PRLauncher and Mods

[UTurista]

Does anyone knows any way to skip the "Integrity Failed" warnings, that PRLauncher gives every time we changed a file?

It seems that with parameters we can only use these:

Code: Select all

[list]
[*]+wx  :window at x-pos
[*]+wy  :window at y-pos
[*]+join :join server
[*]+joinpass :join pass
[*]+multi :multiple instances
[*]+help :help
[*]+?
[/list]

But you might know any other method, if so which one?

[AncientMan]

Don't use mods/pr, use mods/pr_edit instead and you won't have file verification or update checks.

[UTurista]

Very useful indead, I would prefer a flag in the parameters but this is very useful.

Many thanks

[Onil]

I would however still prefer having some type of notification of the launcher so that the player is aware that the minimod is enabled.

The only issue is that the current error messages are a bit "misleading" since they tell the player that he might need to reinstall PR. That means that it will scare people as it makes them think that they screwed something up. However, having no message whatsoever is also not a good solution I think.

[AncientMan]

No modifications should ever be made to mods/pr. That is reserved for public online play, and legit files are required for that. So if you want to do a minimod or do some edits or whatever, use something else . Reserved mod names are pr, pr_test, pr_repo and pr_beta. Anything else is free to use without issue.

You can start by simple copying mods/pr to something else and edit whatever you want (but that is bad on hard drive space), or go the better route of copying the /bin directory for the launcher and make a minimod that references mods/pr content (so you always have the latest stuff, though of course, you'd have to manually copy /bin every time an update happens, and you would need to know how to make minimods...). You should still have everything else the launcher provides, like PRMumble, BUIS and Markers and stuff. Could probably use the updater as well, but that'd require me to code in support for mods and release PRBuild, hmmmm, maybe if anyone wanted it I could do some work...

As a side note though, if in mods/pr and you use offline or debugger accounts, you will also not have file verification, though you will have update checks. But yeah, it still remains that you should never make any modifications to mods/pr, it's just not going to work out well for you...

But notice how I said "modifications". You can still "add" things, like new maps or whatever, but the moment you start modifying existing files, you're in trouble.

[Onil]

I'm not sure I follow... Are you saying that you do not allow minimods to run from within the PR mod (without having its own folder and loading the PR content from its original folder) or that you don't allow PR files to be modified at all?

Our minimod is running the same way Anders Sound Mod did, with a control panel that enables/disables the minimod from inside the PR folder. Players can easily change between PR vanilla and the PR:Z minimod by the click of a button.

The only original file that is changed is the serverarchives.con to load the custom content. No other original file is changed client-side as all our modifications are applied by overwriting original files with our duplicated files instead of changing them.

The only question here was about the file verification since it detects the edited serverarchives.con and gives an error. That is fine as it shows that you're launching PR with modified content but the description of that error is a bit spooky (the possible need for a reinstall). Players will automatically think that by installing this minimod they have screwed their original PR, which is simply not true. They can easily install/uninstall/enable/disable the minimod without harm to the PR mod files.

This is a minimod/add-on for PR and it has been in development for more than one year. I have been in contact with multiple devs through-out the development process, and asked permissions to many of them before duplicating maps or other content. Some even participated in beta tests and know how the minimod works.

More information can be found in our moddb page and you can see that credits were given to all mods that contributed to this minimod by allowing us to use some of their content: Project Reality: Zombie Apocalypse Survival mod for Battlefield 2 - Mod DB

[AncientMan]

Yeah, I know. What I'm saying is you'd be much better off running from say mods/pr_z than trying to mess around and modify content in mods/pr. No conflicts, more customization, easier on the end user, and could probably utilize PRUpdater and PRBuild and stuff and provide updates automatically without too much effort.

