Re: SW: Empire at War Mod Manager ALPHA 2.5 Release

[Quickshot14_pff]

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!

 

SW: Empire At War - Mod Manager BETA 2.0 Release

SW: Empire At War - Mod Manager BETA 1.0 Release (petroden mirror)

SW: Empire At War - Mod Manager BETA 1.0 Release (eawhq.de mirror)

SW: Empire At War - Mod Manager BETA 2.0 (EAW heaven mirror)

 

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.

Edited March 29, 2007 by Quickshot14_pff

[Zer_Teron]

Why dont you just wait and do it for the retail version?

[Quickshot14_pff]

Why dont you just wait and do it for the retail version?

A fair questions, mainly for two reasons, 1 the structure of how EAW reads files should be praticly the same, I expect some diffrences from some of the files I invistegated but they shouldn't be that much if at all. And 2 this will give me a big heads start on doing the mod manger for the retail version IE it won't be that much more programing to update the manger for retail. And also as a big plus the mod manger will be demo and retail version compataible.

 

A good question I hope that anwsers it

[Necro]

yea doing it for the demo is a good step since that way you can just easily get all the bugs and stuff out before release!

[DragonShadow]

I like Necro's thinking...

[Quickshot14_pff]

*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

[swgbex]

u guys sure move fast..

 

 

I need to learn to make programs :/

[DragonShadow]

Me too swgbex...Actually I took a computer science class in java programming, sucked at it, and figured I'll probably just use what other people make. Man, I wish I could program stuff... ???

[Quickshot14_pff]

Quick update all:

 

I'm a little behind schedule (overslept doh) and have some errands to run so it's going to be latter this afternoon/evening before I have the first release for you all. But I promiss it's really close *grins* Once the mod manager is out please post feedback/bug reports/questions in this thread please no need to start another one. The manager will come with at least some kind of help file for you all how detailed it is depends on how quickly i am to get it out the door to everyone.

 

Installing will be easy and painless I promiss (installshield) umm if you have any questions before the release please feel free to ask them. Thanks for the intrest/encourgment/feedback

 

Edit: Also make sure you have the latest .net framework (2.0 minum) you'll need it to run this program

[Dante_pff]

I would stay away from an installer if possible with the .Net 2.0 stuff, and do a oneclick install publish.  it would be easy to host it at brinkster or some other free webhost that allows .application extensions, plus you can easily update the clients.  installshield just gets messy, and with .Net 2.0, unless you are using some com (dunno why) its pointless other then making it save to a directory, and give it a shortcut or two, which both can be accomplished with API's (for shortcut) and winzip/winrar.

 

good work on this, are you creating .meg files per mod and appending them to the megafiles.xml for the game to read, or are you simply moving files in and out of the game directory? 

[Quickshot14_pff]

*bump*

Thanks for the info/ideas dante but i'm pretty experinced with installshield so there should be no problems I may check it out brinkester latter as a mirror for the setup file. As to anwser your question i'm doing copying into game directories. I kinda based it off of the way the freelancer mod manager activates/deactives mod files it works pretty darn well and dosn't harm much if anything.

 

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.

[Iamme]

Wow! Thank you Quickshot for getting your excellent mod manager out so soon 

[Quickshot14_pff]

Heya ll wanted to post a mirror dl. The guys at eawhq.de have been kind enough to provide a mirror for the mod manager you can find it here. Also I've been directed a bug in the options selection, apperantly when using special chars like that from diffrent lanaguages it can cause the options section parsing to report incorrectly. Because of this I will be update/reprograming that section for the next release. So far from what i've heard this is the only real bug found, and it's only minor witch is a good thing.

 

Please rember to post bug reports/questions/feedback here. Thank you.

[Dante_pff]

*bump*

Thanks for the info/ideas dante but i'm pretty experinced with installshield so there should be no problems I may check it out brinkester latter as a mirror for the setup file. As to anwser your question i'm doing copying into game directories. I kinda based it off of the way the freelancer mod manager activates/deactives mod files it works pretty darn well and dosn't harm much if anything.

 

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.

 

i meant messy on the client side, but to each his own.  have you looked into the one click publishing with .Net 2.0 yet?

[Andy1]

Lets see, how can u look at the models? 

[Andy1]

Im sorry i read it, I dont have a CLUE how to use, it can someone help plz, much appreciated!

[Megajames]

I can't get othere mods on there, need help.

