Version 2.2
Last Updated - Oct 02, 2023
DISCLAIMER - This website is still a work in progress. Hopefully, by the time you are done playing the old mods, I'll have updated my webpage to include all the content that was missing on your last visit.
Most of the content hosted on this site is hosted without the knowledge or the permission of the content creators. I have tried to get in contact with many of you at various points in the past decades but I unfortunately got nothing but delivery error messages and radio silence. I suppose asking for permission beforehand would be the right thing to do, but I have too much appreciation for your mods and content to just let them die down, forgotten on a hard drive in a closet. If you are a content creator and, for one reason or another, want your awesome content removed from this webpage, drop me a line at the address below and I'll fix the situation. However, know that everyone here is secretly hoping you will surprise us with new, never-before-seen mods and content.
tl;dr
The Startopia mods are awesome. If you enjoyed playing Startopia you've got to play them. The main website for Startopia fan content died in summer 2020 and it's about time the situation got fixed.
Startopia holds a special place in my heart because it became an integral part of a significant day in my life, one of those days you remember details even decades later. It was mid-August 2001, exactly one week before college began. I remember waking up to Gorillaz that day. I forgot what made me pick up the games at the computer store, probably the positive review of Startopia on TV earlier that summer. Deus Ex however was totally uncharted waters: nothing but the blurb and box art (and what a lucky pick that turned out to be). I bought both games, plus a couple additional things I needed to finish moving. I unpacked my boxes, plugged the console and computer, and installed Startopia.
While Startopia was installing, I fixed myself my first ever meal on my first ever night in my first ever appartment: a bowl of Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs cereals. It was 8PM, maybe 9PM... the night was still young, my small basement flat was dark and quiet with three exceptions: a tiny, tape covered green LED on my computer that nonetheless managed to illuminate my entire bedroom, my computer monitor showing a strange, space ship shaped menu screen, and my speakers playing the beeps and the boops of Startopia's menu theme.
I still remember the first track I heard on the engineering deck when I fired up the first tutorial. I recall my disastrous first attempt at playing the second level, with bodies littering all over my station. I would play Startopia until 3:30AM that night, completely mesmerised by the little details. By the time college began I had crushed the single player campaign. I would come home after classes and play a couple of sandboxes, one with default settings, and one with the goal requirements and difficulty knobs pushed all the way to the max to prolong the pleasure. And then it was over. I love sandboxes, but I'm more of a mission guy, and on the first week of September, I was stacking boxes to climb on top of Lady Liberty in Deus Ex.
Later that Christmas Mucky Foot released a bonus mission, The Targatelli Affair, which gave me the perfect reason to dust off my Startopia CD and play another sandbox, but it wasn't until 2004 that I took Startopia for another ride. World of Warcraft was all over the news, a friend of mine wanted to replay the RTS series, and I stumbled on Startopia while rummaging through my box of video games CDs. I replayed the single player campaign, The Targatelli Affair and a sandbox at max difficulty, soaking in the nostalgia of my first playthrough. Curious if Mucky Foot released more levels since 2001, I gave the fansites a visit and stumbled upon a couple dozens of mods and missions made by fans. I figured, "Fan missions, eh, what do you have to lose?"
I was not ready for what would happen next. I went through the mods and fan missions one after another... They made me fall in love with the game a second time. The writing was brilliant, just as good as the single player campaign. Some had completely unique features and objectives. Now that I knew the ins and outs of the game and the difficult level I longed for was gone, the mods restored that challenge for a round two. Fans on the Startopia forums used to joke, "The single player campaign of Startopia is a glorified tutorial for the sandbox mode, that's where the fun is at." I would have added: "...and the sandbox mode is a tutorial for the fan missions, that's where the real fun begins." I played them all. I spent weeks digging the Startopia forums for new content, hopelessly trying to contact some modders, and mourning the death of a community I never met because in 2004 Mucky Foot had already closed its doors, the forums were locked and archived and the community had moved on.
In a forum post I learnt the community used to have a IRC channel. I took a peek, but the channel had been deserted for a long while. Now don't ask me why, maybe desperation, but I kept the channel window open, from 2005 to 2012, hanging there by myself, sometimes for entire months, just in case somebody else would remember the old chatroom or see the forum post and drop by, like some sort of weird, dumpster tier, low budget SETI program. It didn't take too long because in late 2005, MaxOoze, who was on a quest to archive and host all the Startopia content released so far, found the chatroom while scanning the forums for extra content. We traded mods, MaxOoze released two brand new missions, and his website would become the most comprehensive website for all things Startopia related for the next fifteen years. In 2006 I also had the chance to chat with some of the old timers: Spero, Arctic Wolf, Khaldeesh and lastly Asbestos (whom I am still friend with).
Which brings us to a couple months ago. Not only did I hear that MaxOoze's website had gone offline last summer (alongside many others sites), but I saw there still was a demand for Startopia fan content on Steam, on GOG, and on Reddit, and I figured it was now my turn to host the mods somewhere. Not only the old ones, but also the new ones that popped out since 2006. These mods and user missions are single-handedly responsible for two thirds of the joy I had playing Startopia, and are just too good to be forgotten on dusty hard drives and dead servers.
Before I get ahead of myself, I want to give credits where credits are due and thank everyone at Mucky Foot for creating this awesome game.
I want to especially thank Guy Simmons for the encouragements, for sharing a couple of files straight from the Startopia network drive, and for the time spent patching this twenty years old game.
Wayne Imlach for writing the modding guide, Jan Svarovsky for his 3D mesh exporter, and Tom Forsyth for releasing countless graphical patches even years after Mucky Foot closed its doors.
Visit Tom's Startopia page
I want to thank everyone who, at one point or another, created, hosted or mirrored Startopia content and kept the mods from getting completely forgotten once the Eidos forums was shut down, notably:
Sandra Linkletter, whose small website is, surprisingly enough, still up and running even two decades later. Thank you for the countless hours of joy your missions brought me, Sandra.
Visit Slink's Startopia Collection
MaxOoze, whose website was the one stop spot for Startopia fans from late 2005 all the way until its disappearance in 2020. Thanks for keeping the torch lit all those years, Craig.
A web archived version of MaxOoze's Startopia site
AlphaOmega, Static, Szyslak, Tex, Uncle Mikey, and everyone else involved in running the Startopia Post back in the days. Also Tim over at the Startopia Tim's Zone. MaxOoze's website and this webpage would not exist today without all the efforts you made and all the time you spent dutifully archiving Startopia content on your websites.
A web archived version of the long defunct Startopia Post
Ed Mack for his countless modding tips and tutorials.
A web archived version of Ed Mack's Startopia website
Lindsay Fleay for the incredibly insightful RTSC Startopia guide, and BlackYazra for the re-upload on Steam.
VAG and ARR at VAGsoft for writing the Startopia sound decoder that allows us to enjoy the terrific Startopia soundtrack at work, in the gym or absolutely anywhere, and GOG user vu221 for making the soundtrack available to a much wider audience.
jackfuste and skipclarke for the widescreen support patches.
All the skin creators who released countless skins back in the days, and VG-Tal, who collected and re-uploaded all those skins on ModDB.
PeepNames.txt fileAnd lastly, my IRC, Steam, and GOG friends for the moral support, especially Asbestos when it came to Startopia related support, and Gekko for proof reading this webpage and hosting it on his server. This webpage would also consist of a bunch of potatoes duct taped together were it not for RantingHuman and Oldlaptop who pushed me to improve my code.
.ddt texture files.tfa into .wav.wav files into .tfaPeepNames.txt fileedit.startopia.xml.zip, whose purpose eludes me at the momentDue to size constraint, this archive cannot contain everything. However, there is a lot of Startopia material out there that deserves mentions and all the attention it can get. Even if they are not included in this archive, this webpage covers the following content:
This webpage is as complete as I want it to be right now, but it is not final. I wanted to catalog and re-upload as much Startopia material as I could as quickly as possible, with hard to find user missions, mods, modding tools, and patches as my main priority. As a side effect, there is a lot of material out there that I had to actively ignore in order to focus on my goal:
I do not know when I'll get around to do any of that, but it is definitively on the table.
