On modding Slime Rancher

[Nick]

Since modding has come up recently both on the forums and from several people I've spoken with in email, I've updated the official FAQ with our current stance on modding. Feel free to discuss here. The entry in the FAQ reads:

Can I mod Slime Rancher with modding tools?
Though we may support modding one day in an official capacity, we are currently focused on delivering the game we've planned for our players. So our stance on modding at Monomi Park is that there is no official means to mod Slime Rancher at this time and we do not officially support it. You are free to do it on your own, but we are under no obligation to support you in doing so or any issues you encounter with your altered game. This bears repeating: by modding your game you may be forfeiting support from Monomi Park if you experience technical issues.

The reason for this is we have little way of knowing what was done to your game and cannot use development time attempting to solve it. Monomi Park is a small studio and there are no resources available to assist you with a modded game.

Additionally any mods that are used to simply access unreleased content is very much frowned upon. We're working very hard to deliver exciting content updates to our players and distributing mods that allow access to incomplete versions of this content is bad for us and for players waiting patiently for it.

It is also worth stressing to those who are unfamiliar with modding that any mod runs the risk of destroying your game state, can include security risks to your computer and data, and has the chance of not functioning with future game updates.

As a final thought, we don't want to give you the impression that Monomi Park dislikes mods or modders. But we are currently in an Early Access development period where we are trying to deliver a stable, solid experience to our players. Mods simply greatly complicate things and we don't have the resources to manage them that at this time. We hope you understand.

[pixeledbrain]

Yeah, i agree, i think atm you devs shouldnt get involved with mods, mods are something that could be done at the end of early access or after the release of the game, as it is right now, a lot of things are subject to change.

However, i do find exciting that the community is so dedicated to this game already, i just cant wait to see how the game will end up as, and what creations people will make to honor it.

Great job everyone. :D

[SatyPardus]

I try to leave the unreleased stuff out of my mods then :P

And for the day you release a official modloader: Please contact me that the maybe already existing mods work :D That would be really cool! :)

But maybe you are supporting an modding sub forum? So i/other don't spam the main forum :)
Would also ask to be an subforum moderator, when you allow that :D

[z0mbiesrock]

Yeah, almost everyone already know about the unreleased content, and it's already in the game's code, so there's almost no point in barring us access to it.

[Nick]

Yeah, almost everyone already know about the unreleased content, and it's already in the game's code, so there's almost no point in barring us access to it.

That's not the point of our wishing to keep in-development content out of the hands of players, if at all possible.

It is because the content is unfinished. Unfinished content does not represent the final product and can be misleading. Imagine for example that a video is posted of someone touring a very early version of the quarry I'm developing now. Any number of inaccurate conclusions could be drawn about the quality of this content that could affect enthusiasm, willingness to recommend, etc.

But since we know that this will still not stop anyone from doing exactly as what was described above, we're now just going to have to take a bunch of additional steps to try to ensure that content intended to be hidden remains so in the future.

[z0mbiesrock]

How about you DON'T put new content in the game's files to begin with until it's 100% release-able!

Just remove the unreleased content from the game's files until you KNOW it's time to release that content.

[Nick]

How about you DON'T put new content in the game's files to begin with until it's 100% release-able!

Just remove the unreleased content from the game's files until you KNOW it's time to release that content.

That would certainly be convenient, but it is largely not how game development works.

[SatyPardus]

Sadly, i have to correct you. This is how development works.
2 Project. 1 Final, 1 Development.

The Development Version gets developed. When ready, new finished content gets copied to the Final. The Final gets copied and is the new Development version.

Sorry for that :D

[SpiralRancher]

Sadly, i have to correct you. This is how development works.
2 Project. 1 Final, 1 Development.

The Development Version gets developed. When ready, new finished content gets copied to the Final. The Final gets copied and is the new Development version.

Sorry for that :D

You suspiciously don't look all that sorry.

[Heather]

Sadly, i have to correct you. This is how development works.
2 Project. 1 Final, 1 Development.

Come on gang....
Not only is Nick taking time out of his busy schedule to help answer some questions about modding the very software that he's taking time away from to do so, he also... out of respect for the community... left the matter open to discussion.

Let's show him the same well deserved respect for goodness sakes.

This topic is not intended to debate the methodology of software development, let's keep comments on topic.

