Factorio Forums

+1, with the portal auto update feature, users does not open the mods easily anymore, so yes we really need this.

+1, Craving for this feature.

Just putting in my 0.02 turnips:

If this feature is implemented, it would be nice if mods could have the ability to define their own UI for their settings, change settings programmatically, and also access settings of other mods (eg. mod A and B are complimentary, but depend on each others' state - rather than define remote interface, would be easier if they could read each others' settings).

I've been craving this since I started using mods. Everything Bob and Rseding have said so far sounds great too.

I personally don't think it is a good idea for mods to be reaching into each others' settings willy nilly, though read-only does sound safe enough and handy. Remote interfaces have the benefit of allowing the mod creator to validate settings. There is a lot of software development wisdom on record about protecting 3rd party code from other 3rd party code.

Edit: Though as soon as I hit submit I realized that reading another mod's settings when your mod's settings are being processed at client start would be important. This would also mean that a way would have to be provided to get those settings loaded if they weren't already. I'm not sure if dependencies would already handle this, and there is the possibility that both mods would need to look at each others' settings.

Also... What if I wanted to programmatically change a setting in my mod, but it required a restart?

Well, Since the settings would be in a different file, my guess is that it would be read from each mod first, before the data stage even starts (so the file load order would be info.json from all mods, then settings.lua from all mods, then data.lua and any require linked files, then data-updates.lua, then data-final-fixes.lua, and finally, any assets, like icons and sprite sheets.)

Dependencies and such to change mod loading order should only effect one mod overriding things from another mod... which, since each mod should be providing it's own settings, shouldn't affect anything. Especially since selected settings are saved in yet another file. (From what I remember, in your personal game config settings.)

On the note of this topic though... I see this as the final point for the roadmap for 0.15.

Factorio 0.15
Planned:
...

• Allow loading games with different mod settings (and automatically download the mods if necessary)

At least I think that point means it includes this... perhaps a developer can clarify?