Starbound | Modding Your Server

In this guide we will be covering the process of installing and updating mods on your Starbound server using our newly updated Steam Workshop installer.

Steam Workshop Buttons

In your gamepanel you will see three buttons, Steam Workshop, Steam Workshop (installed) and Steam Workshop (updates). Each of these buttons allow you to have full control over the mods installed on your server, in the next section we will cover what each of these buttons do.

Steam Workshop
Install new mods to your server. Gives you the ability to sort results by popularity over a time period, filter by content type in addition to a search box.

Steam Workshop (installed)
Shows you the mods you have installed on your server. Mods can also be uninstalled from within this window.

Steam Workshop (updates)
Update your installed mods. Allows you to update all your installed mods with the click of a button. This can also be configured to be automatically executed which we will cover at the end of this guide.

Adding Mods to your Server

With the addition of our new and improved Steam Workshop installers, adding mods to your server is as easy as ever. To help you get started we will walk you through all the steps needed to get mods installed and enabled on your server.

1. In your game panel, press the Steam Workshop button. A new window will appear where you can begin searching for a mod you would like to install on your server. In this example we are going to be sorting by the most popular mods of all time and installing the Instant Crafting mod. To install a mod, you will just need to press the green Install button.
   
   A new window will appear displaying the status of the installation process, once this is complete it will automatically close and return you back to the Steam Workshop page.
   
   
   
   
2. Once you have your first mod installed no additional steps are needed! Further mods can also be installed at this stage, any installed mods will automatically become active & will load the next time the server is started.

Updating Your Mods (Manual & Automatic)

In this section we will be covering the process of updating your installed mods through the use of our Steam Workshop tool. Both manual and automatic methods will be covered.

Manual Updates

1. In your game panel, click on the Steam Workshop (updates) button.
   
   
2. This will redirect you to a new window where you will see the following buttons.
   
   
3. The button we will want to press is the Update All button. This will go ahead and check if any of your installed mods have an update available, if they do it will then proceed to download the files.

Automatic Updates

In order to allow for automated updates, we will need to create a scheduled task. This requires a few options to be configured beforehand, below you can find the steps on how to do this alongside our recommended settings.

1. In your game panel, at the top of the page you should see a button that says Scheduled Tasks, click on that.
   
   
2. A new window will be displayed where you can see any existing tasks you have set up or create a new one, in this case we would like to create a new one so go ahead and press the New button.
   
   
3. A dropdown menu will appear where we can select what type of task we would like to create, we're trying to update our mods so go ahead and select the Workshop Update task and then press the blue New button.
4. Now we need to configure our task. A few different areas will need to be setup, this can be tailored more specifically to suit your requirements however here's what we would recommend.
   
           - Name: Check for updates
           - Type: Daily
           - Start: Set this to one day ahead and a time that's best for you. If you cannot select a time make sure the date is one day ahead.
           - Recur Every: 1 Day
   
   This is how our task looks so far.
   
   At this point you can go ahead and save your newly configured task. This will now check for updates every day at the time you have configured. If you would like this task to be run multiple times a day, please continue to the next step.
   
   
5. In order to have this task executed multiple times a day we will need to perform a few extra steps to get things configured. Firstly, go ahead and check the Repeat Task checkbox. For the newly displayed options, we would recommend the following settings.
   
           - Repeat Every: 30 Minutes
           - For: 24 Hours
   
   This is how our task looks up to this point.
   
   If you're happy with everything, go ahead and press Save. Your task is now all setup and will be executed for the first time at the time you have configured.
   

Old Method

1. Subscribe to the a given mod through Steam.
2. Locate the mod's content.pak file, should be in [Path to Steam]\steamapps\workshop\content\211820\#######\ where ####### is the mod's ID number. This number will match Steam's URL for that mod. The 211820 in that is Starbound's app ID.
3. Upload the content.pak to the 'mods' directory through the file manager.
4. Rename content.pak to #######.pak, where ####### is again the mod's ID number. When renaming, be sure not to remove the .pak from the end.
5. Restart the server.

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