Introducing a new series here at eXplorminate where we dig in deep with some perhaps lesser-known mods to our favorite games and see just how good they are. If they pass muster, we’ll recommend them through our “Modify Playlist”.

These won’t be your run-of-the-mill mods, either. They’ll only be the best of the best, the kind of mods that dramatically improve or alter gameplay in a way that feels like a whole new game.

First up is the incredible Blackbox mod (and its sister mod, the Combined Arms mod) for Stardrive 1 (SD1). Many fans of Stardrive 1 will tell you that the game was dripping with potential when it was seemingly discarded by its developer, Dan DiCicco of Zer0sum Games.

In comes the Blackbox Mod crew. The amateur game developer group has successfully taken a game loaded with potential and riddled with bugs and performance issues and made it into something unrecognizably great. I sent them over some questions and got some answers, which you can read below:





Who are you and what do you do for a living?

We are a team of professional software devs, database troubleshooters and project managers, all of us are diehard fans of old school space RTS games. Our current active team comprises 4 members: CrunchyGremlin, RedFox, Moonster, and Fat_Bastard.

Why are you modding Stardrive 1?

Everyone in the team has different reasons, but the most common reason is that this game had a lot of unrecognized potential in our eyes. SD1 has solid ideas with real-time fleet control and massive space battles in a gigantic universe, something that was lost in SD2. Most people thought this game’s bugs couldn’t be fixed and its premise was too complex. I guess we’re all stubborn in that way, to prove that it can be fixed. For many of us, too, it was also a great opportunity to learn more about C# and Game Programming.



The comradery of working on a project together and seeing actual results is something you cannot easily find. Plus, working on this project has taught us a lot about proper Software Engineering and the necessity of proper unit testing and clean code architecture which was completely missing before. It’s sort of therapeutic fixing bugs in this ancient codebase.

How long has the team been working on Blackbox? What’s been the hardest part so far?

The team has changed in size over the years, CrunchyGremlin started working on it some time after the game was released (2013). Some left, while new faces have joined. RedFox appeared 4 years ago and started refactoring code like a man posessed. FatBastard started helping out 2 years ago and brought great new ideas to the game. Moonster has helped us improve the graphics over the past 6 years.



For all of us, there have been different issues, but the most resounding one is the high level of technical debt the original game had. It was write-once code that could not be fixed anymore, so it took us years to refactor everything into a workable state. And in some cases, bugs in the ancient graphics engine are still haunting us to this day.

What do you still plan to achieve?

We have tons of ambitions with this game still. We really want to expand on the original potential of this game and bring it to its full potential. Besides bugfixes, we want a much smarter AI to counter the player, but before that, we have to make a more solid foundation. Working in our new code is a breeze, but some parts haven’t been cleaned up and it takes forever to make changes.

Game-changing feature-wise, we plan to expand the trading system with more user control and commodities. Connected to that is our desire to add asteroid mining and gas giant mining operations. (Editors note: HELL YEAH!)

I can’t begin to explain how helpful this list is…

What’s been the most rewarding aspect of this project?

Unanimously, we love seeing the whole universe come to life with every new feature we add. The new star systems, black holes, and pulsars really add more color to the universe, while accurate targeting and actual newtonian physics make the battles more hectic than ever. StarDrive almost has a life of its own and every time we make great improvements in the code quality, we have an explosion of new amazing features.



Another great part is just becoming better programmers through code reviews and pair programming. I think everyone in the team has improved a lot over the years. And finally, seeing people still playing the game 7 years later is humbling and motivating us to go further. It really shows this game has a real chance to become a classic.

I couldn’t agree more. This team has made Stardrive 1 something special and light-years ahead of what it was when it was…abandoned by the developer. Good luck and godspeed, team!

Maybe you want to see it in action? Here is part 1 of a series I’ll be doing with the Blackbox and Combined Arms mod here:

Below is a highlight list of things that have been improved or changed with Blackbox, though the actual lists are much longer (the lists can be found here and here). Check it out for a small taste of the massive amount of work that’s been put in here:

Ship Design Fire Arc View: You can now see the rotation degrees of your turrets when you move their firing arcs.

Symmetric Ship Design: It is now possible to design your ships faster with the symmetrical tool (On by default). There is a new button at the bottom button list in the ship design menu which you can click on to switch between mode. You can also press the M key as a shortcut.

Bulk Module Replacement: You can quickly replace modules with a newer (or older) versions by selecting the new module you want and press Shift + left mouse on a module you wish yo replace to. You can also do it for weapons or replace any module that has the same restrictions as the module you selected. If you replace a turret, the original fire arcs will remain, so you wont need to re-adjust anything.

