I just ran into an issue today that I would like to spare anybody else from having. Apparently, sometimes, Steam can fail to load workshop mods on startup. Normally this would not cause issues, UNLESS you are using a Hotbar mod. Your character will load up fine, BUT, the extra hotbar(s), button(s), and inventory tab(s) will be gone. When you realize what happened, log out and back on, your hotbar/inventory mods will be restored, BUT your character will be broken at that point and will not show up on your character select. SO, to prevent this from happening, we need to place the Steam Workshop mod in \starbound\mods\ and to do that, we need to: 1). Open your Starbound.log file and look for a line that looks like this: Code: [11:10:02.058] [Info] Root: Detected asset source named 'Bigger Action Bar(12 slots)' at 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\211820\857809873\contents.pak' What you are looking for is First, the name of the mod ("Bigger Action Bar(12 Slots)"), and Second, the number of the mod (857809873). 2). Go to this folder, and copy the contents.pak file and paste it in the Starbound Root folder (\Starbound\). 3). Shift+Right Click and click "Open Command Window Here". 4). Type this into the resulting window: Code: "win32\asset_unpacker.exe" "contents.pak" "hotbarmod" Note that you can change "hotbarmod" ... you can name it anything you want, but you probably want it named something you will know what it is later. 5). Hit the enter key. 6). You will now have a folder called "hotbarmod" in \starbound\. Cut and then paste it inside of \starbound\mods\. 7). Unsubscribe from that mod on Steam Workshop. Voila! You will never have to worry about this breaking your character ever again. IF your mod is updated, simply re-subscribe and then perform the above steps (make sure to delete the old version in \starbound\mods\ first). EDIT: You can delete the copied&pasted contents.pak when you are done.
I think this PSA might be most useful to Workshop users since I would suspect people who frequent CF forums mostly get their mods from here. Or maybe the author of the mod themselves, like @bk3k? Anyway, you don't need to unpack it if you just want to make the mod functional. You can just put it in /mods/ and rename it to something else, e.g. hotbarmods.pak. It will function exactly the same.
I suppose one could just throw the .pak in there (didn't think of that).... but I prefer unpacked sooo lol. but ya. Hmm... but the thing is, telling only the author about it would only affect THAT mod.... this applies to ALL workshop mods that modify hotbars or inventory. And I don't really know how you would tell the people over on Workshop.
In some other thread I put directions on creating a symbolic link such that your workshop mods download into /mods/ and thus still load. I believe another valid option would be editing \starbound\win64\sbinit.config Code: "assetDirectories" : [ "..\\assets\\", "..\\mods\\" ], add your literal path to the workshop downloads here. I think another guide somewhere has this copy/paste ready.
Hmm, well either way I just wanted to make people aware of the fact that without doing something like this, it IS possible for Steam to literally irrevocably break your character if you don't realize what happened soon enough.
@Xylia by notifying the mod authors I meant each author can add necessary information in their mod page that Workshop can break the mods and they can offer solution in their mod page, as bk3k mentioned above.
Well, yes, but you'd have to actually get mod authors to do that, lol. That'd be great if they did, but it seems a bit infeasible to me to get everybody who ever released a hotbar/inventory mod on board with including such notifications.
It'd be impractical, yes, but it will reach the intended audience better IMO. Since there aren't that many mods out there that modify hotbar/inventory, I guess I'll try to pass this to Workshop.
