Colonies: v1.0.0 [Deleted]

Starbound Colonies Mod

Please note that this mod is still in a WIP state. While it is perfectly playable, I do not consider it to be done. There will be more features in this mod that will be included as scripting/modding support for said features develop. I am currently limited by the current API to the following content. Please take this into consideration while enjoying/reviewing the mod. If you have an issue with the mod, please consult the following FAQ guide before rating!

Table of Contents

Core Gameplay

Colonists

Command

Farming
Building
Mining​

Needs

Hunger
Desires​

Buildings

Supplies
Tiers
Types​

Quests

Invasions
S.O.S.
Misc. Events​

Planned Features
FAQ​

Core Gameplay

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The goal of this mod is to implement micromanagement of colonies into starbound. It aims to bring a semi-relistic outlook on the progression of creating a new settlement from scratch along with the responsibilities of said colony. While playing this mod, players will be tasked with responsibilities that will directly affect the well being of the colony. Players must grow food, supply resources, and designate tasks to the inhabitants in order to thrive on the chosen environment in which the colony was created. Players must ensure that the colonists remain safe, or they will become unhappy and untrusting. Eventually, if unhappiness is not dealt with, colonists will start to leave, and new ones will think twice about joining, or even decide to look the other way and ignore it completely.

Colonists

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Colonists are the key factor in establishing a good colony. They make up the labor and rating of each colony. They are able to be commanded, must be fed to remain happy, desire certain objects within the colony, and must be taken care of to ensure that they are happy. Should a Governor (Player) not take care of them, then they will leave.

Jobs

Each colonist may be commanded to perform a specific task and given various jobs. Each job may or may not require tools for the Colonist to use. In order to provide tools for your Colonists, an Armory must be built. Once built, the Governor may then place tools inside the Armory to supply the Colonists. If there are any current jobs that are producing tools or weapons, they will automatically place the items in the Armory as well.

Farming

Colonists can be commanded to farm if the player interacts with them while holding a Hoe. Doing so will set their occupation to become a farmer. Once a farmer, Colonists will seek out the nearest Farm Plot that is ready to harvest. Once the colonist is close enough to harvest the crops, he/she will then add the harvested crops to the colony's food stock. Having enough Farm Plots and farmers will ensure the colony is well fed.

In order to properly set up Farm Plots, the Governor must first find tilled soil, and place down a Farm Plot on it. Once the Farm Plot is placed, the Governor must decide which type of crop he wants the Colonists to grow. The Governor can designate the crop he/she wants to grow by holding the appropriate seed in his/her hand and interact with the Farm Plot. Once grown, Farmers will automatically harvest the crops.
Should the Governor wish to change crops, he/she may bring the crop to its "Ready" state by harvesting the crop himself/herself (Before the colonists replant them). Once a Farm Plot is in the ready state, the Governor may then select a different crop by repeating the steps to originally set up the crop.

Currently only works with the following seeds:
corn, grapes, pineapple, sugarcane, tomato, wheat, banana, chili, potato, and carrots

Building

Colonists can be commanded to build structures by interacting with them while holding a Matter Manipulator. Doing so will set their occupation to become a Builder. Once a builder, Colonists will seek out unfinished Colony Structures. In order to build the structure designated at the site, Colonists must have the appropriate materials in the Colony Stockpile. More information on the buildings themselves is in the Building section.
In order to set up the Structure Pad, you must find a suitable building location that has both blocks below it, and blocks in the background behind where you will be placing the pad. The blocks must cover the entire length of the object and there can be no gaps. This is a scripting limitation in order to actually build the structure, and not something I have just randomly chosen.

Mining

Colonists can be commanded to go mine resources by interacting with them while holding a pickaxe. Doing so will set their occupation to become a Miner. Once a Miner, colonists will seek out the nearest Colony Mine and begin to generate resources for the Colony. The amount and types of ore/material are randomly found and may or may not be desired for a particular building project.
NOTICE:
In the future, when scripting support becomes more helpful (No proper support for removing NPCs without a death animation/sound.), I plan on making the Colonists actually enter the Mine rather than just stand Idle outside the Mine. I also plan on introducing different types of mines that bring in certain risks/rewards such as Strip Mining (Takes a long time but high resource output), Blast Mines (Quick output, dangerous/fatal for Colonists), etc.

Needs

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Hunger

Hunger presents a problem for all Colonists. If Colonists are not fed, they will become unhappy and reduce the overall happiness of the Colony. If their hunger remains untreated then they may die. Hunger can be solved in 2 ways: Either set up a farm system for colonists, or provide for the Colony with Food Chests.

