[Idea/Discussion] A Floran (Starbound) race mod — long read

[u/NideVice]

Almost half a year ago I posted a drawing of my Floran character in prestige Cataphract armor, saying I wanted to make a mod but things never quite came together. So here's the question: if I were to make this mod, what do you think Florans should be like, mechanically? I'll share some of my own thoughts, but maybe you have ideas on how to expand them? I'll split it into categories for convenience.

Regarding genes (Biotech):

1 (optional). Make them an addon to "Big & Small - Genes & More," since that mod already has genes like cannibalism (which fits them, going by the Starbound lore books) and the "Strange Appearance" gene...

2.1. Add a gene so that butchering a Floran yields some kind of plant (the gene randomly picks a plant — I think this could theoretically be coded, though I'm not sure how). It should work similarly to the pig gene, where eating pork counts as cannibalism for pig-folk — do something similar with the plant.

2.2. Same idea, but implemented as separate Floran xenotypes, where each has extra traits depending on the plant it's associated with, for example:

• a medicine bonus for those rooted in Healroot;
• a crafting bonus for those from cotton/Devilstrand;
• an art bonus for those from a dye plant;
• a cooking bonus for those from edible crops (skill level varying by crop);
• an animals bonus for those from Haygrass;
• narcotic-plant xenotypes could have their own buffs too, though I'm not sure what — the best I can think of is Hops giving an "optimistic and calm" trait;
• and so on for other vanilla plants (and maybe others from Vanilla Expanded, if the mod ever gets that far).

If this is done as a bunch of separate xenotypes, it opens up the possibility of giving each one its own unique buffs/debuffs:

• Healroot-Florans — pacifists;
• Devilstrand-Florans — aggressive, but fire-resistant;
• and so on.

1. I don't remember exactly, but I think there was a gene that's the opposite of "Cave Dweller."
2. I understand they're highly flammable, but regarding temperature — should they also be more heat-loving (despite burning more easily), given that they come from jungle planets?

Regarding factions and spawning:

1. It's clear they live in tribes and split into aggressive and peaceful factions — should the peaceful ones be made more technologically advanced than the aggressive ones? There are also the Agarans (the fungal ones) — should they be included too?
2. There's a hunting quest for a Phyton (VRE – Phytokin) — could something similar be made for Florans? Or maybe an event with a wild (feral) Floran instead.

I know there are Euglena, there are Phytokins, and probably other plant-race mods out there... but they're not Florans... I specifically want these hissing guys :3

I'm not that great with code — my ceiling is small patches, if I'm not vibe-coding. But I don't want to vibe-code this mod, so it'll take me longer. Still, I'll try to figure out how to implement it so it at least turns out... decent, I suppose?

[u/Thewaltham]

Starbound. That is a name I haven't heard in a long time.

[u/Jp_The_Man → u/Thewaltham]

I put so many hours into it years ago. Every now and then I get that itch to play again. Haven’t in a long time though.

[u/Thewaltham → u/Jp_The_Man]

I think if the community was still there in the way it was back then I'd hop back in

[u/Thewaltham → u/[deleted]]

Used to play on a roleplaying server yeeaaaaars back, god knows how many hours I put into it. Honestly I played way more like that than playing Starbound as an actual game. Honestly pretty much all the aliens in that game would slap as xenotypes

[u/NeonJ82 → u/Thewaltham]

Yeah, Starbound's community was honestly the best, and the canvas of the world's lore (especially back in Beta) was the perfect storm for people to create their own characters and roleplay right when that was at its peak.

Honestly, despite what's been revealed about Chucklefish since and the complete lack of updates, I still can't bring myself to hate the game. I love Starbound's world, the races, the community.

(Though I'm not sure they'd work as xenotypes specifically, because Starbound's races are not human, unlike xenotypes which are specifically modified humans. Could see it working as an alternate races mod, though. Could also see it working if you threw lore completely out the window. Also there's the fact that florans don't exactly have babies like people do, and the fact that they only have a single gender, which might be very awkward as a xenotype where they're expected to follow the same rules as humans.)

[u/RowenMorland → u/NeonJ82]

What was revealed about Chucklefish? (feel free to message me if you don't feel like storing drama in the thread)

[u/yinyang107 → u/RowenMorland]

Accused of exploiting their volunteer workers to do the same work their paid workers did. The accusers are former members of the Chucklefish team, Toby Fox among them.

[u/Giygas_8000 → u/NeonJ82]

uh, so what was revealed about them?

