Forewords

Forewords

Man it really sucks it took us this long to get something to work for making new ragdolls

– Hugo the Dwarf

Tread

– Universal Wasteland Expansion / Guild Admin –

Kenshi grabbed me by the collarbones back in 2018 and I’ve been hooked ever since. Immediately I realised that I thoroughly enjoy the town-building, RTS aspect of the game. I set out to build new towns for NPC factions for the fun of it.

That was the beginning – I started for personal use. And now, several years of modding down the line and having happened to share the mod with the community, here I am.

UWE is the culmination of years of tireless work towards a singular aim: To expand and overhaul the Vanilla game’s systems and features. Over the years, I’ve applied a lot of polish and elbow grease. I’ve learned a lot and fallen flat on my face. It’s all trial and error.

And without the FCS, I doubt any of this would have ever been possible…

Kindrad

– Kenshi: Remastered / Kindrad’s I/O Continued / Kenshi: Performance Mod / Guild Admin –

IT’S BEING WORKED ON REEEE

– Atlas

BFrizz

– ReKenshi –

The first time I played Kenshi, I knew there was something different about it. Something special. There’s nothing quite like it, and according to Steam, I’ve put more hours into Kenshi than any other game I own.

I also love modding and the scenes that come about around it.

Seeing people create new, engaging content for others (almost always for free) is absolutely awesome. I’ve always had a hobby for reverse-engineering and hacking. I first got into it at the age of 12.

And a decade and a half later, I’m still doing it in my spare time. These days, I scratch my reverse-engineering itch by making modding tools for single-player games. Tools that benefit the players, the modding communities, and arguably the game developers at times.

It’s my own, personal brand of ethical hacking.

There’s nothing I love more than working on difficult projects. I find that I learn the most when I’m challenged – and writing a scripting engine for a game that’s compiled in C++ and spits nothing but garbled gibberish at you if you run it through a decompiler is one of the hardest programming projects out there.

You see, the trouble is that “script extender” mods are written for games that already have scripting engines. They simply add new commands to the game’s existing scripting functionality.

Kenshi is the one that sticks out like a sore thumb. Kenshi has no real scripting system, and that complicates things a lot. It also makes the process a great deal more interesting.

When I first started developing RE_Kenshi, I knew it would take well over a year to write a useful scripting engine. Early on, I realised that finding the motivation would be hard. I’d be chugging away at a pet project for a year – maybe years – without being able to ramp up support or drum up community interest.

So, for the past 18 months, I’ve been using the reverse-engineered code to implement and release optimisations, bugfixes, QoL improvements, and modding extensions to the game. These alpha builds help keep my morale up and the testers annoy me with quirky bugs and feature requests while I’m chasing the endgame:

A true scripting interface that unlocks the vast potential all of us see in this game.

Atlas

– Kenshi: Genesis / Guild Senior Admin –

I’ve been doing what I do for a long time. Writing, modelling, and even some music and sound design have followed me through many games and communities. My technical aptitude might leave wanting from time to time – but what I know is oversight and management.

What started as an effort to create a customised load order tool (which went down in flames) ended up with me as the community manager for the Genesis Discord server. The project was all but abandoned during the pandemic, so I picked it up and began hacking it to pieces with a butcher’s knife.

All while building and expanding a community.

I’ve spent a lot of sleepless nights trawling through boards, posts, anything, to find people who might have kicked an old project to the curb. I have always wanted to nurture and manage a community. After a few years invested managing various other Discord servers and hundreds of hours spent writing up documentation and managing mod projects, it finally clicked.

What I love the most is the process of building a strong networking foundation as a launchpad for others to springboard their ideas. I’ve poured hours, money, and sweat into the Genesis Discord. My ultimate aim was to gather the cream of the crop in one place. To facilitate an environment where all forms of artists, problem solvers, and creatives can come together to collaborate. And now?…

Now it’s time to up the ante.

Now is when we build. Our ultimate vision is of an agnostic platform where everybody can collaborate and share their work – and where every project has the resources and the people it needs to shine. Where assets, music, prose – art – are created.

I have spent long enough dreaming. Now is the time to bloom. Not it is the time to reinvent how artistic endeavours come to fruition. The real question?

That’s on you.

What do you bring to the table – and what are you willing to do to achieve your dreams?

Not the best workaround…

– Tread

ParaMo

– Lost in the Ashlands / Driftmetal: Remnants –

Atlas is hot garbage confirmed

– Kindrad

Hugo the Dwarf

– Advanced Limbs Overhaul / Kenshi: Genesis / Guild Admin –

Hapless

– Shoddy Firearms / Waste Tyrants / Old Ironsides –

On a summer morning in June, 2020, I decided to buy a quaint game called Kenshi that had been on my wishlist for several years. That decision drastically changed my perception of gaming.

I played it to death. Several runs in, I had a really dumb idea: What if there were flintlocks and muskets in Kenshi?

So I set about making a simple flintlock mesh. After all, how hard could it be?

Fast forward two years and I’d garnered several hundred hours in Blender and Substance Painter making all kinds of crap for the Workshop. From muskets to killer robots to dinosaurs – I tried my hand at a lot.

