plugins/FlashNotifier/
   

   The result should look like this:

   plugins/FlashNotifier/
   ├── FlashNotifier.dll
   └── lang/
       ├── en.json
       └── ru.json
   

3. Fully restart the server (do not just use css_plugins reload).

4. On the first launch, a config file will be created at:

   csgo/addons/counterstrikesharp/configs/plugins/FlashNotifier/FlashNotifier.json
   

📌 Upgrading from an older version? The localization templates have changed — see Migration from pre-1.0.1 below.

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⚙️ Configuration

Full parameter reference

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
FlashTagColor	string	\u0009	Color of the [Flash] tag
TextColor	string	\u0001	Color of the main message text
YouColor	string	\u0001	Color of the word "You"
ForColor	string	\u0001	Color of the preposition ("for" / "на")
DurationColor	string	\u0001	Color of the seconds number
DurationDotColor	string	\u0001	Color of the dot inside the number (4.94)
UnitColor	string	\u0001	Color of the seconds unit (s / sec / seconds)
SentenceDotColor	string	\u0001	Color of the sentence-ending dot (... seconds.)
NameColorT	string	\u0007	Color of terrorist names
NameColorCT	string	\u000B	Color of counter-terrorist names
MinDuration	float	0.5	Minimum flash duration (in seconds) required to trigger a notification
DurationDecimals	int	1	Number of decimal places. See the table below
SecondsFormat	string	short	Unit form. See the table below
NotifyTeamFlashOnly	bool	false	true — only notify about team flashes
EnableNotifications	bool	true	Default notification state for newly connected players
TogglePermission	string	css/root	Flag required for !blindinfo. Empty string = available to everyone
EnableBlindToggle	bool	true	Enable the !blind command
BlindTogglePermission	string	css/root	Flag required for !blind. Empty string = available to everyone
AnnounceBlindToggle	bool	true	Reply in chat when the !blind command toggles state
ConfigVersion	int	1	Service field. Do not edit manually

🎨 Color codes

CS2's chat only supports a fixed palette of ~10 colors. HEX colors (#FF0000) are not supported through PrintToChat — this is an engine limitation, not a plugin limitation.

Code	Color	Appearance
\u0001	White	FFFFFF
\u0002	Dark red	C81E1E
\u0003	Purple	9632C8
\u0004	Green	32C832
\u0005	Light green	32C8C8
\u0006	Lime	64FF64
\u0007	Red	FF3C3C
\u0008	Gray	B4B4B4
\u0009	Yellow	FFDC32
\u000B	Blue	5082FF

🔢 DurationDecimals — decimal places

Value	Output (example 4.94)	Dot shown
-1 or any value < 0	5	no
0	5	no
1	4.9	yes
2	4.94	yes
3	4.940	yes
> 3	4.940 (clamped to 3)	yes

ℹ️ The decimal separator is always a period (.), regardless of the server's OS locale. This is enforced via CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, so you will never see 3,0 even on a Russian Windows server.

🔤 SecondsFormat — unit form

Controls which form of the seconds unit is displayed after the number.

Value	Aliases	EN example (4.9)	RU example (4.9)
short (default)	s	4.9 s	4.9 с
medium	med, m	4.9 sec	4.9 сек
long	l, full, word	4.9 seconds	4.9 секунды

ℹ️ The value is case-insensitive and trimmed of whitespace: "Med", " MED ", "med" — all equivalent. Anything unrecognized falls back to short.

Pluralization is applied only in long form. short and medium are invariant across all languages.

Number	EN (long)	RU (long)
1	1 second	1 секунду
2	2 seconds	2 секунды
4	4 seconds	4 секунды
5	5 seconds	5 секунд
11	11 seconds	11 секунд
21	21 seconds	21 секунду
1.5 / 4.9 (any decimal)	1.5 seconds	4.9 секунды

ℹ️ Decimal values use the other category in English (plural) and the other category in Russian (genitive singular, секунды). This is the linguistically correct behaviour.

🛡️ Permissions

TogglePermission and BlindTogglePermission accept a CSS admin flag (e.g. css/root, @css/ban, css/admin).

• "css/root" — only root admins (safe default).
• "" — everyone can use the command. Useful for testing, but on a public server this is effectively a cheat (players can see through flashbangs).

