I was thinking that if we install a mod, such as Frackin' Universe, you can't go back without messing a ton of files up. This also means that if your friend doesn't have it and doesn't want it, you can't play with them without the risk of losing items, or crashing when playing with them. I'm not just talking about FU here, but any mod really. What if a server want's it vanilla only? Or have it so that you need "X" mod to play on it, but you don't want the hassle of certain characters to become different or corrupted with needing to move dozens of files around? Solution: When Starbound boots, it shows a simple launcher that allows us to select a location for each instance of where the game is saved, this is so that the game can be loaded from those different spaces at any time with whatever mods it has. What I'm saying is that it'll be similar to how Minecraft does it for selecting different versions of the game, which can allow modded versions inside the launcher as well. For those who are unaware of haven't played Minecraft. Minecraft has a launcher that allows users to make "Profile" on that launcher, which allows that "Profile" to player a certain version of Minecraft or modded Minecraft. Each "Profile" allows the game to have it's own directory for saves and texture packs, along with mods (if done right) to be played on without effect the other instances of Minecraft on the computer. With steam, there can be an option to allow that instance of Starbound to use the Steam Workshop files and accept them, or not. As to make it so that certain "Profiles" of Starbound can have a Steam only modded or a combination of Steam mods and .pak files. Pros: -Simple loading of different variations of Starbound, one for vanilla, and multiple ones for modded variations. -No risk of losing one set of characters over a mod as easily. -Allows a "Steam" option that allows steam mods to be installed in that instance of Starbound. -Allows for selecting a multiplayer "profile" to allow joining multiplayer servers less of a hassle (so you don't need to uninstall 50+ mods) -Have a "Modding" profile that allows the user for his mods to be installed. Experimentation is easier with this idea. -If coded properly, it can create/merge with the nightly version to allow selecting it a bit more user friendly. -Each instance of Starbound is independent of one another, so one game doesn't effect the other -Starbound "Mod Packs" are entirely possible Cons: -I don't know Steams policy with games, but this may infringe on them if multiple game copies are saved, but I don't know. -Takes up more space on the computer (Minecraft also has this problem) -Most likely never happen in the near future -Can be confusing of what is installed -Controller mapping/Game options need to be configured each time for each instance. (Again, Minecraft also has this problem) -Need to create a new character (Can be solved by copying world/player files from one to another)
Yes, yes, all of my yes. I love modding games, and this would let me and other people do so without any fear of save files corrupting on a game update.
You can EASILY just duplicate the folder and launch from there as is. \starbound\win64\starbound.exe Just hold the right click on that file, drag, release right click, "create shortcut here", cut/paste the shortcut to somewhere more convenient(desktop, quicklauch, etc). Fortunately Starbound doesn't include intrusive DRM to prevent it(some games require launching from Steam). You wouldn't get workshop mods that way... without a little extra effort. Manual mod installation is better for this anyhow. You CANNOT use the same characters. Some mods are going to change things where in the mod becomes a dependency. Other times your mod items would become PGIs without the mod. All the same, having different "profiles" is actually that easy. You don't need a fancy program, and Starbound doesn't need to become more complex. I've done this when making mods and I want a clean environment for my mods. No trouble at all. I also make separate shortcuts to starbound.log since I reference that frequently.
Also, here's a fun little bit of trivia - starbound.exe takes the same command line arguments as starbound_server.exe. I've been using it to have different mods than my wife - so I have a shortcut going to, for example starbound.exe -bootconfig sbinitFrackin.config Whereas sbinitFrackin.config is simply tweaked to be { "assetDirectories" : [ "..\\assets\\", "..\\FrackinUniverse\\mods\\" ], "storageDirectory" : "..\\FrackinUniverse\\storage\\", "defaultConfiguration" : { "gameServerBind" : "*", "queryServerBind" : "*", "rconServerBind" : "*" } }
