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SW: Empire at War Mod Manager

Quickshot14

By Quickshot14
in Empire at War

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Quickshot14 Newbie

Quickshot14

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Greets all I have the next release for you all now. Simple download it and install it, if you already have Alpha 2.0 or 2.5 Mod manager install simply select Repair when prompted or if you rather you can do a complete uninstall, re-install. The Manuel/Help file is now finnaly finshed. A lot of bugs that were found have been fixed in this new release and also a few additions, depedents now function properly with mod files and also a log window has been added witch should help give more feedback to the user. And of course the big one, RETAIL VERSION SUPPORT! Hope you all enjoy it, thanks for the coninued enthuisam for this.

 

If you have any questions/feedback/bug reports please post them in this thread so we don't bog down the forums with various posts. I've tried to make this as freindly to use as possible but there are some limtiations not many but a few the verhist.txt as some info on that. Anywayz i'm tired *heh* and i got to get up early tommorow so heres the download link, i hope you all find this usefull it's fun working on it :) May the force be with you!

 

(FOR MORE UPTO DATE INFORMATION/LINKS TO DOWNLOAD CLICK ON THE NEWER THREAD BELLOW!)

Newer Thread!!!

 

PREVIOUS RELEASE:

Greets all well its done well for a first release anywayz *hehe* first my aplgoies this took a little longer then i expected since there was some bugs i had to fix. This is still considered Alpha so there will more then likely be bugs of some kind, make sure you have .net framwork 2.0 or higher in order to use the mod manager. The help/manuel file is something to be desired i promiss to release/make a better version soon, there is basic info on how to use the mod manager and how to put your mod into the mod manager for use. Also included is a test mod I made based of bryants mod and also using chris c's space maps. This should help give you modders a basic idea of how to do your mods for the mod manager.

 

ORIGNAL POST:

Greets all,

 

I posted this yesterday in PFF and now i'm doing it here, basicly i'm let you all know what i'm planning and i'd like to hear what you think/liked to see included. Since theres quite a few mods out there for the demo and with the full version closing in and since I really havn't seen one i'd figure i'd make a Mod Manager for Empire at War. I'm working on the app currently and will hopefully have a working version for you all in the next few days. I'd like to get your input as modders for what your looking for in a mod manager. But first heres an idea of what this app will be able to do.

 

First and foremost it's a manager and I want to make it as originzable for the user as possible, this will also help the modder out in the long run. Basicly there will be a catagorey/sub-catagorey system for example 3 catagories may be Total Conversions, Major Mods, Minor Mods. These are basicly folders ie something like TC_CAT, MM_CAT, and MinorM_CAT as a rouge example. Whats great about this system is the user can move the mods around to diffrent catagories and even create sub catagories ie having a Star Wars Type sub-catagory under Total Conversions.

 

This will also allow mods on top of mods to be much easier for the modder, for example say you bryants mod as a sub-catagorie, you can set that sub-catagorie dependent to bryants mod, what that does is any mods under that sub-catagorie that have it stated in there information file will use that dependent. This should make mods on top of mods much easier to do.

 

It's rather a rough sketch I know but I hope you get the genreal idea of how the catagories and sub-catagories work.

 

Also as a mod manger options for mods will be included, bryants mod is another great example since we all know theres the Rebel and Empire side with diffrent techs in the mods information file you can add thoses as options so when the user activates the mod an option dialog will come up allowing him/her to select what option they want to select in this example weather they want to activate the mod as rebel or empire with tech 1 or 5.

 

Well I need to get back to work, so I hope this all gives you at least a genreal idea of what i'm planning to do with this thing, any further ideas/input would be much appricated. Thanks all.

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Quickshot14 Newbie

Quickshot14

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*bump*

Just wanted to give everyone a little update on how things are going.

 

I'm about 55-60% done with a first release of the mod manger. I'm just finshing up the orgnizational part of the manager and will then be working on the main meat of the program witch is the actviation/de-activiation of the mods them self. All in all i'm making great progress and it's my hope to have a first release out to you all by the end of monday at the earliest or mid tuesday at the latest. Of course if anything major comes up that pushes this to a latter release i'll let you all know. In the mean time if any of you modders out there are intrested I could release the a .mod template file for you all, this is the information file that tells the mod manager what your mod is and the like. If anyone is intrested in seeing this to get a heads start on updating there mod for use with the mod manager please just post here. If enough people are intrested then I will post it. Anywayz back to work, laters all :)

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Quickshot14 Newbie

Quickshot14

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*bump* DL is up and linked, if anyone would like to be a mirror by all means please do so and post the link to the file. If anyone has problems getting to the site link for the dl, make sure your using internet explorer, other browsers seem to have a problem with the site. Thanks.

