Toggle to make the launcher leave mods alone

[adamkad1]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. So like, the launcher constantly messes up the mod folder so i constantly need to back it up and replace it when updating

Describe the solution you'd like We got a 'do not copy or move save directory' toggle, could be nice if there was one for the 'mods' folder too

Describe alternatives you've considered idk

Additional context

[ZhilkinSerg]

When launcher updates the game built-in mods in data\mods are also updated as they are part of the game. Any other folders with third-party mods in that folder are just copied as-is and nothing is changed in them. Not updating built-in mods is not a good option as you will eventually get an incompatible game and mod(s) version.

If you did some changes to built-in mods - don't do that. It is better create mod that is dependent on a built-in mod and put your overrides/expansions there. Then put your mod to user mods folder (i.e. mods).

[adamkad1]

Well, people can update built in mods themselves so why make an optional setting for the launcher to not do that?

[ZhilkinSerg]

There is no any sense in using launcher in that case.

[adamkad1]

There is no any sense in using launcher in that case.

Using launcher means you only have to mess with the mods folder, rather than everything. its much simpler. And you say it doesnt touch third party mods, and yet it does. Most of my third party mods just dissapear. Wouldnt make this request if it just copied them

[ZhilkinSerg]

The things you are describing are not possible - see FAQ.

[adamkad1]

The things you are describing are not possible - see FAQ.

Care to explain why then, im not a programmer

[remyroy]

The update process for mods goes as follow:

• It extracts the new updated game in an empty folder
• It assumes that the mods included in the updated game archive are up to date and better than the mods that were previously there (if such a mod existed before)
• It than checks for all the missing mods based on their ident value (the ident field in modinfo.json).
  • If it finds a unique mod that was previously there but that is currently missing from the updated game archive, it will copy that mod over to the updated game folder
  • If it finds a mod that was previously there but has the same ident value (meaining that the base game already provided that mod), it will skip that mod and it will not copy it over (meaning that it will keep the mod from the update game archive)

Let take this quick example:

Assume you have version 100 of the game. It has currently 3 mods with the following ident values:

• big_monsters (provided by the base game)
• huge_monsters (manually added)
• evil_monsters (provided by the base game)

You than ask the CDDA Game Launcher to update your game to version 101. That new version archive only comes with the big_monsters mod and the evil_monsters but those are updated by the game (since it's a new version right). You will end up with the following mods with those idents:

• big_monsters (from the new base game archive version 101)
• huge_monsters (same as before since it was not provided by the base game archive)
• evil_monsters (from the new base game archive version 101)

Does it make sense?

Let's say you really like the big_monsters mod from version 100 and you don't want to use the updated versions from the new releases for whatever reason. You could rename the folder for that mod and change it's ident value to something unique like my_big_monsters. Doing an update from that point will get you the following mod with those idents:

• my_big_monsters (same as the big_monsters mod from version 100)
• big_monsters (from the new base game archive version 101)
• huge_monsters (same as before since it was not provided by the base game archive)
• evil_monsters (from the new base game archive version 101)

Does this help?

[remyroy]

This is explained in the FAQ too: https://github.com/remyroy/CDDA-Game-Launcher#how-does-the-launcher-update-my-game

[adamkad1]

Well this explains something, but nothing in here or in faq tells me why the launcher deletes mods. It says what to do if files are lost, but not why are they lost. Heres a before and after https://i.imgur.com/6nk031Y https://i.imgur.com/9Gm77Au

[remyroy]

@adamkad1 Maybe you could send me your game folder zipped somewhere and which version of the launcher you are using to test this on my side.

[adamkad1]

yeah ill do it next time i update. laauncher version 1.4.14

[ZhilkinSerg]

For the start try using mods folder instead of data\mods for any third party mods.

[adamkad1]

For the start try using mods folder instead of data\mods for any third party mods.

someone said that on discord, i tried it but the game seemed to miss a lot of things or something

[Cenness]

For the start try using mods folder instead of data\mods for any third party mods.

Tried that, launcher purged that folder too.

Edit1: For the record, mod does have modinfo.json filled as the cdda docs require. Edit2: Found a workaround - add ident field to modinfo. Edit3: Yeah, that doesn't fly - game fails to load the mod after that