Standardize Modding!

[Roetghoer]

At the risk of being both redundant and removed, i post this new thread to shed some light on the way modifications take place at the moment.

Right now enthousiastic people are modding their own preferences into modpacks designed, mostly, for their own usage and wishes. This is not wrong, but suboptimal in my opinion. Ideal would be that everybody would be able to choose his/her own combination of modifications, like several civilizations as well as the greenmod and the lostunits mods at once, without having to adjust the script manually everytime

I would like to get you acquainted with the 'Modswitcher' by TDB ( http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=140188 ) This little prog, currently still in an immature form, will allow a large audience to combine different mods together without the hassle of modding the scripts by hand!

I think TDB could use either a little help or at least some encouragement for his activities, because this prog feels like the missing link in the current game to me. Eventually, I hope we can come to some kind of standardized modding using a program like TDB's which would greatly enhance playability of mods on the game.

Don't you think has lead to chaotic modification already? A little bit more structure could greatly improve the succes of mods AND the game in general

 

[kurdt]

need to fix the link...

Although I was actually thinking about the same thing this morning, how we need some sort of 3-way merging program, using the original as the base, and comparing it to each of the mods, to then produce one final, merged file.

 

[Hastur]

Roetghoer: I agree with your statement regarding standardizing however spamming your message into every thread in the forum perhaps isn't the best way to accomplish your goal.

In addition, in your comment on my Caravan mod, you said several things that didn't make sense... please explain so that I can correct any issues.

And your link doesn't work in this post either.

 

[Roetghoer]

link fixed, don't understood how it went wrong but what the ...

And yes i've added my idea to a few threads, but i tried to limit this to the kind of subjects which we're providing some kind of mixture of mods/ideas into a single file. And i've adopted a somewhat aggresive manner in this because i think i should address this as soon as possible to as many people as possible because this isn't just some critique but a more structural thing that's currently lacking. Actually i think Firaxis/take2 should have anticipated this kind of chaotic behaviour in mod-creation and add some [optional] structure beforehand

 

[Hastur]

Ok... I've looked at the thread you're referring to (and read EVERY post in it). There is no mention of standardization except that perhaps some form of standardization would be desirable. Even then, the entire point of the app TDB is creating is that it would remove the need for standardization because it would do the file comparison for you.

I'm not intending to flame or bash you or your suggestion.

And lastly, the only standard I've seen discussed was in this thread and is in a very primative form and thus wouldn't be worth incorporating into a mod until the specification has been nailed down a bit and agreed upon by the community.

 

[Roetghoer]

When the prog in its current form identifies conflicts in some line (and one line will be enough for incompatibility), i believe those conflicts could have been prevented by the two/or more modders realizing that the lines they where adjusting COULD conflict with other (commonly used/downloaded) mods.

Of course some mods will allways be incompatible because of their different usage of a specific line, but being able to combine additional civilizations etc should surely be possible AND could be aided by some sort of standard or standard of conduct, lets call it a guide line to succesfull combination with other mods. (I realize now that 'standardize' might not be a lucky choice of word, pardon my english, but i think it gives a fair idea of what i intend to 'mission')

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

I would like to jump in here and add my support to Mod standardization efforts.
I have been starting to advocate the use of the Modswitcher program on Poly and encourage the adoption of more easily combined mod design. Some initial groundwork has been layed in this thread.

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=142916

I am hoping we can create a coumunity wide MOD standard that will both help Mod makers as well as alow the mods themselves to be easily combined in nearly limitless combinations.

We need to form a braintrust of the best moders and leaders in the mod comunity to create a set of tools and templates and organize mods into well organized libraries.

 

[Stone-D]

I've actually already started working on a kind of basic framework for merging python mods... started out purely as a personal aid.

Currently, my method is as follows.

A global EventManager subclass is used. This has the bare necessities for such a subclass, together with empty definitions for all game events.

Each mod's "changes" and are to be surrounded by tags :

################# SD-UTILITY-PACK ###################
import sdToolKit
sdEcho       = sdToolKit.sdEcho

################# STONE-D GLOBALS ###################
import sdReligion
import sdCultureConquest

################ 3RD PARTY GLOBALS ##################
# <cultureDecay>
import CulturalDecay
# </cultureDecay>

# <SettlerReligion>
import SettlerReligion
# </SettlerReligion>

# <AbandonRazeDemolish>
import AbandonRazeDemolish
raze = AbandonRazeDemolish.AbandonRazeDemolish()
# </AbandonRazeDemolish>

################ EVENT DEFINITIONS ##################
	def onBuildingBuilt(self, argsList):
		# <Inquisition>
		self.BuildInquisition(argsList)
		# </Inquisition>
		self.parent.onBuildingBuilt(self, argsList)

	def onCityAcquired(self, argsList):
		# <sdCultureConquest>
		self.sdCultureConquest.sdCultureConquestCityAcquired(argsList)
		# </sdCultureConquest>
		# <TechConquest>
		self.TechConquest(argsList)
		# </TechConquest>
		self.parent.onCityAcquired(self, argsList)

This modular approach is partly why I made sdToolKit - one root modding package with commonly used functions that can be updated separately.

 

[battles.14]

The problem with the modding up to this point is that people are more concerned with making things that work than making things that are more structually sound (in terms of programming). I'm trying right now to work with a modder that has some of the best new civilizations on this site, but his XML work is very jumbled. I've offered to help clean up and update his civs, but he's being recalcitrant. It's situations like this that have led to the jumbled present we live in.