[Outdated] The Proper Way to Install Mods

The folder structure matters when it is overwriting an existing file already in the game.

 

The folder structures are the exact same in my mod folder, anyway.

 

Some people are just missing the point entirely. This method, as SethKipz said, allows to create a chain of slave folders that load over the last one. This isn't very useful for implementing new items, but it should be a must for mods that rewrite existing files (like editing existing items or changing ore distribution tables).

Another important point is that it allows users to have all their modded content in one folder, making for an easy rollback to vanilla. And when modloaders/managers come out, they will be able to operate on slave copies of files like the player.config crafting list, leaving the original files intact.

 

techupgraderbr1 I assume is your custom file, try renaming the .png to something else and make sure your file uses that name and not the original.

 

Interesting fact for anyone who didn't realize, the game doesn't care where an asset is, unless it's searching for it - such as a sound effect or interface, but all items and objects get read from anywhere within the assets folder, which essentially means you can have your very own folder for your mod inside the assets folder and everything will still work, this isn't intrusive of the games files and this doesn't require any editing of the bootstrap (which may be a bit intimidating to those without programming knowledge).

 

Yes, we discussed this here like 5 times lol. The bootloader is for ease of use. It doesn't mean we have to keep moving folders out of the root mod folder just to disable them if we need to.

 

Oh so you have, so what do you have to do to disable a mod? Because I don't think moving a single folder is really that much more effort than editing a config file, these arn't big folders, and if you keep all your files in the same folder its very simple.
Still, seems useful if your editing existing assets!

Edit.posted by mistake too early doh >.<

 

That has nothing to do with my issue here. I had to remake techupgrade.png because it couldn't locate the original file. My issue is with oredistributions.lvltable. The image is simply showing how my folder structure is the exact same. I need to add a custom ore to oredistributions.lvltable, and I wish to distribute it so it doesn't modify the vanilla file. Of course, placing my version of the file in my mod's biomes folder causes my game to crash on start up due to it being a duplicate file. The tech upgrade is working perfectly, and has no relevance to my issue with this method of mod handling.

 

My apologies, I had forgot the OP issue hah. Is it crashing or hanging at the loading screen?

 

I just now tried to load a both an unmodified and a modified oredistribution.lvltables with this method and was able to launch the game fine both times.

Be absolutely sure you are not making any syntax errors in oredistribution.lvltables, they will cause it to hang at loading, if not crash outright.

 

Hangs at loading screen until I press escape, then it crashes. That's the only time a crash caused by failure in modded files occurs.

When I replace the vanilla file with my modded version, it works perfectly fine. When I also have a version in my mod folder, the game crashes due to it being a DUPLICATE file, as stated by starbound.log when it crashes. No syntax errors.

 

From what I have seen the duplicate usually happens when the directories are wrong when overwriting a file, but you say they are all correct so..not sure what is going on unless you post your mod for us to look at.

 

Yes, this does sound like what is happening. It sounds like you made some error in your directories, so it is loading the original oredist from the assets folder, then also loading in your modified version to some other directory.

For reference, my folder structure and boostrap are as follows:

Starbound

mods

[mod name]

biomes

oredistributions.lvltables​

Code:

{
  "assetSources" : [
    "../assets",
    "../mods/[modname]"
  ],
  "storageDirectory" : ".."
}

 

Mm, that's probably why, then. My directories are correct, but I'm adding the entire mods folder to the assetSources. Adding separate mods could be somewhat tedious for players. Oh well.

 

If you want to add the entire mods folder, cut out the separate folders for each mod and just (in the case of this example) dump the biomes folder straight into the mods folder, then what you are doing should work fine.

 

Well it works now that I've made it more specific. Thanks.

 

what if i want to use two different mods at once?

 

then you just "../mods/mod1" and under that "..mods/mod2"

 

if you mean like that

it didn't work, JsonParsingException: Error parsing json: bad array, should be ',' or ']' at 10:2

 

Man, you forgot a comma between the two new lines, and put a space after a slash in the last folder route.

The error handler made it pretty clear too, it's a matter of paying attention!