Question for modders

[NoahUT]

Hey there. I'm super curious if any of you modders out there have ever thought of making expansion mods like Stardew Valley in the possible future. I know the game just came out. I'm not asking for these types of mods. I just wanted to know if it was 1. possible to do and 2. if anyone wanted to actually do it.

[Blue]

Expansion mods...how? I think they can cover various things in Stardew. What are you referring to exactly? More characters? More prey and enemies? More stories and events?

[NoahUT]

Oct 22, 2023 11:18:01 GMT -5 Blue said:

Expansion mods...how? I think they can cover various things in Stardew. What are you referring to exactly? More characters? More prey and enemies? More stories and events?

More map actually

[Blue]

Yeah, uh, if you're referring to more areas...hmm.

I haven't looked at the map in game for a long time, but I doubt this is currently possible at the moment.

The map does have edges so I'm not sure how extensions past the edges could be accessible. Plus I'm not sure how going to those places would work, because there has to be coding to go to that specific area when you touch the edge of an area. On top of that, you have to fill the world with more stuff so it isn't all naked, and there doesn't seem to be a possible way to do that.

I mean I could try to tamper with it if you want, when I have time, but I think it's difficult at best, and downright impossible at worst.

With that being said, more events and more characters should definitely be possible. Modding in more custom layouts for your colony is also possible.

[Catsquid]

No, map expansions are possible! It would be pretty difficult, but I've looked into it before.

[NoahUT]

Thank you guys for answering! Makes me even more excited for what mods will come out in the future...

[Blue]

Yeah...again, difficult.

With that being said, it's possible? How would we go about that?

[Catsquid]

It's a little hard to describe, but it's possible to add tiles exceeding the bounds of the current map. As long as the coordinates are adjacent, warps will automatically be placed on the edges. You'd just have to destroy some of the trees/blockers on the edges of the preexisting tiles to allow the player to walk there. If I remember correctly, there's not really a maximum for the tile coordinates (or its like 99 or something), so you would have more than enough space.

You might wonder: what about the minimap? And yeah, the minimap can't be extended or anything. But you can shrink the boxes that represent each tile, allowing you to pack more into the space. Each tile will still be able to have functional influence and stockpile mechanics.

Sorry if that's confusing, let me know if you have any more questions.

[NoahUT]

Oct 22, 2023 11:58:55 GMT -5 Catsquid said:

It's a little hard to describe, but it's possible to add tiles exceeding the bounds of the current map. As long as the coordinates are adjacent, warps will automatically be placed on the edges. You'd just have to destroy some of the trees/blockers on the edges of the preexisting tiles to allow the player to walk there. If I remember correctly, there's not really a maximum for the tile coordinates (or its like 99 or something), so you would have more than enough space.

You might wonder: what about the minimap? And yeah, the minimap can't be extended or anything. But you can shrink the boxes that represent each tile, allowing you to pack more into the space. Each tile will still be able to have functional influence and stockpile mechanics.

Sorry if that's confusing, let me know if you have any more questions.

Actually, would you be able to help me create a map mod with a new area? I don't know where to start :')

[Catsquid]

Yeah, I could help you! First, I'll direct you to the official documentation, which should hopefully explain the basics. But if you have any questions past that, let me know and I'll see what I can do to help.

[NoahUT]

Oct 22, 2023 13:57:20 GMT -5 Catsquid said:

Yeah, I could help you! First, I'll direct you to the official documentation, which should hopefully explain the basics. But if you have any questions past that, let me know and I'll see what I can do to help.

Well I actually wanted to know how to expand the minimap via what you said above? I don't think I could edit map.meta

[NoahUT]

Also, how is it set up in the folders?

[Catsquid]

To see how it's set up, I suggest you look at the preexisting files in the gameresources > map folder.

To expand the minimap, you have to edit "influence_map_width" and "influence_map_height" within an individual tile. Their default value is 60. If you decrease them, it will look like this:

[NoahUT]

Thank you, though I have one more question
At the top corner of old farm there is a well and vines at the wall corner
How would I tell the coordinates of the thorny vines blocking the area and delete them (as well as make a way to the new map area)?

[Catsquid]

To get rid of the thorns: 

In-game, stand next to whatever you want to get rid of. In the settings, turn "diagnostics" to on. The player's coordinates will be among the things displayed in the top left. Take note of those coordinates.

In your mod, have a copy of the "theoldfarm.region" file. Open it up (you can use any text editor), and under world_objects, add the following line to the code:

{"type": "destroyer16x16", "x": ??, "y": ??}
Replace the ?? with your coordinates. Make sure that you add commas as needed; unless it is the last line in a section, every } must be followed by a comma.

Save the file and test your game. If it was not in the right spot, adjust the coordinates of the destroyer little by little. If it did not destroy enough, you can duplicate that code to add more destroyers (make sure you space out the coordinates, though). You could also change the name to destroyer128x128.

To make a new map area:

Add a new .region file to the "map" folder of your mod. I suggest you copy+paste from a preexisting one to do this. Change the names from whatever you copied it from to your tile's name (ex. birchholt -> mytile). Change the template to "Empty". Finally, change the region coordinates. The coordinate you need is intuitive; it's going to be right next to whatever tile(s) you want it to be next to in-game. This thread has a map of the default coordinates; avoid placing your tile next to anything you DON'T want it to be next to in-game. And, obviously, avoid overwriting any other tiles.

Now, the tile will work. Use the sections within the file to customize it to your liking as outlined in the documentation. The bulk of the tiles will be added in the "world_objects" section. To figure out where they should be, you can either do it manually by using the diagnostics, or you can build a tile using the in-game colony editor and copy the data from your save. The latter is much faster, but requires more file-related work. There's also the downside of having all of the dens and such in the way.

You may also need to change "world_map_portrait_coordinate" to make the map look right, but this really depends on what you added and where, and may require shifting lots of other tiles to make it look right. I suggest you come back to it when your mod is more complete.

Hope that helps! Let me know if it works, or if you have any more questions.