Even if I searched far and wide on my backup hard drives and the Internet Archive for Startopia content, there is a lot of content that I just couldn't find anywhere. If you have copies of the files listed below, or have additional instructions on how to use some of the files listed in this archive, send me an email and I'll update the page and files (and also add your name to the Thank You section).
Stuff that I am looking for at the moment:
mp-unpack_batch_files.zipPeepNames.txt file, by Erwin Rossmann
All the patches listed above are located in the \Patches\ folder found in this archive, with the exception of the widescreen support patches and the new official Startopia patch.
The widescreen support patches can be downloaded at the Wide Screen Gaming Forum.
For the latest news about the new official patch, or instructions regarding how to subscribe to the beta, follow this thread on the Steam community forums..
This new official patch will most likely render all the older patches obsolete or uninstallable, but I will still keep the older patches available for archival purpose, in the infinitely small chance that one of you want to run this game on 20 years old hardware.
There are two versions of this patch: v1.01 and v1.01b. Both versions contain the same fixes and features. How exactly both versions differ from one another, that I do not know precisely. The only information I could find was that patch v1.01b was created a couple of weeks after patch v1.01, and Mucky Foot was strongly advising its users to use the v1.01b patch if they were experiencing problems with the v1.01 patch.
While the v1.01 patch is perfectly suited for the main campaign and sandboxes, if you intend to play mods and user missions, be aware that some of the user missions and mods specifically require you to update Startopia to v1.01b. While I cannot tell for sure which version of the v1.01 patch the Steam and GOG versions come with, judging by the file size of the Startopia.exe file bundled with them and the absence of a few files only present in the v1.01 patch, I'd surmise they have the v1.01b patch installed. So if you have one of those versions, you should be good to go.
If you've installed the game from the CD, I highly suggest that you patch it since the copy that comes from the CD is still at v1.00.
A complete rundown of the changes, fixes, and new features introduced in patch v1.01 can be found in the readme.txt file that accompanies the patch.
Startopia can adapt itself to your graphical card for best performance, but the game needs instructions regarding what to do with each card it can encounter. Startopia gets these instructions from a file named CardID.tom located inside your \startopia\ folder.
While Mucky Foot closed its doors back in 2003, Mucky Foot veteran Tom Forsyth continued to update CardID.tom up until early 2007.
CardID.tom, but I do not know if any of these versions will have a significant impact on the game performance. We don't have graphical cards from 2007 anymore, surely graphical cards released in the past 14 years are powerful enough to run Startopia without a hitch. But if one of you ever decide to run Startopia on 2005 hardware, I've got you covered. I have:
To install it, simply pick the version you want to use in the \CardID.tom Patch\ folder and copy the file in your \startopia\ folder to replace the CardID.tom file that is currently there.
DISCLAIMER - While I was able to acquire what I think is v19 and v20 from a web archived version of Tom Forsyth's Startopia page, I have however no idea if they will function as intended. Someome (or maybe Tom himself) may have to verify that everything is in working order. You see, when I open my old CardID.tom in Notepad, I see normal text: dates and version numbers, comments, a list of graphical cards followed by what I assume are instructions for the game itself... I suspect CardID.tom is actually a text file whose extension has been renamed from ".txt" to ".tom". The first time I attempted to download the latest versions of CardID.tom from Tom's archived webpage, the file I got was a garbled mess: five times smaller than v13, hardly readable to human eye, with absolutely no spacing whatsoever... something was clearly wrong. However, my browser seemed to be able to open and read CardID.tom from Tom's webpage just fine, and it appeared as a text file, exactly like it looked when I opened my old CardID.tom file in Notepad, with comments and instructions. So what I did was create a new text file named "CardID.txt", copied the text content of CardID.tom that was perfectly spaced and readable in my browser, pasted it into the CardID.txt file, and renamed it as "CardID.tom".
If my assumptions are correct and CardID.tom is actually a .txt file that has been renamed to ".tom", it should work fine. But I can't be sure. So one of you (or Tom) may have to test or verify that everything is fine.
The "v1.02" in "Highly Experimental v1.02 patch" is a bit of a misnomer. One might be tempted to assume this is the latest and most stable release when it really isn't.
Unlike patch v1.01, the Highly Experimental v1.02 patch does not address existing issues in Startopia. What it does is add nice shadow effects to the aliens and rooms in your space station. While the patch was made by Tom Forsyth, a Mucky Foot veteran, it was quietly released in 2004, a year after Mucky Foot closed its doors, three years after the heyday of the Startopia community and, as such, most likely didn't receive all the wide scale testing it deserved. Tom always sandwiched the patch with a heavy dose of warnings regarding the experimental nature of the patch, referring to it more like a tech demo and advising players to uninstall the patch if they simply wanted to play the game.
The patch used to be available on Tom's Startopia page starting in 2004, and was quietly removed sometimes in 2013 due to bit-rot. I'll let Tom explain what the patch does and what went wrong:
Anyway, recently I wanted to do some research into shadowbuffers - a way of rendering realistic shadows (see the GDC 2004 paper here). And while most shadowing techniques look fine in small demos, they have a habit of not working too well when people put them in real, working games. So I thought I should put them into a real game to prove they work. The game I knew best was StarTopia. And thus, a new StarTopia "patch" was born.
So, you'll obviously need to have the game installed. You'll also need to have the 1.01 patch installed, as that fixed a lot of silly bugs. And then you need to download the HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL 1.02 patch and install that. I'm sorry the 1.02 patch isn't a clever executable and everything - but if you read the readme file in it, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it. Please please please remember to keep the old copies of your files if you actually want to play the game - did I mention this version is HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL?
You will also need a fairly meaty machine to run with shadows on. Annoyingly, StarTopia is really badly designed for doing these shadows, and it spends a lot of its time doing daft things like re-animating each character multiple time a frame, so it's quite slow. So if you actually want to play the game, I recommend switching shadows off again! But fixing that would take more time than I really have to spend on a side-project.
Have fun - here's some pictures of the shadows in action.
-TomF
In 2013, Tom updated his website to this:
I used to do a lot of support for StarTopia for newer graphics cards, but unfortunately for various reasons I can't compile the code any more, so I can't continue supporting the really fancy features (well, fancy for 2001, very dull by 2013 standards). The Steam version is currently the best thing for most people to run.
However, in 2004 I wanted to do some research into shadowbuffers - a way of rendering realistic shadows (see the GDC 2004 paper here). And while most shadowing techniques look fine in small demos, they have a habit of not working too well when people put them in real, working games. So I thought I should put them into a real game to prove they work. The game I knew best was StarTopia. And thus, a new StarTopia "patch" was born.
But as I say, the bit-rot has set in, and I can't even run it now, let alone compile a new version. We built StarTopia on libraries that were old even at the time, and making them work over a decade later is going to take more time than I have. So instead here's some pictures of the shadows in action.
-TomF
Personally, I have never tried the patch myself. My weaksauce 2002 machine didn't meet the beefy requirements to run the patch back then, and I always wanted my Startopia to be as stable as possible due to the loading times.
So I can't help you with it, and since Tom removed it from his webpage, it would probably be wise not to bug him about it either. I don't know if the patch can be installed on modern OSes or the Steam version. And since it must be installed on Startopia v1.01 or v1.01b, I don't think the v1.02 patch is compatible with the widescreen support patches by jackfuste and skipclarke, or the new official Startopia patch announced by My Little Planet Ltd in February 2021.
