Greetings, esteemed colleagues!
As always, we want to keep you in the loop as our work continues and our plans take shape.
We know how much our upcoming Entropic Break release means to the scientific community, and we really appreciate everyone who has been following along, sharing feedback, and supporting us throughout the process.
Today, we’ve got a couple of important updates to share with you about our upcoming release plans, including what’s happening next and what you can expect as we move forward. Let’s jump in!
An Update on Entropic Break
We know how excited everyone is for the Entropic Break expansion. As you know, at the end of the day, we’re scientists and that means we’re nothing if not utterly pragmatic.
We've made the tough call to delay Entropic Break until Q1 of 2027.
This wasn't an easy decision to make. As we continued to build out the expansion and found ourselves putting one-too-many limits on our ambitions, it became clear that the expansion needed more time to do it right. We want to ensure we hit the quality bar you expect, deliver on everything we’ve promised, and release something the whole team can truly be proud of. And not cut corners.
We know delays suck, but we really appreciate your patience while the team continues their diligent work. But that’s not all we’ve been up to!
The Good News
A small number of our mad scientists down in the Deep Field skunkworks have been working on Community Update #5, which is both an update, and a new chapter in the life of Abiotic Factor! The delay of Entropic Break has presented a great opportunity to bring this update forward and get it into your hands sooner than we planned.
Community Update #5 - The Modding Update
Yeah, we’re doing it, and we’re doing it soon. Official mod support is coming with Community Update #5! Alongside this update’s arrival, we are launching fully integrated modding support through mod.io and we couldn't be more excited to see what you build. Modding support and tools will activate on or around the update’s release.
We put together a handy Modding FAQ for an initial look at how modding support will work.
Q: Is the team working on modding instead of Entropic Break?
A: Nope! We have entirely different team members (and some external parties) working with us on implementing mod support and we've kept the rest of Community Update #5 pretty light as to not siphon our resources as well. The Entropic Break team continues full steam ahead on that expansion!
Q: How do I download and manage mods for Abiotic Factor?
A: When the update drops there will be a functioning in-game mod browser on the main menu that is linked to mod.io for easy searching and subscription to mods. All downloading and installation will be handled automatically from there.
Q: What platforms will mods be available on?
A: You will be able to download mods for Abiotic Factor on PC, Xbox, and PS5. That is to say: everyone will have access to mods!
Q: How do I make mods?
A: You can make mods using the Abiotic Factor Mod Editor, which will be a separate free download available on Windows, which will be released alongside the modding update.
Q: Do I need to own Abiotic Factor to access the mod editor?
A: Nope.
Q: Do I need to start a fresh playthrough to use a new mod or can I use them in my existing save?
A: Mods are by default compatible with any existing Abiotic Factor save, but depending on the mod you may want to start a new playthrough. Some mods are not guaranteed to be fully compatible with existing saves and it is the user's responsibility to use caution when installing mods. We will provide more information on safeguarding your saves when the modding update is released.
Q: Will we be able to bundle mods together to create curated collections for players to download all at once?
A: There will be support for mod collections on day one.
Q: How do I make sure my friends and I are running the same mods?
A: Whenever you join a modded server your Abiotic Factor client will automatically download and enable any necessary mods so you’re synced up with everyone else.
Q: What types of things will people be able to make mods for?
A: Glad you asked! A ton of stuff, major highlights include:
- Add new items, including gear, food, plants, weapons, and gadgets.
- Add new deployables, from decorations to complicated stuff like crafting benches.
- Add new crafting recipes.
- Override existing loot tables from containers or enemies.
- Add new enemies (and pets)!
- Add new types of weird entities.
- Add new buffs and debuffs.
- Add new custom animations for items, enemies, and scientists.
- Add new customization options.
- Add new traders.
- Add new or override existing skill perks.
- Add new starting traits and PhDs/jobs.
- Add new chemistry items and recipes.
- Add new weather events.
- Add new emotes.
Q: Wow, that’s a lot. What can’t mods do?
A: In this upcoming release players will not be able to add new levels to the GATE Cascade Research Facility or add additional portal worlds, nor directly edit existing levels. You will still be able to modify data, such as what enemies spawn at specific spawn points that exist in the world already.
There’s also a few other things mods won’t be able to do:
- Mods cannot add entirely new sandbox settings.
- Mods cannot add new gameplay settings or keybindings.
- Localization of mods is currently not supported.
Q: Will we eventually be able to make new levels or sectors?
A: We would love to see this, and we are investigating if and when this is possible. This is a very complicated process and would require enormous amounts of work to achieve at the quality and usability we would want for mod creators. We’ll be sure to let everyone know if we make headway on this feature.
Q: Will old mods break in this upcoming update?
A: We’ve done a lot of work under the hood to tidy up our tech and expose stuff to modders in an official capacity, so a lot of stuff has changed around and it’s likely all existing mods will be completely broken when this update launches. As always, uninstall your mods when this update rolls around, and we encourage all modders to get familiar with the new tooling.
Q: Will you prevent people from creating unofficial mods outside of the Abiotic Factor Mod Editor?
A: We have no plans to limit external mods or stop people from doing hacky science stuff, but we’re hoping you can do most of what you’d want to do using the official tools. We are aware there will be some limitations in the official tools that advanced modders may want to work around - and that’s fine.
Q: Does this mean we’ll finally be able to milk the Tarasque?
A: Hey, I’m not your research director, go for it.
That’s where we’ll leave you for today. There will be a more advanced modding FAQ and guide when that update releases, and keep an eye out for our upcoming Status Report, where we’ll share further details of what’s coming in Community Update #5. It’s not too far away!
We’ve also got a new and updated Roadmap in the works reflecting these changes and more, coming very soon!
And to finish off, here’s a quick look at some internal experiments using the mod tools that are currently in progress.
Onward -- to science.
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