Support for mod packs

[『 』]

Are you sure this can be done as a mod?

[sparr]

There are multiple third party tools that do this.

https://github.com/Artentus/ModMyFactory
https://github.com/mickael9/fac

Also you could start a game with your mod pack, then save it, then later use the "sync mods with save" feature to load the mod pack.

[eradicator]

Also you could start a game with your mod pack, then save it, then later use the "sync mods with save" feature to load the mod pack.

Would be nicer if a mod could just supply i.e. a text/json file with the list and the mod manager could read that file.... instead of that hacky jump-through-a-loop solution.

白たんはどこ？

[sparr]

Would be nicer if a mod could just supply i.e. a text/json file with the list

If you make a dummy mod with an optional/mandatory dependency list, the in-game mod manager will do something like this for you. Here's an example of a "mod pack" mod for this purpose: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/AngelBob/downloads

[eradicator]

Would be nicer if a mod could just supply i.e. a text/json file with the list

If you make a dummy mod with an optional/mandatory dependency list, the in-game mod manager will do something like this for you. Here's an example of a "mod pack" mod for this purpose: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/AngelBob/downloads

I know how those work. But they only download the dependencies. You can't use them to .... oh, but you *can* just reenable them all by deselecting everything and then enabling the pack again. Nice. Still a bit cluncky UX wise, but definetly better than dummy savegames. Also doesn't work for optional dependencies.

[NotRexButCaesar]

Also you could start a game with your mod pack, then save it, then later use the "sync mods with save" feature to load the mod pack.

This is what I do. I have saves named "Qol modpack" "krastorio modpack" "AngelBob Modpack" et cetera.

[Qon]

Are you sure this can be done as a mod?

Does it sound like I'm sure, or do I say that "I think that maybe it could possibly happen provided certain conditions and then still not sure"?

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?

I'm always right btw.

[Steff7744]

There should be an option in game to create "modpacks". Now for example if I would want to play Pyanodon mods world after playing on Angels mods world i would need to uncheck every mod not compatible with Pyanodon mods and manually check every Pyanodon mod, why couldn't we automate that and create modpacks, for exaple it could be an extension of modding window where you can create certain mod packs and "check them" like an other mods I know that we can do it right now but it works for every mod that we have installed so we would need to uncheck other mods. In my opinion there should be an option to create those modpacks and switch them on easly. It would be awesome to see ingame ^^

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into several older topics with same suggestion.

[ssilk]

moved to implemented— ssilk

[eradicator]

moved to implemented— ssilk

I don't see any new releases so... why?

[jodokus31]

moved to implemented— ssilk

What? How?

[steinio]

moved to implemented— ssilk

What? How?

Either you synch mods before save load or you install a modpack mod in-game and the dependencies are solved automatically.

It was new in 1.1 i guess.

[ssilk]

Lately I installed space exploration mod, and it automatically loaded all dependencies. Two weeks later I stumbled upon this.

From OP:

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.

So I made a short decision to move this to finished. But I’m open for discussion.

My opinion: So this is possible; you can install some mods, by installing one “mod-pack”. Creating own is not super simple (don’t needs to be IMHO), and removing isn’t possible, but in my opinion this suggestion doesn’t think about the issues: e.g. when one mod is installed by two mod packs. Or when you create a mod pack, that has circular dependencies.

For me that are other suggestions.

What I currently wish more, is to see the dependencies more easily. You can click “down” into the dependencies, but not “up”.

And I would like, that it goes much more into the direction of enabling several mod-repositories / mod-folders installed; because the use case is, that you have several other mods, besides the mod-pack.

And see links in viewtopic.php?p=529065#p529065

[jodokus31]

One problem is still, that you can't tie specific versions of mods together as a modpack
F.e. Seablock:
There is this "modpack mod":
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SeaBlockMetaPack
But, if you install it, it gets the most recent versions of the mods. But newest ScienceCostTweaker is not released as part, because it has some changes, which needs review from balancing perspective.
If you make the modpack mod with dependencies with specific version f.e. "ScienceCostTweakerM = 1.1.1", it still downloads the latest version and the modpack mod appears red. It indicates, that something is wrong, but not very obvious. Since its only a modpack mod, the rest works without problems.

EDIT: Actually, I can't test, what would happen, if you had the modpack mod with specific versions dependencies on mod portal, because i'm not the author. Maybe it's worth a try. However, you still can screw up by downloading newer versions manually. Modpack mod would get red, but the rest still works

If you would provide a dummy save for syncing purpose, it still downloads the most recent version.

Currently it has to be a zip with mods and you may not update the mods. See: viewtopic.php?f=190&t=93136

Feels like half of the old seablock thread viewtopic.php?f=190&t=43759 is about clarifying, that one has to use the specific versions of the mods, which are released as modpack zip. Because otherwise recent changes of one of the mod pack mods screw something up.

[eradicator]

From OP:

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.

