The Road Ahead for Modding
Thanks to our dedicated modders in the private beta, some of the mod support capabilities youre seeing today are even better than we expected.
We want to be upfront about a few things that will not be possible with modding. 1) Hacking in crowd-sourced translation through modding. While modders are welcome to create mods in any language, or even to attempt to rewrite the portions of in-game text that are contained within the game database, we want to be that there is still too much inaccessible text through the mod kit to complete a successful translation of the game. We know translation is a popular request, but we want to be very clear up front that modding does not answer that request. As weve noted elsewhere, weve learned a lot from this entire process, and our next game will be translated from the start. 2) We wont be adding a scripting language for mods (though we may add some additional scripted triggers / effects for modders to use, ourselves). Star Traders: Frontiers is built on a custom engine, with a workflow heavily driven by data in the game database. While weve opened up the database, we cant open up the engine, or provide a way for modders to hook in scripts without a far more extensive rebuild than we could handle with the mod kit at this date in the game's lifecycle. However, we are listening daily to the modding community (and asking to!) to understand where there is interest for additional extensibility and hooks that can be used by the mod kit. 3) Modding Roadmap As we have stated elsewhere -- we are continuing our work to update the base game, especially with some big upcoming story arcs and eras. At the same time, we have reserved some bandwidth to work closely with involved and interesting modding creators to expand the capabilities of the mod kit.
We're loving the response to modding so far, with more and more mods continuing to be added and more players trying them out. Check out the game's Steam Workshop to browse the now 20+ mods available and being updated. Give those creators some love in the mod comments! More mods played and praised = more mods made and updated. Want to become a modder yourself? Check out Creating Mods on the Star Traders Wiki, and join the Discord for help, modding requests & discussions, and a great community of Star Traders players. We can't wait to see what you all create! The Star Traders question we've always asked before is: what kind of Captain do you want to be? Now we get to ask: Captains, what do you want in your universe?
[ 2021-09-01 04:39:16 CET ] [ Original post ]
Now that mod support is released, lets talk about where it will (and could) go from here. The last week since modding launched has been exciting with a lot of interest, thousands of subscribers to mods and a great update to the core game to boot. Now -- let's look at the road ahead for modding.
First: Mod Support v1
Thanks to our dedicated modders in the private beta, some of the mod support capabilities youre seeing today are even better than we expected.
- A mod manager that merges SQL allows multiple mods to be installed and work seamlessly with each other with many fewer potential conflicts and much less configuration than we might have released originally.
- Story modding became a v1 priority. Modders now have everything they need to add their own story vignettes to the game. While creating quality stories is no small task (welcome to our world ), we think the potential for player-created story mods filling the Star Traders universe is one of the most exciting aspects of adding modding to the game.
- Everything in the game database is replaceable, or can be added to. Ships, weapons, gear, talents... pretty much anything with stats. Modders can rebalance, simplify, power up, or add to any of these things.
- All binary files in the game directory are replaceable. Graphics, sound effects,
- An extensive set of documentation. Upfront: this may not mean complete, but weve gone through a huge amount of data fields to make it more clear what each does and what your options are as a modder for using them.
Second: some necessary limitations
We want to be upfront about a few things that will not be possible with modding. 1) Hacking in crowd-sourced translation through modding. While modders are welcome to create mods in any language, or even to attempt to rewrite the portions of in-game text that are contained within the game database, we want to be that there is still too much inaccessible text through the mod kit to complete a successful translation of the game. We know translation is a popular request, but we want to be very clear up front that modding does not answer that request. As weve noted elsewhere, weve learned a lot from this entire process, and our next game will be translated from the start. 2) We wont be adding a scripting language for mods (though we may add some additional scripted triggers / effects for modders to use, ourselves). Star Traders: Frontiers is built on a custom engine, with a workflow heavily driven by data in the game database. While weve opened up the database, we cant open up the engine, or provide a way for modders to hook in scripts without a far more extensive rebuild than we could handle with the mod kit at this date in the game's lifecycle. However, we are listening daily to the modding community (and asking to!) to understand where there is interest for additional extensibility and hooks that can be used by the mod kit. 3) Modding Roadmap As we have stated elsewhere -- we are continuing our work to update the base game, especially with some big upcoming story arcs and eras. At the same time, we have reserved some bandwidth to work closely with involved and interesting modding creators to expand the capabilities of the mod kit.
