"Check for updates" needs to be more granular / transparent

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MisterFister
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"Check for updates" needs to be more granular / transparent

Post by MisterFister »

Howdy folks. I'm running a heavily-modded angelbob playthrough on Factorio v0.16.27. Like an idiot, I didn't backup my mod folder, and when I went to log in for the first time today, like an idiot, I visited the in-game mod management menu and I decided to click "check for updates."

Upon auto-restarting, I get this: https://imgur.com/rjMmJGf

Now, I know for sure that AWM wasn't updated, because of the timestamps on the zipfiles within my \%APPDATA%\Roaming\Factorio\mods folder, as seen here: https://imgur.com/iRIiIgr

Other than hoping-against-hope that I can find an earlier or previous-release version of whichever of those mods is causing my conflict, is it possible to update the base game mod manager screen to allow for more finite and granular control of this process? Storing an earlier-revert copy of all updated mods would be a good way to go, and allowing for manual-downgrades of a mod's previous versions on the portal as well even if not backed up on the user's own system would be awesome as well. Allowing for a confirmation dialogue box of which mods are being updated would be swell, since the timestamps on the zipfiles is the only method by which I was able to even identify which mods were updated -- and note, the mod throwing the error message wasn't one of them. :x

Edited to add: I don't know how to properly embed images into this post.

Edited a second time: I was able to use mods.factorio.com to navigate to earlier versions of the individual mods. Note, however, that it was necessary to have an open window with my mods folder showing the timestamps of the mods updated today; an open all-mods-disabled instance of Factorio to look at the savefile load screen to identify which exact mod version I was running (and some mods have multiple versions releasing sometimes on the same day) and the browser window open to look for the exact version number listed against my particular savefile. This would've taken a LOT longer if I didn't have two monitors.
Last edited by MisterFister on Sat Mar 03, 2018 10:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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eradicator
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Re: "Check for updates" needs to be more granular / transparent

Post by eradicator »

+1 Ability to update individual mods instead of the generic "update all" which i can never use because i have to keep the same versions as the server.

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MisterFister wrote:Other than hoping-against-hope that I can find an earlier or previous-release version of whichever of those mods is causing my conflict
All versions that have ever been uploaded of a mod can be downloaded from the mod-portal webpage. Finding out which one you need... i can't help you with that.
MisterFister wrote:and note, the mod throwing the error message wasn't one of them. :x
Even if the mod wasn't updated itself, it is still that mod that is bugged, and your best overall bet would be to contact the mod author and ask him to fix it. From the error it sounds like he's trying to change a normal (i.e. not "expensive") recipe, but that recipe doesn't exist for some reason.
MisterFister wrote: Edited to add: I don't know how to properly embed images into this post.
Easy. Just use the "Upload attachment" function of the forum (below the post edit screen). Once the picture is uploaded you can press "show inline".

MisterFister
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Re: "Check for updates" needs to be more granular / transparent

Post by MisterFister »

eradicator wrote:+1 Ability to update individual mods instead of the generic "update all" which i can never use because i have to keep the same versions as the server.
Hmm. What if you downloaded the savefile from the server, loaded it in SP while offline, and then sync'd to match modlists? Then you can auto-update, restart the game, and login?
eradicator wrote:
MisterFister wrote:and note, the mod throwing the error message wasn't one of them. :x
Even if the mod wasn't updated itself, it is still that mod that is bugged, and your best overall bet would be to contact the mod author and ask him to fix it.
This is not necessarily true in all cases. One mod could erroneously cause issues for another mod. I know that I cannot run AlienBiomes, for example, because it uses so many of the allotted capacity of 255 possible terrain tiles, since I also want to run AsphaltRoads and other tile-set-using mods. (It should be noted that Angel's Bio [I think that's the one] can only recognize vanilla-biome tiles and it spawns in uncraftable resources based on biomes, so AlienBiomes would prevent that mod from working -- this is less an "error" and more of an "incompatibility known at the outset.") Your advice to notify both the error-throwing mod's author is well taken, however, and I shall also notify the authors of the mods that were updated as well.
eradicator wrote:
MisterFister wrote:Edited to add: I don't know how to properly embed images into this post.
Easy. Just use the "Upload attachment" function of the forum (below the post edit screen). Once the picture is uploaded you can press "show inline".
Thank you!!!

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Re: "Check for updates" needs to be more granular / transparent

Post by eradicator »

MisterFister wrote:This is not necessarily true in all cases. One mod could erroneously cause issues for another mod.
I wasn't making a general statement though. And from the screenshots you posted i'm 90% sure that the error is caused by that mod not doing proper checking (as there is only one value type called "normal" in the base game structure).

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