[2021] Update 34.5 - Modding Support

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

Hello Miners!
It’s been some time since our last post, but all our hard work is about to pay off! Update 35 is coming along very nicely, but first, we have Update 34.5 to deal with - Modding Support! We are nearing the finish line, and soon you will be able to browse, install, and manage mods from within the game. For now, this happens on the Experimental Branch.

What started as a simple feature to let you manage savegames quickly became a larger and more complex suite of features. At the end of all this, you will be able to manage mods from within the game (using {LINK REMOVED}https://drg.mod.io/), know what others have installed before joining them, and streamline the installation process if you join a host using mods.

We’ve also gone through all your feedback on our previous post, regarding our choice of modding platform and concerns about the approval process. This post should hopefully both give you an overview of all the new features and explain our choices.

Let’s dive in!

NOTE: This Experimental is different from previous ones, as there is a risk of it not transitioning to a public release immediately after. With Update 35 looming, if we can’t get modding support to the level of stability that we want within the next few days, we may have to postpone it until after Update 35 is live. Crossing our fingers that that won’t be an issue.


Feature Breakdown
While developing 34.5, we received a ton of feedback and help from the modding community. With your help, we’ve tried our best to create a comprehensive solution that makes using mods easy and fun. Modded games should be plainly visible, and some mods will need restrictions so you can more easily protect your unmodded savegame from unwanted alterations.

Easy mod browsing and installation

With the new modding support, you can now browse, install, and manage mods from within the game. We have added a dedicated Modding menu for this, so you have a clear overview of which mods are installed and currently active.

As you browse and install mods, you will become familiar with our three approval categories. These categories determine if a mod needs a separate save and if all players need the mod installed. When we initially announced modding support, there were concerns over mods being used to cheat or unfairly boost your progression. The approval category system deals with this problem, while also creating a space for mods that provide varied experiences and quality-of-life features. In our experience, the vast majority of mods that we have reviewed fall within the latter category.

So, these are the approval categories:


SANDBOX
This mod is an example of a Sandbox mod since it changes how resources are acquired

Examples of Sandbox mods would be any mod that changes rewards or mission payout and mods that directly unlock in-game items.

Sandbox will be the default category for any Mod uploaded to Mod.io. You are free to use any Sandbox Mods with a Modded Save Game.



You cannot use your Regular Save Game with your main progression when playing with these mods. When you have Sandbox mods enabled you can only join other servers with Sandbox mods.


APPROVED (As in: Approved for Progression)
This mod is an example of an Approved mod since it changes various gameplay elements

Examples of Approved mods would be more challenging or alternative game modes, changes to weapon stats, and mods that moderately alter gameplay elements while still retaining progression in line with the regular game.

You can use Approved mods along with your Regular Save Game, meaning you can still earn XP and Resources for your regular progression while using them. If you join a game that does not have the same Approved Mods installed as you, those Mods will be disabled. Likewise, other players will automatically download the mods active in your game when joining.


VERIFIED (As in: Verified for Base Game)
This mod is an example of a Verified mod since it changes the appearance and sounds of an item

Examples of Verified mods would be QoL mods that do not impact gameplay, audio or visual mods that improve accessibility, cosmetics and SFX mods that you'll only experience yourself locally, and localized versions of in-game graphics.

You can use Verified mods along with your Regular Save Game. These mods will stay active even though you join a host who does not have those mods installed. Other players will not have to download those mods to join you. In effect, Verified mods are only active for you and do not alter the gameplay of any other players.


A note on mods and “cheating” In past posts on the topic, some of you brought up that allowing mods is the same as allowing cheating. While working on 34.5, we’ve had many discussions about what we consider cheating and what we don’t. To us, cheating is:

• Increasing rewards or XP received from missions
  
• Unlocking items without actually earning them in-game
  
• Boosting your progression to level up much faster than intended

That is why we have the Sandbox category - you are free to play around to your heart’s content with any of these things in there. But we want to protect other players from being exposed to it without wanting to.