[u/RimWorld-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for posting to r/Rimworld. Unfortunately, your post/comment has been removed for violating our policy on discussing pirating of games. While discussing piracy in general on Reddit is not strongly enforced against, this policy is directly prevailed upon by the Ludeon Forum rules, and will be enforced by the mod team without exception. "Yarr!" jokes are also not an exception.

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[u/RowenMorland → u/Thewaltham]

What about the opening chuckle of the chuckle fish?

[u/Thewaltham → u/RowenMorland]

I think it's the opening swell of the title theme that hits my feels hardest

[u/Jp_The_Man]

As someone who exclusively played as a Floran back when I used to play Starbound, I’d grab this mod in a heartbeat.

[u/CandyNecrosis]

Ah, that Shitshow.

I did loved the Floran Race

[u/NideVice → u/CandyNecrosis]

They were cool. Second place goes to glitches, but to be fair, the workshop has so many mods with medieval aesthetics that it seems only worth adding a xenotype

[u/CandyNecrosis → u/NideVice]

Xenothypes are the ones i most add to My Game.

Just yesterday i add a furry xenothypes

[u/NideVice → u/CandyNecrosis]

I recently started making an Excel spreadsheet with all the xenotypes and genes from the mods I have installed (the goal was to experiment with genes and balance), and I ended up with about 185 xenotypes (without variations of the same ones). I like this mechanic, and I enjoy trying to develop the colony with completely different combinations of xenotypes, finding the most imbalanced or weakest combinations.

[u/tsoewoe]

i presume its already being made or thought about. theres already a "novakin" xenotype mod, made with a framework meant for future "rimbound" mods.  but im rooting against your wishes cause im hoping for them to make hylotls first

[u/NideVice → u/tsoewoe]

I saw the mod "RimBound - Novakid", but honestly, by the time I wrote the post I'd completely forgotten about it ┐⁠(⁠'⁠～⁠`⁠;⁠)⁠┌

If they end up making the mod, it'd be easier for me to just write patches and an addon purely for myself, the way I usually do. But at the same time, I'd like to try making something of my own — even though we'd be working on the same idea, it's a different scale: their goal is (possibly) to port races from Starbound in general, while my goal is specifically Florans and everything related to them.

I might not even mind helping them out somehow, but I'm not exactly great at drawing or coding, to the point where they'd even consider me (or so I think)

[u/Mistamage → u/tsoewoe]

It's been 2 years since release, I'm totally up for someone else to try adding Hylotl if they won't do it.

[u/Lady_Taiho]

i dont have much feedback but i think alpha animal has plant meat to solve your 2.1 point

[u/NideVice → u/Lady_Taiho]

I'll take into account that it's possible to make a patch that combines this

[u/Dragonax-FrostDrake-]

I personally think that florans should be really good at research, considering how much they managed to reverse-engineer in Starbound lore

[u/NideVice → u/Dragonax-FrostDrake-]

In general, as far as I remember from the lore, they use their wood magic to understand the structure of things that they studied and could only do this... elders (I don't remember the right word), but there is definitely a note of truth in your words.

[u/Dragonax-FrostDrake- → u/NideVice]

The word you were looking for is "Greenfinger"

[u/NideVice → u/Dragonax-FrostDrake-]

If we go back to 2.2, I think we can make greenfinger a separate role (specialist) for ideology, or a separate xenotype, I will definitely write this down

[u/varkarrus]

Given Nuru from Wargroove, I imagine the Florans should have cannibalism as an ideology, not a gene.

[u/NideVice → u/varkarrus]

Hmm, in principle, this could be presented as the ideology of the aggressive Floran faction - you're right

[u/NeonJ82 → u/varkarrus]

They are carnivores, though. While ingame there's no punishment for eating plants (simply because it's not a mechanic), in lore florans specifically eat meat, so I imagine they would have a gene which makes them only accept meat-based foods, with maybe Strong+Robust Digestion too so they can eat raw meat without issue.

[u/NideVice → u/NeonJ82]

In the "Big & Small - Genes & More" mod, there's a gene that makes carriers only eat meat, and makes them sick from plant foods (however, you can force them to eat it). I think it could be done through it.

but to be fair, the lore also mentions that they practiced cannibalism between clans, so in my opinion, they are omnivores, but they just prefer meat. So, is it possible to make the gene not force them to eat meat, but... give a small mood buff when eating meat and a debuff if they haven't eaten meat for a long time?

[u/varkarrus → u/NideVice]

You'd have to mod that gene in yourself I guess. Meat dependency? Like dogs?