So I made a short decision to move this to finished. But I’m open for discussion. :)

Install: Yes
Enable: Yes
Disable: No

So as far as i can see not even the @OPs limited demands are fully met. For example if you have a bunch of personal favourite utility mods (i.e. Factory Planner) that you always use with every "meta mod" then switching between two "meta mods" is this:

• Disable all mods.
• Enable the new meta mod which enables mandatory dependencies.
• Manually enable optional dependencies.
• Search through a huge list and enable each of your personal utility mods individually.

Not intuitive at all. I don't have a strong opinion of what the "best" implementation here would be. Just... thought that moving a thread called "support for modpacks" to "implemented" sends the wrong signal. Because clearly the portal itself has no packs. No category for packs. And no special handling for, "meta mods that want to be packs".

[ssilk]

One problem is still, that you can't tie specific versions of mods together as a modpack
...
If you make the modpack mod with dependencies with specific version f.e. "ScienceCostTweakerM = 1.1.1", it still downloads the latest version and the modpack mod appears red.
...
However, you still can screw up by downloading newer versions manually. Modpack mod would get red, but the rest still works

If you would provide a dummy save for syncing purpose, it still downloads the most recent version.

Currently it has to be a zip with mods and you may not update the mods.

It is much uglier: what if one modpack has the decency of a special version, and another modpack a different? Or more complex: one modpack needs a specific version, but the player installed already a newer?

And there are much more of those cases. A “real” repository would be able to solve those conflicts, but in Factorio how should such things ever work?
Is that worth the effort, or isn’t it easier to patch that questionable mod?

...not even the @OPs limited demands are fully met.
...
I don't have a strong opinion of what the "best" implementation here would be.

I also don’t have. I explained the difficulty to handle modpacks correctly in any case. And it is currently not clear what is really needed. Is deleting a modpack an edge case for a normal player? Or something I need to do every day? Is it impossible to do or just nasty work? And wouldn’t that handling be much simpler, if we have as many mod-folders as we want (as suggested in other suggestions), each with a different set of mods and modpacks installed? And to switch between those folders as we want?

I cannot know that yet.

For me it’s legit to say “well, we have ‘modpacks’, but not as in other games, where a ‘modpack’ is a bunch of mods, packed into one big zip-files.”
This is the difference and that is why deleting etc. is not that easy as with “real” modpacks.

Just... thought that moving a thread called "support for modpacks" to "implemented" sends the wrong signal. Because clearly the portal itself has no packs. No category for packs. And no special handling for, "meta mods that want to be packs".

Well, “pack” in Factorio is a mod with dependencies. So the word modpack is misleading. But I don’t want to discuss about wording.

The point why I moved it to “implemented” is this: The targets of this suggestion will be never achieved, as explained above: a modpack in most other games are packed mods into one zip. Here we have a real repository and so the handling differs.

For missing category “modpacks”: viewtopic.php?f=189&t=73564 -> is implemented since 1 year
https://mods.factorio.com/tag/mod-packs?version=1.1

I wish I had not moved this. Waking up sleeping bears. Oh, yes, I thought about moving this to “won’t implement “, but that would be also as wrong as to let it stay where it was. The problem with it is still, that the implementation is somehow like the suggestion, but too far away/impossible to be complete.

So I invite everyone to write suggestions about how this handling of mods should go further.

[ickputzdirwech]

So I invite everyone to write suggestions about how this handling of mods should go further.

If I may use this invitation to advertise two suggestions I made lately:

Easy way to enable optional dependencies 93593

In game mod manager should update runtime 93592

[jodokus31]

One problem is still, that you can't tie specific versions of mods together as a modpack
...
If you make the modpack mod with dependencies with specific version f.e. "ScienceCostTweakerM = 1.1.1", it still downloads the latest version and the modpack mod appears red.
...
However, you still can screw up by downloading newer versions manually. Modpack mod would get red, but the rest still works

If you would provide a dummy save for syncing purpose, it still downloads the most recent version.

Currently it has to be a zip with mods and you may not update the mods.

It is much uglier: what if one modpack has the decency of a special version, and another modpack a different? Or more complex: one modpack needs a specific version, but the player installed already a newer?

And there are much more of those cases. A “real” repository would be able to solve those conflicts, but in Factorio how should such things ever work?
Is that worth the effort, or isn’t it easier to patch that questionable mod?

I would propose 2 possibilites:
- If you have a fixed dependency (like "ScienceCostTweakerM = 1.1.1") from the modpack mod, you have the ability to resync to the matching mod versions. Like a modpack reset to original versions
- The mod sync from a savegame respects the mod versions. However, this might not be the intended behaviour in other cases, so it should be additional.

I think, it would be worth from the view of a modpack user.

[ssilk]

Sounds good. Please make a new suggestion.

Ah, I would change that so, that in both cases I can choose the “original” version or the latest. It’s often so, that the latest version contains just bug fixes.

When we follow for example the npm standards, then the third number in the version indicates “backward compatible bug fixes”. I recommend that here, too.