We need access to higher level classes/objects

[Kruniac]

Seriously. All I'm trying to do is add a new weapon class, duplicate two existing weapons and give them that class, associate that class with the proper animations, and override the XP gain from my class to SKILL_BLUNT. This isn't a hard thing to do, but I don't have the ability to create a new class of weapon, let alone reference it.

Likewise, the enums for AI Goals have no description whatsoever. We need to be able to see the actual functions or scripts so that we can know exactly what the AI is trying to do with those choices.

For instance, GATHER_SLAVES_FROM_CAGES is pretty obvious. Seeing the code for that would be neat, but not really needed to understand what it does.

FINAL_KIDNAPPER_CAGE_JOB is not as obvious, but we can take a good guess as to what it does.

LOOT_FOOD_AND_STUFF is just shit. What is stuff? What is the difference between this and LOOT_THE_DEAD which is when people take your food?

How do the targeting functions work? Can a goal get dropped in between other goals that involve a target (attack, loot, enslave) and have that target passed on to the next goal?

I'm just venting, but seriously. Not being able to access and write scripts for the AI is nonsense. Not being able to write new classes and new properties for an object is also nonsense. It's frustrating to have a really great interface for a toolkit, and have my nuts cut off by not being to access these vital assets.

Anyway. Sorry for the rant. I love Kenshi (I remember when there was only one zone to explore and all I could do is hit a dummy and get beaten by bandits), and will continue to binge it, but damn. This toolkit.


Also - if I'm completely wrong about being able to create new classes, just let me know. I'm no expert with Kenshi modding, I just have five or so years of development experience with C#, so I'm used to a little more depth.

[siatricksphydracerma]

What we really need is to abolish capitalism so that all game code is open-source and easy to fork instead of only being able to use the provided modding API & tools, without costing the original developer any of their time or risking their income.

But yeah, deeper access would be great. The kind of game that Kenshi is makes it really fertile soil for mods. There are several small quality-of-life changes I'd like to make that are impossible with the current interface, like:

- Adding a visual indication to squad member's profile picture when they are in an "aimless" state, and adding a tooltip explanation for what jobs they are trying to do but failing.
- Fixing some bugs where squad members become "aimless" when the ingredients for their current crafting task are unavailable instead of resetting the ingredients and progressing to the next crafting item.
- Changing the "repeat queue" functionality so that instead of crafting A, B, A, B, etc, the crafter will always try to make A unless it can't, so will make B etc (which is the same 'preference' system that jobs currently use)
- Allow creation of a "job group" or "role", which is just a bundle of jobs that you can quickly toggle on/off for each character (instead of eg manually dragging potentially hundreds of separate farming jobs around to order them)
- Add functionality to prevent squad members from depositing certain items in their inventories into containers, perhaps using a Ctrl+RMB click to mark a given item as "keep on my body". The main use for this would be medics not depositing their personal bandages, and archers not depositing their own personal bolts.
- Better handling of AI 'fail' states, like when a character tries to man a turret while carrying a body (silently becomes "aimless"), and removing the option to "splint injuries" when the active character has no splints in their inventory (currently also silently becomes "aimless").
- Add a job that loots all items from nearby dead or unconscious humanoids (like the current job that loots all meat/skin from animals)
- Add a "finish off" command to use on unconscious characters that kills them with one blow (should also depend on your Assassinate skill to determine likelihood of botching the attempt, waking the unconscious character, and making noise).
- Allow "surgery" on humanoids lying in robotics beds (simply allows opening the "limbs" menu to upgrade healthy people with robotic limbs, rather than having to deliberately fight something that dismembers you)
- Fix bug that stops crippled characters from attempting to leave player's beds, even when hostile and conscious - this is currently an exploit that allows you to "farm" lots of different kinds of experience by stealth KOing, hitting, or stealthing near your hapless prisoners who can't fight back or leave.
- Fix several performance and usability bugs with the Peeling Machine
- Fix a bug where placing unconscious enemy characters in their own faction's cages/prisoner posts while unseen by anyone nonetheless gives you around -10 reputation with that faction (which prevents fun and interesting stealth mechanics)
- Add a stealth mechanic where characters who have been knocked out will wake up "suspicious" and look around them more. Characters who see unconscious allies will become suspicious, and after enough suspicion is raised, those characters will begin to follow random non-allies (thus disguises will prevent this) that were seen immediately before/after an ally was found unconscious. Characters will keep a short memory of other people that were "near" suspicious activity, and begin to deduce targets of suspicion that were present on multiple occasions (or were the only other person around a given activity). If there are items missing from unconscious allies, sufficiently suspicious guards may demand to search random non-allies for items stolen from that specific unconscious ally. Allies will automatically place each other in their own nearby beds when found unconscious, and with a high medic skill have a chance to wake their ally sooner than normal. When extremely suspicious, they can go into a full-blown "panic" state where they constantly run around and check on their allies, cower in place, or even attack a random target of suspicion. All of these "suspicion" mechanics should address a somewhat monotonous and unrealistic play-style where you can methodically knock out every member of a squad without them really reacting much as it happens.
- Allow placing unconscious (but not yet dead) characters in devices like corpse furnaces. Make corpse furnaces an upgrade of item furnaces, and automatically smelt metal items on furnace'd characters' inventories into ore.
- Make characters evaluate their job priorities more frequently, and factor things like allies' current jobs and distances into their decision on what to job to perform. This should fix lots of hysteresis and extremely inefficient AI loops, and free players from lots of boring job micromanagement.
- Adjust ranged combat AI so that units will sometimes move a few meters to get a clearer shot if their allies are in the way.
- Make units look for medical gear on nearby bodies & allies' backpacks when given the "medic" command, instead of simply saying "I don't have any bandages".
- Improve the extremely frustrating and inefficient "arrange" inventory algorithm, and allow players to automatically trigger an "arrange" optimised for inserting a specific new item into an inventory. Inventory optimisation currently takes way too much time, and is often not that interesting.
- Right-clicking a bag on your body inventory should swap it with the currently equipped bag when no other container is present, and if the currently equipped bag can fit on your body inventory.

The list is endless, and I've got a suspicion this game is timeless enough that by providing richer modding access, this game will sustain a dedicated modding community and playerbase for a long time.

[Hatsune_Neko]

What we really need is to abolish capitalism so that all game code is open-source

Thats never gonna happen.

[nlewis]

I agree with this frustration. I have ideas for mods, but none of them are implementable because they are outside the scope of the FCS.

[philthymcnasty]

I agree with this frustration. I have ideas for mods, but none of them are implementable because they are outside the scope of the FCS.

It sounds like the FCS may need an update. It's something to be considered as the modding scene seems to be picking up.

On the flip side, i have noticed that some of the more obscure modders have started adding more content to the game so maybe there are some workarounds that we are not aware of?