Elithian Races Mod - A Starbound Expansion 2.3.10

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The Elithian Races Mod is a huge mod that adds multiple new races, new dungeons, new weapons, objects and much, much more to the game! All content in this mod is related to the Elithian Alliance fictional universe, which is a rich and detailed world created for an online roleplay several years ago.

The largest part of this mod are the new races added to the game, so without further ado, let’s introduce them to you:










First and foremost are the new playable races, the Avikan, the Droden and the Trink. All sprites are hand-drawn by me, addingmultiple races with completely new body shapes to the game. There are new weapons, new armour, new objects and much, much more. Here’s a list of (some of) the content in the mod:

• Multiple new playable races, each with their own character customization and start outfits
• Dozens of pieces of cosmetic armour for the various races, including many hats and backpacks
• Unique pieces of gear which offer powerful bonuses, found as random monster drops
• Tiered armour for all races, although not all of these have unique sprites
• Many new tiered melee and ranged weapons for all races, including all-new weapon types
• A completely new hunting system, with new monster drops for each tier
• Plenty of unique hunting weapons to accommodate the hunting progression system used by the Avikan
• New throwable weapons, such as hunting javelins, spike traps and sticky bombs
• Well over a hundred themed decorative objects divided amongst the races, including doors, furniture, tent parts, weapon displays and much more
• Multiple new crafting tables for crafting racial items and objects
• Dozens of new, racially themed building materials as well as a number of platforms
• A large number of new crafting materials for crafting all of the racial items
• Many new random encounters, including ancient ruins, Avikan camps, Trinkian encounters and more
• Generated settlements for all races, including villagers, guards and merchants selling racial items
• An all new sub-biome for desert planets, including a new monster, a new critter and a new liquid type – quicksand
• An all new Avikan-themed Outpost, the Starfarer’s Refuge
• New quests with unique rewards
• Unique weapons with firing modes and other special properties which set them apart from all other weapons in the game
• New weapon types, such as prods, miniguns and charged weapons
• A new tech – the triple jump for getting to those higher ledges
• Custom reticles for almost all ranged weapon types
• Custom tooltips for weapons with special properties
• Two new vehicles for the Avikan
• 2 New types of crops
• Custom ships for each tier for all races
• Custom ship pets for all races
• Custom S.A.I.L. sprites for all races
• Custom respawn animations for all races
• Custom tutorial quests to get you started with the mod

• And a few more things I’m sure I’m forgetting to mention here!

RACIAL ARMOUR

The Avikan, Droden and Trink are unlike any existing Starbound races – they all have completely new body shapes setting them apart from the vanilla races. Unfortunately, this means that most vanilla armour will look silly when worn by one of these custom races. You can still wear anything you find in-game, but chances are the sprites will be misaligned. To offset this, there are plenty of cosmetic armour sets built specifically for each of the races, as well as an invisible set for if you want to get an item’s stats, but not its looks.

Tiered armour for the Avikan and Droden exists, in the form of shield generators. These pieces of armour generate an invisible shield around your character and give you all the protection and energy bonuses regular armour would.

The Trink have fully drawn sprites for most of their tiered armour, in the form of body mods which make replace your hull with a new one made of the chosen material. There’s also a completely gold body mod, of course.

SETTLEMENTS AND RANDOM ENCOUNTERS

As of version 2.0, there are three generated settlements for you to find, plus four random encounters/microdungeons to populate the galaxy. The large settlements are the Avikan Camp, the Avikan Colony and the Trinkian Colony. The random encounters are ancient ruins, small Avikan campsite, modern Avikan structures and Trinkian pyramids out in the wild.

The Avikan camp is a full-fledged Avikan settlement, with gates on the sides, a large central tent, a number of smaller homes and a marketplace where you can buy food, clothes, weapons and more. You’ll also find a lot of racial crafting items here, which you can use to craft your own Avikan objects and tools. You can find Avikan camps on both desert and savannah/arid planets.

The Avikan Colony is a modern Avikan settlement, built largely underground. In addition to a marketplace, armoury and a hangar, these will often also feature a teleporter which takes you straight to the new Outpost – the Starfarer’s Refuge. You’ll find these planets on desert and savannah planets, but also sometimes on the more dangerous, warmer planets of the galaxy.

