Friday Facts #272 - Mod GUI

[kovarex]

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-272

[mexmer]

Do i understand correctly from mockup, that dependcies are clickable links, which will take me to dependency mod?

i still miss option to download dependencies automatically, tho'.

but i like new interface, not sure how it look on small display tho'. (like those hdready notebook displays wtih 1300x700 or how much is it)

[IronCartographer]

The UI should probably be called "Mod selection" or something since there's another (presumably still separate?) UI for mod "settings" and variables.

Looks good though.

[Bajter]

I love it that you made a typo in this sentence

After all - programmers and human and we make mistakes.

[lovely_santa]

Hi,

As I was looking at the new GUI graphics, I saw the use of the links on the right side, displaying the info.lua information.
I think a nice addition would be a bug report link (or button).
That way mod makers will receive bug reports in the right places AND will receive more bug reports as some people are lazy to report bugs by goiing through the mod portal/forum/... . (Wasn't this the reason why the base game implemented automaticly sending bug reports to the devs?)

Great interface!
lovely_santa

[Leopard1800]

Will the new mods GUI support modpacks?
Currently I use the "--mod-directory" parameter in a shortcut but it's a hassle to manage and uses more space when the same mod is duplicated in multiple modpacks.

[Nova]

That's an early FFF.

I like event based programming. It just feels "natural" to fire off an event and say "Here, please do $stuff for me.". It's the same with object oriented programming. Your invariants fulfill (as far as I can tell) exactly this natural feeling.

[psihius]

I don't think you even should add reading comments, or god forbid, writing them. Handling web peculiarities in-game is always a problem and that part tends to be neglected a lot (numerous games I have played that had that possibility are a testament to that despite good intentions on developer's side). Unless some type of Markdown is used and is parsed client-side for the game - then MAYBE, just MAYBE it can work out fine

I'd say a web link that is clickable to be open in a browser for extended usage should be used. You can also use token login so the user is logged in immediately into the mod portal.

[tinocasino]

How about download automatically the required mods from a gameserver to join easy and dont search all the mods manually?
is it planned or already implemented in 0.17?


sorry 4 this english, german is still my motherlanguage

[Helldragger]

I agree with the above sentimebt, the major problem with the modding gui is not the way we can activate or deactivate them, it's the fact we need to manually create separate mods directories to keep a specific version of the same mods in separate modpacks.

The mockup is sexy though, but auto dependency download, multiple local versions and profiles are the big game changer to aim for functionnality wise

[Klonan]

How about download automatically the required mods from a gameserver to join easy and dont search all the mods manually?
is it planned or already implemented in 0.17?


sorry 4 this english, german is still my motherlanguage

Yes, it is done,
As long as that mod is on the mod portal, you will automatically sync with the server

[Lizzy]

The invariants discussion feels truncated. What case it did vary?

[SuperSandro2000]

Can we finally install, update, remove and toggle mods without restarting 4 times?

[fishycat]

Small typo...

fff-272-mod-gui-update.png (5.49 KiB) Viewed 14679 times

I like the new gui a lot, can't wait until january. Also the update only selected is a great feature.
Hopefully some pics from GDS next fff?

[Leopard1800]

Even if the game automatically syncs mods with the server, as soon as you play on two or more servers regularly you have to start the game, select the server and then restart again to sync the mods, every time you switch server / modpack. (And modded loading times can be looooong)

Ideally you would get to the main menu before content is loaded, then once you select a server or save the appropriate mods get loaded.

I use a bunch of special shortcuts with the "--mods-directory" and "--mp-connect" parameters to connect to servers but it's a hassle to manage.
Not to mention that you end up with duplicated mods as mentioned before.

If the new mods GUI could solve that, would be nice.

[ledow]

Surely, the latter problem is just a question of changing how inventories are modified.

i.e. you CANNOT modify the inventory without triggering that code.

e.g. private data in a class, with only a limited public interface, so you can't tinker things out of inventories without using a stated function, which itself triggers any hooks that are necessary.

It does make me wonder about the state of the programming and API if you're able to tinker with things outside of an API like that (even if that's just a case of "there is a function that'll do this without calling the hooks and it's called "remove_item_without_triggering_hooks"). At worst it should then be a case of using the right function, and warning when you see new users of such a function in the source code management and checking whether they are in fact a valid use case that needs to bypass the hooks.

I find that "invariants" is really the wrong use of such a term here, or at least a misuse. Someone's sat in a programming class and been told about invariants. Your solution needs to be "don't make it possible to play with inventories without triggering required inventory managing code", not waffle about invariants.

[Nexarius]

Can we get automated mod dependency download?

[Albert]

Small typo...

fff-272-mod-gui-update.png

I like the new gui a lot, can't wait until january. Also the update only selected is a great feature.
Hopefully some pics from GDS next fff?

Solved. The images uploaded weren't the last version by mistake (humans). Now it's up to date.

[bbgun06]

Can we finally install, update, remove and toggle mods without restarting 4 times?

That would be so nice to have!

[Spharv2]

Would it be possible to get another tab on the mod UI specifically for out of date mods? When it's been a while between updates, I can forget what I've got loaded, it would be nice to be able to see everything in there, up to date or not. Perhaps with the functionality to delete old ones you no longer want?