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DonBilbo Newbie

DonBilbo

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ive got a problem with that thing ...

I tried to make Chriz Mod 7 mod manager ready.

 

this is the .mod file: (the descriptions are in german)

 

[VERSION]

7.0

[/VERSION]

 

[NAME]

Chriz Mod Version 7

[/NAME]

 

[PATH]

Chriz7\

[/PATH]

 

[AUTHOR]

Chriz

[/AUTHOR]

 

http://www.eawhq.de

 

[FORUM]

http://www.hqboard.net

[/FORUM]

 

[iNFO]

Chriz Mod Version 7 ergänzt die Demo um vieles, was der ursprünglichen Demo gefehlt hat. So kann man nun nahezu alle verfügbaren Schiffe und Einheiten bauen. Auch das Imperium wurde freigeschaltet und mit ihm nahezu alle imperialen Einheiten, die in der Demo keine Abstürze verursachen. Außerdem gibt es einige neue Spacemaps und und und...

[/iNFO]

 

[sUBCATDEPENDT]

NO

[/sUBCATDEPENDT}

 

[OPTIONS]

0 = Die Rebellen

{N/A}

1 = Imperium

{Imps\}

[/OPTIONS]

 

The folders look as follows:

Chriz7\GameData\Data\ <--- in that folder there are Art\ and XML\

and

Chriz7\Imps\GameData\Data <--- in that folder there are Art\ and XML\

 

So, what have I done wrong?

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Quickshot14 Newbie

Quickshot14

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Heya Don,

 

First of all your VERSION tag info is wrong way wrong, this is for the version of the mod manager not your mod. (read over the modstemplate.mod comment under the VERSION tag for more details) so since were using ALPHA 2.0 of the mod manager this should be 2.0A

 

Also your directory structure dosn't need a GameData directory in it, because your mod folder already ACTS like a GameData directory so it should be as follows:

Chriz7\Data\ <--- in that folder there are Art\ and XML\

and

Chriz7\Imps\Data\ <--- in that folder there are Art\ and XML\

 

That should fix your problems, again my applogies that the help/manuel file isn't very detailed i will start working on a much better one latter today. In the mean time again use the modstemplate.mod file for information on .mod files and use the included Quickshot14's Test Mod as an example/comparsion.

 

Lastly if you encounter any errors when trying to load the mod manager again after correcting what I stated above try deleteing the eawmm.cfg in the application directory and try again. Sometimes when crashs occur during load the .cfg file gets currupt/incomplete.

 

Thanks and rember to post any bugs/feedback/questions here again. May the force be with you :)

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DonBilbo Newbie

DonBilbo

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k, thx, ill post whether the problem consists.

 

EDIT: I just did what u told me and now it works! Great. Thanks for your help.

So now, that i can make mods mod manager compatible, i will host your mod manager at our page.

 

Edit²: So now it works, but it doesnt properly work. I cant choose which side to activate.

 

may the force be with you

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Quickshot14 Newbie

Quickshot14

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Heya don,

 

hmm is the options dialog just not showing up or is the option you picked not being 'activated' properly? The mod options dialog should show up after you click activate witch in turn you pick witch option from the dropdown list. If it's the latter, ie not being activated properly double check the directory name in the {} of the option is correct (i made this mistake when making my test .mod file so it can be common) if not try to give me a step by step of what happens or if you can a screenie would help. Thanks

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Quickshot14 Newbie

Quickshot14

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Hmm thats odd, the dialog should appear....without acutally trying it myself i'm not what sure to say, from your code everything looks right. You can send me the mod and i can look into for you or/and you can try to delete your eawmm.cfg and try it again, i doubt thats the problem but you never know. (keep in mind any catagories/sub-catagories you may have created or any catagories edits will be lost ie everything will return to default when you delete the eawmm.cfg and start the mod manager again)

 

Hmm that is odd it should show up, thats all I can think of sorry I can't do more for you without acutally seeing it.

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Quickshot14 Newbie

Quickshot14

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Heya don,

 

I overlooked your .mod file and your were right and I think I have found the problem. For some reason or another the language chars you use in the info portion of the .mod file throws the mod manager off when it's reading the options information. (chars like these: ä or ü or ß etc.) because the manager can't find the correct option syntax because it's been thrown off it comes back that there is no options/ignores them.