The Trinkian Colony is a settlement inhabited by the Trink. It features modular pyramids of various sizes, and offers merchants and quest givers for you to find. The colony is also littered with crates containing racial crafting materials and more, so you can get to building your own Trinkian settlements as well. Trinkian Colonies are found on snowy or frozen planets, but also sometimes in forests.

The ancient ruins belong to a race of ancient beings, the Centens (also known as the Old Ones). These beings were indirectly responsible for the uplifting of the Avikan – the ruins and technology they left behind allowed the Avikan to develop far quicker than most races. Finding one of these ruins now nets you the chance to find unique crafting materials or powerful guns.

Additionally, you’ll be able to find two new types of crops on both desert and savannah/arid planets, which you can use to craft unique Avikan food items.

NEW HUNTING AND CRAFTING SYSTEM

As the Avikan use bones and leather as opposed to metals, their progression works a bit differently. Instead of digging through the depths of planets, the Avikan get their crafting materials by hunting monsters. At each tier, monsters will drop a new type of bone, which you can use to craft weapons and tools. They will also drop monster leather, a new type of leather which you need in order to craft Avikan vanity armour and decorative objects.

In order to harvest these materials, you have to kill monster with any of the new hunting weapons. There’s a hunting knife in your ship locker when you start a new game, and you can craft a bow or a hunting spear at each tier. You’ll not be stuck with weak hunting weapons on the higher tier planets – new hunting weapons unlock at each new tier, so you’ll always be able to keep up. Additionally, you can craft two tiers of hunting javelins, as well as three types of spike traps to hunt monsters.

The spike traps are an all-new type of weapon – throw them on the ground and lure a monster through them, and watch them take damage with every step! There’s also the option to either poison the spikes, or to douse them in oil to slow down anything they touch.

(For now, tiered armour is crafted as usual, with vanilla ores and crafting tables. This might still change, but keep in mind drawing armour takes a LOT of time which can be spent on other things.)

ALL-NEW TIERED SHIPS, S.A.I.L. AND SHIP PET

There’s a unique custom ship for each tier in the game! Objects like the captain’s chair, the ship locker or the tech station are also custom-built, to make sure everything fits the Avikan style. With these custom ships comes a custom S.A.I.L. for each of the races, with a unique appearance and some custom flavour text. There’s also a few decorative objects built specifically to fit into your ship, so you can properly decorate it!

And not to forget: custom ship pets! The pet Sandcrawler is a small version of the gigantic worms that live on Kadavan, but far less aggressive and much, much cuter! Each race gets one of these unique ship pets, of course.

UNIQUE WEAPONS

In addition to the races and all of their themed content, the mod comes with a multitude of unique and powerful weapons. Each of these weapons comes with one or more unique properties that sets them apart from all other weapons in the game. Think of tracking projectiles, unique firing modes and projectiles that arc lightning in between targets.

These unique weapons can be easily identified in-game by their orange name and description. To obtain these weapons, you’ll have to complete questlines offered by a variety of NPCs. The weapons are available to all characters, regardless of race. A useful hint: if you find any item with an orange name in the game, that item is most likely part of one of the unique weapon quests, so it’s always worth picking up!

DESERT WETLANDS SUB-BIOME

The mod now also includes a new subbiome for desert planets: the desert wetlands. This new subbiome features a new quicksand liquid, and is the primary location for finding the new unique monster: the sandcrawler.

This new subbiome can be found on any newly generated desert planet.

THE STARFARER'S REFUGE

The Starfarer’s Refuge is a new location that acts as a quest hub for the Avikan – essentially, it’s an Avikan-themed Outpost. This location features many NPCs offering new quests, and also offers services such as a material exchange, a weapons merchant and vehicle repairs. The Starfarer’s Refuge is themed after the Avikan, but is available to characters of all races.

In order to travel to the Starfarer’s Refuge, you have to either find an Avikan Colony, or a specific random encounter. Here, you’ll find a teleporter that takes you straight to the Starfarer’s Refuge. Once you’re there you can bookmark the location by visiting the teleporter merchant, just as you can in the vanilla Outpost.

