Basically the offset values (especially armRotationCenter and frontHandPosition) found in humanoid.config really need to be moved to the .species definition files (Or at least allow them to be overridden from there), so people making custom races can set their own shoulder position. I posted this thread in the NPC/Creatures suggestion section a few weeks ago and NOBODY backed the idea, I've posted it in the modding forum weeks before that, and got no backing there either, so I'm going to give it a try again here because god dammit - starbound needs this feature. Until this is done all races have to be the exact same shape and scale. We can't have a clean, playable race like penguins (Or even ponies ¬_¬) without super-hacky solutions. Starbound's sprite system is extremely intuitive and allows for immense flexibility in character design - but for now, we're stuck making races - star trek style; a galaxy of human-sized humanoids defined by different nose ridges, funny ears and skin colours!.
I completely back this idea. having also done a similar penguin race mod. The idea of having the offset values in the species file is great but the real problem will come in when we start looking at armors since they are made to work only with humanoid races. This means we will also need some system where we can have custom armor sprites on a per-species basis. Oh and don't forget the beam-up / beam-down effects. I'm not entirely sure how complex this would be to implement as it seems the entire engine is built from the ground up to have humanoid races only but its definitely something we need to see in the future. As you've mentioned, a galaxy of humanoids is no fun and it really limits our creativity! PS: Maybe change the thread title to make it about adding support for non-humanoid races?
I agree with this. I would rather nice to be able to seen custom races pop up that aren't all humanoid (as there isn't to much you can chance when they are humanoidish bipedal creatures all the time).
Well, I wouldn't say they were a problem per say, thankfully, they had the foresight to implement a vanity system, which means we can create vanity clothes for our custom races which are specially designed to fit them and only them, and a means to obtain them (Like a custom craft station or printer blueprints). That way players can equip their actual gear to their gear slots, and use vanity slots to wear race-appropriate clothing. Of course, it'd be even better if the game looked for race-variant folders inside the folders where armour types are kept; but that's more of a pipe dream and is kind've secondary.
I definitely support this, Ive always loved games that had non humanoid characters, and such games are fairly rare, at least in my experience i hope that Starbound would become one such game with proper support
I definitely support this idea, but I'd also like to see it go much further. Ideally I'd want something like a .animation file for the player, where we could custom-define new animation states or change the number of frames for a given animation. Obviously there have to be some hard-coded limits, as players need to move around and stuff, but the kind of flexibility already present in monsters would be very nice to have in "humanoid" species. Not just for playable ones either, but also for NPC-only races. For starters though, moving humanoid.config into the species file (or just the ability to override it for a particular species) would help a lot.
Heliostorm: "starters though, moving humanoid.config into the species file (or just the ability to override it for a particular species) would help a lot." This, this would be great!
I agree there needs to be nonhumanoid support. Right now we have the 6 races and then Novakids will also be humanoid. It would be nice to be able to define our own body types such as "humanoid", "penguin", "ewok", etc. Then in each race file define bodytype=penguin for example. Then in armors you would also define what body type fits what so the Apex Officer outfit would have bodytype=humanoid so that any humanoid characters could wear that. It would be a lot like how in Mass Effect 1 you had human, turian, quarian, and krogan armors and characters could only equip the armor of their specific body type. In addition, for armors that everyone has access to (ie copper armor) you could define an array in that file such as "bodyalternate" that would link body types to alternate art files to fit that body type.
Certainly an entertaining idea, and I agree, would add a great deal of variety to the game. The only issue I can see (that some of the responders of this post may have hinted to) is that the whole process would require a lot of programming/reprogramming. I'm not saying it won't happen, I'm sure there are quite a few mods out there that can turn you into a quadruped creature with different-looking armor based on your model. I have not looked, so I don't know, but I imagine the prospect is still a long one and probably won't be implemented into Starbound until after its official release. A fun and interesting idea though, and would like to see it happen. =)
Agreed honestly i looked at starbound modding and everything is so deeply hard coded that i cant really even begin to attempt some of the ideas i had. I haven't encountered this particular issue however i know that Problems like this are not specific to one or two variables and overrides in generally need to be much broader
Why is this still not a thing? Penguins are still in the game's packed data, just not playable. Surely the developers have had this in mind at least at some point? I know there are a lot of things that would need to be done to make different body shapes and animations comprehensive, but the least they can do is enable player.config to be changed for different races. In fact, not just for arm position and stuff like that, but also for things like max health, energy, breath, etc. It would be really cool if different custom races could have unique benefits and drawbacks. In fact, that's pretty much what I'd expect if I were a newcomer to Starbound.
