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RELEASED Frackin' Universe Reprioritizers 2/1/25

Forces Frackin' Universe to load before most other mods!

  1. Shadow Wolf TJC

    Shadow Wolf TJC Spaceman Spiff

    Shadow Wolf TJC submitted a new mod:

    Frackin' Universe Reprioritizers - Forces Frackin' Universe to load before most other mods!

    Read more about this mod...
     
  2. Kirbyroth

    Kirbyroth Pangalactic Porcupine

    didn't know starbound handle mods like elder scrolls did lol
     
  3. bk3k

    bk3k Oxygen Tank

    Have you verified this works? I noticed with a mod that making the priority lower than the mod I was trying to "include", it loaded before the mod in question.

    Specifically I wanted the mod to load early enough that FU itself(if present) would load after it(and over-write select aspects). And I wanted the mod to work with Tabula Rasa. Even though I did an "include" on Tabula Rasa, my mod button wouldn't appear until I removed the priority of it. So I gave up on having an early priority.

    I didn't experiment with "requires" as I didn't want to require anything.

    Now since the intent of this mod isn't to actually DO anything but make FU load sooner, maybe it works where what I was attempting did not.
     
  4. Shadow Wolf TJC

    Shadow Wolf TJC Spaceman Spiff

  5. Shadow Wolf TJC

    Shadow Wolf TJC Spaceman Spiff

    I've just tested it, and it seems to load and function just fine, with or without Frackin' Universe.
     
  6. Shadow Wolf TJC

    Shadow Wolf TJC Spaceman Spiff

    Shadow Wolf TJC updated Frackin' Universe Reprioritizers with a new update entry:

    More Reprioritizers Added

    Read the rest of this update entry...
     
  7. sayter

    sayter The Waste of Time

    This is going to break a lot of things if used by folks that don't know what they are doing: a lot of the mods we load after is out of necessity, largely due to various mechanics not functioning properly otherwise. Notably, this includes a -ton- of the research system among other things. With a small, curated selection of mods its probably less of an issue...but most people do not curate their lists when installing mods.

    For the folks that do, though, this should be (mostly) fine.
     
  8. Shadow Wolf TJC

    Shadow Wolf TJC Spaceman Spiff

    Long time no see. Anyways...

    For starters, as you may have noticed, this mod pack of reprioritization mods for Frackin' Universe has been around for the past 7 years, and I've received no complaints about it... until now apparently (which would've coincidentally been after I had decided to update the mod pack with an expanded assortment of reprioritizers to select from, and port them over to Steam Workshop). I'd wager that people who've downloaded mods like these would've indeed already known what to expect of them (or would've found out sooner or later).

    BTW, given how massive of a mod project Frackin' Universe has been over these years (I'd say that it'd easily be comparable to a major DLC, like Rimworld's DLCs when compared with base Rimworld) I just have to ask this question: why even bother worrying about which other mods would either break themselves when run with Frackin' Universe, or would break Frackin' Universe when run with them? Shouldn't a mod as massive, and as content rich, as Frackin' Universe serve as a foundation for other mods to have to build on top of, with Frackin' Universe building on top of ONLY vanilla Starbound (like the flooring and support pillars of a house, itself built on top of a concrete foundation), instead of the other way around, with Frackin' Universe building on top of a bunch of other smaller mods (like the roof of said house, which depends on the support from the house's lower walls and support pillars to keep itself from collapsing down)? (If I'd have suggested a mod priority setting for Frackin' Universe, it'd perhaps be at around -9500, which wouldn't've been far off from Starbound's base assets, which have a priority of -9999.)

    As for why these reprioritization mods have even existed for so long, well, for starters, I was surprised that the Frackin' Universe dev team hadn't bothered to define their own priority setting in the mod's _metadata file (and still hadn't even recently, when I had downloaded one of the most recent versions of Frackin' Universe around the start of 2025). I did notice a long list of included mods that, in theory, should be forced to load before Frackin' Universe (though said other mods may've been deliberately designed with being loaded after Frackin' Universe instead, and when both mods include eachother... well let's just say that base Starbound would've ideally had a way to resolve issues like this, such as prioritizing required mods over included mods, or prioritizing mods with lower load priorities, or even simply prioritizing mods in alphabetical order).

    Having noticed that mods without defined priorities would default to a priority of 0 (as could be seen by checking starbound.log to see which mods were loaded in which order), I foresaw that said other mods that likewise haven't bothered with setting their own priorities would've had a high likelihood of conflicting with Frackin' Universe (which would've had a mod priority of 0, since, again, no priority was defined), unless designed with Frackin' Universe support (or at least accommodation) in mind of course.

