Factorio Forums

bobingabout wrote:I still think that the version number should be optional as it is now, but if it requires double loading, I can see why its a transition to mandatory.

I personally like the required numbers. When someone gives you a screenshot of their mods folder you can see exactly what version they're running and not need to have them open individual folders/files to read numbers.

I was personally thinking about my working mods. I often work on a folder with an unknown version number, could be 0.6.2, or 0.7.0, I don't know yet, which it will be will likely be determined by how much I add to the mod, all the while the .json file will still say 0.6.1, so the folder will just be called "bobplates", when I release it I would zip up bobplates into the file bobplates_0.6.2.zip or bobplates_0.7.0.zip.

As said, it would be nice, but it's only a little extra work to change folder names as you change the version number.

FreeER wrote:

starxplor wrote:What is with all the zip file name stuff, the zip file is for backup, and unzipped directory goes in the mods directory?

given proper naming of the mod zip, folder, and information given in the info.json, Factorio is capable of loading the mod from the zip, no need to unzip it. My guess as to the file name requirements is conformity (multiple reasons this can be nice) and ease of coding (no need to check for multiple possible "correct" setups), but I'm mostly just guessing with this.

Interesting, when I first started using Factorio mods, they all failed to load with just zips in the mods folder, I had to unzip them all into their own directories. I wonder when this changed...

As a user though, having version numbers in the name is great for quickly scanning to see if you are using the newest version or for keeping versions the same between multiple systems.

starxplor wrote: Interesting, when I first started using Factorio mods, they all failed to load with just zips in the mods folder, I had to unzip them all into their own directories. I wonder when this changed...

Apparently its always been there, I didn't know about it till this thread was created. It was probably mod authors not knowing the correct .zip format for your problems.

OBAMA MCLAMA wrote:

starxplor wrote:Interesting, when I first started using Factorio mods, they all failed to load with just zips in the mods folder, I had to unzip them all into their own directories. I wonder when this changed...

Apparently its always been there, I didn't know about it till this thread was created. It was probably mod authors not knowing the correct .zip format for your problems.

It's only been possible since version 0.9.0, as can be seen by searching for 'zip' in the news subforum aka ->

kovarex wrote:Version 0.9.0
...
Features:
...
Game saves and mods are read / written natively to the zip files.
...

So...thanks for the vote of confidence there MCLAMA

i take offense to that!

bobingabout wrote:I was personally thinking about my working mods. I often work on a folder with an unknown version number, could be 0.6.2, or 0.7.0, I don't know yet, which it will be will likely be determined by how much I add to the mod, all the while the .json file will still say 0.6.1, so the folder will just be called "bobplates", when I release it I would zip up bobplates into the file bobplates_0.6.2.zip or bobplates_0.7.0.zip.

As said, it would be nice, but it's only a little extra work to change folder names as you change the version number.

My problem is, my batch file which I made to automate the mod zipping/uploading will no longer work. What what about mod packs? Its much much more work to merge all the folders of a mod when we could of just zipped them together, and the game was like oh that's cool.

Really this change doesn't really add much except for maybe taking screen shots of your mod folder and people knowing what you got, but that could of been a list in game.... Wait there is one. To me this change is slightly counter productive.

to be clear: Issues with mods in zips previously, well for starters, as has already been pointed out, it was only compatable in the 0.9.0 series, not before

But while it was compatable, if the mod was called "bobplates", but the zip was called "bobplates_0.4.2.zip" for example, the game would think the mod was called "bobplates_0.4.2" and try to load a mod with that name, and then fail because that wasn't what was in the zip file. The zip had to be named "bobplates.zip" with no version information on it, else it would fail to load.

in the current version (0.10.7+) you can use bobplates or bobplates_0.4.2 and it will work
in the next version (0.11.0+) you need to use the version number, so bobplates_0.4.2

can you include letters in version?

0.1.2B ?

joran wrote:can you include letters in version?

0.1.2B ?

or perhaps use 0.1.2.1 for quick development builds (like when doing some unsuccessful bug-hunting and testing among your friends? would that cause a problem with the game interpreting the version/build/release?)

-- Smoov