OpenPax modding

A mod changes the game without touching its code. It is a folder with a mod.toml in it, holding a data pack, a C# assembly, or both:

• A data pack replaces or adds game files (pictures, sounds), and adds content in plain TOML: new techs, planet types, premade ship designs, changes to techs and hulls.
• A C# mod changes the rules: it hears the game's events, acts after every step, takes battles over, and gives the screens numbers to show.
• A Lua mod does the same from a script, with nothing to build: a main.lua in the mod's folder (Lua scripting).

mods/
  my-mod/
    mod.toml        the manifest: id, name, version, description
    data/           optional: files laid out like the game's data folder
    MyMod.dll       optional: the C# assembly mod.toml names
    main.lua        or instead: the Lua script mod.toml names

Mods are turned on and ordered in Options, on the MODS tab, and load as you leave Options. A game remembers the mods it started with. A network game plays the room host's mods, which every player fetches automatically.

The pages

• Getting started: a C# mod from an empty folder to a running game, step by step.
• The manifest and load order: mod.toml, where mods are found, how they are turned on and ordered.
• Data packs: replacing pictures and other files.
• Content: new techs, planet types and premade designs, and changes to techs and hulls, in TOML. The content fields reference lists every field.
• Lua scripting: mods as Lua scripts, the API they see, and how saves carry across mod changes.
• Rules for mod code: determinism, saves, network games, what runs where.
• Multiplayer: how a room's mods reach every player, and what is checked.
• The samples: Simple Combat, Bounty, Arsenal and Night Menu, the mods that ship with the game.
• API reference: every type and member a mod can use, made from the game's own doc comments each build.

The same pages are in the game's folder as a small website, docs/modding/index.html, which opens in any browser with nothing to install.