Organizing Mods?

[Paeng]

All who come from the Simcity world are probably used to the fact that plugins can be organized in sub-folders and/or be re-named to anything the user likes or to set a specific load-order...


Not so in Banished - I just tried to put some early order into my quickly growing mod-collection... Well, surprise! None of them worked anymore after this.

I can not organize mods in sub-folders under [WinData]. They simply don't show up in the ModMenu.

Worse - I can not even give them more meaningful names. They show up fine in the ModMenu, but not in the game.


I see problems with that in the future - either by doubled file-names, or by the sheer chaos of finding a particular mod in a heap of inconsistently named mods all bunched up in a single directory.

[slink]

The programmer is new to the idea of mods, or at least newer to that concept than he is to the concept of a game.  He only decided to add modding after the game was released, and was writing the game itself for years before its release.  That is the why of, but not the solution to, the problems.

[rkelly17]

Worse - I can not even give them more meaningful names. They show up fine in the ModMenu, but not in the game.

That seems weird. Why would the name of the .pkm file matter?

I'm OK with the difference between one guy programming and EA being able to through an army of programmers at a project. That being said, it would be nice to be able to organize mods in a rational folder structure. The one place my mind is tidy is when I'm organizing folders on my HDD. 

[A Nonny Moose]

This is really important.  There is clearly a problem with the access method used to attach the mods.

As a long standing player of SimCity 4 Deluxe, I expect to handle mods the same way as, I am sure, does Paeng.  The method of accessing mods in SC4D is simply to use the call in the file system that appends the complete path name to the file then loads the file.  This allows sub-directories of any depth.  Not much programming, but a great convenience to all.

The next iteration should contain this fix.

[slink]

I have renamed my mods with no problem.  They seem to work okay, although you have to reload them into any saved games if you had been using them there under a different name.

[Paeng]

Yeah well, I'm not 'blaming' Luke... 

It's just something I saw last night, and I know that this is gonna be a pita sooner rather than later...

My idea is to ask to the modding community to set up a system, sort of a naming convention... Maybe something like
[Creator][Mod Name][Version].pkm or so...

I mean it's in everybody's interest to give the files some unique identifier... 

I have renamed my mods with no problem.

Well, that is quite strange... I tried all kinds of things last night - renamed plugs just don't show in my setup (not even with reloads or re-starts in between)... Now I'm confused.


EDIT
Slink, did you try sub-folders as well (with success)?

[slink]

My idea is to ask to the modding community to set up a system, sort of a naming convention... Maybe something like
[Creator][Mod Name][Version].pkm or so...

I mean it's in everybody's interest to give the files some unique identifier... 

Just so long as we don't descend to the practice of issuing permits for ranges of identifiers, as they did in the Sims community.  I was making mods for the Sims before everyone else, and the community had the nerve to tell me that I had to remove my initials from the identifiers because I was infringing on someone else's later-issued range.  I didn't, by the way.   

I have renamed my mods with no problem.

Well, that is quite strange... I tried all kinds of things last night - renamed plugs just don't show in my setup... Now I'm confused.

I did not include any special characters.  Might you have done so?

[mariesalias]

Maybe there is something Luke could do on his end to make this easier?

[Paeng]

issuing permits for ranges of identifiers

Nah, I'm not too fond of that kind of stuff either... 

I did not include any special characters.  Might you have done so?

No, I did remember some earlier reports from the modders that this game is dicey with special chars... within the scripts, I thought... but I avoided them anyway, even though I'm not really a 'camel-back' fan 

Well, I'm completely stumped - just spent another hour on this... can't get my (re-named) plugs to show in-game... 

Maybe there is something Luke could do on his end to make this easier?

Oh, absolutely... Nonny described it spot on...

[solarscreen]

This is something else I think we need a special modders group and board for to hash these things out and present a focused, organized approach to the Banished players of the world as a proposal or guideline we can use to help everyone.

Do we have enough serious modders who want to discuss things privately and work out code where the members will respect who has done what and give credit where credit is due? Then as agreed upon in private discussions and organized efforts present to the public boards a proposed organization for mods and those interesting in modding.

Sounds good or I'm up too late again?

[RedKetchup]

personally i dont see a problem. as we can continue like this, or have a private room, both is fine too me.

[slink]

Public is fine with me.  I also don't mind Paeng's suggestion of CreatorModnameVersion although that can get pretty long and version is supposed to be built into the mod's in-game description.  Perhaps just CreatorModname.pkm?

As for credit, there is an issue of whether modders will co-operate or whether they will compete.  My guess is some of each, with varying degrees of honesty.  Isn't that the case in all human endeavors?

[rkelly17]

I think I like @Paeng's suggestion because I would like to be able to see the version number without opening the game (e.g., keeping an old version in an "old versions" folder in case a new version introduces a bug). I followed this practice in my SC4 folders and it has helped keep track of things. I find that especially in Civ5 mods, new versions sometimes break something that had been working well, so I save old versions before I download.

As someone who is primarily a mod user rather than a mod creator (though I would really like to learn how!) I would appreciate some way to bring various mods together while avoiding conflicts. A modders board might well be the way to go, though, as I said in another thread, it would be nice if it had a learning channel for those of us who want to learn.

[A Nonny Moose]

If anything, I am a mod user.  I remember a call when I was active in VS programming that could list the complete pathname of a set of files in an extended dialogue box, and it was rather miraculous to have the run-time do all this work.

After you get the list in your dialogue it becomes rather trivial to parse the file name if that is what is needed.  I also recall that there is some kind of reverse parsing function available.  So this little oversight is easily fixed.

Mods can then be buried to any depth.  I generally use

<my account>/game/plugins/source/modname.

[slink]

Just keep in mind that mods apparently cannot contain "." in their name, which is often used in denoting versions.

Edit:  Okay, I've just re-posted my Large Pasture Override as SJGL_Large Pasture Override_2.