[Onil]

The Installer that Turista made also has an updated for the minimod

The main reason I didn't create a separate mod folder was because I always saw this project as more of an add-on then a mod really... I mean we're loading the entire PR and if we would do that from another folder we would either have to duplicate the whole PR mod or load everything from the original PR folder. I'm not sure if that would be possible as I know that the localization and other files that are not within the zips cannot be loaded from a serverarchives.con

Initially the whole "minimod" was being loaded from within a map folder (Ramiel) for SGE and later on we decided to pass all custom content to a minimods folder that we placed inside the PR folder. That was necessary to overwrite some original files and it seemed the better option than to have a separate mod folder at that time.

I do realize that this project grew so much that perhaps the over-all structure could have been done differently but I still see it as a PR minimod similar to Vietnam, Falklands and WWII even if obviously not an official one.

Anyway, we now have a popup window that comes up when the player enables the minimod in the CP, that warns them of the error messages the PR launcher will give and explains that the original mod files are untouched once the minimod is disabled.

Turista was just looking for a better solution but I don't think there is one and I wouldn't like to run the launcher without a message that gives the reminder that the minimod is enabled.

[AncientMan]

Yeah, I reckon if you went the mods/pr_z route it'd work out a lot better for you in the long run and there'd be much more flexibility. You'd probably have to add, what, at most 10-20mb's of duplicate files, but that's nothing. The majority of stuff would be referenced from mods/pr. Anders Sound Mod, Falklands and Normandy were done like they were because they work in tandem with PR, allowing online play and mixed map servers and everything. PRZ is a bit different, it's not something you mix with normal PR (like you said, you have to enable/disable it manually), so it deserves its own mod folder .

And while I see you have a custom control panel, all that stuff can be easily done in PRLauncher without really any effort at all (custom background, links, newsticker, credits, updater, colour theme maybe, etc etc), and you'd avoid the need for a separate program and enabling/disabling stuff which just causes more effort for the end user.

Up to you. I can build this custom content support into the launcher and provide PRBuild and all that stuff no worries, it just requires a couple of hours of work and some tutorials written, but I don't want to bother if it's not going to be used...

[Onil]

Well that would indeed be awesome but I think it might not be worth it for only 1 PR minimod? I'm sure you have way too much work as it is to still add this to the to-do list.

I would say it would be best just to wait until our first release and we will see how the community likes the minimod and if we have a good/active player base. If so and if you're still available to add that feature to the launcher, it would be great. For the time being, Turista's work will be used so that it wasn't done in vain.

Thanks for the info though, its definitely something to consider for the future.

[AncientMan]

Well, there's more than 1 minimod, there's all the community factions as well that could definitely benefit being able to release things easily and freely to the community to play test or whatever... In addition to the community made maps that could definitely benefit from PRBuild and the tools it contains...

I think I might do it, hit me up on Xfire if you want a hand with it

[AfterDune]

Oh I could definitely see this happening! Glad you mention comfacs, AM; I can see comfacs release "beta" versions of their faction through the launcher, so people can playtest things and send feedback. I can also see us use this to try experimental things, to see how it plays out in "public" before we implement it into the core game.

If such a feature was built-in, we could (I suppose) easily add and update minimods and the likes. Lovin' it .

AM, do you have ideas about how to design this?

[UTurista]

The built in feature would be really awesome but that would mean my Mod Manager thingy would be unnecessary, its ok thou... I'll crawl to my cave now

[Onil]

Well, there's more than 1 minimod, there's all the community factions as well that could definitely benefit being able to release things easily and freely to the community to play test or whatever... In addition to the community made maps that could definitely benefit from PRBuild and the tools it contains...

Oh yes, definitely worth it if it will allow factions and custom maps to be play tested as well as small event maps to be installed and uninstalled with ease. I'm sure many would use it that way.

I think I might do it, hit me up on Xfire if you want a hand with it

Not sure if that's for me or for Turista but I added you on xfire though. I can explain how our PR mod is currently working since its a bit more than simply loading the zips from the custom serverarchives.con.

But Turista is your man if you actually need help with the launcher update I guess. He did an awesome job with our CP.

What I had suggested before in terms of how to install/manage minimods and addons is by using a prefix within the file names which is what we did with PR:Z