[Aborted] Distant Worlds 2 Mod Maker

[Eventure]

development aborted!

[frankycl]

Wow, that really looks very promissing - and certainly is very much appreciated !

But why did you say "there isn't actually any mod support" ? - Don't you know the DW2ModLoader from Tyler-IN already ? (see here: https://github.com/DW2MC/DW2ModLoader) - and bsds: As far as I know, DW2 has Harmony-support now - so, I wouldn't call that "no mod support" (but you're right that this is in no way satisfying, so far - and this all still needs to be improved. )

But if you're a bit skilled in C#-coding you might also want to get in touch with Tyler from above (he's most time chatting/helping/explaining lively on Discord - aka ̑🅠) or even with my son, Pascal - or countryen/C0, - who's a professional programmer in Germany and want's to help with modding the game, too ? (although he's no big fan of 4X-games )

Ok, and here is what I need/want the most of any modding-helper:
It's the possibility of comparing many different mods and giving/showing a warning if they aren't compatible (because they alter the same sections/lines/IDs in the used files) , listing/showing what sections/topics wouldn't be compatible (and possibly why) and offering to chose only one of these sections/topics to be used, without needing to completely discarding the other mod that wouldn't be compatible without it. - Do you think you could possibly create something like this ? (because this isn't possible with the before mentioned mod-loader - although it's supporting the use of some simultaneously used mods, already. )
... my son is also trying things with this, already (so another point of contact, maybe ) - but sadly he hasn't got much time for coding for DW2 / modding the game, mostly, so this might take a while (or even get to a halt completely, when he's engaged with other things).

[Eventure]

development aborted

[frankycl]

To be precise, there is currently no official mod support, but I know it will come.
I know the DW2ModLoader and it's probably a nice tool at the moment and will be supported at a later date.
I'm not sure if I'll be quicker to release a beta of Mod Maker that implements official mod support by the developers. Let's see.

Yes official support will certainly be improved (sometime), but as far as I know that's not even on their official roadmap, so far - so, I guess that you don't have to hurry too much with this at all. (but the ModLoader has some serious performance-issues with big files / many edits atm, so, if you're ModMaker will handle this better it's more than appreciated (and my own mod is perfect for testing this )

Sure, a task list of all warnings also comes and is already on the Todo list. From there you can override, set the default value, or ignore changes from game updates and other mods. Yes, I plan a feature to import other mods into an own mod.

Really looking forward to this.

... and I have another thing that is in dire need of some modding/improvements, imho - the music / -system of the game, since it not only has mostly awful music, but also a terrible music-system, so far - it's a total mess of randomly played tracks without distinction of diferent races and/or game-play situations (with some exceptions). (although I know that it's very easy to exchange the original music with your own tracks - but that doesn't help if those aren't played when you want/need them to. )
What would be needed, imho, is the possibility to (exclusively) allocate different music to different races (including the independants), different zooming-levels and different gameplay-situations like e.g. diplomatic actions with different factions and events (like races, pirates, story-events, etc.). - Could you try to support this, too (please) ? That would be really great.

[Eventure]

development aborted

[frankycl]

(...)
I agree, bad design decision. Probably wanted to try something new, but I think the devs heard the criticism and will (have to) change that.

Yes, maybe - but unlike with other possible improvements I haven't heard of this from the DEVs, so far (and it isn't even mentioned on their roadmap, too).

But thanks anyway for your answers and your efforts. - I guess I'll ask my son if he can look into it (and will present you/the others eventual improvements here in the forum - i.e. if possible, of course).

[Eventure]

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[frankycl]

Yes - looks even more promissing now and a bit less cluttered/more overseeable than the version in the first post.
But I was wondering why you're trying to do this all by yourself ? Don't you need some additionally testers (or other help), before releasing the tool to the public ? (would love to test this thing soon )

Furthermore I haven't seen (or read) anything about editing textures or other art-assets. Will this be possible, too ? (I mean there exists already a handy extraction-tool for the bundle-files - do you know it ? (although most of the contents have to be converted, to use them in an editor/graphic-app - but this shouldn't be too difficult for you, or not ?)

[Eventure]

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[frankycl]

I would like the information about the extraction tool, then I can see what else might be possible.

Ok, here you go: https://github.com/DW2MC/DistantWorlds2 ... tag/v1.1.1 ... and here is the code: https://github.com/DW2MC/DistantWorlds2 ... Program.cs

... also a little examples- and instructions-pic:

INFO.jpg (230.93 KiB) Viewed 7837 times

... and the web-source for this: https://www.reddit.com/r/DistantWorlds/ ... _released/

It is currently the case that when the game is started, the Mod Maker checks whether the mod contains image or graphic files and they are then copied into the game folder and of course they are deleted again when the game is closed.
These files must therefore be created beforehand and then copied to the mod folder in the appropriate subfolder.

Wow - that really sounds like a great management-system (and should be very user-friendly, too)

[Eventure]

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[frankycl]

The bundled files are formatted as .dds which makes dealing with these files a bit more complicated for me as there is no standard support in VB.net to display a .dds file or convert a .png file into a .dds file to perhaps replace an image.

Don't know much about VB.net, but according to fileinfo.com the .dds format can be converted to a .png with an easy to use, cross-platform and open source comandline-program - see here: https://fileinfo.com/extension/dds ... and the ImageMagick-program can be found here: https://fileinfo.com/software/imagemagick/imagemagick.

Maybe you can integrate this in your Mod Maker ?

[Eventure]

development aborted

[Eventure]

The first version is now available for download!
Feel free to test and I like to hear any thoughts and suggestions.
Thanks in advance.

[iancmtaylor]

Congratulations Eventure!

I made a quick mod to see if you knew about .shmd files. Just adding a 0 to the size of the haakonish escort. Worked, cool.

But the loader had closed itself, and the .exe won't run...

[Eventure]

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[iancmtaylor]

Thanks!

You speaking of the ModLoader or when launching game by the Mod Maker?
The Mod Maker goes hidden when launching the game and reappear when exiting the game.

Right, it closed itself, and the .exe doesn't launch anymore.

> I just checked Task Manager and it was still running. I closed it and now it runs again.

It wasn't minimized, maybe it was in the system tray and I didn't think to check there.

[Eventure]

development aborted

[frankycl]

Hm, I tried it too, but I only get a black window - no buttons, no menu, no nothing (and there's nothing in the "Logs"-directory, too).

Does it need some specific WIN-files, maybe (like a specific .Net framework- or runtime-version) ?

[Eventure]

development aborted