This mod exploits the Game Play Options feature that was introduced in the May 2024 Starfield update to expose a number of parameters that control the behavior of the Ship Builder UI.  This include altering overlap tolerances to allow construction of ships with overlapped modules (without the use of the traditional "glitch" techniques").  These parameters also allow one to customize the behavior of the Ship Builder UI to tailor it to your preferred ship building experience.

Load Order, Conflicts and Interaction with Other Plug-Ins
Unlike other plug-ins that provide predefined and immutable changes to the game's ship building experience, the Ship Builder Configurator allows one to customize the Ship Builder dynamically with the exact set of changes that the player desires.  This allows the player to choose their experience instead of having is defined by Bethesda or a third-part plug-in developer.

This dynamic customization is done by using private forms and event handler hooks rather than overriding forms and scripts from the base game.  This means that Ship Builder Configurator cannot conflict with other plug-ins and unless Bethesda makes a radical change in how the game engine processes events and dialogues, this mod will not conflict with updates to the base game.  This also means that it does not matter where Ship Builder Configurator appears in one's load order.

The only way that Ship Builder Configurator can interact with other plug-ins is if some other plug-in also tries to make the same sort of dynamic changes that are made by Ship Builder Configurator.  In such a case, one would have a race condition in terms of which plug-in made a particular change last.  The author is unaware of any other plug-ins that operate in such a manner at this time. 

One can see an error-of-omission if the base game should introduce new keywords for controlling availability of ship parts at ship services technicians.  In such a case the "Ship Services" options that alter ship part availability would not have any effect for ship parts controlled by the new keywords.

All of the Ship Services options, other than the Mantis Transponder, work by extending ship part availability beyond their default settings.  Ship Builder Configurator will not reduce ship part availability to something smaller than the default availability.  If one loads some additional plug-in that changes the default availability of ship parts, those altered defaults are the base that Ship Builder Configurator works from.

Ship Services and Extensions

Starfield uses a collection of keywords to control which ship parts are available at each Ship Services Technician.  Ship part availability at Ship Builder Kiosks is managed by the same system of keywords as there is a virtual ship tech associated with each ship builder kiosk.  Each ship module that has limited availability has a test to see if the ship technician has been assigned some keyword.  Ship Builder Configurator works by dynamically adding keywords to the relevant ship technicians to change which ship parts are available at that technician.

Note that altering the Ship Services options does not alter any "unlocking" conditions for the ship module.  If one has to be a certain level or have certain skill points to acquire a ship module, those unlocking conditions will not change.  The Ship Services options only change which Ship Services Technicians will carry the ship module once it is unlocked.

The Ship Builder Configurator knows about all ship part keywords and ship services technicians that are defined in the base Starfield game.  If one has installed DLC or third-party plg-ins that define additional keywords and/or technicians one must install a Ship Builder Configuatior Extension plug-in to make Ship Builder Configurator aware of these additional keywords and/or technicians.

There is an extension plug-in available as an "Optional File" in the "Files" tab that provides support for the ship technician defined in the Shattered Space DLC.

As of Oct 19, 2024, the following plug-ins define additional ship parts, but none of the parts have limited availability and none of these plug-ins define additional ship technicians so there is nothing for Ship Builder Configurator to manage with respect to these plug-ins:

 * Avontech Shipyards
 * Matilija Aerospace
 * Tiger Shipyards Overhaul
 
I am in the process of asking the author of Darkstar Astrodynamics for permission to create an extension plug-in that references the keywords in their plug-in.

The author of the DerreTech plug-in has made a clear statement that they do not want anyone to publish any plug-in that relates to their plug-in in any manner what-so-ever and has gone on to state that no one else can decide whether such a plug-in should even be created.  If you want an extension plug-in to allow Ship Builder Configurator to manage availability of DerreTech ship parts, you will have to contact that author and implore them to create or at least authorize the creation of such an extension plug-in.

The Game Play Options
Game Play Options were introduced in the May 2024 Starfield update.  They allow one to dynamically make changes in aspects of how Starfield behaves.  On a PC these options can be accessed in-game by hitting 'ESC", then going into "Settings" and then into "Gameplay Options".