But I am making this patch available to you, in case some of you own old machines, are tinkerer, are fascinated by Startopia for historical or technical reasons and ain't afraid of no crashes or loading times.
I took the liberty of mirroring Tom's screenshots of the shadows in action.
If you've fired up Startopia once during the past ten years, you probably noticed how outdated the game is when it comes to screen resolutions that aren't 800x600 or 1024x768. The widescreen support patches by jackfuste and skipclarke fix that issue.
You will still need to lower your desktop's resolution to 1024x768 before launching Startopia, but once you are inside the game, you will be able to set the resolution to widescreen, or to a resolution that is bigger than 1024x768, from the graphical options menu.
The patches are not included in this archive. To grab the patch, head over to the Startopia page on the Wide Screen Gaming Forum.
Once there, follow the instructions laid out underneath the "Baseline (Widescreen) Solutions & Issues" section.
The patches must be installed on Startopia v1.01b.
On Feb 28, 2021, Guy Simmons, Mucky Foot veteran and proprietor of My Little Planet Ltd (the company that currently owns the rights to Startopia) caught us Startopia fans by surprise and announced that a new official patch for Startopia was in the works.
The primary goal of this patch seemed to be fixing compatibility issues that have crept up in the past two decades, thanks to the changes and advances made in computer hardwares and softwares. But Guy has also been quite interested in fixing bugs that have plagued Startopia since its inception, and adding all sort of fan requested features.
The latest news about this new patch, and the instructions regarding how to subscribe to the beta can be found in this post dedicated to the new patch on the Steam community forums.
It was brought up to me, by Erwin Rossmann, that a couple of tiny translation errors were present in the German version of Startopia. The German PeepNames.txt file was missing a "[" bracket for the Guy Simmons custom peep name, and the translators forgot to leave an empty space before each of the Turraken's last names, meaning that, for example, Doktor GigaWatt would be incorrectly displayed as DoktorGigaWatt.
Erwin generously provided a fixed version of the German PeepNames.txt file. To install it, simply replace the PeepNames.txt file found in your \startopia\text\German\ folder, with the one found in this archive.
The fine folks at Mucky Foot had the incredible foresight of making Startopia extremely moddable. Armed with just a little bit of modding knowledge, you can create your own custom missions, tweak the main campaign, overhaul the game balance, implement cheats, or tailor the sandbox mode to your every whim. You don't need no fancy level editors, because all the mission and sandbox data is stored in .txt and .csv files. All you need is a program to edit .txt files (like Notepad), a program to edit .csv files (like Microsoft Office Excel or OpenOffice Calc), the Startopia Mod Scripting Guide, and you are good to go.
\Startopia\missions\ folder:
\98\ folder will only affect the sandbox mode.\01\ to \12\ will affect missions in the single player campaign.\00\ folder will affect the whole game.\missions\ folder and adding scripts in it.
The folder named \Modding\Mod Creation\ of this archive contains every single tool, guide and resource I could find related to the creation of Startopia mods and user missions. Notably:
If you are interested in creating mods for Startopia, this comprehensive guide is a must read. It's the Startopia modding bible, written by Mucky Foot veteran Wayne Imlach. It covers file structure, syntax, statements... everything you need to know to customize your sandbox experience, tweak existing missions or make your own.
The folder named \Modding\Mod Creation\Startopia Mod Scripting Guide\ contains the latest version of the Startopia modding guide plus several template files to help you create mods and fan missions.
Back in the days, a modder by the name of Ed Mack wrote a short modding FAQ and several tutorials. These tutorials were meant to help mission designers to further custom their missions, but many of those were also intended for ordinary players to help them tweak their Startopia experience.
All of these (including screenshots of Security Scuzzers MK III) can be found in the folder named: \Modding\Mod Creation\Modding Tutorials by Ed Mack\
You don't need no fancy level editors to create your own missions. But it doesn't mean you can't use one however!
Released by XenoByte in August 2003, Startopia Mission Creator is the latest and most advanced tool to help you create your own Startopia missions. By making the process of creating missions less of an hassle, Startopia Mission Creator allows you to spend more time being creative instead of worrying about code and syntax. It can format the mission code to make it easier to read and understand. It takes the confusing syntax of the mission code and turns it into an easy to understand dialog box. It has a feature called CoordMan which makes it easier to place objects in the mission, it also converts some angles into a format that Startopia understands. Last but not least, it has a fully featured Trader File Editor to make the process of creating traders a lot easier.
Startopia Mission Creator comes in two versions, a small version and a full version, depending on whether you have Microsoft Office XP installed or not, because the Trader File Editor requires files that were part of Microsoft Excel XP.
Startopia Mission Creator is located in the folder named: \Modding\Mod Creation\Startopia Mission Creator\
Released in July 2001, EditTopia is a tool written in Visual Basic by Steve Robinson so he could analyse mission files, but after a bit of work it turned into a quick-and-dirty editor for mish??.txt files. That being said, it remained in beta, so it can only edit mish??.txt files, other files will have to be edited manually. You will also need Visual Basic 5.0 (or greater) runtime files in order to run this program.
EditTopia can be found in the folder named: \Modding\Mod Creation\EditTopia\
Slink's Startopia Collection is also worth checking out, if you want additional help and resources to create your own mods.
mish.txt filemish.txt files
The \Modding\Sound Decoding\ folder contains everything needed to convert .tfa files (which is the proprietary format used by Mucky Foot to store sound effects and music tracks) into .wav files, and also convert .wav files into .tfa files. Namely:
Tfa2wav is a little program that can convert .tfa files into .wav files. Instructions on how to use this program can be found in the readme.txt file. Most music tracks come with one or two minutes of silence. Sometimes this is before the music plays, sometimes after. So if you want to add the Startopia soundtrack to your music playlists, before you convert the tracks into .mp3, .ogg, .flac, or your prefered music format, you will first need a software to edit the silence out of the audio files.
If you want to add custom sound effects or music tracks into Startopia, Mucky Foot also added a functionality into Startopia to convert .wav files into .tfa files on the fly as you play Startopia. Simply follow the instructions found in the WAV To TFA Conversion Guide located in the \Modding\Sound Decoding\ folder.
The \Modding\Startopia 3D Mesh Exporter\ folder contains plugins to convert .max files (produced by 3D Studio Max) into .ssm (the mesh files that Startopia uses). The reverse however (converting .ssm files into .max) is not possible.
Mucky Foot veteran Jan Svarovsky wrote the plugin that can be used with 3D Studio Max v2 and v2.5, while Ed Mack wrote the plugin that can be used with 3D Studio Max v3 (with help from Daniel Yu).
The readme.txt file contains some instructions that I copy pasted from Jan's defunct website.
The programs found in the \Modding\Texture Decompression\ folder can decompress .ddt files (which are texture files used by Startopia) into .tga files (a format that can be modified by image editing softwares), allowing you to modify the skins and textures of the aliens, rooms, and objects. They can also recompress those .tga files back into .ddt files.
It is worth noting that none of these tools can create .ddt files out of thin air: when you compress your modified .tga files back into .ddt, the original .ddt files must be present in the same folder as the modified .tga files. The programs will overwrite the existing .ddt files with the new textures, basically.
This is a DOS-based program that can convert .ddt files into .tga and back into .ddt. The readme.txt file contains all the info you need to use this program.
This tool does the same thing as DDSConv, except this one comes with a graphical user interface. No need to mess around with DOS, simply drag and drop texture files into the window and press a button to instantly decompress or recompress multiple files. It also comes with a couple of functionalities, such as auto backing up texture files. It seems to be partly build from Richard Smith's DDSConv so it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with DDSConv before you use this tool.
