Any where to get mods?

[Sarah]

As the title says and or asks.

Is there anywhere to get mods that are up to date or that work and can be used i used to run a server then i just didnt bother for a while.

Some places i went to seem to be gone or just dont have anything new. So i was curious.

[The Big Brzezinski]

That's basically what Workshop scenarios are.

[Sabaithal]

I don't think there is a dedicated nexus site or moddb for this game. Workshop scenarios like Reforged Galaxy/reforged eden are likely what you are looking for. They're more than just scenarios, they change up the game mechanics and add in new stuff.

They're not the only ones either. Project Eden does as well, to a much lesser degree (its mostly about adding in more content than changing game mechanics).

[kDM]

If think OP might be talking about script mods, not config mods.

If so, there isn't much on public offer, a few old ones on github you'd probably have to update yourself, otherwise you have to pretty much write your own API mods, most who have their own working mods don't tend to share them.

[Sarah]

I remember shop gui/ ui where u could buy ships, and custumcrate and a bunch of others. like backpack extender / backpack vault?

[zaphodikus]

[ol]

• Steam Workshop will let you subscribe to ships and bases
  
• Workshop will also let you subscribe to scenarios - scenarios are not mods, they can add or change weapons, but not do things like add new models and add new behaviours like backpack extenders.
  
• Scripts - require manual installation, and are harder to find and use.[/ol]
  Scenarios are hard to write because they stop working often after an update, script mods, are just hard to set up, hence not very popular.
  
  Trying to reboot an old scenario of my own right now, it's very time consuming.

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by zaphodikus:

- Workshop will also let you subscribe to scenarios - scenarios are not mods, they can add or change weapons, but not do things like add new models and add new behaviours like backpack extenders.

- Scripts - require manual installation, and are harder to find and use.

I dunno what's gotten into Zaphodikus that he would make statements like this, but it's simply not true that scenarios can't contain or include modding, The entire premise of Project Eden, Reforged Galaxy, and Reforged Eden is that they include modding, and that modding includes the addition of new objects to the game. I use a private scenario with my own personal modding. While it's true that it's a PITA to maintain modding against ongoing game patches, that PITA has been true of modding any game that is still in active development.

What is glaringly lacking is support for any ability to MERGE mods, such as what Vortex or Mod Organizer can do. A Vortex extension to support this game[forums.nexusmods.com] COULD Be written, but Eleon refuses to do it and there's few other people with sufficient understanding of both programming and the game's data structure to do it, since none of it has ever been publicly documented.

Modding the game using the API is another matter altogether, and requires a programming skillset. It's not just modifying or adding game data, as it can inject active code into the game, similar to what is possible with DLL injectors for other games, like SKSE64 for Skyrim. It's also now possible to insert INLINE code directly into the game data ECF files, but I don't know of anyone who has yet attempted to exploit that mechanism.

API modding used to be restricted to servers only, but an ingenious person devised a mechanism to make it work in singleplayer games by loading it into the game via LCD panels! I haven't tried this yet, but it is documented to some degree here in this thread[steamcommunity.com].

As for my modding, I alter and add a bit to the game's ECF data and also lightly mod some of the playfield files. My Steam profile has Google Drive links to my ECF modding, but not the playfield stuff. You can borrow ideas freely from what I've done. You can also subscribe to and inspect those PE, RG, and RE scenarios in the Workshop, if you want to learn from those. They make far more extensive playfield changes than I do.

[zaphodikus]

My Bad. I'm not really thinking the OP meant modding, rather scripted or behaviour mods.

Also good to separate out mission scripting which is completely different to API scripting.
As you have pointed out the only "modding" we can do is not that well supported by the game devs. I'm pretty sure they will come up with some tools at some point, but since it's so terribly hard to do, not many people do it. Not looked at it yet, but scripts using ASTIC's mod are probably what people really want https://empyriononline.com/threads/mod-my-mods-astic-compatible-with-the-v1-8.49107/

It's probably also worth mentioning that if you have the patience, you can also create skins for entities in the game, but only for certain ones.

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by zaphodikus:

My Bad. I'm not really thinking the OP meant modding, rather scripted or behaviour mods.

Also good to separate out mission scripting which is completely different to API scripting.
As you have pointed out the only "modding" we can do is not that well supported by the game devs. I'm pretty sure they will come up with some tools at some point, but since it's so terribly hard to do, not many people do it. Not looked at it yet, but scripts using ASTIC's mod are probably what people really want https://empyriononline.com/threads/mod-my-mods-astic-compatible-with-the-v1-8.49107/

It's probably also worth mentioning that if you have the patience, you can also create skins for entities in the game, but only for certain ones.

Astic's API modding can now be accessed by solo players not running their own private servers by following the process described in my second link above. It's understandably roundabout, having to rely upon LCD panels, but from how it's described it gets the job done.