The set of Game Play Options defined by this mod are:

• Module Overlap Checks
• Module Overlap Tolerance
• Maximum Ship Size
• Maximum Ship Modules
• Enable Class-M Modules
• Snap Distance
• Zoom on Add Module
• Min/Max Floor Limits
• Floor Change Speed
• Maximum Zoom Distance
• Minimum Zoom Distance
• Keyboard Pan Speed
• Mouse Pan Speed
• Mouse Rotation Speed
• Mouse Zoom Speed
• Gamepad Pan Speed
• Gamepad Rotation Speed
• Gamepad Zoom Speed
• Maximum Owned Ships
• Mantis Transponder
• Basic Modules
• Exclusive Modules
• Smuggler Modules
• Pirate Modules
• Recovery Mode
  

Module Overlap Checks
Allows one to entirely disable checks for module overlap.

Module Overlap Tolerance
One can use this setting to build ships with overlapping modules without the need for the, now defunct, "glitch" mechanisms that were widely
used before.  It controls how far two modules can overlap before the ship builder complains about there being a collision.

Note that this parameter can be set via an INI setting in one's StarfieldCustomer.ini file.  If one has set this parameter in the INI file, the value selected by the Game Play Option will override anything that one has placed into this INI file.

Constructing ships with overlapping modules is a widely-used technique.  I've not seen any reports of overlapping modules causing any serious issues, so this is probably a safe option to play with.

Maximum Ship Size
In the vanilla Starfield Ship Builder, one cannot construct ships larger than 80m x 80m x 40m.  The new game play setting allows one to choose three additional levels of ship size from 120m x 120m x 60m all the way up to 200m x 200m x 100m.

Note that constructing very large ships may cause clipping problems when landing the ship at some locations, which can include placing your landing bay in an inaccessible position.  It is possible that very large ships may cause other problems for the game engine as the game was designed with an 80m limit in mind.  That being said, there are many posts on various Starfield social media channels from folks that have constructed very large ships.  In those cases where someone has reported a crash due to a very large ship, the resolution has been to go back and adopt a more modest design for the ship in question.  Saving one's game prior to designing a large ship is still a good precaution in the event of an unexpected game crash.

Remember that the Ship Builder UI shows distances from the center line of your ship.  So when you see "40m" in the Ship Builder UI, that means that your ship is 80m long.

Maximum Ship Modules
In the vanilla Starfield Ship Builder, one cannot construct ships with more than 130 modules.  The Place Doors Yourself mod increases that number to 200 as door becomes modules with that mod.  This mod takes 200 as being the default number of allowable ship modules and allows one to increase that limit up to 400, 600 or even 800 modules.

Note that constructing ships with very large module counts may cause either performance issues or game engine failures as the game was designed with a 130 limit in mind.  That being said, there are many posts on various Starfield social media channels from folks that have constructed very large ships.  In those cases where someone has reported a crash due to a very large ship, the resolution has been to go back and adopt a more modest design for the ship in question.  Saving one's game prior to designing a large ship is still a good precaution in the event of an unexpected game crash.

Enable Class-M Modules
Allows one to add Class-M modules to a ship design.

Note that Class-M modules were never intended for use by players.  Consequently, not all Class-M modules are fully functional as-is.  They may be missing snap points, habs are often missing interiors, etc.  If one wants to fully utilize Class-M modules in ones ship design, mods such as TN's Class M (and Starborn Guardian) Ship Building are recommended as that mod also supplies a number of fixes for the Class-M modules.

Also note that this mod changes the Level 4 Piloting skill such that it will enable piloting of Class-M ships in addition to Class-C ships.

Snap Distance
Controls the distance at which a module will snap to a snap point.  Note that equipment modules, such as the Comspike, Scan Jammer, etc, have a different snap distance than other modules.  This option will scale both parameters.

Zoom on Add Module
Controls whether entering the Add Module tool will cause the Ship Builder to zoom in on one's ship.

Min/Max Floor Limits
Controls the maximum distance that one can more the Ship Builder floor up and down.

Floor Change Speed
Controls how fast the Ship Builder floor moves for each click of the up/down buttons.

