Pocket Dimensions 1.2.0

Starbound mod: Pocket Dimensions

This mod adds advanced technology to the Starbound universe. After studying the technology of the Ancients, particularly the Ancient Vaults, Elliott, the Outpost's resident tech scientist, has an epiphany about the nature of space-time. With the player's help, he invents the Tesseract Lens, a device capable of creating and transporting you to pocket dimensions within the folds of the fabric of space-time. Constructing a Tesseract Lens consumes a hefty amount of high-level resources, but the reward is access to a nearly infinite amount of free space.

The Tesseract Lens requires tuning hundreds of dimensional parameters to locate a safe pocket within space-time. Fortunately, it condenses all of these parameters into one convenient integer for you to write down. And write it down you should... Elliott discovered this the hard way after his prototype Tesseract Lens was reset and he lost access to a pocket dimension that he had filled with his lab equipment. Perhaps one day some lucky dimensional explorer will stumble upon it, although the odds on that are worse than one in a billion.

Pocket dimensions work very similarly to terrestrial worlds. They have gravity and a breathable atmosphere, but lack any light source. You can build freely within their confines. All pocket dimensions are shared within the universe, so if someone sees the dimensional tuning number corresponding to a pocket dimension, they can travel to it, just as they can navigate to star systems using interstellar coordinates. Surprisingly, the interstellar teleporter network is compatible with pocket dimensions without any modifications; a Tesseract Lens is necessary to create a pocket dimension, but once created, if a teleporter is anchored within it, other teleporters can lock onto and beam to it. Despite this, it is important to remember that pocket dimensions are not terrestrial worlds, so certain technologies, such as terraformers, do not work within them.

Why Pocket Dimensions?

I was fascinated with the concept of Ancient Vaults but wanted my own for permanent use. The idea of a scientist building new tech based on what they learned about the Ancient Vaults seemed to fit nicely within the existing Starbound universe. You don't automatically get this advanced technology; you have to earn it.

I also wanted pocket dimensions to be selectively sharable with friends, but not necessarily with everyone on a server. I liked the element of danger that someone might stumble upon your personal dimension, but that's statistically unlikely. There are one quintillion possible pocket dimensions, so the only realistic scenario in which an "enemy" discovers your dimension is if they find your Tesseract Lens and read your dimensional tuning number.

To answer what would probably be the first question asked, pocket dimensions have a tier of 1. The only danger you face in a pocket dimension is the danger you bring with you. (For now...)

Compatibility Notes

Care has been taken to use unique identifiers and to minimize changes to existing assets, so in theory, this mod should be widely compatible. The only real point of interaction with the vanilla universe is appending quests to Elliott, the Outpost lab scientist.

Uninstall Notes

Due to how the vanilla Starbound code handles removed mod assets, some issues may crop up. None of these issues are major, but you should be aware of them before uninstalling this mod.

• When this mod is uninstalled, for any character that completed Elliott's Pocket Dimensions missions, when that character is first loaded after uninstall, the game will crash. However, if you re-launch the game and load the character again, play should resume normally. When play resumes, the Pocket Dimensions missions will have been removed from the mission journal, the Tesseract Lens will no longer be craftable, and any Tesseract Lenses that you had placed in any world will no longer exist.
• If you had placed a teleporter inside of a pocket dimension and added it to your teleporter bookmarks, the entry will still exist after uninstall. If you attempt to teleport to that pocket dimension, you will re-materialize on your ship. You may wish to delete these entries.
• Pocket dimension worlds that you created using this mod will not be deleted upon uninstall. They will continue to exist in your storage folder unless you manually remove them. If you reinstall this mod, you should be able to regain access to them in whatever state you left them.

Credits

Thanks to Nekobi's "Pocket World Mod" for inspiring this mod. I liked the core concept, but had some very different ideas about how the implementation should work, which inspired me to create this mod.

Thanks to Chucklefish for providing a wealth of existing game assets on which we can build so many interesting mods.

License

Permission to include this mod or parts thereof in derived works, to distribute copies of this mod verbatim, or to distribute modified copies of this mod, is granted unconditionally to Chucklefish LTD. Such permissions are also granted to other parties automatically, provided the following conditions are met:

• Credit is given to the author(s) specified in this mod's _metadata file;
• A link is provided to https://github.com/rl-starbound/rl_pocketdimensions in the accompanying files or documentation of any derived work;
• The names "Pocket Dimensions" or "pocketdimensions" are not used as the name of any derived work without explicit consent of the author(s); however, those names may be used in verbatim distribution of this mod.

Mod Pack Permissions:

Anyone can use this mod in their mod compilation without the author's consent.

Mod Assets Permissions:

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