[1.1.19] mod manager installs and activates dependencies of deactivated mod

[DukeAl]

Hi,
i got Space Exploration installed and deactivated.
When i update my mods and there is an update for Space Exploration it will install and activate AAI Industry, AAI Signal Transmission and Alien Biome.

[Rseding91]

Thanks for the report however I don't consider this worth changing. If you don't want them activated you don't need them updated either. So you can just not update them, or just disable them after they're updated.

[DukeAl]

fair enough

[Saiph]

I have a large collection of Factorio mods. I never run games where all the mods are activated simultaneously. I run different saved games to enable me to enjoy the mods in a proper context, and this also helps avoid incompatibility issues between them.

Mod authors often update their mods to fix bugs and for various other reasons. Therefore, it is a good idea to regularly check if mods have been updated, and install any updates that are found. However, this often means that Factorio will decide to install mod dependencies which are inappropriate and not required. One example is the "Space Exploration" mod by Earendel, as mentioned in previous posts.

It is an absolute pain in the backside to go through my entire list of mods after every update, just to check if Factorio has decided to install unnecessary dependencies. In the case of Space Exploration, the game often decides to install a number of hi-res graphics files, some of which are many megabytes in size, and this massively increases load times. This is very silly, considering that the graphics are not needed, and will never been seen in that particular save game!

It should be quite simple for Factorio to determine if a particular mod is active or not for a particular save. After all, it has the "sync mods with save" option which obviously can tell if a mod is active or not. And the in-game mod portal seems to have no trouble working out which mods are active and inactive.

So why does Factorio behave in such a stupid way when mods are updated, by installing and activating mod files which are not required, and which may cause any number of issues, including compatibility problems, problems with loading times and many others? Factorio should not be installing and activating files for disabled/inactive mods.

This is definitely a bug, it is definitely not minor, and it definitely needs to be fixed.

[eradicator]

If you don't want them activated you don't need them updated either.

Maybe the updater could be more intelligent then. When checking for updates the default selection is always "everything". If the default selection was "only currently active mods" that would be much more convenient. People who want to update all mods can simply double-tap the master checkbox.

(On the occasion of SpaceExploration splitting the graphics into 5 packs and thus triggering 250 megs of downloads that weren't even listed in the update menu.)