BlackBox Code mod. AKA Community mod

[Crunchy]

TL:DR

Is there a bug in the game bugging you? Its likely fixed and the core logic enhanced without changing the game experience at its core to any large degree.
Unofficial game patches.
FYI, The overall level of blackbox is a completely playable game now. I mean like early to late game you will be hard pressed to be bothered by lag and crashes should be rare. not only that but it has late game threats and mroe life to the remnants and pirates. Its a vast improvement to the original game. truly vast.

Install Guides:
GoldyMires Install Guide

Play Guides
GoldyMires Definitive Guide
Trifler Human Starter Guide [explorminate.co]
Trifler Platform Addendum[explorminate.co]

Lets Plays
WelshBen Gaming Round 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gASGNz8yKZI&list=PL-QvHFlNq8ab_s8hw9-woygM3wQsNl1Lo

Discord:
Discord chat discussion [discord.gg]

BlackBox Wiki [stardrive-blackbox.fandom.com]

Some Things We Have Done

https://stardrive-blackbox.fandom.com/wiki/Texas_-_what%27s_new

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1670586429

Venus Is now released!

https://www.moddb.com/mods/deveks-mod/news/venus-is-now-released
https://youtu.be/ySYe1GdUvqI

BlackBox Mars Alpha

https://bitbucket.org/codegremlins/stardrive-blackbox/downloads/

CombinedArms mod adds a ton of content developed to use blackbox features.
https://bitbucket.org/codegremlins/combined-arms/downloads/

This is code learning project based on stardrive1 with a kind nod from the SD1 developer. (thanks! Learning so very much!)
The project is open and rich with possibilities to learn not just the basics of coding but the whole multiuser project with project management ball of wax.

We have rebuilt the resource manager and collision code along with a lot of other parts of the game after some study on Programming Patterns and Refactoring concepts.

In any event.... if you havent tried BlackBox, dust off SD1 and give it a whirl.
We have included automatic error reporting using sentry.io so just by playing you are helping us tighten up the code.
We still have a long way to go but texas is getting better than our previous Radical Elements release.
Faster, stronger, bigger with more fire in the belly.

We still have a hell of a long way to go. I mean we havent even started on the really cool stuff so please be patient with us as we get around to fixing all the stuffs.

The list of changes is kinda huge and hard to remember and... not well tracked but the core idea is to keep the game vanilla as possible and just make it better.
Features that change the game radically are relegated to mods which currently only Combined Arms uses. Combined Arms is actively under development still and getting better and better all the time.

Some significant changes and improvements include but are not limited to:
Maps 4x the size.
A more intelligent AI for:

• Economy
  
• Freight
  
• Tech Picking
  
• Ship Picking
  
• War
  
• Defense
  
• Colony Governors
  
• and more.

Better invisible combat resolution. (its not simulated. its all done as if viewing)
Ships can handle multiple targets better
Better ship strength calculations
Better long and short range weapon calculations.
More combat stances.
Better targeting code. (affected by ship experience)
Better pathing. (A* pathing algorithm like GPS stuff uses sort of)
AI can build defensive structures (bases and platforms)
AI can use carriers and troop assault ships.
Improved shipyard experience
Mod content can live entirely in the mod folder. No overwriting game files.
Faster loading primarily for mods.
and of course... MORE!

I loved stardrive despite all its faults and i want more!
Such a perfect 4x platform and its a crying shame no one has really tried to capture what it was.
We arent all high skilled developers. Nor the best people in the world :p but working on this game IS a game. best game i have ever played so

So help us squish a few more bugs and enjoy what we have done.

Stable builds ill try to push to MODDB
here:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/deveks-mod/downloads/texas-test-builds
More unstable (likely) nightly (mostly) test builds can be found here:
https://bitbucket.org/codegremlins/stardrive-blackbox/downloads/

KEEP IN MIND

BlackBox hates broken stuff. If you install and are having problems loading the game the problem likely lies in broken ship designs. Kill them! (or just move to a backup folder)
Paste the below into a windows file explorer like you were pasting a path to a directory.
%appdata%/stardrive
that will take you to the stardrive folder. even if you uninstalled the game these will still be there unless you manually delete them.

