No longer a Lurker, need help.

[Neferpitou]

Well, basically I've started playing and modding a while back, but was lurking since I could figure things out by myself...until now(also because all of my mods so far aren't helpful in the sense of content as much as they are in convenience, like semi-infinite resources, more energy output, etc).

Anyways...I've decided on a whim to make a mod that changes the Alien Science Pack's materials, because I'm playing in a more sandbox style(without enemies) yet would like to use the tech(plus I have no clue if you even can use alien science without actual aliens, but I assume not).

So I've tried setting it to something more convenient, such as 100 steel bars...but I get an error saying this when I try to start the game with the mod active:

"Error while loading prototype "alien-science-pack":No such node(name)"

I've read some about that error and it's quite similar to errors that trigger when picture(s) are missing. But I've not found any entry about this specific error, or how to fix it.

I'm worried I may have edited the actual game on accident while making my mods, thus giving this issue, but I hope that isn't the reason it happened. I mean, I did copy+paste from the game files often enough, so if I typed something by accident then saved it...

Anyways, hope I can get some help there.

[FishSandwich]

Don't know how to fix that problem, but if you're interested there's a mod here that changes normal science packs into alien ones.

[FreeER]

I've read some about that error and it's quite similar to errors that trigger when picture(s) are missing

exactly, my guess is you copied the science pack recipe and either deleted the name or an accidental typing error is causing it to be misspelled (either in the base or your mod), thus Factorio can not find it. However, the 'best' way to modify the base game content is really using data.raw (so you only change what you need to change rather than overwriting the entire recipe and having to update the mod if the base game adds a new requirement to recipes, not to mention possible compatibility with other mods), something like "data.raw.recipe["alien-science-pack"].ingredients = new_ingredients_table_here".