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If possible before the game is finalized, id suggest importing the zlib compression library online (http://www.zlib.net/) to allow the entire assets folder to be a single zlib compressed *.dat or whatever file loaded on the fly, it could still be unzipped and modded using any .zip program, it shouldn't slow down loading with further compression although it likely wont compress much further (and optionally can use no compression to load exactly the same possibly faster even if compressed since windows wouldnt have to cache all the files locations). You may already have it, since PNG coding usually includes most if not all of the zlib code. It also shouldn't be too complex to code in & to me (and probably to steam too) its better to only need to handle 10 actual files or so than having 35000+ files in a folder (im still on v18 dunno if that changed yet) . An added future benefit would be to code the game to allow any additional .dat named zip files in the folder to be loaded after the assets.dat and allow it to use those files in place of the ones that normally would be in the assets.dat to allow mod packs to be loaded easily. Example: assets dat containing all original files loaded first, then load any other *.dats in the folder such as a mod.dat containing a modified file (assets\gui\Mission End\VictoryScreen.png) thats in the same structure would load the modified victory screen or whatever files instead of the originals etc blahblah.

Random Suggestion Unless theres some weird reason not to, i don't see a reason why you shouldnt at least consider compressing a majority of the game textures to rgba 256 color PNG's maybe even 128 color to lower the size of the game overall, i did it out of boredom testing how small i could get the game, i compressed all ~34000 of the textures (on v18 stable, which totally did not take over 8hrs) & managed to decrease the games size from 4.6gb to 1.7gb with unnoticable loss to any image quality due to a majority of the games individual textures not having a very wide color range. Here's a texture example to look at: http://www.mediafire.com/?3ml5ox5h0h0f363 I used this image in example: xenonauts\assets\units\xenonaut\armour.buzzard\weapon.lasercarbine\burstshoot_sw.png Sizes Original Image: 2.53 MB (2,660,276 bytes) rgba 256 color: 731 KB (749,081 bytes) (virtually lossless) rgba 128 color: 583 KB (597,218 bytes)* *(little loss, only noticeable if you zoom in alot on the texture itself, in game the difference is visually irrelevant and unnoticeable) In game testing screenshots (not of that texture in particular): http://www.mediafire.com/folder/scenemn8st84d10,5u93jsq5b9s2ryv/shared The first screenshot (1.png) is all original textures, and the second is using all 128 color textures on everything. Anyways at the least a much smaller game, itd be almost lossless at 256 color & likely around 2-2.4gb in size, i like to save as much space as i can on my computer, and depending on how the game loads and renders the textures it may actually speed up loading with the much smaller files.

Just to verify, do people have the same access to all the files as they would getting the game through Desura or Steam ?

Hey all, I am a hobby programmer in several languages, and I am pretty good with 3D Studio Max. I will be creating some mods, but the game updates so often I haven't even started yet. Any ETA on finalizing basic things like models and scripts so they can be tinkered with? Also will mod tools be released to make it easier? If I have to hex edit this like I did the new XCOM it will be a slow process. Happy gaming! P.S.-I do see some tools listed about what is troubling me is the new compression of files. I have done a good bit of work with the Unreal game engine and the compression and reference methods it uses makes simple things like swapping models nearly impossible.