NoAutoArmToPlayer

A pak mod for ASTRONEER that prevents Auto Arms from depositing items into player inventory slots.

Nexus Mods link: No Auto Arm To Player

What It Does

Blocks Auto Arms from depositing items into:

• Backpack Item Slots 1-8
• Backpack Aux Slots (shoulders)
• Terrain Tool Augment Slots 1-3

Auto Arms can still pick up items from these slots - only deposits are blocked.

Installation

1. Download NoAutoArmToPlayer_P.pak from the Releases page
2. Copy to your ASTRONEER Paks folder:
   • Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ASTRONEER\Astro\Content\Paks\
   • Linux: ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/ASTRONEER/Astro/Content/Paks/
3. Launch the game

To uninstall, simply delete the pak file.

Building From Source

Prerequisites

• .NET 10.0 SDK or later
• Git

Build

# Clone with submodules
git clone --recursive https://github.com/user/NoAutoArmToPlayer.git
cd NoAutoArmToPlayer

# Build (handles setup, extraction, and packing automatically)
./scripts/build.sh      # Linux/macOS
.\scripts\build.ps1     # Windows

That's it! The script will:

1. Download repak if not present
2. Initialize git submodules if needed
3. Extract game files if not already extracted
4. Build the mod and pack it to output/NoAutoArmToPlayer_P.pak
5. Install to your game's Paks directory

Custom Game Path

If ASTRONEER is not in the default Steam location:

# Linux/macOS
export ASTRONEER_PAKS="/path/to/ASTRONEER/Astro/Content/Paks"
./scripts/build.sh

# Windows
$env:ASTRONEER_PAKS = "D:\Games\ASTRONEER\Astro\Content\Paks"
.\scripts\build.ps1

How It Works

The mod modifies two game assets:

BackpackRail.uasset

Adds AcceptInputItems = false to Item Slot ChildSlotComponents and sets bAcceptsInputItems = false on Aux Slot FSlot structs.

SmallDeform.uasset (Terrain Tool)

Adds AcceptInputItems = false to Augment Slot ChildSlotComponents.

Technical Note: SmallDeform contains Kismet bytecode, requiring SkipParsingBytecode during loading to preserve the bytecode exactly. See the experimentation docs for details.

Project Structure

NoAutoArmToPlayer/
├── src/UAssetTool/       # C# tool for modifying .uasset files and packing
├── lib/UAssetAPI/        # Git submodule - UAsset parsing library
├── scripts/
│   ├── build.sh          # Linux/macOS build script
│   └── build.ps1         # Windows build script
├── tools/                # Downloaded tools (repak) - gitignored
├── game-files/           # Extracted game files - gitignored
└── output/               # Built mod pak

Experimental findings

All this code is made by trying various stuff out at the https://github.com/tonur/astroneer-experimental-code-dump repo.

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file.

Credits

• UAssetAPI by atenfyr - UAsset parsing library
• repak by trumank - Pak file tool
• ASTRONEER is developed by System Era Softworks