In-progress
- Save editor: while the modded game databases be modified at will with simple tooling, we are still looking forward to creating a saved game editor that will allow you to execute certain sets of commands against your saved games.
- Improving documentation: the doc team never sleeps because there is always more to write down! Star Traders: Frontiers is a surprisingly huge and deep game (did you notice?) and so documenting every in and out of its data-driven structure is going to be a process that continues for a long time.
- Crowd-sourcing talent effects: some of the ready-to-play mods already make exciting tweaks to Jobs but we're looking forward to the first completely New Job mod to appear. To this end, we'll be holding a brainstorming within the mod community looking for new types of Talent effects and triggers that could help define new Jobs and allow modders to create truly unique new combinations for your crew and officers.
Future possibilities
- Game Rule Control: while few rules are within reach of the mod kit today (maximum ship armor 75%) we will be working to move some of these -- those most interesting to the mod community -- into scope and play for mods over the next months.
- More Story Examples and Features: with the first story mod already published, we cannot wait to see more modder created storylines filling up the galaxy. As we continue to add story to the base game, we will be authoring these new storylines in the same that the modders can use, which will expand the base of examples to pull from. We're excited to work closely with any modder working on a stories as one of our top priorities to see this type of content expanding in the game and to work on building out features that specifically cater to their needs.
- Further authoring tool development: the modding community has already developed a pretty set of powerful authoring tools, some of which are publicly shared. Depending on the need and interest, we may further invest in helping the community make these tools easy to use and share for new modders coming on to the team.
- Card Control the mod kit does not include the contents and rules for card games today but if there is significant interest, this is a direction we could work to expand the kit.
Play and make some mods!
We're loving the response to modding so far, with more and more mods continuing to be added and more players trying them out. Check out the game's Steam Workshop to browse the now 20+ mods available and being updated. Give those creators some love in the mod comments! More mods played and praised = more mods made and updated. Want to become a modder yourself? Check out Creating Mods on the Star Traders Wiki, and join the Discord for help, modding requests & discussions, and a great community of Star Traders players. We can't wait to see what you all create! The Star Traders question we've always asked before is: what kind of Captain do you want to be? Now we get to ask: Captains, what do you want in your universe?
Star Traders: Frontiers
Trese Brothers
Trese Brothers
2018-07-31
Singleplayer
Game News Posts 373
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
Very Positive
(3381 reviews)
http://www.tresebrothers.com
https://store.steampowered.com/app/335620
The Game includes VR Support
Star Traders Frontiers LINUX [218.39 M]Star Traders Frontiers LINUX 64BIT [233.52 M]Star Traders: Frontiers Mod LINUX [415.12 M]Star Traders: Frontiers Mod LINUX 64 [440.54 M]
Star Traders: Frontiers Supporter Badge
Command your ship and crew as a space pirate, merchant, bounty hunter, and more in Star Traders: Frontiers – an epic space RPG. Venture forth into a massive open universe rich with the lore of the Star Traders. Choose your path by assembling and commanding your custom crew and spaceship in a constantly evolving galaxy torn by internal strife, political intrigue, and alien threats. Will you fly as a pirate terrorizing shipping lanes, join the solar wars as a military captain, or track targets across the stars as a fearsome bounty hunter?
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First there was the Exodus – when survivors of a great war left the ruins of the Galactic Core behind in search of a new home in the stars. Scattered worlds were claimed on the fringe of the galaxy. Each pocket of survivors held on to their isolated set of worlds while trying to rebuild under the great law of Shalun. Three centuries later, technology has brought them back together again. Discovery of the hyperwarp has bridged what was once unimaginable distances between far-flung colonies, long-lost families, and political factions.