These batch files are meant to be used in conjunction with Richard Smith's DDSConv. When placed in a folder containing DDSconv.exe, they will decompress or compress a file called a.tga.ddt or a.tga respectively. It's a tiny improvement over having to type long command lines in DOS, but the programs requires you to rename your texture files to a.tga.ddt before conversion, which also requires you to keep track of the original names of the files you are converting. Unless there is some functionality that completely eludes me, it seems to be a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of solution to the problem of having to type long command lines in DOS with DDSConv. Still, one of you might find a use for them.
Back in the days, a modder by the name of Empee also created a few batch files (for Richard Smith's DDSConv) to make it easier to decompress lots of textures. Sadly, Empee's batch files seem to be lost forever. Fortunately, other tools have since rendered those files obsolete.
Back in 2011, a cool fella by the name of VG-Tal collected countless skins made by Startopia fans back in ye olde days, and re-uploaded them all on ModDB. These skin packs are not included in this archive at the moment, so if you want to fully deck out your visitors and residents in Starfleet uniforms, you will have to head over to ModDB, the skin packs can be found in the "addons" section of their Startopia page.
This archive contains several FAQs and strategy guides to teach you a trick or two, but none dive as deep under the hood, or are as comprehensive and thorough in the little details, as the Startopia guide that used to be available on Lindsay Fleay's Real Time Strategic Carnage website.
Lindsay's guide answers all these questions and much more.
Due to its incredibly large size, the RTSC Startopia guide is not included in this archive, but it can be downloaded in its entirety over at Lindsay's new website.
BlackYazra also had the brilliant idea of re-uploading the strategy guide on the Startopia Steam community page.
Last but not least, dragongal35 kindly reminded me that you can also view the guide in its entirety thanks to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
At last, user missions and mods! The meat and the potatoes. Most certainly the reason why you are here, and the reason why I've played Startopia for so long.
First of all, let me start by giving you an overview of what you will find in the \User Missions And Mods\ folder:
\Mods\ folder)\Mods\ folder)
\Mods\ folder)\Mods\ folder):
\Mods\ folder)\Mods\ folder)\Mods\ folder)\Mods\ folder)DISCLAIMER - I want to be clear and up front about this: Some of the user missions have been edited by me.
You see, when I first marathoned the user missions back in 2004, maybe it was a bit of OCD-ness, but I wanted my mission select screen to look neat, clean, and sorted by author. Whenever I found a really cool mission by a specific author, the next thing I wanted to play was every other missions made by this author. So what I did was rename every single mission folder, which required me to edit the missions' .txt files to change the file pathing to reflect the new folder names.
I want to reassure everyone that the edits should not affect the gameplay. I have been able to play and complete every mission even after the edits were made. All I did was rename the mission folders and tweak the .txt files so it suited the new folder names. I did not mess around with the variables nor the difficulty settings on the missions that came with customizable difficulty levels. I think I fixed a couple spelling errors and typos in some missions, and there was one mission that I had to fix the win condition because it was possible to get into an unwinnable state (the mission wouldn't let me finish because I cured more patients than the objective required me to and the win condition was specifically set for a precise number, not equal-or-above that number).
It never crossed my mind that sixteen years down the line some of the edited files would become the last surviving copies of those fan missions. Had I known, I would have kept copies of the original zip archives. I have done my best to hunt down the original, unedited files, but there are a few missions that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. Specifically:
I am doing my best to contact people who might still have copies of the mods and user missions in their un-altered format, but who knows how long it will take for them to see my messages on Steam or GOG. If you have copies of the original mods and user missions, or any other Startopia related files that I am missing for that matter, please contact me.
First of all, to run properly some of the user missions and mods require you to update Startopia to v1.01b. While I cannot tell for sure which version of the v1.01 patch the Steam and the GOG versions come with, judging by the file size of the Startopia.exe file bundled with those versions and the absence of a few files only present in the v1.01 patch, I'd surmise they comes with the v1.01b patch installed. If you have one of those versions, you should be good to go. If you've installed the game from the CD, I highly suggest that you apply the v1.01b patch before you play the mods since the copy that comes from the CD is still at v1.00. Also, like mentionned earlier regarding the Highly Experimental v1.02 patch, unless you know what you are doing and/or until someone thoroughly test the v1.02 patch, please stick to the v1.01b version of Startopia.
To install the user missions, simply copy the content of the \User Missions And Mods\User Missions\missions\ folder in your \startopia\missions\ folder. The missions have been installed correctly if the path for DMA57361's Nova Panic is:
\startopia\missions\DMA57361 - Nova Panic\
The mish.txt file is the most important file of a mission. The file contains the bulk of the mission data: triggers, flags, win/lose conditions, and instructions for the game regarding where the other mission files are located. If you want to change or customize the difficulty level of a mission, or see what the hidden triggers looks like under the hood, that's the file you are looking for.
Because correct file pathing is very important for a mission to load properly, do not rename user missions folders, unless you know what you are doing and intend to check and modify all the .txt files afterward to update the file pathing information. Also note that there are several instances where the pathing information is spread across several .txt files, so if you rename a folder, make sure you verify all .txt files just to be extra sure.
The mods are located in a separate folder than the user missions because they are typically more complicated to install and, in a few case, require you to overwrite or edit files in your \startopia\ folder, thus changing the game permanently. Before you use mods, please read the Readme files for the instructions on how to install them and, should you need to edit or overwrite files, be sure that you've backed up the files in question beforehand in case you want to revert back to the original unmodded files afterward.
In the case of Memau_On_Steroids' Biodeck mod and Michael King's Galactic Rehabilitation Authority mod, while they don't overwrite anything, and they are just as easy to install as any other user mission (you just need to copy the folders named \Biodeck\ or \Galactic Rehabilitation Authority\ into your \startopia\missions\ folder), I took the liberty of leaving them out of the \User Missions\ folder to avoid some confusion because they are not ordinary scenarios. They have no objective, no ending, no win or lose conditions; the former is just a nice little sandbox (with custom settings) to mess around and have fun in the biodeck, while the latter is a sandbox version of the single player campaign's fourth mission.
The \Mods\ folder also contain several versions of Slink's Year Of The Cat, a single player scenario that features custom skins for the Zedem Monks, Zedem temple, and skybox, by Carolyn Horn. The custom skins are entirely optional and the mission will function perfectly without them. In the past, I've had people tell me they would just skip the mission entirely because they didn't want to overwrite the default Zedem monks skin files, so I took the liberty of adding a version that does not feature the custom skins and a folder to easily revert to the default skins if you want to try them out. Pictures of the custom skins can be found in the folder named \Cat Skins by Carolyn Horn\. The version with the custom skybox will cause an error message upon loading. According to Tom Forsyth at Mucky Foot, this error is harmless, just press the Enter key when it occurs.
While playing user missions, sometimes the game won't load missions data properly in the memory and it may cause some glitches. This typically happens when you launch Startopia and load a savegame straight from the main menu. You will immediately notice that something is wrong because you will receive non-sensical placeholder messages like "val3", "arona5", "trader2" or "story2a" instead of regular text messages from VAL, Arona and traders.
The solution to fix this issue: Every single time you launch Startopia, DO NOT LOAD your savegame from the main menu right away. Instead go in the mission selection screen and, from there, launch the mission you were playing when you made that particular savegame (I hope you remember which mission it was). The mission will restart from scratch, wait until the game properly loads the mission data in the memory (about the time you receive your first message from VAL), and then you can safely load your savegame to resume playing your mission. I know it's a bit of a hassle but you don't need to do this everytime you load a savegame. You only need to do this when you launch Startopia. Once the game has correctly loaded the mission data, you can load savegames to your heart's content.
It is hard for me to say. I did play and finish all of them, but most of those I haven't played since 2004. Thankfully, some were unforgettable:
If you ever wished the single player campaign was a bit longer, you've got three brand new official missions by Mucky Foot awaiting you: The Targatelli Affair was released as a Christmas surprise during winter 2001 and plays very much like an eleventh campaign mission. Mucky Foot also had plans for a Xbox port of Startopia with extra campaign missions, and while the Xbox port sadly didn't happen, the additional Mission 5A and Mission 6A however did get released on the Startopia Post during Summer 2003.
