As we've been gearing up for beta, one of the things we've been doing is configuring status effects and adding them to items! I get loads of requests for more modding tutorials, so I thought I'd give you guys a quick breakdown of how adding an item with status effects works.

For the purposes of this tutorial, I've chosen a Floran dessert called Burning Eyeballs-- not REAL eyeballs, but oculemons do look quite a bit like eyeballs. And these ones are spicy. Get it? We are hilarious.

When you eat Burning Eyeballs, you'll experience the following effects: full hunger bar, slow healing over time for 15 seconds, faster running and further jumping for 5 seconds, and...you'll catch on fire. Just a little, though! It's totally worth it.

As you can see, adding your chosen effects to an item is as simple as copying and pasting a little bit of code and occasionally tweaking an "amount" value. Status effect files themselves are a bit more complicated in that they often need new code to work, but you can also tweak existing status effects in order to create a whole new effect.

Here we've got a status effect labeled "mollyhealing2". It causes the player to heal slowly for 15 seconds. By changing the values for "duration" and "amount", I was able to create weaker and stronger versions of the status effect so I could apply them to more common or more rare consumable items. The weakest heals for 5 seconds, and the strongest heals for 30 seconds.

You can do the same with other effects, so it's fun to mess around with them! I've done the same with the "sugarrush" status effect, which causes the player to run higher and jump further for 5 seconds. It's a weaker version of another running/jumping status effect, allowing me to add it to more common and easily made sugary foods without breaking the game's balance.

I hope some of you found that useful! Let me know what other tutorials you'd like to see.

This month we've got the first in a series of Starbound lore fables written by Ashton Raze. Art by PFlute!

Once upon a time, many years ago, our glorious leader Big Ape was on his way to market. Many other leaders sent their servants to market, but not Big Ape. He went himself, in order to shower his subjects with his greatness, and let them bask in his glory. He was kind like that.

This particular day, Big Ape was accompanied by his mother's prized cattlesnake (and at least fifty Miniknog guards), in order to sell the beast. His mother had heard that they were receiving high bids on leading auction sites, so Big Ape was more than willing to help her earn her fortune. The journey was going smoothly, until Big Ape realised his sizeable entourage had come to a halt.

"What's all this, then?" Big Ape called out. Through the crowd came an old Hylotl crone, cackling and holding out her hand.

"Yer cattlesnake for these magic beans!" she crowed, rattling some regular-looking beans in her hand. Big Ape snatched them up. It was a good trade, he knew it. Magic beans!

"You have yourself a deal," he said to the crone, handing over the reigns of the cattlesnake. Then he ordered the Miniknog to have the crone arrested for illegal street peddling. In the ensuing scuffle, the cattlesnake ran away, never to be seen again.

Big Ape returned home, and his mother praised his business savvy and celebrated the investment in magic beans, despite losing her prized animal. Big Ape placed his magic beans in the back of a drawer, and over time, forgot about them. One day, he found them in the drawer and tossed them outside, because they smelt a bit like a fishpond.

The next day, Big Ape could hardly believe his eyes. A giant beanstalk had sprouted in his garden.
"In the name of me, I swear I shall scale this beanstalk!" Big Ape exclaimed, then effortlessly climbed up the gigantic plant without even breaking a sweat.

At the top, he froze. He found himself on a solid platform of cloud, standing before a large castle. He walked up and knocked. The door opened and before Big Ape stood a giant. Big Ape looked down at the giant and greeted him.
"I am Big Ape, your glorious leader," Big Ape said.
The giant growled, and gestured Big Ape inside.

Big Ape surveyed the castle. It was filled with pots, pans, bones, furniture, a couple of those trees made of eyeballs, and an Avian in a cage. Big Ape approached the Avian, who looked at him blankly, turned around, and promptly laid a golden egg.
"Gold!" Big Ape exclaimed. "Gold! Think of all the palaces this could buy! My people would love me even more!"
Without stopping to think, Big Ape grabbed the Avian by the neck and ran from the castle. Suddenly he heard thundering footsteps, and a booming voice: "Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of some Apex scum."

Big Ape rolled his eyes, ran to the top of the beanstalk, hurled the Avian down (it could probably fly, he figured) and waited to face the giant. The giant came charging, his face screwed up in rage, and Big Ape hit him with a flawless one-two punch, then grabbed him by the shoulders and leaped down from the castle in the sky, smashing the giant into the ground. There they fought, Ape and Giant, until finally Big Ape was victorious, aided only in a small way by the three hundred armed Miniknog guards who'd turned up in the meantime.

Big Ape stood atop the giant's corpse and looked around for his Avian companion. The golden egg-laying creature lay on the floor, looking as if he'd crashed into the ground at high velocity. Big Ape shook his head sadly. Another victim of the giant's hubris, no doubt.

Big Ape learned two important lessons that day; he was rich enough not to be bothered about losing a supply of golden eggs, and that he could totally take a giant in a fight.

***

Hope you enjoyed that little bit of Apex propaganda. 'Till next time, readers!