None of it would have been possible without the collection of creative souls who make up the Guild. They taught me everything I know. Not just about modding Kenshi – but about 3D art, design, and animation, as well.

When it comes to making stuff and modding – even if you think it’s a stupid idea – give it a shot. See how it turns out. See what you can learn from your failures.

Sometimes it’s the most ridiculous ideas that turn out the best.

Magnanimous

I was introduced to Kenshi around the same time I started to take digital art seriously. I was overwhelmed much of the time – using old, free software that felt like a mess. The in-game engine made it even harder to iterate on my designs.

Nevertheless, the game scratched an itch I didn’t know I had. Through it, I joined a community and the Discords and found the opportunity to collaborate. I worked on the visual side of things while other, more code and engine-centred members, did their thing.

I floundered for a while and it wasn’t until 2022 that I saw the fruits of my labour with the Bonecats mod. Now, with a high-end PC at my fingertips, up-to-date software, and several years of college behind me, I have fuond my calling.

Now I’m back, commissioning all over the place, and having an absolute blast.

Cattrina

– Faction Furniture / Sage Steeds / Kenshi: Genesis –

I’m Cattrina, also known by my alias Cay Enigma across the virtual world.

I’m a real-life artisan and interior designer. Recently, I went totally bonkers with 3D modeling – furniture being closest to my heart.

I have over 20 years’ experience in arts and crafts, both in real and virtual environments. Whoops, did I accidentally reveal my age?

Cats are my other passion… Got three of the furry fluffballs – you could call me crazy cat lady and you wouldn’t be wrong! You’ll find me in the Kenshi forums, Discords, and wiki pages, writing how-tos and offering general advice. My part in this endeavor is small, but I hope it plays a role setting the atmosphere.

Foohman

– Lost in the Ashlands –

Games can be broadly boiled down into two key components – story and gameplay. I am not inclined towards the latter as it would require me to actually have a brain so I focus on the former.

Since I became a part of modding scenes back in 2009-2010, I’ve found that great projects can be hamstrung by poor writing or a badly realised world – the results being a mixed bag of missed potential, interspersed with actual nuggets of inspired design.

Instead of lambasting creators for not developing something whole studios are tasked with, I decided I’d at least attempt to assist them in developing something believable, something many people want from a game – escapism, immersion in a world you can believe in.

I have a keen interest in linguistics, which helps in forming the diverse cultures that inhabit the lands LITA is set in. The etymology of languages born from circumstances atypical of those formed here, on Earth, lends a huge amount of creative freedom. Decades of sci-fi and fantasy writers trying their hand at languages that differ from our own form a great backbone on which to base my own work. At least now we know what works and what doesn’t work – what is charming or interesting to read, and what is a chore. I’d say I have the passion to see a project I believe in come to fruition.

Ah-commers, wayin’ at – dustwaestes? No ap-foote! No-commers-lax.

PSA: DON’T BUILD COLLIDERS INSIDE A COLLECTION IN BLENDER AND DON’T ASK ME WHY

– Boron

Roulce

– Lost in the Ashlands / Guild Admin –

Hard to believe this is where we’re at after all these years, huh? A decade after Kenshi was released we’re finally starting to see incredible, comprehensive total overhauls.

Hey all! Roulce, here!

I’ve been helping Boron out for two years now. I’m his sounding board and he bounces ideas off of me all the time. I often throw memes back his way (can’t forget the memes!) in between bouts of saying something actually constructive. You might have seen me in the various Kenshi discords answering questions, talking trash, and – of course – posting memes.

I’d like to say that Kenshi was my first foray into modding… but that honour belongs to TES 4 (Oblivion) and the old dinosaur of an engine it ran on. Kenshi, on the whole, has always been pretty modular. It’s easy to make simple stuff like new races, new gamestarts. It wasn’t until I met Boron and tried out Lost in the Ashes (then Lost in the Ashlands) that my eyes were opened to just how much can really be achieved with the modding tools.

I’m excited to be a part of this story. I hope you’ll enjoy what Boron, Tread, Atlas, Kindrad and the others here have cooked up – because it’s so hot it nearly burned down the kitchen.

And remember: Have fun.

Boron

– Lost in the Ashlands/ Kenshi: Genesis / Site Admin / Guild Admin –

Well.

Here we are. Several years down the line.

Countless iterations, hundreds of crashes, a few hundred thousand lines of dialogue and more experiments than I can count – and we’re on the cusp of achieving what nobody ever thought possible.

My modding journey began back in 2018 as a way to look inward and crystallise my creative output. I left the scene pretty quickly – but was sure to make note of most of what I had learned up until then. In a guide with two ridiculous personas, mind.

The name stuck. And when I re-entered the modding scene it didn’t take long for others to reach out and build bridges.

Collectively, we’ve figured out this jank, ageing engine and its quirks and have refined what it can and what it can’t do. We have it down to a T – and that’s the reason for this segment. Too many creatives find their output hampered by frustrating design choices, unimplemented features that are implied to work and the inherent, opaque nature of many of Kenshi’s systems.

Too many talented people leave all too quickly and never look back, disgruntled and disappointed at their lack of results.

No more.

We present these in-depth guides, tools, and resources to everybody free of charge with no strings attached.

Enjoy yourself and get creative.