Interested in some unique features, objectives, or restrictions? In Hyperspace Station by Hand-E-Food, traders don't fly light-years across space to trade with you. Instead you warp your station to their star systems to trade with them and pick up passengers. In Cramped by OneStar, you and three opponents are vying for the control of the same station. The catch? You are directly next to one another with no room to expand in a station that consists of only four segments. In Cosmic Balance by The Pixie, you must develop a station following a new age, feng shui, karma philosophy. It's all about balance and karma, don't let it drop too low in the negative nor too high in the positive. In Scratch, also by The Pixie, this obscure Zedem cult hires you to build a lush station with all the amenities imaginable. They have a profound dislike of traders however, and have only given you a minimum of resources and employees needed to achieve your goal. Everything else your station will need must be produced from scratch. StarMapper's scenario, Slug Resort, is also unique because it features a branching storyline that, depending on the choices you make, will either put you at odds with your employer or Arona, and will affect your build order, the way the mission unfold, and the ending you get.
If you are looking for a challenge, there is Traders Corner and The Randomiser, both by DMA57361. The former is an epic trading challenge where you must constantly increase your profit margin every 10 minutes while the latter gives you a random objective to complete every 30 minutes. Victory is achieved by completing fifty objectives. Fail any and it's game over. There is also Life, The Universe And Everything by MaxOoze, a long and varied mission, splitted across six different stages, and packing a few surprises that can catch you off guard. The various missions by The Pixie and StarMapper also pack quite a challenge due to the way your build order is affected by the deadlines and the restrictions imposed on you during those missions. Also, Mucky Foot's Mission 5A is a rerun of The Grey Council, but with the difficulty knobs turned all the way up to eleven - you have been warned.
If Startopia's trademark dry humor and writing is your jam, you're in for a treat because most modders did their best to match the writing and deadpan of the main campaign and keep VAL and Arona in character while adding their own spin to them, from the very prolific Slink, to The Pixie, DMA57361, Hand-E-Food, and all the way down to the occasional modder like Tobold, Jos Mous, Rathen, Matthew Karrigan, Richard Roberts, StarMapper, John Shepherd...
There is also Lest We Forget by The Pixie that is in a category of its own for its combination of difficulty, writing, and cleverness as there is more to this mission than initially meets the eye. I don't want to spoil it too much, but it is normal if your first and second playthroughs do not go well. If you want to finish this scenario you will have to pay attention to what's going on in your station and think outside the box a little.
If you want to spice up your sandbox experience, you can't go wrong with DMA57361's Custom Skirmish mod that allows you to customize more aspects of the sandbox mode. Sabranan also has three mods for you: The Auto Hiring mod is a quality of life mod that, when activated, auto hires peeps for a fee. The Wages mod introduces a feature that was scrapped from the final game, namely having to pay your residents a salary every five minutes. Lastly, the Rebalance mod is an attempt at creating a slightly more challenging experience, it tweaks the way peeps gain and lose attribute points, makes diseases more contagious, and fixes some obvious errors from the vanilla game. All three mods by Sabranan are also usable in the single player campaign and user missions too. There is also the Mobsters mod by Mucky Foot, which implements the mobsters protection racket (found in the Targatelli Affair scenario) in the sandbox mode. The mobsters function exactly like they did in the scenario, complete with a final showdown if you confront them long enough.
On the contrary, if you want a less stressful Startopia experience, Memau_On_Steroids' Biodeck mod got you covered. It supplies you with an unlimited amount of energy and every tech in the game, so you can practice new room layouts without being interrupted. It also supplies you with an elite squadron of Karmaramans, so you can relax and have fun gardeneering and designing landscapes on the biodeck.
Please note that this is by no mean an exhaustive Top X list of best Startopia mods and user missions. Don't be afraid to give the other ones a shot as I haven't played most of those in ages, I have no doubt in my mind there are several other noteworthy missions that I forgot when I wrote that quick list. One thing I do remember clearly however is that I had a blast the whole time I was playing the user missions.
"But I have already grabbed and finished all the mods and missions published on Startopia Post and Slink's Startopia page a long time ago, what else do you have in store for me?" I can hear you say.
For starters, The Targatelli Affair and the Mobsters mod were only posted on Mucky Foot's Official website, not on Startopia Post, so you may have missed these two. Some missions were also only posted on the Eidos Forums back in the days, notably InfeStation by Cryptophore, Slug Resort by StarMapper and all four missions by The Pixie: Lest We Forget, Scratch, XenSoc and Cosmic Balance (which, I cannot stress enough, are in a league of their own).
When MaxOoze created his Startopia website, back in late 2005, he got in contact with Hand-E-Food, who gave him an unfinished copy of the second Yetucyun Guild mission: Polvakian Healthcare, which had never been publicly released before. MaxOoze added the remaining final touches and polished the mission before publishing it on his website, and also released a new and epicly long mission of his own: Life, The Universe And Everything.
Fast forward several years, not only did GOG and Steam add Startopia to their catalogs, but in late 2012 and all through the year 2013 a modder by the name of OneStar on the GOG forums graced us with three brand new missions to gnash our teeth on: Cramped, Slugville and Friendly Competition. OneStar said the main philosophy behind his mods was to offer scenarios that were largely different from the single player campaign scenarios or the other Startopia mods he played. 2013 also saw the release of three brand new mods by Sabranan to augment your Startopia experience: the Auto Hiring mod, the Rebalance mod, and the Wages mod. A sandbox version of the single player campaign's fourth mission was also released in October 2014. And last but not least, Yeebaagooon recently came forward with a brand new mission titled They Tried To Make Me Go To Rehab which is very much worth your time.
While I'd prefer if everybody read the whole page so you'd all know what you're getting into, I know some of you will jump straight to the download link and ignore what I had to say. Whatever you decide to do, you would do yourself a favor and save yourself a lot of needless headaches, emails, and forum posts by reading about the possible savegame issues you can encounter and about the v1.01b patch requirement for mods; that alone will solve 95% of the problems you might encounter playing the mods and user missions.
DISCLAIMER - Any files or executables you download here are used at your own risk. My hosting buddy, the content creators, or myself don't take any responsibility for anything that happens as a result of using the files or executables offered on this site.
The Startopia archive can be grabbed here:
Startopia Archive v2.2 (31,6 MB)
You can find the widescreen support patches by jackfuste and skipclarke on the Startopia page of the Wide Screen Gaming Forum. Simply follow the instructions found underneath the "Baseline (Widescreen) Solution & Issues" section. (11,64 MB)
The latest news about the new official Startopia patch by My Little Planet Ltd, and the instructions regarding how to subscribe to the beta can be found in this post dedicated to the new patch on the Steam community forums.
The Startopia skin packs collected by VG-Tal can be found in the "addons" section of the Startopia page over at ModDB. (7,12 MB)
The purpose of the following section is to provide a brief description of each individual missions and mods, plus highlight some of the special features or issues you might encounter.
"This little mod allows you to automatically hire enough scuzzers/peeps to keep your station going and they'll be 5 star peeps too! It'll ask every 5 minutes whether you want to switch it on, and if you do it'll start teleporting in enough peeps to support whatever you've built (it'll adjust the number of each peep depending on what you've built, and will constantly update). You'll need to have lots of energy stored as the cost is 5000e per peep, but the script has some built in protection so it won't hire peeps if doing so would plunge you into debt."
-Sabranan
You can find the Auto Hiring mod in the \Mods\ folder. The instructions provided in the Readme.txt file will teach you how to make this mod usable in the single player campaign and the sandbox mode, but the same instructions can be followed to make this mod usable in your favorite user missions too. All you have to do is add the necessary line to the mish.txt file found inside a user mission folder.