With that reunification has come great economic prosperity. The hyperwarp reestablished the transportation of cargo, goods, and technologies between the quadrants – but it has also brought great strife. Political rivalries have been rekindled, blood has been shed in age-old feuds, and the fires of war have been stoked. Amidst the political infighting, a ruthless revolution is rising – and the fervent explorers of the hyperwarp have awoken something that was better left asleep.
Great conflict is a time of great opportunity. For you, an aspiring Star Trader Captain who has just been given your charter, now is the time to capitalize on that opportunity.
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Our very first game, Star Traders RPG, took hundreds of thousands of gamers on an interstellar adventure. The success of Star Traders and its overwhelming positive reception helped to launch Trese Brothers Games. It was the adventures of our community’s star-crossed captains that put us on a trajectory to share more of our worlds, ideas, and dreams through digital games.
We set out to capture the loneliness, bravery, and camaraderie of people living together in a spaceship sailing across the stars. It’s time to take the helm and breathe life into the these stories, characters, and stars.
It is with great pride that after the release of four other games in the Star Traders universe, we’ve created a sequel to the original Star Traders RPG. We reached out to our fan base of Star Traders Captains with our latest KickStarter campaign and pitched our ambitious plan for an all-new open world sci-fi RPG.
Step onto the bridge of your starship, take to the stars, and create your own story in Star Traders: Frontiers. Instead of being our first foray, we have brought all of the knowledge and experience to our latest and by far most ambitious project.
- Explore a rich, open universe: Discover endless procedurally-generated galactic maps, meet unique characters, and take on enemies to conquer the galaxy!
- Become an intergalactic captain: Take on the role of a spy, smuggler, explorer, pirate, merchant, bounty hunter, and more (21 jobs total)!
- Customize your own spaceship: Choose from more than 300 upgrades and build your very own vessel to venture across the vast reaches of space.
- Assemble and tailor a loyal crew: Assign talents and equip specialized gear for every spaceship crew member.
- Experience an ever-changing narrative: Decide to make friends or foes with other factions and influence political, economic, and personal vendettas.
First there was the Exodus – when survivors of a great war left the ruins of the Galactic Core behind in search of a new home in the stars. Scattered worlds were claimed on the fringe of the galaxy. Each pocket of survivors held on to their isolated set of worlds while trying to rebuild under the great law of Shalun. Three centuries later, technology has brought them back together again. Discovery of the hyperwarp has bridged what was once unimaginable distances between far-flung colonies, long-lost families, and political factions.
With that reunification has come great economic prosperity. The hyperwarp reestablished the transportation of cargo, goods, and technologies between the quadrants – but it has also brought great strife. Political rivalries have been rekindled, blood has been shed in age-old feuds, and the fires of war have been stoked. Amidst the political infighting, a ruthless revolution is rising – and the fervent explorers of the hyperwarp have awoken something that was better left asleep.
Great conflict is a time of great opportunity. For you, an aspiring Star Trader Captain who has just been given your charter, now is the time to capitalize on that opportunity.
Our very first game, Star Traders RPG, took hundreds of thousands of gamers on an interstellar adventure. The success of Star Traders and its overwhelming positive reception helped to launch Trese Brothers Games. It was the adventures of our community’s star-crossed captains that put us on a trajectory to share more of our worlds, ideas, and dreams through digital games.
We set out to capture the loneliness, bravery, and camaraderie of people living together in a spaceship sailing across the stars. It’s time to take the helm and breathe life into the these stories, characters, and stars.
It is with great pride that after the release of four other games in the Star Traders universe, we’ve created a sequel to the original Star Traders RPG. We reached out to our fan base of Star Traders Captains with our latest KickStarter campaign and pitched our ambitious plan for an all-new open world sci-fi RPG.
Step onto the bridge of your starship, take to the stars, and create your own story in Star Traders: Frontiers. Instead of being our first foray, we have brought all of the knowledge and experience to our latest and by far most ambitious project.
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