Banished Steam Workshop support now added in new beta

Shining Rock software has just made it easier for mod makers and players to share and update mods.

A new beta version Banished Kit which is being used by mode makers has been released. To take part in the test the new mod kit can be grabbed via Steam or directly downloaded for non-Steam users.

The new Banished  Steam Workshop is now available for viewing and to use this Workshop beta players will need to opt-in to the Steam beta version of the game via the Steam Library by selecting properties, picking the BETAs tab, and picking the 1.0.4 Beta.

The fill update notes from Luke Hodorowicz are as follows:

I’ve tried to make Steam Workshop integration pretty easy to use. In the Mods menu in game, there is now a browser where you can see the latest and popular mods, as well as search for specific mods.

From the browser you can subscribe to mods and they’ll download pretty much immediately. If you use the workshop website to subscribe to mods, the mods will download immediately as well. After they download, the game will notify you that you need to reload the current assets for the mod to show up in the installed mods list.

For mod authors, getting mods on steam workshop or updating them in the future should be fairly painless. By viewing mod details in game, you can upload a new mod to workshop, or updating an existing one.

The main change authors need to deal with is adding a large icon for display in the steam workshop. A new field has been added to PackageFile resources to specify a jpg or png preview image that is larger than the 48×48 icon that the in UI uses.

Check the mod documentation for more details.

If you curious as to what’s changed in this version, the details are below.

• – Updated to latest FBX sdk. This required moving x32 and x64 builds into their own folder since the dll name is the same for both 32 and 64 bit versions.
• – Added support for a cmd.txt file that contains command line parameters. cmd.txt must be in the same folder as the executable.
• – Added command line parameter /bin that tells the game where the main /bin folder is located relative to the executable. This allows a single bin/WinData folder to be used along side the x32 and x64 versions of the game.
• – Added a new variable to PackageFile resources, ‘String _preview = “pngOrJpgPath”;’ This is a square preview image that is used when uploading mods to steam workshop. If not set, no preview image will be uploaded to steam.
• – Added Steam Workshop support. Mods can be created, updated, downloaded, and browsed in game. Any updates to subscribed mods will download automatically. A reload is required once downloads are complete.
• – Fixed tooltip text going outside the background boundaries.
• – Fixed combo boxes not displaying correcly after being enabled, disabled, then re-enabled.