Undo/Redo: You can hit CTRL Z to undo your changes, if you did a change by mistake, for instance. You can redo your changes by pressing Ctrl Y or Ctrl Shift Z.

Ship Damage Visuals: When modules on a ship are severely damaged or destroyed in combat, you will see visual indicators of the damage and how extensive it is. Smoke, fires, vented blue plasma and more.

Hangar Data for Carriers: Ships which have fighter (or any other ship hangars) hangars will now contain a new status like for it’s hangars. You will see 3 number colors; Green indicates the number of ships launched. White represents the number of ships available to launch and Red represents the number of ship rearming or lost. Hangar ships will also now automatically return to their hangars when a combat is over. If you select to launch your fighters for escort, they will remain in escort after the fight is over.

Assault Troop Data: Ships with troops and assault transports now have another number next to the troop display. This is the number of available assault shuttles, in light blue. You will now also see your troops in Green and the Enemy Troops in Red. If your troops have successfully boarded a ship. Excess troops will leave the boarded ships (1 troop will remain for garrison) and go back to a troop carrier with available spots, or to the nearest planet if no troop ships are available within sensor range.

Repair: Ship repair is now harder if the module complexity is higher. Ships with experienced craw are able to patch up modules lightly and make them work faster, so the more experience the ship has, modules will be minimally repair to make them active instead of repairing them to full health and them moving to the next module

Troops: Troops’ level is displayed in the combat screen tactical view and also in the Colony screen, if it is above 0.

Planet Info Screen: Correct planet ground strength is displayed. Planet’s space offense strength is now displayed. Some Military building (like Gun Emplacements) can cause 1 or more point of damage to every invading troop. This is also displayed in this screen.

Heal: Troops on planets are healed 2 points per turn. Buildings are repaired 1 point per turn. This happens only if there is no combat on the planet.

Colony Screen: Added colony production statistics. For instance, you can see how much food will be added per colonist you assign to food production. Same for Research and Production. You will be able to see how much flat Food/Production/Research is added per turn, regardless of colonist assignment.

Dynamic Hangars: You When designing a ship, you can select to use dynamic hangar mode. There are 3 dynamic modes: Dynamic Launch, Dynamic Interceptor, Dynamic Anti Ship. If you select any of these modes, every time the hangar launches a ship, it will the best ship available in your empire (offense score). Dynamic interceptors will limit the list only to ships which were designated as “Interceptor’ in ship design’s ship designation drop down. Dynamic Anti Ship will limit the list only to ships which were designated as “Anti Ship’ in the designation drop down. That way you can design specific hangar ships.

Resupply Enhancements: Resupply icon is added to the ship when it decides to resupply and the ship status will display the reason so you will be able to understand why it is going for resupply.

Drone Beam Repair: Repair rate is multiplied by 5 when not in combat

Structural Integrity: You will see the structural integrity of the ship when it is below 100%. Structural Integrity affects ship resupply logic according to its category set in ship design (“Reckless”, “Neutral”, “Recon” etc.).

EMP Status: You will now see an EMP counter on a disabled ship when you select it. So you will be able to gauge when this ship will recover from an EMP overload.

Fertility: Fertility is now more dynamic. Every turn it tries to match the MaxFertility value (up or down). To mimic gradual environmental effects. This is also reflected in the colony screen for the player. Buildings which change Fertility on build now change MaxFertility. Same for Terraform. bombs change the Fertility of the planet upon impact, letting it slowly recover over time. But if Fertility reaches 0, Max Fertility will degrade, and might change planet type forever.

Terraformers: Terraformers will be removed when they finish their job (planet has reached Max Fertility of 1)

Performance Improvements: New Collision Detection, an immense performance increase Much faster game loading Better resource management



Improved modding support: Allowing for all game data overridden via mods

Ship Preview: A small ship preview is now available when cycling through ships in the colony screen, along with a mini-map of the modules and statistical data of each ship.

And there’s much more, so check out the full “Texas” and “Venus” changelogs.

We here at eXplorminate (myself in particular) are extremely excited to see how much further this talented team can bring Stardrive 1 to “classic” status through this incredible mod. Blackbox will surely go down as one of the most extensive and easily recommended mods in the whole 4X genre and we’ll be keeping a close eye on its continued development!

For those interested in following development more closely, be sure to join their Discord, if that’s your sort of thing.

Until next time, keep eXploring!

Rob founded eXplorminate, and quickly brought on Nate, as his passion for 4X needed an outlet. You can find Rob in just about every 4X game beta and 4X game forum, too. He’s equally obsessed with the strategy and tactics genres and constantly combs the internet for new and exciting titles in those genres. He’s proud to be a member of Amplitude Studios’ VIP program and the concept creator of Endless Space 2’s Unfallen.