Mech Blueprint Decoder
Ever really wanted that one particular mech blueprint and found that the game only gives you duplicates? It turns out that the game tries to avoid giving you duplicates, but it doesn’t try very hard…
This mod adds a "Blueprint Decoder" which lets you unlock the exact blueprints you want. The downside is that it requires multiple unopened blueprints and some money for each operation, becoming more expensive with blueprint tier. For example:
2 Advanced Mech Blueprint + 1000 pixels ==> Cluster Mine Mech Arm
The station is craftable from the Inventor’s Table (Durasteel tier).
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Frequently Asked Questions (that I am anticipating):
1. This has already been done a million times before, you know.
That’s not a question, but yes I do know. This is my first mod, and I wrote it to familiarise myself with the Starbound code and as a Lua crash course. You may also notice that similar mods (particularly those which add direct crafting recipes for blueprints) will log errors during Starbound’s startup, and I just couldn’t settle for that!
2. I have heaps of blueprints but it won’t work. Help!
If you have already used the blueprints and obtained duplicates, then it’s too late to use the Blueprint Decoder. The idea is that you have to choose between unlocking random blueprints more quickly and getting the one you want at greater cost.
3. Can you add unlock recipes for mech blueprints from mod X?
I intentionally designed this mod to work with vanilla Starbound parts only. I probably won’t add mod compatibility on my own. However, if there is sufficient interest in particular mods (and the mod creator is willing) then it could happen.
4. Why does the station look like a total rip-off of the Mech Assembly Station?
It is. I did this for coding practice, and I was tempted to just re-use the assets. Instead I downloaded GIMP yesterday, scribbled on the images a bit and re-colorised them. If you want to improve on them then feel free (and I’ll credit you, of course).
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Hope the mod is useful for someone out there. Again, this is my first Starbound mod – so feel free to leave feedback, comments and bug reports!
WARNING: I don’t play multiplayer Starbound at all, really, but this mod does add a new object (the Blueprint Decoder) and so it’s almost definitely not client-side only. You probably shouldn’t have it on your character, ship etc. when connecting to a server without it installed.