Maximum Zoom Distance
Controls the maximum distance to which one can zoom out in the Ship Builder.

Minimum Zoom Distance
Controls the minimum distance to which one can zoom in in the Ship Builder.

Keyboard Pan Speed
Controls the rate at which the Ship Builder will pan when using a keyboard.

Mouse Pan Speed
Controls the rate at which the Ship Builder will pan when using a mouse.

Mouse Rotation Speed
Controls the rate at which the Ship Builder will rotate when using a mouse.

Mouse Zoom Speed
Controls the rate at which the Ship Builder will zoom when using a mouse.

Gamepad Pan Speed
Controls the rate at which the Ship Builder will pan when using a GamePad Controller.

Gamepad Rotation Speed
Controls the rate at which the Ship Builder will rotate when using a GamePad Controller.

Gamepad Zoom Speed
Controls the rate at which the Ship Builder will zoom when using a GamePad Controller.

Maximum Owned Shops
Increases the maximum number of ships that a player can own.

Mantis Transponder
If one enables this option there will be an additional dialogue choice when speaking with a Ship Services Technician to either remove the "Mantis Transponder" from one's home ship or to install the "Mantis Transponder" into one's home ship.  The option to remove the transponder will only appear when one's home ship has the transponder.  The option to install the transponder will only appear when one has previously removed the transponder and it is sitting in the player's "virtual inventory".

Note that the "Mantis Transponder" is not a concrete device that one can find on one's ship or in one's inventory.  It is a virtual component that is tracked via invisible tags that are set on either one's ship or on the player.

Note that the Spacer ship encounter where they recognize one's ship as being "The Mantis" is just one of many different random ship encounters in the game.  One should not expect that every Spacer ship encounter will result in the spacer's running away from "The Mantis" when one is piloting a ship with the "Mantis Transponder".

Note that one must first acquire the legacy Razorleaf ship to gain access to the "Mantis Transponder".

Basic Modules
Allows one to extend the set of Ship Services Technicians who will carry all known "basic" ship modules.  "Basic" modules are any module that is not defined as being "Exclusive", "Smuggler", "Pirate" or "Star Station".

Exclusive Modules
Allows one to extend the set of Ship Services Technicians who will carry all known "Exclusive" ship modules.  "Exclusive" modules are those that typically are only found at a manufacturer's shipyard, which Bridges being the most common example.

Smuggler Modules
Allows one to extend the set of Ship Services Technicians who will carry all known "Smuggler" ship modules.  "Smuggler" modules are those modules used to evade security sweeps when carrying contraband and include shielded cargo and scan jammers.

Pirate Modules
Allows one to extend the set of Ship Services Technicians who will carry all known "Pirate" ship modules.  "Pirate" modules are those modules that have to be acquired illegally via the Crimson Fleet quest line and include the ComSpike and Conduction Grid modules.

Recovery Mode
If one has performed an unclean removal of the Ship Builder Configurator plug-in it is possible that there  may be lingering assignments of keywords to ship technicians that alter which ship modules are available at that ship technician.  If one wants to clean-up any lingering keyword assignments, one can reinstall Ship Builder Configurator, enable the Recovery Mode and then visit every Ship Builder Kiosk that one has constructed.

For more information about removing the Ship Builder Configurator plug-in, please read the Removing-Reinstalling-Reverting article.

For more details on how Recovery Mode works, please read the What is Recovery Mode article.

XBox Support
An alternate version of this mod has been pushed to Creations as Ship Builder Configurator - XBox.  Due to technical limitations of the Papyrus scripting APIs related to changing game settings on the XBox platform, the XBox version does not support changing the Maximum Ship Size and Maximum Ship Modules.  However, I have provided some "preset" XBox Creations mods that will provide fixed overrides for the Maximum Ship Size and Maximum Ship Modules - see Ship Builder Configurator Presets - Big Ships, Ship Builder Configurator Presets - Really Big Ships and Ship Builder Configurator Presets - Silly Big Ships.

Mod Developers
The Ship Builder Configurator was designed with an extensible interface so that one can allow the configurator to manage ship techs and ship parts that come from a DLC or third-party plug-in.