Desires

(Not currently implemented)
Colonists will have demands that must be met in order to keep them happy. Demands may range from the simplest of things, such as a basic door to their home, to more complex needs, such as having a Crafting Table around for them to use. If the needs of these desires are not met, they will become mildly unhappy and affect the
overall happiness of the colony.

Buildings

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Buildings can be designated by placing down a Colony Structure at the point where you wish for it to be built. The structure itself requires blocks below it, and blocks behind it in the background layer. Once placed, the Governor may select the type of building by using the appropriate Building Blueprint on the Colony Structure. Once the blueprint is applied to the Colony Structure, a Builder will come and start building the structure from the ground up. Once the Colony Structure is placed, it is recommended not to destroy the Colony Structure object as it retains important information regarding the state, tier, and bonuses of the structure that was built.

Building Supplies

In order for your Colonists to build structures, your Colony must have the appropriate materials for them to use. These materials can be obtained by mining them. Any collected materials will appear in an Colony Stockpile. If there is not stockpile available or if it is full, the NPCs will drop the materials on the ground.

Building Tiers

Each building has its own tiers. The different tiers represent how much the building was upgraded, and may provide bonuses for the colony as it reaches higher levels.

Building Types

There will be many different types of buildings ranging from simply Cosmetic, to useful/productive buildings such as an Blacksmith. Each building contributes to the colony in its own unique way, either by looking nice, unlocking new recipes for your colonists, or even providing a constant output of supplies.

Quests

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Eventually, there will be a built in quest system that will allow the Governor to accept generated quests given to the colony.

Invasions

Other colonies may wish to obtain your Colony for their own! Defend your colony, while fending off the intruders.

S.O.S.

Other colonies may need your help! Send them aid in whatever way you can, be it by providing Colonists, Food, or Supplies.

Misc. Events

Perhaps your colonists want some entertainment, a special type of food, or maybe even to have someone "accidentally removed" from the colony. Make sure you satisfy your colonists!

Planned Features

Additional Jobs
More Quests
More Structures
Better AI
Upgraded Colony Benefits
Invasions!

FAQ

Q: Your mod is broke! FIX IT!
A: That's not a question, but make sure it is not another mod you have installed that is causing the problem. I do EXTENSIVE testing before I release an update. It is possible I missed something, but do your part in locating if it is just you before you start spewing out accusations.

Q: Does this support all races, including custom ones?
A: YES!

Q: How to get Colonists?
A: Build a ‘Colony Beacon’ from your ‘Wooden Crafting Table’ – They will spawn after a while


Q: How to build more Colonial stuff?
A: You can obtain everything related to Colonies from the Colony Beacon.


Q: How to Assign Jobs to my Colonists?
A: By picking the right tool in your hand and clicking ‘e’ on your keyboard while targeting the colonist. (Pickaxe – Miners; Matter Manipulator – Builders; Hoe – Farmers). Make sure you have the tools in your Armory as well.

Q: How am I able to build new buildings?
A: By Placing a ‘Structure Ground’ – The Structure needs to meet the right Placing requirements: the ground needs to be on a flat surface and covered with material in the background – to have your builders start building you need:

a) A stockpile placed with materials in it
b) Enough space for the building to grow up as the builders are working (15 blocks high should be enough for all buildings by now)
c) At least 1 builder

Q: How to place a working farm?
A: You need tilled soil and place a ‘Farm Plot’ on it (Every ‘Farm Plot’ needs 75 dirt blocks to be built at the ‘Colony Beacon’). Afterwards you may place the plant on the ‘Farm Plot’ by clicking ‘e’ on it while holding the right seed in your hand. (This will not use up the seed right now)

Q: How do I get wood?
A: You can’t right now. This will be implemented soon. Right now you need cobblestone instead.

Q: Stockpile? What’s this?
A: In a Stockpile your colonists will store everything they collect, but you are not able to get the resources for yourself as long as a stockpile is placed at this time. If there is not enough space in a stockpile, or one does not exist, the colonists will simply throw their loot on the ground for you to pick up.

Q: Food? What does it do?
A: Food keeps your colonists happy. If they do not eat after a long period of time, they will cause unhappiness in your colony. If they go prolonged periods without eating, they may die.

Q: My farmers aren't putting food anywhere!
A: Food is stored in your colony beacon. You cannot take it out, and I have no plans on allowing this anytime soon

Q: My miners throw 1 or 2 things each when I go to the planet
A: Something I cannot fix. The NPCs are loading before the objects have a chance to link up, and a failsafe of mine is throwing it on the ground instead of going to stockpile. Would you rather errors?