📋 Example config

{
  "FlashTagColor": "\u0009",
  "TextColor": "\u0001",
  "YouColor": "\u0004",
  "ForColor": "\u0008",
  "DurationColor": "\u0001",
  "DurationDotColor": "\u0006",
  "UnitColor": "\u0008",
  "SentenceDotColor": "\u0008",
  "NameColorT": "\u0007",
  "NameColorCT": "\u000B",
  "MinDuration": 0.5,
  "DurationDecimals": 2,
  "SecondsFormat": "short",
  "NotifyTeamFlashOnly": false,
  "EnableNotifications": true,
  "TogglePermission": "css/root",
  "EnableBlindToggle": true,
  "BlindTogglePermission": "css/root",
  "AnnounceBlindToggle": true,
  "ConfigVersion": 1
}

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🕹️ Commands

Command	Argument	Action
!blind	—	Toggle the blind effect on/off
!blind 1	1, on, true, yes	Enable the blind effect
!blind 0	0, off, false, no	Disable the blind effect
!blindinfo	—	Toggle notifications on/off
!blindinfo 1	1, on, true, yes	Enable notifications
!blindinfo 0	0, off, false, no	Disable notifications

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🌐 Localization

How the language is selected

CounterStrikeSharp picks the localization file automatically for each player, based on their game client language (cl_language in CS2 settings). You do not configure anything — the framework reads the language from the client when the player connects, then:

1. When the plugin calls Localizer["key"], CounterStrikeSharp checks which language the receiving player uses.
2. It looks for a matching file in the lang/ folder — for example, ru.json for Russian, de.json for German, fr.json for French.
3. If the file does not exist or the key is missing, it falls back to English (en.json).

Important: the available languages are determined entirely by the files present in the lang/ folder. If you delete ru.json, Russian players will see English. If you add de.json, German players will automatically see German — no server config needed.

How to add your own language

1. Identify the language code CS2 uses for the target language. This is not always ISO 639-1 — always confirm with the actual cl_language values reported by CS2 clients. Common ones:

   • en — English
   • ru — Russian
   • de — German
   • fr — French
   • es — Spanish
   • pt — Portuguese
   • pl — Polish
   • tr — Turkish
   • zh — Chinese (Simplified)
   • ko — Korean
   • ja — Japanese

2. Copy en.json to a new file named <code>.json, for example de.json.

3. Translate only the values on the right side of each :. Keep the keys on the left unchanged.

4. Do NOT modify the placeholders. They are substituted by the engine at runtime — the translated string must contain the same placeholders as the English original.

5. Save the file and fully restart the server. CounterStrikeSharp scans the lang/ folder only on plugin load.

⚠️ Critical: placeholders in localization files

Placeholder	What it inserts
{0}, {1}, {2}	Player names and the seconds value (depends on the string)
%you%	The colored "You" word
%for%	The colored preposition ("for" / "на")
%unit%	The colored seconds unit, pluralized according to language rules
%dot%	The colored sentence-ending dot

Do not replace %you% with {you} or %dot% with {dot}. CounterStrikeSharp uses string.Format internally, which throws a FormatException on any non-numeric placeholder inside curly braces. Using {you} will crash the plugin on the first flash notification. If you want a placeholder that string.Format ignores, always use the %...% form.

🔤 Unit keys and pluralization

The unit word is looked up by one of these keys, depending on SecondsFormat:

SecondsFormat	Key
short	flash.unit.short
medium	flash.unit.medium
long	flash.unit.long.<category> — see below

For long, the plugin tries several CLDR plural categories in order:

1. Russian rules (one / few / many / other)
2. English rules (one / other)
3. other

The first matching key found in the language file wins. This means you only need to define the categories your language actually uses:

• English — define flash.unit.long.one and flash.unit.long.other.
• Russian — define flash.unit.long.one, .few, .many, .other.
• Japanese / Chinese / Korean — only flash.unit.long.other.

If a key is missing, the plugin falls through to the next candidate without crashing.

⚠️ Grammatical case — important for translators

CLDR plural categories (one / few / many / other) describe how a language counts nouns — but they know nothing about grammatical case. A language that declines its nouns (Russian, Polish, Czech, Serbian, Ukrainian, …) needs the form that matches the specific sentence structure.

