Stopping mods from descending in chaos

[Val]

If you have many mods installed, it can quickly become a management nightmare, as most mods use multiple files, with many different names, without any standardization. Even if we don't have any name collision, it is very hard to tell apart which files belong to which mod. If I have like 10 mods installed, and I would like to remove one of them, I need to remove all, and then install the other 9 again to be sure.

Suggestion: all mods should have their own sub-folders in the "Extensions" folder, or at least every file belonging to a mod should start with the name of the mod.

[shanejfilomena]

THIS I understand: my 1.05 looks like a .xml toy box full of things I am not totally sure of half the time.
" basic missions".....for what mod? is it a mod by itself? i don't know........
( actually I do, it was just a " example" )
but most of that is my fault because I turned them loose thinking I knew what I was doing at the time.

most extensions come with folders in the zip: but you are totally correct that there should maybe be a general order that anyone publishing an extension have a folder include in the zips to maintain order in the extension folder of games and assist organizational abilities of the players to manage their extensions, especially if a problem comes up for their games.

you should get three tons of Etherium for this suggestion:)

[RPC]

Val: you can always just make a folder for them in the Extensions folder and rename it appropriately. As long as the mod has all the resources in one folder, it should work.

[alterecco]

Yeah, just unpack the zip to a subfolder and you should be good. If you want to disable it, rename the folder with a "_" prefix

[Val]

Wow, does the game search recursively for the XMLs? how deep?

[shanejfilomena]

Wow, does the game search recursively for the XMLs? how deep?

if there is anything in the extension folder, the game will search it to determine if it gets loaded or not. I have not done anything intentional but I have had several folders get mixed into others and " Surprise" RPC's files are killing my shields !!!!!!

[Yama]

There are already standards in place covering this. I remembered having seen them, but it took me a few minutes to track them down. The quote below is from the "Xelerus Rules and Standards" page on the Wiki.

http://wiki.neurohack.com/transcendence ... _standards

Directory standards

These directory standards should be followed strictly to avoid conflicts with other mods and to keep the mods organized.

• Stand-alone mods should be packaged in their own directory such as: …\trans10\extensions\[modname]\[modname].xml
• Subordinate mods should be packaged in a subdirectory of the mod that they modify. An example would be: …\trans10\extensions\[primarymodname]\[subordinatemodname]
• Resources (these include image and sound files the mod uses) should be packaged as: …\trans10\extensions\[modname]\resources\…
• For linux compatibility, it is best to use ”/” instead of “\” and make sure all directories are case-sensitive.

[Val]

There are already standards in place covering this.

I didn't see many mods conforming to this standard.

[RPC]

Being a modder, I don't think I even saw this page. I think we should definitely make it more visible on the wiki, forums, Xelerus and on IRC so this problem does not occur.
The problem is this:

I remembered having seen them, but it took me a few minutes to track them down.

If the standards page was more visible, we would get more mods to conform to the standard.

[Yama]

Being a modder, I don't think I even saw this page. I think we should definitely make it more visible on the wiki, forums, Xelerus and on IRC so this problem does not occur.
The problem is this:

I remembered having seen them, but it took me a few minutes to track them down.

If the standards page was more visible, we would get more mods to conform to the standard.

Agreed.

The most glaring omission is the lack of a link from Xelerus to the "Xelerus Rules and Standards". They're actually pretty easy to find on the Wiki, once you look there. There's a prominent link to them on the Wiki home page. I just wasted a too much time searching for them on Xelerus first, 'cause it seemed like they just had to be there.

[shanejfilomena]

yes, this is good: I personally believed ( thanks to RPC and others ) that a published extension should come in a folder with everything in that folder......folders with subfolder that have subfolders that have the stuff is annoying.
a folder, the stuff ; next to the stuff is a folder with more stuff if you got to ......thats what I was led to believe following the examples of greater minds.....
if it gets mixed and unsorted, I did it myself....( and I did do it often, but thats me , not the extension makers fault )
++++

[Star Weaver]

Here's what I do: use the unzip-into-a-new-folder option on most archivers.

That will always work, even if you end up with Extensions/AnExtention/AuthorsFolder/File.xml

I then go around and rename everything and jump into the mods and change their name field to something pretty and all, but i'm a little anal about that stuff...

Generating a list of all full pathnames under a certain directory doesn't take very long compared to parsing the files themselves.

[FAD]

And when compiling multi-files into a folder to be zipped, to name/rename each file so they all start with the same name (usually a name or abbrev that reflects the mod). That way you get all your pretty maids in a row no matter where or how you dump them.

[christian]

once my game took 3 minutes to load...
43 Extensions...

[TheNewKid]

My game once takes more than 5 minutes on load
I have more than 60 extensions
Is that normal