Pre-requisite mods vs stand alone mods

[Max_D]

I'm 100 hours in completed my first sandbox game.

Now I'm trying mods for the first time and downloaded several of Bob's to try (incl 'Bob's Logistics', 'Bob's Metals' and 'Bob's Mining').

I'm enjoying & learning all the features.....until I hit a wall

4 hours into a new game (with the mods), I spent an hour driving around everywhere looking for TIN ORE to upgrade my lvl 0 belts.

About another hour searching every forum to try to find why I couldn't see a TIN ORE mining patch anywhere. Then started using console commands to reveal huge areas of the map....still no TIN ORE.

Out of desperation (and frustration) - it now appears I needed to download the 'Bob's Ores' pack in order to see all the pre-requisite materials.....

I cannot simply download the pack and 'use' it in my current save game (I have to start over again).

I realise I must be missing something. Can someone please educate me into how I should be using Bob's Mods that rely on other Bob's Mods?

I thought I had always read that you can simply pick and choose which mods appeal to you. But it appears that some mods rely on the installation of other mods, otherwise you get stuck mid-game like I have. I do see a few 'optional' mods in the MOD settings info page, but if an upgrade requires an ore, than surely that ORE should be 'mandatory' rather than 'optional'?

Not a criticism at all (I LOVE the work you've done). Just an early factory manager wanting to plan better for using MODS in the future.

Many thanks

**Note - I did check the dependencies and can only see 2 x 'optional' mods (inserters / plates) that I don't have. But surely if you need Tin Plates for belt upgrades, than 'Bob's Ores' should be a pre-requisite?

Factorio Mod List.JPG (210.49 KiB) Viewed 2793 times

[bobingabout]

If you have bobplates aka MCI aka "Bob's Metals, Chemicals and Intermedites mod" installed, you need Bobores too, everything else should be pick and choose optional.

You can actually just add Bob ores to the game at this point, there is a command you can enter to regenerate all of the ores it adds, that will add them where they were supposed to be, however, if you just explore more after installing the mod, newly generated terrain should include the new ores.

I really should make that a hard dependency, but part of the reason why it isn't is from the older days.
There was an alliance between 5Dims, DyTech and Bob's mods at one point, where each of the 3 developers were going to make a single mod that added all the ores, this never actually happened, but instead came the open ores mod thing, where myself and DySoch basically wrote their own version of the same mod, that could be used interchangeably, though 5Dim wrote his mods to use my ores mod.
But because Bobores could be used with DyTech, or DyTech ores could be used with Bob's MCI, there was a soft dependency written in instead of a hard dependency.
Of course DyTech as it was then isn't really a thing anymore, I think some people did update it to work with newer versions of the game, and DySoch himself worked on a new mod called DyWorld (He would always rather start again instead of updating to a newer version of the game) so there's really no reason not to have the hard dependency now.

[Max_D]

Fantastic - really appreciate your response & explanation thanks Bob!

I'll pick up from my save games and try the console command to use the BobsOres addon mid-game.

Having never delved into the world of mods, it's another fun (but steep!) learning curve to get my head around.

I'm sure this will open up several hundred hours more of enjoyable and addictive gameplay....I should apologise to my wife in advance (she may not see me for another few weekends!).

[bobingabout]

Fantastic - really appreciate your response & explanation thanks Bob!

I'll pick up from my save games and try the console command to use the BobsOres addon mid-game.

Having never delved into the world of mods, it's another fun (but steep!) learning curve to get my head around.

I'm sure this will open up several hundred hours more of enjoyable and addictive gameplay....I should apologise to my wife in advance (she may not see me for another few weekends!).

I didn't tell you the command.

Code: Select all

/c remote.call("bobores", "Regenerate")

Just copy that into the console in game, the game will lock up for a few moments, longer depending on how far you've explored, but then when it starts responding again, you'll have new ores everywhere.

[Max_D]

Great work, thanks again for the console command Bob.

I'll have a crack over the weekend.