I see a fair few good ideas for mods, but my suggestion is to make a program so anyone can create mods for endless space.



Think of it as a map editor? I would love to be able to build scenarios for a game like this, custom worlds with as many stars as I want (thousands even), with a few customized races, Maybe add in some special buildings, ships, or techs to the tech tree, and so on.



without the hassle of trying to find the right mod or worrying about accidentally over writing a file that was important.

Besides, It would provide a lot more to do in a game like this. Right now it would seem everything boils down to a randomly generated map with the same techs perks and goals.



Fun as it is, that might get boring after a while, so why not make it so the players, or modders, can create their own goals with unique changes or additions?

There are no modding tools released yet.

i guess we would REALLY like to see one, if possible

probably wont see much about tools and mods in general till at least beta

I doubt we will see mod tools till the full release. I would love to have them now though!

Wait at least for the beta, where all the system swill b eimplemented. No need to mod something that can change before release.

SallyEliwood wrote:
I see a fair few good ideas for mods, but my suggestion is to make a program so anyone can create mods for endless space.



Think of it as a map editor? I would love to be able to build scenarios for a game like this, custom worlds with as many stars as I want (thousands even), with a few customized races, Maybe add in some special buildings, ships, or techs to the tech tree, and so on.



without the hassle of trying to find the right mod or worrying about accidentally over writing a file that was important.

Besides, It would provide a lot more to do in a game like this. Right now it would seem everything boils down to a randomly generated map with the same techs perks and goals.



Fun as it is, that might get boring after a while, so why not make it so the players, or modders, can create their own goals with unique changes or additions?

All someone needs is a simple program that writes the .bin file in the correct manner. Currently, you can manually position/create/etc all the systems/planets, heroes, and player data.



Here is the data in the .bin that could be changed for systems and player data: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UFbznMYf7pdAUWtmLKQfqZAg182RtjziSEOW1GJGZq8/edit I bolded the parts.

Yes it's a little early for modding tools, but in a game like this I'm sure we already attracted those people that will start writing the tools around the release date, but we'll have to wait a little longer for that.

Personally I'd love to start developing some modding tools, but I see a few problems.



Essentially it seems our current modding capability is locked to the galaxy generation, AI, and save files that the game provides. Luckily these are all XML so writing an editing tool for this wouldn't be too difficult. My concern is that future game updates will change the current layout of these files, which would mean hefty amounts of work updating the tools for the game updates. Since the game is at an early stage, it seems that the rate at which updates would come out would be too much of a pain for tools to be written now.



The next issue is the content that we can't mod yet. The music, model, and material content that isn't easily accessible. Essentially all the game assets are locked away inside of Unity's propriety asset format (aside from sounds, which are using FMOD soundbank containers), and I don't believe anyone has researched this format enough to allow extraction or modification of said assets. I'm really hoping that a future update (beta, perhaps?) will allow us to easily replace and expand on the existing content.



Personally, I'm waiting for beta to see if we get any new features that would entice modders like myself to write software. If nothing huge happens, I'll be bummed, but I'd still be willing to give writing tools a shot.

Well mods could add new features to ES......somehow steam workshop could be implemented.

My concern is that future game updates will change the current layout of these files, which would mean hefty amounts of work updating the tools for the game updates. Since the game is at an early stage, it seems that the rate at which updates would come out would be too much of a pain for tools to be written now.

Yup, waiting for things to settle out in the next phase.

The alpha and beta stages are to help find bugs and round out ideas/balance.

Hard to do that when your testers are all running customized versions of the program.

I wouldn't expect modding tools until full release.

A map editor seems pretty non-realistic, since the game randomly generates them. If you want to edit files, just use notepad. But they said that adding in retextures and new models will be a while away.