Modding

[Gamatron]

The game is very moddable and mods are already being made by a few enthusiasts.
Making a mod at this early stage will of course be a hassle as the game updates, but most things opened up to modding are sort of finalized, and only additional information might be added. To add new races and rooms, all you need is a text editor and paint.

The main place for modding is currently mod.io
https://songsofsyx.mod.io/
There are some guides there to help you get started.

There is also this comprehensive guide, written by @Bendigeidfran
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_OesG68HtJ4CwyHK7M72hQDOaCjeqgqT/view

Here is a thread on mods, how to download and upload them:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2229540768

[💖⎛⎝Silver Knight⎠⎞]

Uploading to Steam Workshop?

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by 💖⎛⎝Silver Knight⎠⎞💂⚔:

Uploading to Steam Workshop?

Thanks, added a link.

[Award Winning Dog]

how dangerous is it to add mods to an existing save file? i see that saves are stored in folders based on the mod set used when the save was started, but it looks like my save will load fine if i move it to a folder with additional mods added (in my case, from Classic Races to Classic Races + Grass). as long as i'm not REMOVING any mods that i started with, will my save probably stay stable?

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by Award Winning Dog:

how dangerous is it to add mods to an existing save file? i see that saves are stored in folders based on the mod set used when the save was started, but it looks like my save will load fine if i move it to a folder with additional mods added (in my case, from Classic Races to Classic Races + Grass). as long as i'm not REMOVING any mods that i started with, will my save probably stay stable?

It's hard to say. Mods that only alters existing files are fine, but mods that adds stuff will break. So as long as there is the same amount of rooms and races it should be fine.

[Doomdood]

Do mods disable achievements?

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by Doomdood:

Do mods disable achievements?

Only developer mode disables achievements, and loading a city from "examples" in the menu.

[Morphic]

@Gamatron (Jake)
Hi, loving SOS just want to say what a great job you've done! A couple questions:

Is it possible to create a new category in the UI build menus with a mod? I'm currently looking to add even more road types to my current mod but I'm running the risk of spamming a single region of the vanilla UI.

Also, whenever adding new road types, existing save file roads and floors (including ones inside buildings) get jumbled up. Almost like adding new road types changes the load order for existing saves and I can't seem to figure out how to stop it. This is problematic for large save files when adding the mod, know a way to fix this?

Is it possible to modify the floor type of the TREE_MONUMENT building so that it has no floor? So I can make man-made, err, species-made groves and forests without the stone road tile underneath?

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by Morphic:

@Gamatron (Jake)
Hi, loving SOS just want to say what a great job you've done! A couple questions:

Is it possible to create a new category in the UI build menus with a mod? I'm currently looking to add even more road types to my current mod but I'm running the risk of spamming a single region of the vanilla UI.

Also, whenever adding new road types, existing save file roads and floors (including ones inside buildings) get jumbled up. Almost like adding new road types changes the load order for existing saves and I can't seem to figure out how to stop it. This is problematic for large save files when adding the mod, know a way to fix this?

Is it possible to modify the floor type of the TREE_MONUMENT building so that it has no floor? So I can make man-made, err, species-made groves and forests without the stone road tile underneath?

Hello!

It's not possible to modify the categories, but there should be room enough for a dozen or two of roads I think? If there's a problem I can make the menu display two roads per row.

Existing saves shouldn't work that well when adding roads. I suggest starting a new game when you're adding a road. Enable developer mode to draw some roads instantly and see what it looks like. When changin a road, you don't need to restart though.

Not possible to change trees, but I can add it. I plan on changing this as well in the future, so that you get to pick roads underneath instead.

[Morphic]

Thanks for the speedy response!

Originally posted by Gamatron:

Existing saves shouldn't work that well when adding roads. I suggest starting a new game when you're adding a road. Enable developer mode to draw some roads instantly and see what it looks like. When changin a road, you don't need to restart though.

I do that currently for testing, however, it's a real pain when you want to add my mod to existing saves. You need to rebuild every road and room to get the floors back to how they were.
If I make changes to the mod later, for anyone who has the mod enabled, the next time they sync steam it'll disrupt their save file. Which makes me reluctant to push any updates to the live version until a major update drops and saves become incompatible anyway.
I'd hate to ruin someone's 100+ hour build just because I wanted to add a couple more designs. I was hoping for a workaround other than creating a library of legacy versions going forward.

