Support for mod packs

moxian · Post by **moxian** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:19 am

TL;DR

Add ability to download/enable/disable multiple mods as if they were one.

Why?

Right now if I want to install, say, seablockI have two options:
A) Download the modpack zip archive from a shady-looking filesharing service
B) Manually find and install all the 25 needed mods. Also note that mod filenames are very different from those listed in in-game mod list menu (e.g. "bobinserters_0.15.1" is actually not "Bob's Inserters", but "Bob's Adjustable Inserters", so alphabetical sorting makes it hard to find where you'd expect).

Neither of the options is particularly pleasant.

Oh, and if you install some of the mods from the portal, that have unmet dependencies - those dependencies, again, display their short names "bobinserters" which are not searchable in mod portal, but I digress.

Now, after you've installed seablock, and gave it a try, you want to go back and play your vanilla save. But oh noes, it's now converted to bob's mods! You need to go through all of the 25 mods you have and disable all of them. And then, when you want to switch back again to seablock - enable them.
This is honestly pretty tame for vanilla/non-vanilla switching, as, luckily there's a "disable all" button. But I could imagine what havoc there would be if I had a bob-only save, bob+angel-save and a seablock save to juggle.

What?

Allow mod authors (and maybe even players?) designate several mods as a "pack" that *should* go together, and can be installed/enabled/disabled with one click.

Terrible paint job of how that might look like in UI:

: modpack_sketch.png (1.68 MiB) Viewed 10171 times

Proxy · Post by **Proxy** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:39 am

Basic idea is having multiple Mod Folders inside the Mod Folder each with their own Mod-list and Mod-settings file. (and porlly also a modpack file to tell the game stuff like who made, website, name, etc.)
This would allow you to change between different Modpacks without needed to copy/paste folders around or rewrite any setting files/etc.

Basically this is just a way to make Modpacks easier to share, switch, and control. It's a thing of Convenience.

EDIT: Just a quick side thing, please add a "Open Mod Folder" button in the Mods Screen. again, for Convenience.

JohnyDL · Post by **JohnyDL** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:55 pm

Mod packs and a redesign of the mod portal is on the development roadmap viewtopic.php?f=3&t=678

slpwnd wrote:Factorio 0.16
Planned:
...
...
Mod portal improvement (Rewrite)
...
...

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-207

FFF207 wrote:Mod portal 2.0 progress HanziQ

Over the summer, we have had a French student Lucien working with us in the office. As a part of his internship, he was helping us develop the new version of the mod portal. It took a long time, as I (Martin) had many other things to work on, and couldn't fully dedicate myself to finishing this long-overdue project, but we are nearing the end. We're hoping to release the new version this month.

Apart from speed and performance improvements, there will probably not be many more changes on release, but we'll start working on new features right away. This new version gives us a much more solid foundation to work from. You can let us know on our Mod portal discussion sub-forum which features/improvements are the most important to you, and there will proobably make a poll later on to see which we should focus on.

As always, let us know what you think on our forum.

And it's been suggested before

There's even this posted 11 hours and 20 minutes before yours viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53696

JohnyDL · Post by **JohnyDL** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:56 pm

Mod packs and a redesign of the mod portal is on the development roadmap viewtopic.php?f=3&t=678

slpwnd wrote:Factorio 0.16
Planned:
...
...
Mod portal improvement (Rewrite)
...
...

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-207

FFF207 wrote:Mod portal 2.0 progress HanziQ

Over the summer, we have had a French student Lucien working with us in the office. As a part of his internship, he was helping us develop the new version of the mod portal. It took a long time, as I (Martin) had many other things to work on, and couldn't fully dedicate myself to finishing this long-overdue project, but we are nearing the end. We're hoping to release the new version this month.

Apart from speed and performance improvements, there will probably not be many more changes on release, but we'll start working on new features right away. This new version gives us a much more solid foundation to work from. You can let us know on our Mod portal discussion sub-forum which features/improvements are the most important to you, and there will proobably make a poll later on to see which we should focus on.

As always, let us know what you think on our forum.

And it's been suggested before take a look at the frequently suggested on improvements the mod portal viewtopic.php?f=80&t=27805

Proxy · Post by **Proxy** » Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:19 pm

oops.

Post by **Koub** » Thu Nov 02, 2017 8:52 am

[Koub] Topics merged

bobingabout · Post by **bobingabout** » Thu Nov 02, 2017 11:56 am

I'm all for mod pack support.

AnZaNaMa · Post by **AnZaNaMa** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 5:11 am

Hello, I love this game so much and I think it's even better with mods installed. However, I've noticed that there's no form of support for modpacks. I feel like this would be a great addition to the game because it would really boost the accessibility of multiplayer modded games and in turn would probably boost the use of mods and amount of players that continue to play the game. This could easily be implemented in one of two ways:

1 - there is a separate tab in the in game mod installation page where players can access "modpacks" which are basically just a list of mods installed and their versions. Selecting to install one of these modpacks would just use the tools that are already in the game to automatically download all the needed mods to the player's game. They can then switch between different modpacks which effectively enables and disables all the proper mods. Modpacks could be created with a click of a button in game that just creates the file containing the list of mods that the game uses to install a modpack from their currently enabled mods, then the file could be uploaded to mods.factorio.com to have it listed in the in-game modpack tab.