In this plugin all six message templates use the same pattern:

... %for% {N} %unit% ...

The preposition before the unit dictates the case:

• Russian — на → accusative → "секунду" (not "секунда")
• English — for → no case system → "second" works everywhere
• German — für → accusative → "Sekunde" (same form as nominative)

When translating, do NOT copy the nominative/dictionary form from a CLDR reference — use the form required by the sentence in the template. If your language has cases, check each of the six templates individually.

📌 Why this matters: In the bundled ru.json, the unit for the one category is "секунду" (accusative), not the nominative "секунда", because all six templates place the unit after the preposition «на». A naïve translation that copies the CLDR nominative form would produce the grammatically wrong "на 1 секунда" instead of the correct "на 1 секунду".

🚫 Languages without a preposition

Some languages (Japanese, Chinese, Korean) don't use a preposition in this construction. Just remove %for% from the template — and remember to also remove the space that followed it, otherwise you'll get a double space:

// Instead of:
"%you% were flashed %for% {0} %unit%%dot%"

// Write:
"%you% были ослеплены {0} %unit%%dot%"

.Replace("%for%", ...) on a string that doesn't contain the placeholder is a safe no-op — nothing will break. Alternatively, keep %for% and set "flash.for": "" in the language file; the placeholder becomes an empty string.

Example of adding German (de.json)

Original en.json fragment:

"flash.you": "You",
"flash.for": "for",
"flash.unit.short": "s",
"flash.unit.medium": "sec",
"flash.unit.long.one": "second",
"flash.unit.long.other": "seconds",

"flash.you_were_flashed": "%you% were flashed %for% {0} %unit%%dot%",

Translated de.json fragment:

"flash.you": "Du",
"flash.for": "für",
"flash.unit.short": "s",
"flash.unit.medium": "Sek",
"flash.unit.long.one": "Sekunde",
"flash.unit.long.other": "Sekunden",

"flash.you_were_flashed": "%you% wurdest %for% {0} %unit% geblendet%dot%",

Note: %you%, %for%, {0}, %unit% and %dot% remain unchanged.

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🔄 Migration from pre-1.0.1

If you are upgrading from an older version and you only use the bundled en.json / ru.json, no action is needed — just replace the files.

If you have custom language files (de.json, fr.json, …), you must update them:

1. Add the new keys:

   "flash.for": "for",
   "flash.unit.short": "s",
   "flash.unit.medium": "sec",
   "flash.unit.long.one": "second",
   "flash.unit.long.other": "seconds"

   (Adjust for your language; use the appropriate plural categories — see the section above.)

2. Replace the hardcoded for {N} seconds pattern in all six message templates with %for% {N} %unit%.

   • Old: "%you% were flashed for {0} seconds%dot%"
   • New: "%you% were flashed %for% {0} %unit%%dot%"

   Repeat for: flash.you_were_flashed_by_yourself, flash.player_flashed_you, flash.you_flashed_player, flash.teammate_flashed_you, flash.you_flashed_teammate.

3. Save and fully restart the server.

4. For case-inflected languages (Russian, Polish, Czech, …): make sure the flash.unit.long.* values use the grammatical case required by the sentence template. For the bundled ru.json this means flash.unit.long.one must be "секунду" (accusative), not the nominative "секунда".

5. SecondsFormat now accepts aliases (med, m, l, full, word). The canonical values are still short / medium / long, but any of the aliases works and is case-insensitive.

⚠️ If you skip steps 1–2, your custom templates will still contain the literal words for and seconds, and the plugin will simply not substitute %for% / %unit% — the message will still render, just without the new configurable coloring and pluralization.

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🚨 Important behavior notes

1. Notification logic

Who receives what:

Situation	Recipient	Message
Self-flash	You	"You were flashed by yourself for 4.9 s."
Team flash	You	"Your teammate X flashed you for 4.9 s."
Team flash	Teammate	"You flashed your teammate Y for 4.9 s."
Enemy flash	You	"Your opponent X flashed you for 4.9 s."
Enemy flash	Enemy	"You flashed your opponent Y for 4.9 s."

Your own name is never shown to you — it is always replaced with "You".

2. NotifyTeamFlashOnly = true

When enabled, notifications about enemy flashes are completely suppressed. Useful for training servers where only team coordination matters.