 

And woo is the ISD MII powerfull

[Quickshot14_pff]

Yeah sorry the help/manuel isn't all that helpfull i was rushing to try to get it out to everyone. I would of had a better/updated version but some personal things came up so i've decied to put that off untill the next release witch i have started programing now witch will hopefully fix some know bugs. I will do my best to help you guys

 

First in order to make a mod compataible with the mod manager you need to make a .mod file overlooking the modstemplate.mod file should give you enough information about how the .mod file should be structured and works. Once you have the .mod file place it in the mods\ folder. Then you need to create the directoy/path you specifed in the .mod file for example based off my test mod i included: QS14 Mod is the name of the folder. Then you place in your mods files like this: Data\XML\whatever.xml or Data\Art\Maps\_map.tre or Data\shipnames.txt and so on. ITS IMPORTANT YOU HAVE A DATA DIRECTORY IN YOUR THE MOD'S DIRECTORY OR THE MOD MANAGER WILL IGNORE IT. I'm hopeing to fix that and also i'll be adding a log window in the next release that will help give more feedback with what it's doing when activing/deactiving mods. I don't know why I forgot that log window *hehe*

 

If you have option directories is pretty much the same. mods\\ so again for example on my test mod its like mods\QS14 Mod\rebel_5\Data\XML\factions.xml just like that it's the same as before just your putting it in the option directory, Again you have to have a data directoy in the options folder or that option will be ignored. I hope that helps/gives you a start on how to convert them. I promiss that in the next release I wll have a much more detialed step by step on how to make mods compataible. If you have any other questions or problems please ask/post what your problem is and I'll do my best to help you. Also if you think you've found a bug/problem please be detailed in what happend so I can look into. I already know of at least one or two bugs, there really technincaly minor but i know theres a few there. Thanks and keep the feedback coming.

 

To Megajames:

*hehe* I just had to make the ISD MK II, it is fairly powerfull but the ISD II's always were, there still pretty vunrable to bombers thou and thats pretty much it lol. Like I said it was just a test mod i threw together to see somethings so it's not horrible ballanced. I probley will have a more balanced ISD II in a future full version campaign thou Plus the ISD II is just fun to play with lol

 

To Dante:

*nods* this is true it can be, i've learned a bit on how to work through that thou, live and learn right I havnt looked into the one click publishing too much, i've kind of been away from .net programing for untill recently (nearly a year) so i'm not exactly up to speed. I'll probley look into it latter or if you could provide me a link to info about it, i'd appricate it

 

To Andy:

These are not MODELS these are MODS (as in modfications like Bryants Mod and Cain's Warlords Mod etc.) this a manager to make running and orignaizing them better without messing/bulking up your empire at war folder. I just wanted to make that clear for you and others who may of mis-convceved.

 

Hope that all helps and such, and like i said keep it coming i'm listing open ears this is as much for me as it is you guys. I will hopefully have that next release out soon, not sure when but it should be before the retail game is out. And a reminder that this will support the demo AND retail after the full game is released. Course more on that once the game is out and I start work on that next release. All for now may the force be with you!

[Andy1]

Ah dang, i thought this was like the one that Dante was making but, I'll find a way to use this, THx!

[Quickshot14_pff]

*bump*

New release for download. Post updated with the information.

 

Also want to let you all know i'll be re-doing my system for a hard drive upgrade for a couple days so if you ask any questions/problems it may take me a day or two to respond, just wanted to give a heads up to you all Thanks and may the force be with you!

[Quickshot14_pff]

*bump*

New release! Retail version support!!!! Mod manager now functions for both demo and retail versions!!!

 

Heya all, well sorry it took so long got caught up playing EAW of course *hehe* but here it is all ready for everyone! Let me know if you spot any bugs/problems, also finnaly have a full manuel for you all hope it helps! Any feedback/suggestions please let me know, enjoy it and may the force be with you all!

[Mith_rawn_undo]

Wanted to download. Link doesn't work?

And send eawhq the new version.

[Quickshot14_pff]

Again if you receive a 404 error connecting to the site i have the app hosted on make sure your using internet explorer as your browser. Other browsers seem to have a problem with the host i use so again my applogies. Don of EAQHQ has been notifed of the new version, he'll have it up hopefully sometime soon thats upto him to do. Hope that helps.

[Lion]

I uploaded the Mod Manager to the DEN server. You can get the download at the following url:

 

http://www.petroden.com/eaw_mod_tools.shtml

[Quickshot14_pff]

I uploaded the Mod Manager to the DEN server. You can get the download at the following url:

 

http://www.petroden.com/eaw_mod_tools.shtml

 

 

 

Thanks for the the mirror lion and the support, times like this i really do miss my old website

 

I'll be updating the top post at the end of the week with the mirror links as they appear, thanks again and may the force be with you.