: You can typically extract the contents and run starbound.exe from the win64 or win32 folder without a formal installation.
: Because Steam automatically updates games, players often manually zip their "Steamapps" folder to preserve a specific version. This is crucial if a new update breaks a complex mod list.
: Starbound is known for being DRM-free. Simply zipping the folder allows the game to be moved and played on other machines without needing the Steam client active, which is a common practice for personal backups.
: By early 2020, the game was highly stable. Most of the game-breaking bugs from the early beta years had been ironed out.
: This was a golden era for modding. Large-scale mods like Frackin' Universe were fully mature by 2020, and many players used specific build backups (like the one in your .rar file) to ensure compatibility with their favorite mod setups before any potential (though rare) official patches. Why Archive Specific Builds?