Contact Points

facebook[www.facebook.com]
twitter
Bug reports here[bitbucket.org]
For a nearly current feature list and deeper mod info and installation
http://www.ModDB.com/mods/deveks-mod

Videos

Lets Play by Sabouts. (old)
https://youtu.be/l8XJRw4Qcqo
Play and review by explorminate 1/11/20
https://explorminate.co/tag/blackbox-mod
https://youtu.be/BqYa6gOiD-g

Grats

All the folks that have worked or taken interest in BlackBox. There are many.
And special thanks to the people that made BB possible:
The Devek
General Azure
RedFox
Fizban aka Fat Bastard
All those tireless testors.
And of course... Zero.

FatBastard has really improved the player experience of the game. like a lot. night and day.
Redfox has made the game playable at what had been impossible levels.

We have older mods available as well. I dont recommend using these are they are buggy and texas is far less forgiving of mod weirdness and... We wont support issues found in them :( if you hit a bug using these you have to repro it in combined arms or vanilla content.
These mods have been restructured to work with blackbox and live entirely in the mods directory but otherwise unchanged. I have more as well plus Bitbucket repositories for DialTones TechLevel mod
Would love to see someone update that but im not holding my breath.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/deveks-mod/downloads/blackbox-modsuperpack-1217

We Recommend using Combined Arms mod which is an overhaul update of Combo mod which spliced together several different mods including Tims Mod. its currently under development and getting better all the time.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/combined-arms

Thanks folks. Hope we help get a few more miles out of this shoe and few more smiles from playing.

[Fizban1978]

引用自 Starbuck：

Hi all

is the mod able to run on Windows 11 ?

I can't run Mars 1.50 because it says that I don't have pixel shader 2.0 and vertex shader 2.0

sure. The game runs well on windows11.

[Fizban1978]

引用自 Runner：

Waited 3-4 years for the updates to come out, instead apparently everything..died?

We are constantly updating the game. sometimes we take breaks, but the game is being worked on. In the last 4 years we've made huge, huge changes to the game.
You can see them here: https://github.com/TeamStarDrive/StarDrive

[Runner]

引用自 Fizban1978：

You can see them here: https://github.com/TeamStarDrive/StarDrive

Ah cool, thanks for the link!

[NZK]

If there's anyone who still regularly plays blackbox, and checks in here, was wondering if I might be able to get some clarification on the AI.

I've played a few blackbox/combined arms games, and was wanting some confirmation on if a certain type of AI behaviour has been experienced by other players.

For five consecutive games, on normal difficulty, I've played a build where I solely focus on building up my colonies with both civilian and military structures. I've all but avoided having any sort of fleet.

With four AI opponents, they are all threatening and demanding, eventually attacking all my colonies, and never each other. They always seem to demand the most rudimentary/basic technologies, which I would have thought would have been researched relatively quickly.

They never make any overtures for friendly treaties. Also, the AI has refused every single tech swap even if the one I've offered greatly outweighs what I'm asking for.

Does positive AI behaviour revolve primarily around how strong your fleet is?

Thanks :)

[roland.johansen]

It is best to join the Discord for Stardrive. The community there can answer all kinds of questions. Given how you're talking about the game as if it didn't get recent updates, I wonder whether you are even playing the latest version. It's not so useful to discuss an ancient version of the game.

[NZK]

引用自 roland.johansen：

It is best to join the Discord for Stardrive. The community there can answer all kinds of questions. Given how you're talking about the game as if it didn't get recent updates, I wonder whether you are even playing the latest version. It's not so useful to discuss an ancient version of the game.

I have the latest downloads, and will take your advise to join discord.

Tried a few more play throughs, can't figure out how to get ahead of the AI. Tried a different approach by spamming ships, but when I checked the AI's ship count they were had 3 for everyone of mine.

Thank you for replying :)