Further off topic remarks will be removed for review.

If you have any questions with respect to whether or not your comments would be on topic, please feel free to contact me via private message prior to posting.

Thank you gang, and thank you Nick for taking the time to answer our questions!

[Krakob]

I really appreciate your transparency on this. Not a lot of developers actually try to make things like these clear (often due to legal grey zones).

[FreddyReady]

Yeah, its taking much time even looking in here and following some ideas etc.

But insted of modding, Nick is there anything you would like to see?
like giving some content either models, levels/parts that you could use or us adding?

Since it would be awesome if we could create content if thats what you need etc, since the not all the map design is either pretty or that great even though some of it like the start looks great and has its theme.

want to talk about Ranches as well as for different types of "cages" and island support (buying island or land for slimes some has to be loaded? so you can have more, and bigger farms, more open ones as well)

[Camychan]

I agree with this too, just let the game development happen, modding can be done after its fully released, but gosh think of the implications for the future, I'm super excited about that!

[NekoSlime]

Fully agreed. Mods should be your lowest priority right now, if at all.

[IrishBruse]

I'm a unity game developer and am so surprised at how well you made this game so good job and modding can be add later but is a pain to add if you don't have the foundation work done but its up to you what to do and this game is great keep up the great work :)

[FreddyReady]

Just have to say, the betterbuild mod from SatyPardus.
Is quite nice to have, do you think something like that you could get with him on and maybe add something like that into a editor? (even though it could be too early if the editor would hold State/verison for that long)

[FoxyBoxes]

So in short modding is unsupported but not discouraged?

[z0mbiesrock]

So in short modding is unsupported but not discouraged?

No, modding is going to be supported eventually; it's just way too early to support mods.

[Hypsellis]

Like many people told before, the modding is possible, but not really encouraged and useful for the time.

The game is still unfinished and far to be finished. It will receive a lot of more or less big updates wich can totally change the mechanic and the organisation of the game, and make all the work and time that modders toke to create mods in the old unfinished versions destroyed. They would take more time to make remake their mod all the time for adapting it to the new versions.

Just let the developers finish at least the official version. When the developers will have already finish to implement all they want in the game, maybe they will think to encourage the modding, maybe add mods to the official game, and maybe even make participate modders to the development of the game, but for the time it's not the case.

[FreddyReady]

Well its unity 5 though?
So modding is cind of supported with unity themselfs?
Bring up unity and take that content and test/script?

Just like Betterbuild mod?

[SatyPardus]

I do it without Unity. I modified the assembly-csharp.dll from the game, so that it loads my modloader. And then i can create scripts that access game and unity functions.

But yeah. The modloader is only 50 lines of code. But as Nick said, it brings problems with it. Support is nearly not possible, because you dont know what mods the people use.

So bugs can not be found.

[FreddyReady]

But using ID's and so isn't that a way to do it?
for mod and objects? (9000-10 normal creatures while 9011-20 are modded) or own ID on all of that 1 mod's objects/creatures? (having mod folder where all mods are placed like most other modding games does and put ID then into the game like a normal files?)

[SatyPardus]

Dear Nick. Is it possible that you maybe make a Modding subforum or my modloader thread ( viewtopic.php?f=3&t=685 ) sticky?

Because i also put a lot of work into these things, and it would make me really happy^^
You dont have to support it officialy, but when it is already done? Why not?

[ChosenPredator]

then again when you think about it (this game gets compared to minecraft, people are saying it's going to be as big) but minecraft without those mods and the community behind it would be very generic, so i actually think in the long run mods will give this game life beyond what it is now, that should actually really hype up the devs knowing how far the community can take the game.

but im willing to wait no rush


im obsessed with just putting AI in slimes :P

[NekoSlime]

then again when you think about it (this game gets compared to minecraft, people are saying it's going to be as big) but minecraft without those mods and the community behind it would be very generic, so i actually think in the long run mods will give this game life beyond what it is now, that should actually really hype up the devs knowing how far the community can take the game.

but im willing to wait no rush


im obsessed with just putting AI in slimes :P

This game is actually very similar to Company of Heroes in the sense that you can just keep adding DLC to it over time. It's very easy to just add in new slimes or new areas, or even new worlds, even after the main game is completed. It's just one of those games where it's endlessly expandable by the developer.