We should mention that the vast majority of mods so far do not fall into the Sandbox category. Some change gameplay elements, such as the cost to order Supply Pods or the ammo count for your guns, and you will find these mods in the Approved category. This has been discussed widely, both within the team and with the community. We do not consider these cheats, and this is why:

• Most of these mods are used in conjunction with other mods, like lowering the cost of resupply but increasing the enemy cap. The intent is usually not to make the game easier but to provide options for a different experience.
  
• Making the game moderately easier is a very inefficient way to boost your progression; you still have to go through the mission loop. Improving your win percentage is not comparable to spawning millions of gold in a mission.
  
• Some of these mods improve accessibility, such as increasing visibility. And yes, you could technically get an advantage with these mods. But the same reasoning applies. It is not a very efficient way of boosting your progression.
  
• If you use these mods to get an advantage in missions, you are more likely to be bored as you make the game easier than intended. We have spent a lot of time tweaking the game to be as engaging as possible.

We have learned a lot about mods and modding throughout this process. And we feel that this solution does maintain the integrity of the progression system while also allowing players to access the wonderful world of DRG mods.


Clear tags for modded servers

Not knowing if a host was using mods was an issue in the past. While most mods didn’t impact your progression, you want to see what you are walking into. We have made it visible if a host is using mods and what mods they are using. You can also choose to filter for hosts with Approved mods or Sandbox mods in the server list.


System for handling activation and deactivation mods

We also wanted to have the game manage the activation and deactivation of mods based on the host you were joining. When you join a modded host using Approved mods, you will get a prompt detailing what mods are active and if you want those mods installed. Likewise, if you have Approved mods installed, those will be deactivated when you try to join a host that doesn’t have those mods installed.
If you have Sandbox mods installed, you will literally be in the modding ‘Sandbox’. You will only see others with sandbox mods installed in the server list. If you deactivate your Sandbox mods and change back to an unmodded save, you will have access to the full server list again. And you can do all of this from within the game, no restart needed.


On our choice of modding platform

Our last steam post detailing our choice of modding support platform and our approval process got many comments. We have read through all of them. All the feedback has helped us with developing the best modding support we can.
We picked up some different concerns in those comments, mainly around why we don’t use Steam Workshop, concerns about Mod.io in general, and if we will commit to approving mods regularly. We want to address all of those concerns in separate sections, so it will hopefully be clear to you why we have made these decisions.


Why Mod.io and not Steam Workshop Steam workshop was a good option when we looked at developing modding support. We also looked at other platforms, each with its strengths and benefits. The key reason for choosing Mod.io was the Unreal SDK integration, support for the approval categories system we are planning, and solutions for uploading mods to the platform. While all of the platforms we looked at had different benefits, Mod.io was the best fit for our work. Mod.io also supports Windows 10 and Xbox, which provides interesting opportunities for expanding modding support to more players, but that is not something we have planned.

Concern about Mod.io user experience and validity as a mod platform A lot of the comments to our past Steam post were about Mod.io as a valid choice for a modding platform. When we initially looked at Mod.io, it was apparent that many other games have active modding communities on Mod.io. Deep Rock Galactic is not the first game on the platform. We also met with Mod.io very early in the process and have worked closely with them over the past months, and our impression is that it’s a competent team of very experienced developers who have a passion for mods and modding.
Collaborating with Mod.io has been a great experience, and we are very satisfied with the integration and player experience mod.io as a platform provides to the game. It also became clear to us that Mod.io is working hard to constantly improve their platform, which shows significant promise for the future of the service.

Will approvals take long, and is it going to stagnate? When we discussed the approval process, we talked early about whether we could commit to this long-term. We ultimately decided to dedicate time for approvals every weekday. The extensive work on the categories and the collaboration with the modding community makes the actual approval process less time-consuming than we initially thought. We are also sharing this workload between many of us here at Ghost Ship, so we plan on doing them every weekday for the next couple of months.



We can’t wait for you to try out modding support and all that entails. For now, that will have to happen on the Experimental Branch. Hopefully, the experimental version of modding support will soon graduate to the main branch, but with Update 35 looming around the corner there is a real risk that this one will have to be truly experimental for once.

With Love,
The Ghost Ship Crew