 

After removeing all thoese chars from the info text the options then showed up correctly. Obvisouly this is a bug and means I need to find/do a better way of parsing through the mod options. So we weren't going crazy just found something never even thought of. This is good and the point of why it's still an alpha ;)

 

the only think you can do at this time is remove the chars/try to avoid using them, I aplogize for the incovence but at least we found this out and i will be sure to find a way to correct the issue by the next release :) *hehe* I knew there was going to be a bug like this somewhere lol always seems to be. :)

 

Anywayz I hope that helps, may the force be with you :)

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DonBilbo Newbie

DonBilbo

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Yea, now it all works properly! Big thx man.

 

So now I will host your Mod Manager at EaWHQ.de

I also will convert all mods we are hosting to be Mod Manager ready.

This thing is just great ... exactly what I was looking for. Surely needs some bugfixing, but its already very useful and makes things more comfortable.

 

Just send me an PN when a new version is released - then Ill host it on our page.

Later, when the full version is released this for sure will be one of the most useful tools for EaW.

 

Just a tip from me: Later when the full version is released u'll need another subcategory, something like "Small Mods". I know, its possible to create your own, but i think they would be shown in Demo Mods for example, right?

 

May the force be with u

 

EDIT: yea yea ... you should make it compatibel to german spcial letters such as "Ä", "Ö", "Ü" or "ß".

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Quickshot14 Newbie

Quickshot14

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*hehe* thnx thats very encoruging to know don. Not bad for my first real attempt at a mod uttility/tool. I will do so for you don since your requested it and of course i will update this post when theres any new veersion/update to the mod.

 

I cerintly hope so it will at least give us one way to orignize and switch between mods.

 

I'll gladly take into consideration adding any default hardcoded/non-hardcoded catagories into the mod manager. Esppically thoses from modding groups for example and the like. I'm very proud of the orignization system I have in place, it acutally was the bulk of programing time since it was rather the first time i attempted to program something like it *heh* needless to say i'm very happy with how it worked out.

 

Yes I defintly will, means reprograming a block of code but then again that block was rather messy anywayz in the long run it wil defintly work out and thats the whole point of all this. I'm also going to be adding a log-text box. I don't know why i forgot to add one in the first place, this will give feedback and should help with any future bugs/problems like the one you experince.

 

Of course theres more to add/work on. I don't expect any major .mod file changes untill after emprie at war comes out. So just forewarning on that. But again the mod manager will be useable for both the demo and retial that i promiss.

 

Well back to working on the real manuel/help file *heh* again thanks for the encourging feedback and for your patince in working through the problem with me. The force is strong in this one, and the force will be with you always :)

 

Oh admiral sith btw nice work on the conversion with cains mod i'm glad to see it went ok, as to your concern/question about the diffcuilty. Besides doing it the way you setup (manualy) you could potential do it as an extra mod? Hmm something to think about on my end, mods that require mods maybe somehting to add to the subdependt or something? (since the subdependt check really dons't work yet hehe) anywayz something to look into any ideas or thoughts would be appericate.

 

Thank you all please keep it coming. May the force be with you.

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Quickshot14 Newbie

Quickshot14

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Quick note to Admrial sith:

 

I noticed that you forgot to add the Data directory in the mods directory (in the zipfile) for example:

 

is: Warlords Mod v6.0 Total Expansion\Play Admrial Zaarin\XML\

 

should be: Warlords Mod V6.0 Total Expansion\Play Admrial Zaarin\Data\XML

and so on.

I note it becuase if the mod manger can not find a Data folder in the mod folder/mod options folder it WILL ignore the mod/mod option. Wanted to give you a heads up on that :)

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DonBilbo Newbie

DonBilbo

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again thanks for the encourging feedback and for your patince in working through the problem with me. The force is strong in this one, and the force will be with you always

 

You're welcome :) Already having a mod manager for the demo is amazing. for some much older games im still looking for a properly working one. so i try to support u as much as i can ;)

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Quickshot14 Newbie

Quickshot14

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admrial sith:

 

Hmm everything in the .mod file looks in order and you say the options don't come up? I havn't had a chance to acutally test it with the mod manager yet i'll try to do that sometime today but i'm not sure when i have a tight schedule today. Once I get a chance i'll run it through the mod manager and see what i can find may be wrong :)

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