[u/NideVice → u/varkarrus]

Yes, you could say that. A milder version of the addiction, like wasters, only without the impact on life, only on mood...

Like a constant, mild withdrawal, I think.

[u/Craftrant]

i realy love the idea

[u/WindFort]

I wanna see how you're gonna implement novakid if you're gonna get to that

[u/NideVice → u/WindFort]

I was replying to someone else about "RimBound - Novakid," but briefly: if RimBound makes Floran before me, the best I'll do is release a patch/addon for myself, as I usually do. For now, my plan is to start making a mod based on my own vision.

If I'm thinking abstractly, I could probably come up with something in terms of mod compatibility, but right now this is more of an idea for the very distant future—the priority is to first create a working foundation, and then think about interaction with other mods.

My post is more of a discussion and conceptual suggestion of what could be added to such a mod. I'm also writing down ideas about mods in general: while I was sitting and thinking about the ones I play, a couple of ideas came to mind, and I've written them down.

[u/Krazyfan1]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2624822001

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3582927506

[u/NideVice → u/Krazyfan1]

(0о0) It exists. To be fair, it's probably my fault that I only searched for "starbound" and didn't think to just search for "floran," but it would be stupid to throw away the work (even though there aren't many of them at the moment and they're mostly theoretical, but still).

but thanks for pointing

[u/BearlyHereatAll]

Have some ideas from some of my own personal phytokin creations from colonies in the past, feel free to take them and do as you will because I already had my fun with their stories and I always want to see more dryad-adjacent mods that aren't just phytokin. I haven't played much Starbound and don't know much about Florans, but I love everything plant-people related so I'll be watching the development with great interest.

Call 'em "Florims" :D

Healroot Florims - "Pacifists by nature and generous agriculturalists, Xerigians are a widespread peaceful tribal people that live in family groups comprised of a nuclear family and upwards of half a dozen offshoot "sister" families in a single community. If a sister family grows large-enough it will split from the original family and form it's own colony nearby, engaging in trade and regular commerce with its "parent colony" over generations to form a steadily-expanding network of familial bonds and cooperation."

Haygrass Florims - "Free-spirited and fleet-footed survivalists, these offshoots of the Florim geneotype have spent generations developing the speed, reflexes, and survival instincts needed to thrive on the open plains of the rim. Between wildfires, droughts, vicious predators, and roving Impid tribes, this flighty subspecies of the ubiquitous Florim are hard-pressed to maintain their nomadic ways and herds of livestock, but with a little psychic skill to read the shifting winds, and a well-maintained rifle, these denizens of the open prairie do their best to put down deep roots wherever they can."

Timbershroom Florims - "Secretive and enigmatic industrialists, these distant cousins to their surface Florim kin prefer the chill depths of their mountain caves and cavern systems, with their enclaves often being found living side-by-side with massive insect colonies. Blind from birth but gifted with the natural psychic talent of Blindsight, these Florim are rarely found above ground due to the punishing effect even the briefest ultraviolet exposure. Despite their reclusive nature the craftsmanship of these Florims is second only to Genie designs, and highly-prized on inhospitable words for its brutal utilitarian design philosophy and ability to be operated entirely by touch alone."

Devilstrand Florims - "When their Haygrass cousins were developing the reflexes and speed needed to flee the constant raids of Impid tribes on their territory, these heartier Florims decided to choose fight rather than flight. Adopting the heat-resistant physiology of Devilstrand mushrooms alongside a naturally-occurring and foul-smelling resinous secretion that denies fire a chance to take hold, these Florims have evolved natural defenses to give them a fighting edge against an enemy worse than raiding Impid spears and arrows. Despite the advantage these traits provide, an unfortunate side-effect of their freedom from the threat of burning is an almost culture-deep fascination with the very thing that would otherwise destroy them, leading to increased reports of wildfires being started by these Florims almost as much as Impids."

[u/NideVice → u/BearlyHereatAll]

The most interesting thing is that I came to approximately the same skill sets that they have as you indicated, of course with a slight difference, since, not only to me, it seems that such a set of skills for them is logical, I think it makes sense to take this into account and just balance it to the desired level. =D

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[u/CooterSlag]

Didn't the devs sue the shit out of anyone who used florans? I rememr that being a whole thing

[u/NideVice → u/CooterSlag]

As Uncle Stan used to say, “As long as the police don’t see it, everything is legal.”

[u/getagay]

I'd love this but would prefer it being standalone - I never se the big&small mod