Wishing you could just chill and have fun creating the gardens of your dreams?
Do you want to experiment with new room layouts without being constantly interrupted by traders or spies?
In the Biodeck mod, as soon your Energy Collectors and your Ports are set up, you are given an unlimited amount of energy, every tech in the game, and an elite squadron of Karmaramans. You are also given a dozen of crates of Memaus to help you populate your biodeck with some wildlife. About the only thing you need to worry about in this mod is to not harvest plants or trees because Karmaramans get severely depressed when you do that, but moving plants around, storing them in Plant Bio-Pots or throwing them in the recycler is fine. Sadly, because traders will not visit you, there is no way to acquire artworks to decorate your station or your gardens.
A ton of visitors will board your station, if you don't want to deal with them remember that you can always shut down your Ports by turning the power off.
You can find the Biodeck mod in the \Mods\ folder. This mod doesn't overwrite anything, and it is just as easy to install as any other user mission (you just need to copy the folder named \Biodeck\ into your \startopia\missions\ folder), but I took the liberty of leaving it out of the \User Missions\ folder to avoid some confusion because it is not an ordinary scenario. It has no objective, no ending, no win or lose conditions; it is just a nice little sandbox (with custom settings) to mess around and have fun in the biodeck.
"Build a functional station with 5 of every building and 10 of every statue. Plenty of energy credits will be available, and plenty of peeps will come once you've opened the station. The challenge is in the layout.
The settings for Memaus, spawn disease and Skrashers are set to default values."
-Slink
Your latest employer, Ms Weedhead, wants you to develop her station following this hippie, new age, feng shui, karma philosophy. Every building can either bring positive or negative karma to your station ("A love nest? Ooooooh! I can feel the good vibrations!", "A combat store? Oooh, darlin', those are bad mojo!", etc.) To win you must unlock every segment in the station all the while making sure your karma does not drop too low in the negative nor too high in the positive.
The mission also features a short epilogue if you keep playing after the victory screen.
In Cramped, you and three opponents are vying for the control of the same station. The catch? You are directly next to one another with no room to expand in a station that consists of only four segments.
The immediate proximity with your opponents in this mission really throws a wrench in your typical build order. But at the same time, it also gives you a lot of new possibilities you don't normally see in standard scenarios, because two AIs are neutral and, given enough time, will gladly open their borders if yours are open. Use economics or war (or both!) to assert your dominance over the station.
The Readme.txt file contains a treasure trove of hints and info on the mechanics of this scenario. Please give it a look if you need more information.
Out of the English, French, German and Spanish versions this scenario has been translated to, I only have the English version currently.
"This mod provides an easy way to customize a Skirmish beyond those controls provided by the game. Things include Peep numbers, Traders, Emergencies, Pilgrims, and so on. Just by changing the values in a single text file you can now create mission of your own styling! Also you can turn it on and off per game by answering a question given at the start of every new Skirmish game."
-DMA57361
This mod is located in the \Mods\ folder. The CustMishReadme.txt file contains all the info you need to install and use this mod.
Friendly Competition is a 1v3 skirmish scenario that combines two sets of unique mechanics that on their own could make any scenario difficult enough already, but combined together create the most deviously infernal and rage inducing scenario ever devised.
The first of these mechanics: Each ascension performed by you or a rival will trigger a meteor attack. Your attacks hit all three of your rivals while your rivals' attacks hit only you. Each of these attacks hit all three decks. Your only saving grace is that the first attack from each of your three rivals will not hit the sub-deck.
And the second mechanic: The Polvakian Aristocracy have organized some competitions for you and your rivals, with prizes for the winners and punishments for the losers. While you do not need to win any of these contests to win the scenario, be assured that some of these punishments will make your life hell, as if your life wasn't miserable enough with the threat of meteor attacks looming over the horizon.
The goal is to be the last player remaining on the station. Your rivals are eliminated from the station when they have no energy. Traditional warfare between players is not permitted.
The Readme.html file contains precious hints and additional information on the intricacies of this scenario. You will need these if you want a chance at winning.
This scenario originally came in two versions, English and French, but I unfortunately only have the English version right now.
"In Frontier you face a variety of different challenges developing a space station from a minor military outpost to a thriving commercial center. This long, complicated, and - be warned - rather difficult mission plays up the similarity of the Startopia experience to the histories of old frontier towns of the American Old West."
-AlphaOmega @ Startopia Post
Michael King had a ball playing the single player campaign's fourth mission, The Galactic Rehab Authority. After the victory screen, he wanted to keep on playing but was quite disappointed to discover that no new convict entered the station after the mission was completed. Which led him to create this mod. It turns the fourth mission into a sandbox basically; no objective, no ending, no win or lose conditions, just an endless supply of convicts to rehabilitate.
You can find this mod in the \Mods\ folder. It doesn't overwrite anything, and it is just as easy to install as any other user mission (you just need to copy the folder named \Galactic Rehabilitation Authority\ into your \startopia\missions\ folder), but I took the liberty of leaving it out of the \User Missions\ folder to avoid some confusion because it is not an ordinary scenario.
"Are you tired of sitting in the one place, waiting for all the traders to come to you? Are you sick of the same old scenery, going a round and a round and a round? In the tradition of Startopia mods comes something new. You need the Hyperspace Station! Jumping from system to system, trade with the planets directly. Pick up passengers from far-away ports. Discover the universe with the future of travel: The Hyperspace Station!"
-AlphaOmega @ Startopia Post
If you want to make this scenario shorter, longer, easier, or more challenging, the mish.txt file offers you several customization options. A bit of warning however: save often, and keep a couple of backup saves. My game used to crash when I tried to travel to the human's homeworld. Just a minor inconvenience for one of the best mods out there, definitively worth the play. I recall it was the scenario that made me notice the game had several skyboxes.
If you somehow managed to play through the entire campaign without dealing with a single Skrasher or the spawn disease (I know I did), your luck ends here. InfeStation beams you right in the thick of it on a quest to reclaim a station from the numerous Skrashers that nests in it and transform it into a treatment clinic for patients with the spawn disease. A bit rough around the edge and bland on the writing, but an interesting spin on the "Unlock All Segments" theme. I hope you are able to micro your Scuzzers - it will be a necessary skill early on.
"Written to a storyline supplied by Zakalwe of the Eidos Startopia Forums. You must run a farming station during a period of heavy asteroid activity which prevents trading ships from calling. The plants that you grow are extremely important to the Karmarama as their sun has been acting up and they are having a severe drought. Famine and plague are rampant on the Karmarama homeworld but they will send who they can to help you.
Readme.txtin mission directory explains how to take the exciting ending out if it's too hard for you this way.The settings for Memaus, spawn disease and Skrashers are set to default values."
-Slink
To celebrate their latest victory over the Mighty Techno Magus during the war, the Kasvagorian Hero Honour Society has contracted you to build this station to their modest specifications. You must have a few amenities and 10 Kategukhat statues erected by the day of the opening ceremony, in about 180 rotations. That sounds easy enough...
Lest We Forget is in a category of its own for its combination of difficulty, writing and cleverness because there is more to this mission than initially meets the eye. I don't want to spoil it too much, but it is normal if your first and second playthroughs do not go well. If you want to finish this scenario you will have to pay attention to what's going on in your station and think outside the box a little.
Life, The Universe And Everything is a long and varied mission split across six different stages, each with their own objectives, plus a couple of surprises thrown in for good measure. It should keep you busy for hours.
The Los Seraphim Police Department has its hands full with the conflict between two local crime families, which is why the LSPD has hired you to turn this station into a safe house for LSPD officers and a rehabilitation center for convicts.
"This mission has you doing whatever your Gor boss tells you to do, because, as it says in the mission "with six heavily armed Kasvagorians asking the question, saying 'no' probably wouldn't have been the smartest thing to do". It's very much worth the download, so go and get it."
