Proper documentation for "data.lua"
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 7:58 am
We have good docs for API here:
https://lua-api.factorio.com/0.16.51/
But we don't have any docs for what we feed into "data.extend" from "data.lua" or "data-updates" etc.
As a workaroud there is some info:
- Scattered in quite many old forum topics mixed with some many-paged discussuions
- Some info in wiki here - https://wiki.factorio.com/User:Adil/Modding_tutorial
- Some info on Reddit
- And you can also view base mod as a reference
You ofcourse can live as it is, we all can live with with that.
But:
- For new modders it's quite hard to start.
- This results in asking questions over and over.
- And even though some of expert modders come to know some feature existed just now
- Some of this isn't obvious at all. Example:
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=56680&p=335270&hil ... nt#p335270
- Another funny example: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=61214
- All this results in that modders is unsure if something is possible and if it is - how to do that?
- I also think that doing this docs may actually be useful not just for modders and for devs too. I don't think you all remember all you have written for all this years to this loading stage.
This might be another pitfall of underestimation like "it's just GUI" - "we just need to feed SOME data"... It's not "SOME" already...
There is no single reliable source for this knowledge about difining prototypes.
I think that would be great if all this is included here https://lua-api.factorio.com/
https://lua-api.factorio.com/0.16.51/
But we don't have any docs for what we feed into "data.extend" from "data.lua" or "data-updates" etc.
As a workaroud there is some info:
- Scattered in quite many old forum topics mixed with some many-paged discussuions
- Some info in wiki here - https://wiki.factorio.com/User:Adil/Modding_tutorial
- Some info on Reddit
- And you can also view base mod as a reference
You ofcourse can live as it is, we all can live with with that.
But:
- For new modders it's quite hard to start.
- This results in asking questions over and over.
- And even though some of expert modders come to know some feature existed just now
- Some of this isn't obvious at all. Example:
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=56680&p=335270&hil ... nt#p335270
- Another funny example: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=61214
- All this results in that modders is unsure if something is possible and if it is - how to do that?
- I also think that doing this docs may actually be useful not just for modders and for devs too. I don't think you all remember all you have written for all this years to this loading stage.
This might be another pitfall of underestimation like "it's just GUI" - "we just need to feed SOME data"... It's not "SOME" already...
There is no single reliable source for this knowledge about difining prototypes.
I think that would be great if all this is included here https://lua-api.factorio.com/