I am planning big things for the future of this mod! A few things worth mentioning:

• More generated settlements – an obvious one, and made rather easy now that Tiled is available as a map editor to all modders
• Custom missions – I have several missions for this mod, both big and small, and each of them will reward you with something unique for your trouble
• New questlines to go along with the missions
• More codex entries about the culture and lore of all of the races
• Descriptions for vanilla objects
• More vanity items!
• Sprites for tiered armour
• More generated structures and random encounters
• New biomes and planet types, and possibly even an all-new type of star!
• More unique weapons!
• A custom intro cinematic

In addition to these planned additions, my plans for this mod include a bunch more races for you to meet and to play as. At this time, a grand total of ten races (not including the Droden) are planned for the mod. And yes, you read that right: TEN new races. That’s more than there are in the vanilla game! To make this a reality, I’ll need your support – tell your friends about this mod, give me feedback and submit ideas for additions and improvements. I need your input to make this mod the best mod it can possibly be!

All races that I am planning to include are races from the Elithian Alliance Roleplay, an online roleplay about various galactic civilizations and their interactions. You might remember us from Spore, where the members of this roleplay created the first iterations of our own races and their civilizations. Do say hello if you once participated in this roleplay!


Installation is easy! Simply download the mod from this page, and unzip the content in your Starbound mod folder. This is usually found in C:\Program Files\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Starbound\giraffe_storage\mods.

Make sure the ‘avikan’ folder is placed inside that ‘mods’ folder and you’re good to go!

Do remember:

• You’ll need a character creation extender mod to play as an Avikan! Any will do, but I personally use the Simple Extended Character Creation Mod by Xander Kau.
• Before installing updated versions of the mod, delete your old installation! If you don’t, there may be some unexpected issues or even crashes.
• It’s a good idea to back up your saves before installing a new mod. Stuff might break, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Q: Where is the option to create an Avikan, or one of the other custom races?
A: You need a character creation extender mod. There are a lot of them out there and any will do, but I personally use the Simple Extended Character Creation Mod by Xander Kau.

Q: Where can I find Avikan settlements? Or Trinkian settlements, for that matter?
A: Avikan settlements are found on a few planets. The Avikan Camp is found on desert and savannah/arid planets. The Avikan Colony can be found on Desert and Savannah planets, as well as the scorched planets orbiting Fiery Stars. The Trinkian Colony can be found on snow and frozen/tundra planets.

The Centensian Ruins microdungeon can be found on almost any planet.

Please keep in mind that this mod’s dungeons are subject to the same random generation as the vanilla dungeons, so it might take you a few tries before finding one of the settlements.

Q: How do I get the crafting materials I need for Avikan weapons?
A: You need to kill monsters using one of the mod’s unique hunting weapons. There are hunting spears, bows, javelins, spike traps and a hunting knife – kill a monster with any of these and you’re guaranteed to get at least one crafting item. To get higher tier bones like the Monster Claws, you need to hunt higher-tier monsters on the more dangerous planets.

Great Monster Bones, the highest tier material, are a rare drop on all tiers, although it becomes more common later on.

Q: Where can I get the bone head armour worn by Avikan village guards?
A: There are seven pieces of bone head armour which can be found as rare loot. Kill monsters with Avikan hunting weapons to get a chance at dropping them.

Q: I want to craft items and objects specific to a certain race, but don't want to play as that race myself. How do I do this?
A: Each race starts out with a set of crafting recipes unique to that race. In order to unlock said crafting recipes using other races, you’ll have to get your hands on a Crafting Guide for that race. Crafting Guides can be purchases from the Drifter's Emporium in the Starfarer's Refuge

Q: Where can I learn more about the Elithian Alliance?
A: We have our own forum over at elithianalliance.forumotion.com! There’s a lot of information on the various species, civilizations and other things there, so come and have a look. Some things are only accessible to members, but don’t be afraid – we will gladly welcome any newcomers! You could also just ask me anything you want to know, of course.

There are also Imgur albums available, which contain images of many of the original Spore creations created for the Elithian Races, and the Elithian Alliance as a whole. DO beware possible spoilers for unannounced races if you decide to view the albums!

The following albums are available:
Elithian Art (Sentient Aliens)
Elithian Art (Wildlife)
Elithian Art (Planets)

Q: I have an issue with part of your mod, how can I get some support?
A: Contact me here on the forums, reply to this thread or send a PM. ALWAYS attach your starbound.log if there’s a crash or there’s an item missing, I need it to analyse the problem. Be nice and patient and I will do all I can to help you!