Originally posted by Gamatron:

Not possible to change trees, but I can add it. I plan on changing this as well in the future, so that you get to pick roads underneath instead.

I was thinking more of being able to have the natural terrain underneath, rather than having any road at all. That way the player could build artificial green spaces inside their city where natural trees don't already exist, like graveyards. I initially tried to create a "grass" texture but it looked at odds with the normal terrain due to the clever way you've done map generation lol.
I wonder if I could make a new "glade" room and cannibalise the graveyard's trees :thinking:

Thanks again for the quick response.

[Gamatron]

Originally posted by Morphic:

Thanks for the speedy response!

Originally posted by Gamatron:

Existing saves shouldn't work that well when adding roads. I suggest starting a new game when you're adding a road. Enable developer mode to draw some roads instantly and see what it looks like. When changin a road, you don't need to restart though.

I do that currently for testing, however, it's a real pain when you want to add my mod to existing saves. You need to rebuild every road and room to get the floors back to how they were.
If I make changes to the mod later, for anyone who has the mod enabled, the next time they sync steam it'll disrupt their save file. Which makes me reluctant to push any updates to the live version until a major update drops and saves become incompatible anyway.
I'd hate to ruin someone's 100+ hour build just because I wanted to add a couple more designs. I was hoping for a workaround other than creating a library of legacy versions going forward.

Originally posted by Gamatron:

Not possible to change trees, but I can add it. I plan on changing this as well in the future, so that you get to pick roads underneath instead.

I was thinking more of being able to have the natural terrain underneath, rather than having any road at all. That way the player could build artificial green spaces inside their city where natural trees don't already exist, like graveyards. I initially tried to create a "grass" texture but it looked at odds with the normal terrain due to the clever way you've done map generation lol.
I wonder if I could make a new "glade" room and cannibalise the graveyard's trees :thinking:

Thanks again for the quick response.

Welcome to my world! Yes, it's true that adding/removing assets will break saves. Usually they explode, but with roads you happen to get some kind of unpredictable behaviour. So I recommend just releasing your mod as is, and update the textures if need be, but if you want to add more stuff, do it in a separate mod. There is no mechanics that can handle assets being removed or added. Perhaps I can fix them being added, we'll see.

I understand what you mean. Removing the "FLOOR: ..." field should/will create no road underneath.

[drewmanchu]

Apologies if this would be more appropriately placed in a different thread. To anyone's knowledge, is anyone working on anything that might increase the speed of digging into mountains? I'd imagine it would be an easy fix for someone who knew what they were doing (not me).

Best wishes,
Drew.

[NerArth]

Originally posted by drewmanchu:

Apologies if this would be more appropriately placed in a different thread. To anyone's knowledge, is anyone working on anything that might increase the speed of digging into mountains? I'd imagine it would be an easy fix for someone who knew what they were doing (not me).

Best wishes,
Drew.

As far as I've been able to see, there's no way (currently) of making changes to this in 0.61 and any bonuses to mining in that version seem to all be based on room type rather than some generic bonus to mining; I think in 0.60, the general bonus to mining was supposed to affect mountain digging, so for that version, tweaking bonuses to that value may be of help.

[Morphic]

With the update of V62, roads now require research in order to unlock. I would like to add my roads to those technologies/make new technologies to bring mine in-line with the vanilla ones.
However, I can't seem to find the /init/technology files for the new technology tree. The local game files haven't been updated since 13/05/2022 yet V62 is working fine. Could you tell me where the new init files are located?

[Yanth]

@Morphic steam -> right click songs of syx -> properties -> local files -> browse -> base -> data.zip -> data -> assets -> init - > tech -> MISC_LOGISTICS.txt

Makes sure beta in steam isn't set on some other version than 62.

[Morphic]

Originally posted by Yanth:

@Morphic steam -> right click songs of syx -> properties -> local files -> browse -> base -> data.zip -> data -> assets -> init - > tech -> MISC_LOGISTICS.txt

Makes sure beta in steam isn't set on some other version than 62.

Found it, tyvm!