[2022] Introducing the modding refactor

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

Hello everyone!

We're busy at work on the next Barotrauma update again, and the first part of it that we wanted to write to you about has to do with modding. To put it simply, over the past year we have been quietly rewriting large chunks of Barotrauma's code where it relates to modding. This has been done to make things easier for everyone who makes mods, everyone who uses mods, and for ourselves as well.

While this overhaul should not break your existing mods, it will be of interest to anyone who creates or plays with non-vanilla content. With the modding refactor, we not only streamline mod-making and related settings but also address long-standing issues – things like mod load order getting scrambled with new updates, and changes on your own custom subs being accidentally overwritten when you try to upload a new version to the Steam Workshop.

We've covered the modding refactor in some more detail on our blog[barotraumagame.com], which you can read right away, and we're also working on a more detailed guide to be released later.

We hope you will find these changes useful! The modding refactor-related changes are now available for testing in the Unstable test version, and they are planned for release in the next update, in the latter half of April.