Skyrim handled that pretty well. Both the steam and non-steam versions function similarly and allow for internal and external mods.
I really hope the support for mods in Stonehearth is far beyond the âsupportâ they had in Skyrim. Specific things off the top of my head:
- I hope that the Stonehearth mods are self-contained rather than all copied into the one directory structure and thus can have filename collisions, and
- Have a well-defined system for overriding core implementations of things and a sensible mechanism for handling conflicts when two or more mods try to override the same core functionality.
Amongst other things 
Also, Tomâs mentioned heâs keen to get a âspotlightâ kind of functionality into the game, like LBP/LBP2 (except, you know, better 
it looks like they are all contained within their own folder, under the parent /mods/ folder:
/mods/musicPlayer
/mods/musicPlayer/musicPlayer.html
/mods/musicPlayer/musicPlayer.js
/mods/musicPlayer/musicPlayer.css
/mods/musicPlayer/locales/en.json
/mods/musicPlayer/locales/de.json
ITS A TRAP!!!
Really though that folder structure looks mighty suss to me, theyâve said that their mods are functionally identical to ours but that structure sugests that theirs are separated from ours so somethings either weird or lying.
Ah yes! I remember seeing that now. Gives me warm fuzzies
I truly believe that this game needs an Official site for mods. If you look at the insane world that is Minecraft mods youâll know what Iâm talking about. My kids love Minecraft and have asked me to download some mods for them. I immediately get frustrated having to try and sort through 100âs of sites all hiding mods behind adware links, and just how much of a pain it is. So I tell them, sorry guys your just get to play ordinary Minecraft. I know I could spend a bit of time and find a safe source for the mods, but there are so damn many itâs just too much work.
There are 3 major reasons why Minecraft suffers from these problems:
- The insane popularity of Minecraft (which boggles my mind). But I guess Farmville is insanely popular as well.
- The ability to easily mod Minecraft.
- The most important !!! The fact that Mojang does not have any official site or resource for sharing mods.
The Minecraft forums arenât technically official as they are hosted by Curse, but they are linked on Mojangâs site. A forum is far from an ideal location for finding mods. Threads get very long and cluttered with un-related posts. Finding mods in there is very clumsy and annoying.
Since modding is one of Stonehearths biggest aspects, I think Radiant needs to take some steps to avoid the disaster that has occurred with Minecraft mods. Fortunately and unfortunately, I donât think this game will be as popular as Minecraft. I donât think any game that a true gamer plays will ever be as popular as games like Minecraft, Farmville, Bejeweled, etc. So that will alleviate some of the problems. A link In game to a mod index
will take the sails out of the spyware peddlers trying to make money off of a popular modding community.
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I agree with @2_Zons that this is something Radiant should manage on-site, and also have robust in-game support for managing mods. No outside site could provide the same level of support in this regard as a Radiant managed site.
-Will
or a Radiant supported site?
Also, our new Downloads area may change your mind about other sites, Stonehearth Kingdom is here to stay so the chances of it going away are very very low. http://www.stonehearthkingdom.com/forum/index.php?/files/
I agree that there needs to be a centralized area for mods. It keeps everything in one place, and it should hopefully alleviate these issues that @2_Zons highlighted, of which I think the biggest is accessibility - I donât wanna have to travel across a handful of websites just to find the one mod I want.
So yes, I think there needs to be one central platform for mod files, or at least an official platform - I think we can safely assume that as this is something integral to Stonehearth, they wonât approach this lightly.
And @Warstories currently Stonehearth Kingdom is alright - but how many files is it hosting and how many people access it daily? What happens when this number increases to lets say at least the 20.000 + kickstarter backers. I donât mean stability of the server, I just mean generally will people be able to find everything they want? And is it the right platform for the distribution of mods?
Donât get me wrong, I think itâs great that there are people like you out there that are excited about the game, and have done something like this. But do you merit being recognised as the official mod distribution platform simply on the basis of being the first one to offer it?
What if somebody creates a website that is better than yours for sharing and accessing mods? Surely they would then better serve the purpose and should be recognised? What if somebody else creates one better than them? I mean ultimately this could go on and on.
Not to take away from what youâve done, but I just think there needs to be the larger picture taken into consideration when a decision is made that effects something that is baked into the core of the game.
Whatever the conclusion is, Iâm sure weâll see something closer to the beta release, and it will be the right one for the community as a whole.
Should Stonehearth Kingdom go away? No, absolutely not., and Iâm sure it will carve out itâs own identity at some point as a fan site. Should it be recognized as the official platform for the distribution of mods? I donât think so. I think there are better options out there.
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The official Radiant site doesnât need to be the only mod site, other sites could certainly host mods. But AN official site is basically a requirement given the central role that mods are supposed to play, and it should be hosted/directed by Radiant, not a third party.
-Will
I think @Warstories initiative is admirable and as such his site will indefinitely and exclusively host my work.
Oh dear god here we are breaking into factions and the game isnât even out yet. <_<
-Will
To be honest, at this stage I think the whole central website conversation is irrelevant.
Because of Stonehearths inevitable integration into Steam, players will most likely use Steams built in workshop to synchronise and download mods, as they do with Skyrim. Itâs just the most convenient option.
Yep, everything is divided into categories, you can search for mods, there are an unlimited amount of nested categories I could create as well as all mods from all categories being displayed on the main page where you can sort by popularity, rating, downloads, author, etc. Kingdom could handle thousands of people downloading and uploading at once with little slowdowns, I would say it is the right platform for the distribution of mods because of the amount of features it offers, (downloads, and a user gallery) it also has a slider showing featured mods on the main page with a direct download link. Users can update their files and it saves all previous revisions if they want it too so that way you can download a mod 5 versions earlier for some reason if you want to. All users have an unlimited download speed, upload speed, amount of mods, and files. Same with the user gallery. Support topics can be created along with the mods if anyone is having trouble with it. If someone creates a better mod sharing site then it would be hard to start up for them since their is already a number of Qubicle Template downloads and such on Kingdom already, if Radiant wants they can host the Qubicle Templates for their villagers that they said they would put up for download at some point, so this way they can test the waters of Kingdom. I will try and hold off on putting Ads on Kingdom as long as I can, as well as not allowing AdF.ly links to be used (can be enabled at any time if requested, but it most likely wonât). This is to offer a better experience for guests and members. Guests can download without registering and search all of the mods/downloads Kingdom has to offer. They cannot upload though without an account for obvious reasons. I am dedicated to make Stonehearth Kingdom the #1 place to find Mods and Qubicle Template Downloads. I know @Ponder has already registered on the site, and we also have support from MindDesk who are helping us host Qubicle Contests each month where the winner receives a Home Edition of Qubicle. Thanks for reading Joffers.
P.S you also donât have to buy premium for faster download speeds cough Curse cough
Shhh, lets not do this again, their are no factions, only preferences, and so far Kingdom is the only one
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