Q: Why is the mod folder named 'avikan', while the mod itself is called the Elithian Races Mod?
A: This mod was first released as the Avikan Race Mod, back when it only included a single race. Now that the mod includes multiple races, I decided to change the name into something more applicable for a multi-race mod. The mod is still called ‘avikan’ in the files because changing this name could cause issues with upgrading from the Avikan Race Mod to the Elithian Races Mod.

Q: The Droden look like the Battle Droids from Star Wars...
A: The Droden were partially inspired by the Battle Droids, as well as the Geth from Mass Effect and a few more fictional synthetic races, but it isn't my intention to replicate them. The design of the Droden was influenced by two major factors: the appearance of the Avikan, and the need for a cheap production cost in the lore. The Droden need to use as few parts as possible to remain cheap to produce, and their minimalist shape is the answer to this need. The elongated head is inspired by the Avikan head shape, but I can understand that some may believe the similarities are too striking.

Q: The Avikan seem very similar to the Avali, how come?
A: The Avikan and the very popular Avali do seem a bit similar - they're both nomads, build tents and even look a bit alike. Most of this is a coincidence, though. The Avikan originate from an online roleplay and were created before I knew about the Avali. They're nomads for different reasons, and they have vastly different cultures.

That being said, the Avali did inspire parts of this mod, and I thank RyuujinZERO for making his fantastic mod! It helped me get started with Starbound modding and served as an inspiration for me to get this mod to the highest quality possible. I didn't copy any of his work (all sprites are hand drawn by me, and no-one else*), but RyuujinZERO still deserves some credit for inspiring me nonetheless. Thank you!

If that still didn't convince you, then please have a look at RyuujinZERO's review of the mod.

(*With the exception of a few sprites made by Chucklefish, plus a number of sprites provided by guest artists)


Here is a list of mods that are known to be either incompatible or fully supported:

• MadTulip's Spaceship Mod: INCOMPATIBLE. Both mods currently use the same material ID range of 30000+ which causes conflicts. This issue likely won't be fixed due to a few complications with changing material IDs on existing tiles.
• Enhanced Party Interface: Minor issues. When both mods are installed, the player and party interface will be off-center. A simple fix is to open the avikan folder, then open the interface/party folder. Delete playerbar.png, and the party interface will revert to the one from Enhanced Party Interface.
• Frackin' Universe: No known issues!

• A notice to fellow modders: I use the Material and Liquid ID pages on starbounder.org to claim material IDs and steer clear from those claimed by others. To ensure maximum compatibility between mods, I encourage everyone to look at these pages and claim ID ranges so that conflicts can be avoided.

There's a few people out there who deserve a special notice here, for helping me create this mod and motivating me along the way:

• A very big thank you to the members of the Elithian Alliance, without whom I would have never developed my concepts into the detailed fictional world it is now! You helped build the world and motivated me while I was working on the mod, for which I can't possibly thank you enough! Special thanks go to, in no particular order, Notix/Thunderpants, KingNecromancer, JorgasElite, Veoline, Lunark, Polarnik, Sataz and all the other folk over at our forum and the old Sporum thread!
• A great thank you to Davey, for motivating me to finish the mod and for being awesome to work with on all the other projects!
• A big thank you to the modding community for creating so many awesome Starbound mods! Dissecting mods taught me how to mod the game myself, so without you I'd never have managed to build the Avikan Race Mod. A couple of special notices: RyuujinZERO for his Avali Race Mod, Nemasys for his Orcana Mod and Djinn for his Peglaci! There are many more mods I looked at to learn Starbound modding, but these three were the biggest and most influential (largely in regards to writing JSON).
• A big thank you to our fellow Starbound community member toby109tt for providing the guest art for the Bone Coil unique weapon!
• A big thank you to Resonat for providing excellent suggestions and ideas for the mod!
• And an incredible thank you to the entire Chucklefish team for making an excellent game with amazing modding capabilities!

Mod Pack Permissions:

Do not include this mod in compilations.

Mod Assets Permissions:

You must get the author's consent before altering/redistributing any assets included in this mod.