3. MinDuration

Flashes shorter than MinDuration do not trigger notifications. This is anti-spam protection. Default is 0.5 seconds.

4. EnableNotifications vs !blindinfo

• EnableNotifications — the default state for newly connected players.
• !blindinfo — the player's personal setting, stored in memory until they reconnect.
• On reconnect, the player's personal setting resets to EnableNotifications.

5. !blind does not block the flash

The !blind command removes the blindness effect (the white screen), but does not block the flashbang itself — it still detonates and produces sound and particles. This is implemented by clearing FlashDuration and FlashMaxAlpha every server tick.

6. ConfigVersion

ConfigVersion is a service field. Do not edit it manually. If CSS detects that the version in the file does not match the version in the code, it may overwrite the config with default values.

7. Restarting after installation

CounterStrikeSharp caches loaded plugins. After installing or updating:

• New plugin: full server restart.
• .dll update: css_plugins reload FlashNotifier may not pick up new dependencies — prefer a full restart.
• Editing lang/*.json: css_plugins reload FlashNotifier is enough.

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🐛 Troubleshooting

Plugin does not appear in css_plugins list

Cause: incorrect folder structure or a failed .dll load.

Fix:

1. Verify that .dll is located at plugins/FlashNotifier/FlashNotifier.dll.
2. Open the server console — there will be an error message.
3. Make sure the .NET 10 runtime is installed on the server.

Notifications do not appear in chat

1. Check EnableNotifications in the config.
2. Check !blindinfo — it may have been disabled by the player.
3. Check MinDuration — the flash may be too short.
4. Check NotifyTeamFlashOnly — if true, enemy flashes are hidden.

The chat shows %you%, %for%, %unit%, %dot% or {0} literally

Cause: localization did not load, or the file contains invalid placeholders.

Fix:

1. Make sure lang/en.json and lang/ru.json are located next to the .dll, not in the root of plugins/.
2. Verify that the JSON file uses %you%, %for%, %unit% and %dot% (Latin letters, lowercase).
3. If you're upgrading from an older version with custom lang files, see Migration from pre-1.0.1.

Unit word is missing or empty

Cause: a flash.unit.* key is missing from your language file, or the plural category is not defined.

Fix:

1. Make sure your language file defines the correct key for the chosen SecondsFormat.
2. For long, ensure at least flash.unit.long.other exists — it is the final fallback.
3. Check that SecondsFormat in the config is one of short, medium, long (or one of their aliases — see the "SecondsFormat seems ignored" troubleshooting entry below).

SecondsFormat seems ignored

Cause: an unrecognized value in the config, so the plugin silently fell back to short.

Fix: make sure SecondsFormat is one of:

• short, s
• medium, med, m
• long, l, full, word

The value is case-insensitive and trimmed. Anything else falls back to short.

Wrong grammatical form in the unit word

Cause: the language file uses the dictionary (nominative) form of the noun, but the sentence template requires a specific case.

Fix: check each of the six flash.* templates in your language file, identify which case the preposition requires, and set flash.unit.long.* accordingly. See Grammatical case — important for translators above.

FormatException in the console

Cause: the localization file uses {you} instead of %you%.

Fix: replace all {you}, {for}, {unit} and {dot} with %you%, %for%, %unit% and %dot%. CounterStrikeSharp uses string.Format, which crashes on non-numeric placeholders inside curly braces.

Colors do not apply

1. Check that the config uses \u0009, not "\\u0009" (double backslash).
2. HEX colors (#FF0000) are not supported in this version — use the codes from the table above.
3. Make sure the server was restarted after editing the config.

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📜 License

This plugin is released under a non-commercial license.

You are permitted to use, modify, and redistribute the plugin for non-commercial purposes only. This means:

• ✅ Free use on any non-monetized server or in any non-commercial project.
• ✅ Free modification for your own non-commercial needs.
• ✅ Free redistribution of the original or modified version, provided this license is preserved.
• ❌ Selling the plugin, bundling it with paid products, or using it as part of a commercial service is not permitted without prior written permission from the author.

The plugin is provided as is, without warranty of any kind. See the LICENSE file for the full text.

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🔗 Framework

This plugin is built on top of the CounterStrikeSharp framework. All API, event system, localization, and permission handling are provided by that project and its contributors.