Modding Discussion Creating a race mod in Starbound.

The following text is taken from the hands of OmnipotentEntity in the Starbound IRC with small edits to make it more clear.

You'll have to touch the following things:
1) actually making the sprite sheets
2) adding the associated JSON information
3) changing the character creation screen
4) adding examine text to every, single, item in the game that is distinguished by race
5) change the NPC text, because those are also distinguished by race
6) add any race specific items, dungeons, foods, equipment, quests, npcs, etc.
Edit: 7) Adding Lore

So prepare for your race mods!

P.S. Pony race is mine! Nobody touch! Please...

 

You forgot adding lore. =D

 

lemme get the actual log.

<MaiqTheWolf> OmnipotentEntity: how easy is it to make a race mod?
<OmnipotentEntity> it's pretty involved
<OmnipotentEntity> you'll have to touch the following things:
<OmnipotentEntity> 1) actually making the sprite sheets
<OmnipotentEntity> 2) adding the associated JSON information
<OmnipotentEntity> 3) changing the character creation screen
<OmnipotentEntity> 4) adding examine text to every, single, object in the game that is distinguished by race
<OmnipotentEntity> sorry not item, objects
<OmnipotentEntity> change the NPC text, because those are also distinguished by
<OmnipotentEntity> add any race specific items, dungeons, foods, equipment
<OmnipotentEntity> quests
<OmnipotentEntity> npcs
<OmnipotentEntity> etc etc
<OmnipotentEntity> yeah, it's doable
<OmnipotentEntity> and you don't even need any code changes
<OmnipotentEntity> Starbound is like a really big and ungodly complicated json file reader
<OmnipotentEntity> the game is 105k lines long
<OmnipotentEntity> but the text assets are like... 380k?
<OmnipotentEntity> currently
<OmnipotentEntity> actually, let me get an accurate count
<OmnipotentEntity> looks like 317533 lines
<OmnipotentEntity> the 105k is just chucklefish code, it doesn't include a few libraries that we have in our source tree
<OmnipotentEntity> Total Physical Source Lines of Code (SLOC) = 163,577
<OmnipotentEntity> if I cheat and include PCRE, tiny format and google testing libraries
<OmnipotentEntity>

 

A feline wolfs and male tiger race =x?

 

Seeems like alot of work for 1 person to do.
I am sure you could create a race that would take the lore of Avians for example but that would be weird.
Well I am looking forward to these Race mods, good luck to everyone!

 

I will try to get my friend to help me with a Naga/Serpent/Snake-like race when Starbound is out of Beta.
Or I will forget.
So I'm not claiming dibs on the things I mentioned.

 

My mind went happy.
If anyone is willing to make a NIMBAT race mod...
I will PAY YOU.
(Around $5-$20)
(Maybe...)

 

My goal if to get all these races working by 2015. (some will most likely be done by there creators or other modders.)

Parfelians
Liberi
Psyliphs
Zaahir
Glunaught
Roos
Oscura
Njáll
Tueller
Monophytes
Cerpine
Drale
Dread

That will bring the race count up to 20.

 

I'd love to see Drow or Illythiri, Whichever you prefer to name them as. Always been on that side of the fence when it comes to races and I'd absolutely LOVE a whole sublore for them added and all that. To bad I'm bad @ code.

 

That sounds like a huge amount of work right there. And it would get worse everytime they add more stuff.


I guess you could just copy the human text though for the most part.

 

i have to see Starbund hunger games! xd

 

Give me Yoda race, NAO!!

 

You could simply reskin an existing race if you're real lazy and don't want to mess with other things.

 

Insect race, similar to Nerubians from Warcraft 3 and DotA
The challenge begins!

 

Now that is lazy talk.

 

See, I'm interested in modding Starbound, but I have limited time, which means you guys are all gonna beat me to the punch.

...Now, building a POS-but-usable Java Swing application that HELPS you add races with a usable-if-ugly UI...well, maybe I CAN help. Hard to say.

 

now THAT would be helpful. but that would also take a lot of time and effort, so saying whether it would be worth it or not is hard.

 

Yeah, probably. But at the end of the day, generically, mods are a collection of LUA scripts and art resources. All my app would do is give you a UI with things like "Enter the path to your AI LUA script here" (with a browse button of course), and then allow you to hit "Save", give it a name, and output the folder/archive/whatever that will be your mod.

Race mods are obviously pretty tricky, what with art resources. Ideally, my app would allow you to preview the animation, which may prove tricky, but hell, this is kind of like what I do for 40 hours a week anyway. What's a few more down the tube in the grand scheme of things anyway?

I'd end up doing it as an open-source GitHub project too, so maybe I'll get some collaboration from other devs.

 

Is that it? Ha! I'm pretty much halfway there!