    And that's why I've decided to create this collection of reprioritization mods for Frackin' Universe, to help it, and other mods, play a bit nicer with eachother without either mod having to resort to listing the other as "included", so that it'd force the other mod to be loaded before itself. (The only other way for me to alter mod priorities, plus mod requirements and inclusions, including Frackin' Universe BTW, would've involved unpacking the mods, and manually editing their _metadata files.)

    If you're curious about what kinds of priority settings would be ideal for which mods IMO, well, I do have some best practices that I'd personally follow with my own mods:

    • For fundamental bug-fixing mods for base-game Starbound, I'd list their priority as high (negative-wise) as -9998, which is one off from Starbound's priority, or as low as -9990. Those high negative priorities are necessary to fix bugs for base Starbound that might be unwanted, mods or no mods.
    • For framework-expanding mods designed to add new support for other mods from base-game Starbound, such as my various Missing _____ Fixer mods, or for something like Futara's Dragon Engine, I'd go for a mod priority of between -9900 and -9990, so that they wouldn't interfere with the bug-fixing mods, and also so that lots of mods would be able to build upon the framework that these mods would establish.
    • For a massive overhaul mod and/or major mod pack like Frackin' Universe (or Arcana, Betabound, or Elithian Races), which generally add tons of new content and/or mechanics, and/or generally alter the game in a fundamental way, I'd go with a mod priority of between -9000 and -9500 if it was designed with sensible cross-mod compatability in mind, and would thus likely be dependent on other mods to provide additional framework to support its foundation.
      • However, if, like Frackin' Universe, it was designed to be a standalone mod, with other framework-expanding and bug-fixing mods incorporated into it (which might create conflicts with other mods that try to do the same self-serving thing), then methinks a negative priority as high as -9998 would also be fine, assuming that said standalone mod was also willing to accept bug-fixes to vanilla Starbound.
    • For other large-scale content mods designed to build upon or facilitate other massive overhaul mods like Frackin' Universe or Elithian Races (such as a patch tying both mods together), then a priority slightly lower than the other mods (negative-wise), such as anywhere between -8000 and -9500, should be adequate.
    • Continuing on with smaller-scale mods that add a handful of new features compared to massive-scale mods like Frackin' Universe (such as my Expanded Weapon Generation mod), I'd say priorities from -5000 to -9000 should be fine, with higher negative settings being preferable for those who are interested in seeing how other modders could build off of them, and lower priorities preferable for those mods that build off of other mods instead of vanilla Starbound.
    • For mods that make large amounts of changes to other popular mods, such as a mod that builds off of Frackin' Universe (an expansion for an expansion if you would), mod priorities between -1000 and -5000 would be suggested.
    • For most smaller-scale mods in general that add in new features, priorities between -100 and -9000 should be fine, with higher priorities recommended for those mods that build off of vanilla Starbound only, and lower priorities for those mods that build off of other mods. These small mods can afford greater flexibility in mod priority, unlike larger mods like Frackin' Universe.
    • Generally, the vast majority of mods would be very small-scale affairs with any number, and any mix, of small additions and/or changes, so mod priorities between -100 and 100, including the default priority of 0 for mods with undefined priority settings, would be fine.
    • Mods that change Starbound in a cosmetic way (such as racial skin mods, graphical mods, and cosmetic-only interface mods) may benefit more with a positive priority, ANY positive priority, even as small as a priority of 1 (though I'd personally suggest at least 100), so that most other mods can't just casually or accidentally overwrite these mods' cosmetic changes.
    • Finally, for mods designed to patch other mods in minor ways (such as the countless patches for getting Frackin' Universe to work with other countless mods, or patches to change parts of Frackin' Universe that may not be desirable for some, or even to restore features of Frackin' Universe that some other mods might've decided to cut or alter), they'd likely want a positive priority of at least 100, possibly even over 1000. (Larger mods that make vast amounts of changes would benefit more from negative priorities, since they'd make for large foundations for other mods to build upon.)
    So yeah. Like a pyramid or a skyscraper, generally, mods that are larger in scope (such as Frackin' Universe), and/or that make additions to the base game, would benefit most from having a higher negative priority, while those that add to or make large amounts of modifications to other major mods (such as larger mods for Frackin' Universe) would benefit from a lower negative priority.

    Further up in priority, mods that make smaller amounts of changes to either base game or other mods (including towards Frackin' Universe, but also to other smaller mods), and are much smaller in scope, would benefit more from having a positive priority, with higher positive priorities recommended for the tiniest of mods that do nothing but make changes to either base game or other mods (including mods that make select restorations that other mods cut or altered from Frackin' Universe), and lower positive priorities recommended for larger mods that make changes.


    And that's all I have to say for the time being. Hopefully, this wouldn't be too long to be readable, and hopefully, you'll realize that I meant no harm.
     

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