-Szyslak @ Startopia Post
"These were written and tested when Mucky Foot were looking to see if it was viable to develop a Xbox version, with extra missions. Unfortunately no new speech was recorded, so there may be only text at times."
-AlphaOmega @ Startopia Post
Pleased by your performances during your previous contract, the Greys Council have hired you to run another clinic. This time however, you will not be rated by the number of patients cured, but by the number of emergencies you can successfully deal with. I warn you, this mission may bring back horrible flashbacks of that disastrous first attempt we all had playing the campaign's second mission. I mean it, this mission is hard.
"These were written and tested when Mucky Foot were looking to see if it was viable to develop a Xbox version, with extra missions. Unfortunately no new speech was recorded, so there may be only text at times."
-AlphaOmega @ Startopia Post
Your services have been requested by the Gor Prison Service who need your help to manage one of their rehabilitation center. Not only are you expected to rehabilitate the convicts and prevent them from escaping, but you will need to fulfill supply contracts with passing traders by employing your rehabilitated Karmaramans. You are not the only administrator who has been contracted by the Gor Prison Service: a rival administrator is also after your position, and since there is room for only one manager on this station, the first administrator to fulfill four supply contracts will receive the promotion.
As tempting as it may seem to expel your rival by force, the mission is unfortunately coded in such a way that, after a while, your rival will win, regardless of the state of disrepair its base is in. Plant Bio-Pots and their fast growth effect on plants can be extremely useful in this mission.
Released by Mucky Foot back in December 2001 alongside the Targatelli Affair scenario, the Mobsters mod enables Targatelli styled mobsters protection racket in ordinary sandbox games.
The Mobsters mod can be found in the \Mods\ folder. The Readme file contains all the instructions needed to install and use this mod.
Please note that if you install this mod by following the instructions you will overwrite your mish98.txt file. So if you've already installed DMA57361's Custom Skirmish mod, or Sabranan's various mods (which also requires you to edit your mish98.txt file) you will need to reinstall them. Alternatively, since this mod only add a single line of text in the mish98.txt and mish98-2.txt files, you can also just copy and paste the required line into your text files without overwriting the files themselves, and without having to reinstall DMA57361's and Sabranan's mods.
"Become a financial success in a galaxy full of aliens unwilling to believe in the sentience of human beings. Everyone but Arona will sell you artworks, Scuzzers and basic goods, but nothing else. They will buy items if you can manufacture them. Arona will not buy much from you but he will sell you technology - if you can afford it!
This scenario uses custom settings: Memaus are immortal, there is no spawn disease and Skrashers are harmless."
-Slink
Newcomer tasks you to have at least 51% of the station's entire population living inside your sector. This mission can be quite difficult if you can't figure out what you're supposed to do. In order to finish this mission, you need to attract as many peeps as you can and you need to keep them inside your sector for as long as possible. As such, opening your borders with the AIs is counter productive.
There is a soft cap on the number of aliens that can randomly enter your sector through your ports, the more segments you control, the higher that soft cap will be. Once that soft cap has been reached, the only way to get more aliens to visit your sector is through ambulances, pilgrim and tourist ships passing by every eight minutes. Because wars with AIs are strictly forbidden, the more segments you can claim for yourself early on, the easier this mission will become later on.
If this mission is giving you troubles, a detailed walkthrough is available in the \missions\Newcomer\ folder.
Be sure to also check out the Readme.txt file as it contains a big chunk of the mission's introductionary plot.
"You are originally employed by the Targ Collective to build the station into a "fully working civilian area" - their way of asking you to just have some of the station to claim it for them.
However a local star goes Supernova and the resulting explosion, and shockwave, effects three solar systems. You are in command of one of the three nearest stations to the disaster and so it becomes you job to help some of those injured, and some of those made homeless."
-DMA57361
"You are set up to run a sandbox level, but with a twist. To keep things interesting (and confusing) you will receive an objective after half an hour. You must meet this to avoid losing. Once you complete an objective, you are given another. These are random so that you will normally receive a different game each time you play!"
-DMA57361
The Rebalance mod is an attempt by Sabranan at creating a slightly more challenging experience and correcting some obvious errors. It affects the way peeps gain and lose attribute points (body, hunger, toilet, sleep, fun, love, soul, mind, etc.) and the negative consequences when peeps have low attributes. It changes the side effects of various diseases and make some of them more contagious. It also fix some quirks (like being hit by a laser giving peeps +1000 to most of their attributes).
This mod is global and will override any sandbox or mission games where mission settings are not explicitly defined, including your saved games.
You can find the Rebalance mod in the \Mods\ folder. The Readme.docx file contains all the instructions needed to install this mod, plus a complete rundown of all the gameplay fixes.
"The weather systems that control the conditions of the Groulien homeworld have gone nanners. This has caused the crops that are usually grown on the homeworld to die, and so a famine has started. It is your job to supply the entire planet with food, and not just a bit of food, 150 crates of it!"
-Fintan Darragh
This is a remake of the Karmarama Commune mission. It increases the difficulty and adds a different second objective. The mission will appear as The Salt-Hog Disaster in the missions menu.
This mod is located in the \Mods\ folder. For informations on how to install or use this mod, follow the instructions found in the Readme text document.
This mod convert the first mission of the single player campaign into a sandbox.
You can find this mod in the \Mods\ folder. The instructions on how to install and use this mod are found in the "Important! Read Now!" text document.
In Scratch, an obscure Zedem cult hires you to build a lush station with all the amenities imaginable. There is one problem however: they have a profound dislike of traders and have provided you with only a laboratory and a minimum of resources and employees needed to achieve your goal. Everything else your station will need must be produced from... well... from scratch. Have I mentionned that you only have 240 rotations to fulfill your contract?
"A space-borne den of iniquity. Build a station with nothing but bars, love nests, and casinos for entertainment. Make 1,000,000e and collect 10 Turdites to win.
The settings for Memaus, spawn disease and Skrashers are set to default values."
-Slink
A Gem Slug by the name of Lat Sate has tasked you with setting up and running a private club, membership only and exclusively for Gem Slugs. Unfortunately, your... "good"... "friend"... Arona has... other plans in mind.
The feature that makes Slug Resort stands apart from other missions is its branching storyline that, depending on the choices you make, will either put you at odds with your employer or Arona, and will affect your build order and the way the mission unfold. The mission features multiple endings. It's only a shame that StarMapper has, to my knowledge, not released any follow up missions to conclude the plot.
A word of warning however: save early, save often, and keep several backup savegames because, not only is it easy to paint yourself in a corner by overspending your limited resources, but I also got stuck on a loop where the same story message just repeated itself over and over again. Still, this scenario is well worth your time.
Slugville is a strange mission that is hard to explain consisely. The goal is to attract 100 or more Gem Slugs on your station and keep them happy enough so that their average mood is above 75%. That seems straight forward enough, but trading right from the get go is not an option because your starting energy is severely limited and you have little room to grow, making research and tourism your only way to earn a living. This is severely hampered by the fact that to attract visitors or employees you must perform all sort of tasks. Look, I told you it was a strange one. I do remember that it took me a long time to beat this mission, it was an uphill battle every step of the way. Also, if spies set bombs on your station, keep them in your item buffer, considering the amount of convicts and Memaus that will board your station they may come in handy. Oh yes, creative problem solving is a useful skill with this scenario.
Like the other missions by OneStar, the Readme.html file contains all the informations you need to understand the intricacies of this scenario and plenty of hints to help you beat it.
Note - This entry only covers The Targatelli Affair single player scenario. For the mod that enables Targatelli styled mobsters protection racket in ordinary sandbox games, see the Mobsters mod.
This mission was written by Mucky Foot and released as a Christmas present during winter 2001. It plays and feels very much like an eleventh campaign mission.