2 - the game automatically downloads and enables any mods that are on a server making it so that the player can join modded server without having to worry about installing mods (this is akin to Garry's mod servers if you've ever been on one).

This seems like it wouldn't be too hard to implement seeing as a lot of the underlying infrastructure is already there, and I think it'd be a great addition to the game.

Cheers,
AnZaNaMa

Post by **Koub** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 6:45 am

[Koub] Merged into older suggestion about modpack support. Above discussion is revelant.

bobucles · Post by **bobucles** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 1:53 pm

Sounds like a job for a mod loader! The game engine does all the heavy lifting on handling mods so all you really need to do is modify the mod-list.json file to get things rolling. Just copy/paste this file with all your favorite mod kits, put them aside, and a simple batch file can do the rest. Probably. Better drag along the mod-settings file just in case.

I'm very lazy though so I solve this problem with two complete installs. The regular install runs all my normal stuff and the second install is all seablock, all the time. It also keeps the save files separate which spares some trouble.

mrvn · Post by **mrvn** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 2:05 pm

moxian wrote: Right now if I want to install, say, seablockI have two options:
A) Download the modpack zip archive from a shady-looking filesharing service
B) Manually find and install all the 25 needed mods. Also note that mod filenames are very different from those listed in in-game mod list menu (e.g. "bobinserters_0.15.1" is actually not "Bob's Inserters", but "Bob's Adjustable Inserters", so alphabetical sorting makes it hard to find where you'd expect).

There is a Sea Block pack mod that depends on all the sea block mods. So you don't need to find all the 25 mods. EXCEPT installing the Sea Block pack mod does not install the dependencies, so you still have to search for all the 25 needed mods. But that is not specific to mod packs.

So I would like to modify this suggestion to:

Installing mods should handle installing dependencies. This would solve the biggest hassle for mod packs.

AnZaNaMa · Post by **AnZaNaMa** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 5:59 pm

While modpacks could be created using simply a mod that depends on all the other mods needed, this is not the best way to go about doing it and makes it less accessible to those who don't know how to/don't want to learn how to make a mod. I feel that these are two completely separate things that are both great ideas but should not be combined into one.

AnZaNaMa · Post by **AnZaNaMa** » Tue Dec 05, 2017 6:03 pm

and in response to @bobucles, mods are unable to modify files and other such things and can only do what is implemented in the API. This means that the proposed modloader would have to be an application separate from factorio which would easily cause confusion from players who are less technologically inclined. This is why I'm suggesting the feature be implemented into the base game.

bobucles · Post by **bobucles** » Wed Dec 06, 2017 1:22 am

I don't think a mod loader program is beyond the average user. Anyone who has played fallout4 or starcraft2 or just about any AAA title has used a game loader. You open the game, see a pretty graphic, change some game settings and click "play". A mod loader isn't anything more fancy than that.

Factorio is very stable at managing mods but that's because it hard reboots the entire game to change anything. An outside loader would make options easier to change without having the reload the game 2+ times.

Jap2.0 · Post by **Jap2.0** » Wed Dec 06, 2017 2:04 am

Looks like they have some of the infastructure already.

AnZaNaMa · Post by **AnZaNaMa** » Wed Dec 06, 2017 3:14 am

Alright, here goes nothing.... if you don't hear back from me for a few days, call for help because I may have gone into a caffeine-induced coma

Hexicube · Post by **Hexicube** » Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:08 pm

Going to revive this topic instead of making a new one; modpacks would be a really nice addition to the portal.

darkfrei · Post by **darkfrei** » Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:09 pm

It could be good to install all "must have" dependencies automatically and every "nice to have" dependencies just with one click of it.

『』 · Post by **『』** » Sat Aug 29, 2020 4:29 pm

Hello. I got an idea that could help people with much mods.
My idea ist that you can save currently activated mods into a modpack. This modpack will be saved (local on your pc(optional) or cloud if you have cloud enabled).
Then you can activate the modpack in a list of your modpacks (add a extra button for that). Later you can activate the modpack (only the mods you have saved in the modpack) and play it. but you can make multiple modpacks so you can save them and play them later.(if you activate another modpack you get asked if you want to enable all mods saved in both modpacks or enable the other one)
It would be so much time saving. and i think its not that hard to implement.
Greetings,
Dustin

(and stay safe because of covid-19)

Qon · Post by **Qon** » Sat Aug 29, 2020 4:43 pm

『』 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 4:29 pm Hello. I got an idea that could help people with much mods.
My idea ist that you can save currently activated mods into a modpack. This modpack will be saved (local on your pc

This could be made as a mod. Maybe ask in the Ideas and Requests For Mods forum?

Factorio Forums