[zaphodikus]

Oh, so you still need an LCD to run the mod, eeeew. no wonder I've not gotten much joy from it. Anyway. I'm got a new graphics card, so trying to still rebuild my old custom config.

Do you remember how to change the starting loot drop?

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by zaphodikus:

Do you remember how to change the starting loot drop?

Where this is defined might have changed now since 1.8, since much else about the start is now different (no control over the escape pod, for instance). Elements of it were spread across Containers and LootGroups, but from my initial experience with 1.8 it doesn't look like those are being used now.

[TwitchyJ]

Originally posted by zaphodikus:

Do you remember how to change the starting loot drop?

This is still set in the playfield files.

For an example look in the default playfield files, open the MoonTemperateStarter folder, and open the playfield_debug.yaml file.
Inside that file search for "EscapePod".

Now, this is also set in the playfield_static.yaml file.

When do you need to use the debug version versus using the static version, I don't have a clue.
Since I don't have a clue which one gets used when, personally I would just set it in both of them.

You are looking for this,
- Mode: Survival
Spawn: EscapePodLandAtPos #Escape Pod cannot be controlled in that mode


Underneath that is a section that defines the items for the various starting item difficulty settings.
Steam won't let me post the actual code in, it cuts the items off. Just search for that above in the correct files and you will see it.

[zaphodikus]

Ah. yes. It would be great if they bothered to make a note next to the old YAML in the ECF. I did this last so long ago i had forgotten all about it. Thanks @Twitchy.

Bedtime now, good luck with the mod searching there @Sarah.

[VulcanTourist]

Originally posted by TwitchyJ:

Originally posted by zaphodikus:

Do you remember how to change the starting loot drop?

This is still set in the playfield files.

For an example look in the default playfield files, open the MoonTemperateStarter folder, and open the playfield_debug.yaml file.
Inside that file search for "EscapePod".

Now, this is also set in the playfield_static.yaml file.

When do you need to use the debug version versus using the static version, I don't have a clue.
Since I don't have a clue which one gets used when, personally I would just set it in both of them.

You are looking for this,
- Mode: Survival
Spawn: EscapePodLandAtPos #Escape Pod cannot be controlled in that mode


Underneath that is a section that defines the items for the various starting item difficulty settings.

All that I knew so far was that my old tweaks to starting equipment in Containers and LootGroups was now being ignored; I hadn't tracked down what other mechanism was being used in place of the old one.

You've also exposed a potential means for me to undo the new fixed descent of the escape pod, which matters especially to me because I'd modded the escape pod to have even more torque for turning so that you could manage a full 360 for scouting and still have enough time to pick the spot you decided to make landfall.

Since I'm already lightly editing the starter moon's playfields, it will be just one more little tweak. (I really like the game start much better when I'm not smothered in the grass, so shortening it all by half is essential. I still don't have a programmatic way of doing it, but I'm hopeful since I know it's possible.)

[VulcanTourist]

In "alien" swamp (Masperon) playfield_static:

    FixedPlayerStart:
        - Mode: Debug
          Armor: ArmorLight
          Pos: [ 0, 147, 0 ]
          RotY: 160

        - Mode: Survival
          Spawn: EscapePodLandAtPos      #Escape Pod cannot be controlled in that mode
          Pos: [0, 70, 0]                  # Equator at mid-day.
          RotY: 160
          Status: [ "Food: 400, Health: 400", "Food: 250, Health: 250", "Food: 150, Health: 150", "#FreshStart:Food: 250, Health: 250" ]      # NEW
          Items: [ "SurvivalTool:1#Drop, Flashlight:1#Drop, SurvivalTent:1#Drop, RadarSuitT1:1#Drop,  Bandages:3#Drop, PowerBar:3#Drop", "SurvivalTool:1#Drop, Flashlight:1#Drop, SurvivalTent:1#Drop, RadarSuitT1:1#Drop,  Bandages:2#Drop, PowerBar:2#Drop", "SurvivalTool:1#Drop, Flashlight:1#Drop, SurvivalTent:1#Drop, RadarSuitT1:1#Drop,  Bandages:1#Drop, PowerBar:1#Drop", "#FreshStart: SurvivalTool:1#Drop, Flashlight:1#Drop, SurvivalTent:1#Drop, RadarSuitT1:1#Drop,  Bandages:1#Drop, PowerBar:1#Drop" ]

Oddly, it's IGNORING the Light Armor specification and depositing the player with no armor at all. The swamp start has always included Light Armor. I'm unsure why the Items property here has repetition; apparently it's for the difficulty levels, but they're not delimited differently.

[TwitchyJ]

Yep that is the same place you would set if the escape pod is steerable or not.
Since all 4 of the starter moons have it set up to not be steerable in the default scenario you will have to look in an older playfield file to see how it was done.
It should still be possible, but admittedly I haven't tried to make them steerable since 1.8.