The Galactic Police needs your help to bring the Targatelli crime family to justice and put an end to their racketeering operation. Their plan is simple: First you will set up a profitable station and agree to pay the Targatelli family for their "protection" services. Meanwhile, you will build up a security force of your own, and once you feel your forces are sizable enough, you will confront the Targatelli family by repeatedly refusing to pay for their services. After thwarting numerous sabotage attempts their boss will deems you important enough to beam onboard and that's where the Galactic Police will step in.
With the boss onboard, the victory screen will pop up once all spies, saboteurs, Skrashers, and bombs have been disposed off. Unfortunately, the game cannot tell the difference between live bombs and disarmed bombs, or between rampaging Skrashers and Skrashers in a box, so, in order to trigger the victory screen, you may have to thoroughly scan your station in search for disarmed bombs and boxes of Skrashers and beam them in your recycler.
A word of advice, it should take about a dozen refusals to get the boss angry enough to visit you in person. I mention this because a friend of mine played this mission for days without much progress because, for one reason or another, the mission glitched and the boss never showed up onboard. If it seems like you've fallen into the same glitch my friend fell into, my advice is to load a backup savegame made before you start refusing to pay, or to restart the mission from scratch entirely.
The Gor have a new job for you: Running a P.O.W. facility hidden right in the middle of this war-torn and space junk-filled corner of the universe. And since the Gor aren't known for being the most agreeable race in the galaxy, it is highly advised that you keep this operation a secret, lest you want to attract the attention of their numerous enemies.
With its plot, its great writing, a difficulty level that's not too hard but not too easy, and a couple of curve balls to keep you on your toes, Yeebaagooon's latest offering will takes you on a rollercoaster ride and challenge you in ways you haven't seen before in a Startopia mission.
"You have been employed to operate this station as a trading post. It's not being broadcast as a public station so do not expect any alien visitors, just your original Targ employees. Starting with a tiny 15,000e and basic facilities you have to make as much money as your employers ask of you. A simple task but without the biodeck, entertainment deck or any employees for a factory, you must work hard to make any profit. As well as that you will be expected to make at least 10% profit every 10 minutes. Fail to do so, and you will have your contract terminated. However if you manage to earn enough Energy you could buy the station from the employers and own the station yourself. The problem is that that's a big 'IF'..."
-DMA57361
"Stations & Skrashers: hack-n-slash in outer space. Governed purely by the roll of the die, Trove Station is rambunctous while still allowing you to go at your own pace. There is an alternative
mish.txtfile for those who want to play with no merchants at all. With no merchants it becomes a game much more at the mercy of chance. Either way is fun.The settings for Memaus, spawn disease and Skrashers are set to default values."
-Slink
"The under-funded and absent-minded double-domes want you to discover 60 new technologies. You start with next to nothing.
TIP: Remember that a port will cost you 10,000e when you are building your facilities."-Slink
With the Wages mod, Sabranan implements a feature that was cut from development, namely having to pay a salary to your residents. Wages are paid every 5 minutes of game time. Wages are 50e for Salt Hogs, Zedem Monks and Turrakens. 100e is charged for Kasvagorians, Grekka Targs and Karmaramans. Salaries for Greys and Sirens are 200e.
The Wages mod can be found in the \Mods\ folder. The instructions provided in the Readme.txt file will teach you how to make this mod usable in the single player campaign and the sandbox mode, but the same instructions can be followed to make this mod usable in your favorite user missions too. All you have to do is add the necessary line to the mish.txt file found inside a user mission folder.
"Run a civilian medical station in the middle of a four-way war. The combatants, desperate for fleet supplies, may want to take more than healing from your station. If you can satisfy them they will leave you in peace. Everyone wants to be first in line, though, so it won't be easy to stick to your tasks.
The settings for Memaus, spawn disease and Skrashers are set to default values."
-Slink
"In this you are tasked with keeping a whole lot of Salt Hogs happy. Other aliens are rare, so make sure you protect them."
-Szyslak @ Startopia Post
Classified Ad: "The XenSoc research institute seeks a qualified administrator to join their team. Canditates are expected to do the following: Grow 32 plants, build 8 medi-beds, 8 'well-equipped' laboratories, research Replicator and employ at least 16 Turakken employees. Salary to be determined. Also, if you could do all that under 293 rotations, that would be great. Beam your resumes at..."
XenSoc is a well written scenario. The deadline can be deceptively generous. It is easy to be caught off guard if you suffer some setbacks or fail to gain enough momentum quickly enough. One last thing: Work Benches do not factor in the equation for the 'well-equipped' laboratories objective; only Analysers, Replicators, Microscopes, and Work Stations matter.
Unimpressed by the lackluster devotion of the monks in this sector, the Spirit of Cat has given them an ultimatum: Perform 12 Ascensions in 12 years, or Spirit of Cat will consume their sun.
Year Of The Cat is a single player scenario by Sandra Linkletter, featuring custom skins for the Zedem Monks, Zedem temple, and skybox, by Carolyn Horn. The custom skins and skybox are entirely optional and the mission will function perfectly without them. In the past I've had people tell me they would just skip the mission entirely because they didn't want to overwrite the default Zedem monks skin files, so I took the liberty of adding a version that does not feature the custom skins and a folder to easily revert to the default skins if you want to try them out. Pictures of the custom skins can be found in the folder named \Cat Skins by Carolyn Horn\.
Because this scenario comes in several version and some of those can overwrite files in your \startopia\data\ folder, I have put this scenario in the \Mods\ folder.
Version A features the custom skins for the Zedem monks and temple.
Version B features the custom skins for the Zedem monks and temple, but also the custom skybox. This version will cause an error message upon loading, according to Tom Forsyth at Mucky Foot, this error is harmless; just press the Enter key when it occurs.
Version C features the default skins for the Zedem monks and temple, for those of you who want to play the mission but don't want to overwrite the default skins files.
In this mission Memaus seem to be tied to attracting visitors to your station. The mission starts slowly at first and it may seems strange, but as soon you get some Memaus in your station, the visitors will pour in. Arona occasionally sell some Memaus - unpack them on your biodeck to boost your tourism. Don't worry, while Memaus can die, there is no spawn disease or Skrashers in this mission.
Remember that, when it comes to converting aliens into penitents, it is better to have a handful of highly skilled monks than an army of unskilled ones, and until you employ twelve highly skilled monks, you can always hire unskilled ones when you need to perform an ascension and fire them after the ritual.
"Work for Mr. Cerrrtdis and the Yetucyun Guild over 8 missions to bring profit and prosperity to everyone at the Yetucyun Guild, including, most of all, yourself. This is a sneak-peek at the campaign showing what should be the final version of the first mission, "The Targ Telecomunnications Trust."
-Hand-E-Food
The Targ Telecommunications Trust is in need of your services to run this communications hub that serves as a relay station for distant star systems. You will be tasked with maintaining contacts with three different planets, attracting tourists, and dealing with a meteor problem.
Mr. Cerrrtdis has a job for you: there is an outbreak of the squits on one of the Polvakian home worlds and the Slugs need your help to treat the infected patients and stop the outbreak. Satisfy the medical needs of the Polvakians and keep your station clean and maybe Mr. Cerrrtdis will have another contract for you.
"This mission challenges you to run a successful deep-space burger bar for 55 galactic rotations. As an appointed franchisee of the Zog-Burger Corporation, you'll need to deal with awkward customers, production line crisis, and the evil DARK HOOVER - Sector chief of the Imperial Health & Safety commission."
-John Shepherd
"You have been employed by intergalactic fast food chain Zog Corp and you need to make sure you can keep up with the food, toy, and cleanliness demands they have. Its got a back story, its got humor (oh no! not the evil DARK HOOVER!!) and best of all, it's got a challenge."
-Szyslak @ Startopia Post