Grognak's Mod Manager v1.7 (Updated March 6, 2013!)

Discuss and distribute tools and methods for modding. Moderator - Grognak
Vigilant
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 3:24 pm

Re: Grognak's Mod Manager

Postby Vigilant » Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:44 am

Great idea! Thank you for your work! *thump up*

A little question for further understanding:

Do appendices work cumulative?

For example:

First entry:

<event name="START_GAME">
<modifyPursuit amount="-100000"/>
<text>[...]</text>
</event>
]

Second entry by GMM (at the end of the file):

<!-- Scrap Advantage mod -->

<event name="START_GAME">
<autoReward level="HIGH">scrap_only</autoReward>
<text>[...]</text>
</event>


So both instructions will modify the start conditions? Or only the last?
bas
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 3:36 pm

Re: Grognak's Mod Manager

Postby bas » Wed Sep 19, 2012 3:20 pm

Hi Grognak,

I updated ftldat with some new features you might find interesting. There is now one single FTLPack class which supports in-place adding, removing, replacing, etc. This is also exposed via the ftldat CLI. See the ftldat topic http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1920
mattimao
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:41 pm

Re: Grognak's Mod Manager

Postby mattimao » Wed Sep 19, 2012 4:02 pm

Ok... WOW. Just Wow. :shock:

This will be to FTL as OBMM is to Oblivion!
bas
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 3:36 pm

Re: Grognak's Mod Manager

Postby bas » Wed Sep 19, 2012 4:42 pm

By the way, it would be not so hard to create a tool that automatically creates a .ftl mod file, by supplying it with the original data.dat and resource.dat and the modified data.dat en resource.dat. In that way, everyone can convert an existing mod to work with your tool.
MattsterT
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 8:41 pm

Re: Grognak's Mod Manager

Postby MattsterT » Wed Sep 19, 2012 5:06 pm

Hi Grognak, I love the mod-loader I think this is really going to be a huge asset for us modders in-fact I'm converting over Firefly - Serenity and Star Trek - Enterprise right now.

I'v run into a snag with the way it flattens the /img directory, from what I can tell changes to img/ship are added to /img during patching meaning any graphical changes wont be reflected; for example if I modify the Kestrel to an alternate skin and save the file when it gets packed and unpacked instead of [root]/img/ship/kestral_base.png I get [root]/img/kestral_base.png

Is this just my incompetence and I'm using the file structures wrong or is this something that requires a fix?
AtillaBosma
Posts: 56
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2012 3:51 pm

Re: Grognak's Mod Manager

Postby AtillaBosma » Wed Sep 19, 2012 6:32 pm

I would like to thank you for creating this, it really is great.
I'll be sure to make my mods .ftl compatible.
mattimao
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:41 pm

Re: Grognak's Mod Manager

Postby mattimao » Wed Sep 19, 2012 6:56 pm

How much scrap does the Scrap mod add? I want to make sure I am using GMM right.
Thanks
Grognak
Posts: 172
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:42 pm

Re: Grognak's Mod Manager

Postby Grognak » Wed Sep 19, 2012 8:16 pm

Thank you all for the love!

Vigilant wrote:Do appendices work cumulative?

Very good question! I actually don't know the answer, try it and report back? :)

bas wrote:Hi Grognak,

I updated ftldat with some new features you might find interesting. There is now one single FTLPack class which supports in-place adding, removing, replacing, etc. This is also exposed via the ftldat CLI. See the ftldat topic viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1920

Really cool stuff. I'll try to integrate your new version soon.

bas wrote:By the way, it would be not so hard to create a tool that automatically creates a .ftl mod file, by supplying it with the original data.dat and resource.dat and the modified data.dat en resource.dat. In that way, everyone can convert an existing mod to work with your tool.

The difficult part would be for the tool to tell whether or not to use .append or not, I think. But I think that if someone is capable of unpacking the .dat files in the first place, they could probably make a .ftl file (it's really easy!)

MattsterT wrote:Is this just my incompetence and I'm using the file structures wrong or is this something that requires a fix?

Nope, that's my bad. I'll try to get a patch out soon.

mattimao wrote:How much scrap does the Scrap mod add? I want to make sure I am using GMM right.

You should see, on the very first screen you see when you start a new game, the text Scrap: x (x being a random amount.) I think the game actually ignores rewards on the first event for whatever reason, but if you see that text that means that GMM is working for you.
Zushii
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:34 pm

Re: Grognak's Mod Manager

Postby Zushii » Wed Sep 19, 2012 8:51 pm

This is an amazing tool, good work! I was wondering how you would have several mods at once.
Xenolith: The Mod Database
Easy Mod management, easy downloading and instant notifications when updates arrive!
Now supports FTL!
tazardar
Posts: 45
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:05 pm

Re: Grognak's Mod Manager

Postby tazardar » Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:24 pm

Hi,

great work, that is a great help for the modding scene.

I planned to create a similar tool on the weekend, but now i don't have to. Maybe ill start a ship creator instead.

I have a suggestion though: Sooner or later, mods are going to become complex. Newer versions will be released and start depending on each other. How about an additional xml file in the ftl file that contains stuff like

  • name
  • version
  • description
  • dependencies&version
  • additional instructions
  • ...

One thing that comes to mind is that, at the time, we can only replace/modify the 18 existing player ships, and players might not want to replace the ships that the mod creator planned. You could store the filenames of random ship files in the xml and prompt the user with a choice which ship to replace.

If we want to be especially fancy, we could have it contain the instructions what to change in the game files, reducing the modorder problem and making it easier to automatically detect conflicts.

TAz