Q: My miners are constantly throwing stuff on the ground... not just one or two things
A: Either your stockpile failed to link to the beacon, or your stockpile is full. If it is not full, just go to your ship and back to the world again to fix it.

 

This sounds amazing. Can't wait to try it.

 

THIS was what i've been waiting for in Starbound, i hope the devs see this and implement it as a feature of the original game >

 

Sounds fun. I will give it a shot.

 

Thank you all for the interest. I have plenty of goals set for the future of this mod.
Currently, this is about as best as it can possibly get as there is no support for direct inventory access, scripts on chests/storage containers, nor am I able to place blocks/materials in the world.
Should this support be added in future versions of starbound, I have hopes on making completely self-sustainable colonies that will build structures, develop an economy, and even progress in technology as the colony expands. Upgrades to colonies' weapons and armor is also a future goal with the option of making these colonists do the "heavy lifting" of searching for supplies, and may even act as mercenaries.

 

That would be awesome, though i do have a question. For those of us with huge ships, or fully customizable ships (FCSmod), would it be possible to add a feature that would allow this mod to be used on ships rather than on planet surfaces for say.. running a space station inhabited by the npcs? My homemade space station for instance has a huge garden area with multiple layers/rows for different plants to grow, so admittedly it would be pretty cool if we could populate a space station through such a mod, though im not sure how feasible it would be.

It'd probably be more practical after the next update when npc pathing is improved in player-built structures.

I havent personally tried this myself yet, but figured id propose the idea before i break anything on my end haha.

 

this mod has serious potential from the concept alone. i can't wait to see a more fully fleshed out version.

 

Ohhh, liking the sound of this mod

The colony/NPC management side of starbound is something I had always been eager to see when I first heard about it from the devs, but so far was more limited than I expected(though it might just need to be developped further).

The old days when they were talking of slowly building/upgrading a base on a space station, managing NPCs you would recruit that would help you produces different sort of equipements whose recipes only they knew or research special technologies to develop(like rocket launchers) where a side of the game I was really hoping for. This "central base" was something that was giving the game an almost XCOM like feel I was liking.

 

hmm well im definitely getting colonists, but it seems they just stand around right at the beacon's location without actually moving around or doing anything. Is this normal? xD

 

Right now, yes. You can assign them jobs and they will move around. They should also sit and sleep if you have the appropriate objects. Originally I had them use the default wander state... but they kept getting killed. Once this week is over and I'm back in town I will work on a custom wander state that will force the NPCS to stay within boundaries set by the player to help with that.

 

Oh... missed this. This is actually already possible. Simply place the beacon on your ship and you are good to go!

 

Even space statons ca be created? Men you're great! you're finishing the update to angry koala? i want to play this mod, please.

 

i hope your updating this, i missed out on getting it sooner, but it looks nice

tryed bypassing the mod info file into angry dint realy work beacon did nothing, of course i never realy knew how to use it anyways

 

Hurry back to town! I want to get my mits on this (Unless it works with A. Koala already)

 

it dont even if u bypass it the beacon does nothing

 

The Mod don't works for angry Angry Koala.

 

Your mod is freaking amazing! You know, if you combined forces with the author of the newly released electric home defense mod I think you two could make some serious magic! Here's the link: http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/electric-home-defense.728/

My imagination gone crazy: So the way I understand it, your colony beacon brings npc's to it, right? Well, the Electric home defense mod has a similar spawner, but it spawns an INVASION of hostile enemies. If you merged the functionality of the two and made it just one item (maybe with randomized odds of a hostile or friendly npc, or on independent timers?) I think you could ostensibly make a tower defense game within Starbound with great risk/reward factors (in other words, great gameplay).

 

Perhaps you need some sort of assistance to the artist? (Though I do not know how to make a model for the game, but if you explain, I'll be happy)

 

I will happily take any help I can get in regards to artistic talent, however my first step is to make the mod work again with Angry Koala. It's a very easy fix as I just have to replace every "object" with the word "entity" in the scripts.

As far as invasions and such go... I will take a look at the mod but I had my own system in mind so it's likely that I will be unable to collaborate with him/her.

I also still would like to work on AI a bit as well as make the colonists build mini structures. This will also open up another "job" for them.

I am still out of town until tommorow but I hope to get to work on all of this soon. I will also take any suggestions you all may have, though please don't be discouraged if I decide not to add them as it might not be what I have envisioned the mod being or even possible with game support.

 

I'm not always on this site and if you want to be something from me, send me an email, I will be glad to help.

I'm not always on this site and if you want to be something from me, send me an email, I will be glad to help. Maxak8@gamil.com
*I'm sorry for my english*