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Forum » How to mod Driftmoon

How to mod Driftmoon

ZeXLR8er 13 years ago
OK, I'm posting this here because the answer will help me out, but also I think might be of benefit in encouraging new modders to start working on Driftmoon.

I feel may be missing something quite obvious, but my question is this: how do I actually commence a new Driftmoon mod? The editor seems to allow me to work on the main mod files and edit the full game, but I just can't seem to find a way to start afresh. Is this possible yet? I have some free time right now, so I would love to try my hand at getting the hang of Driftmoon modding; perhaps to begin with creating a barebones mod (without which I never would have begun modding Notrium).

Thanks guys.
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Pete 13 years ago
As far as I understand it it works very similarly to Notrium, just copy the mainmod folder then gut out everything you dont need. To load the mod you have to edit a settings file of some sort.
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Amarth 13 years ago
"Pete" said:
As far as I understand it it works very similarly to Notrium, just copy the mainmod folder then gut out everything you dont need. To load the mod you have to edit a settings file of some sort.
More in particular, you copy everything to get access to the resources, then start making maps in the ingame editor. There's probably settings somewhere on what map to load when, not sure about that.

To control which mod to load, you have to edit the registry, in particular HKEY_Current_User\Software\Driftmoon\modPath. Or you can use my Driftmoon Mod Switcher, though I have to say it's still somewhat beta-ish because I heard not much feedback on the latest version. It probably won't eat all your work and/or children. I hope.
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Venom31 13 years ago
A barebones mod is a mod that's stripped out of everything except the things without which a mod can't be launched with current game engine. That's how I understand it. So it's essential not to copy the default mod into some other folder and start working. Or even if you do, delete all "meat" from it before you start working on your mod. Apparently, you need to know what exactly to leave and what to kick out. I think that's the kind of knowledge Zex asked for.
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Pete 13 years ago
Yes, someone should get around to making one of those.

Anyone?
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Venom31 13 years ago
Mmh, who was that modding Driftmoon? Redemption? Hello
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ZeXLR8er 13 years ago
Fantastic, thanks; the mod switcher was exactly what I was after. For some reason I've never actually gotten around to downloading it, but I'm glad I have now.

"Venom31" said:
A barebones mod is a mod that's stripped out of everything except the things without which a mod can't be launched with current game engine. That's how I understand it. So it's essential not to copy the default mod into some other folder and start working. Or even if you do, delete all "meat" from it before you start working on your mod. Apparently, you need to know what exactly to leave and what to kick out. I think that's the kind of knowledge Zex asked for.
Yep, exactly. Even just to start on any new mod, I (and I assume anyone else) will need to take the main mod and start completely afresh. I want to be able to strip it down to nothing but the bare essentials, but it's quite tricky when I don't yet know what can go and what must stay.

In the map editor, is there a selection of hotkeys that I'm missing? Some of the things I'm looking for but cannot find include:

[list]
[*] The ability to delete existing maps[/*:m]
[*] The ability to create a new map[/*:m]
[*] A way to clear/wipe clean an existing map[/*:m][/list:u]

To name a few for now. Can anyone help me out with this? Without being able to cut the main mod down, there isn't a whole lot of progress that I can make.
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Pete 13 years ago
When you start the editor it starts on an empty map that you can of course save, so you can make a new one that way. No button as far as I know that does it, though.
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ville 13 years ago
Glad to hear people are getting started! I've got a couple of things to say about modding:

1. If your mod crashes without any good error message, I'm eager to sort things out! My big mistake with Notrium was that it didn't have any/good error messages. Just send me your crashing mod, I'll run it here and add an error message to the game, along with telling you what's wrong.

2. I'll do what I can to ease modding now, but most of the major things will have to wait until the main game is a bit farther. That means the editor may lack some features, but I'm hoping we can make do with it.

3. The starting map is specified in the script/settings.ini.

4. Backups are your friend. And what's more, the editor makes a backup of your map each time you save it! You'll need to delete the old ones sometimes, when they start taking up gigabytes.

5. As I add more features to the game, I'm determined to tell you what changes the script/*.ini files need. I might forget this sometimes, so just tell me when that happens. My plan is to not break any mods you're working on now, so let's hope I can stick to it.

6. I'll be making a barebones mod at some point myself, if somebody else doesn't beat me to it. Basically you can dump all of the maps, sounds and graphics. The game will need the gui, mainmap, and script folders. At the moment I think it'll also need some secret files from the sounds and graphics folders, of which I'm not aware.
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MageKing17 13 years ago
"ville" said:
4. Backups are your friend. And what's more, the editor makes a backup of your map each time you save it! You'll need to delete the old ones sometimes, when they start taking up gigabytes.
Gigabytes? The biggest map file in the game is 326 KB. How many backups have you been making?
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ville 13 years ago
I tend to save every minute or so when I work. And I do an hour or more of map making every day. It all adds up.
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Forum » How to mod Driftmoon

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