How would I go about making a mod?

[theepicvoid111]

Hello! I am pretty much a huge noob at modding and programming but I would like to make a mod, more so with creatures, buildings and items. Is there any guide out there to guide me along with what I have to do to get it to work and function? Any help would be appreciated! Thank you so much!

[i2amroy]

The easiest way by far to make a mod is to crack open the data/mods folder and start looking at some of the other bundled mods that already exist. The SON files are very human readable in the vast majority of cases, and all they require is a text editor to alter them (I suggest Notepad++ personally).

If you really want to dive extremely deep into modding then you’ll probably need to either learn lua or C++, but basic JSON editing should be able to cover the vast majority of things that you would want to change as a modder (and we’re still working on exposing more and more of the game’s innards for you to mess around with in those files).

[pisskop]

what mod would you want? like what theme, items, or critters? a goal is half an action plan and an action plan is half a job well-done

a goal and copious use of copypaste will get you far. I was familiar with small scale modding from my own DF experiences but I learned by copying existing templates…

Heck, I still like to copy existing templates. I even submitted a template to the core game for people to copy.