[Request] GUI Mod loader (client and server)

[tryst49 4]

All I want to see is a mod loader that you can run as a standalone app (like Nexus) and select and install the mods you want.

 

It acts like Nexus:

You throw all the mods into one directory (client and server mods).

You tell the mod loader where the game is and what game files you are using (adventure or creative etc).

You then select the mods you want to add or remove.

The mod loader then finds both the client directory and server database and injects or removes the appropriate mod files whether they be client or server mods.

 

The mod loader only needs a tag to tell it whether it's a client or a server mod.

It may also check if installed mods will conflict (possibly if it overwrites existing mod files).

 

I don't think it's much to ask for those of us not particularly knowledgeable in Java and it would be much more helpful than the existing DOS based loader.

[Crustyfoot 31]

Dos based loader?? The server even UN-modded uses the command terminal as a low level console. It does not have anything to do with loading mods it just serves as a message window so I am not sure what you mean.

Perhaps you are talking about using a batch file to pass parameters at launch to invoke a mod loader to inject the mods code into the game at start up?

ago's mod loader can patch the sever and make an exe that you can use to launch the modded server. The client exe basically targets a java jar file at launch anyways so ago's client mod loader can make a patched version of that jar. So again the exe launches the modded version of the client.

The current mod loaders for the client and server that ago had made are not dos. They are written in java and inject mods you enable. The JPWM Server GUI mod manager by jpiolho is a very useful mod to use to enable and disable as well as configure other server mods.

The client does not have such a thing as a GUI for managing mods but at this point there is only a few mods for the client anyways. Perhaps in time someone will make a client mod that will add a gui to manage client mods like jpiolho did with the mod he made for the server.

As far as you manually having to remember what mods are server mods and what mods are client mods, I feel you there. I one time downloaded a pile of mods and forgot a specific client mod was a client mod and put it in the servers mod folder and had a mess of trouble.

The only real big issue I have at this point myself is trying to keep track of versions of the mod loaders and all of the mods, when and if there are updates. This new forum format messed up these developers so half of them stopped updating the top of their threads. So you have to read from the last post backwards to look for announcements. Then I find myself also second guessing if I got a particular version already, or not. So sometimes I probably replace a mod with an exact UN-updated copy.

 

 

[tryst49 4]

I'm talking about a GUI as in a Windows app. Don't know if you've seen Nexus that Skyrim uses but you select the mods you want to use and it installs them into the game directory for you from within the zip files that contain the mods. If a mod fails to install, it tells you in clear detail what went wrong ("trying to overwrite a newer version" for example).

 

It doesn't matter if the Wurm mod GUI uses a DOS window to call Java functions to do it so long as we can pile the mods we want into one directory and the mod loader sorts out where they go from there, whether it be client or server. What I don't want to see is a DOS based window full of messages that don't mean ###### to someone who doesn't program in Java. Is it telling me it worked or is it saying there's an error? If it's an error, what the hell is it saying is wrong? Those messages may as well be written in Martian for all the sense they make to me. If it was a GUI with messages in real English, we could tell if there was an error and even what the error was. If it created a new exe file to run the modded version, it could rename the old one to ensure the desktop shortcut or Steam shortcut ran the modded game instead of the original.

 

I also don't want to be guessing or reading a wall of text to see if it's a Client mod or a Server mod. That could be included as a standard named text file (ie: Modtype.txt) in the zip for the GUI loader to read so it knows exactly where to put the mod. It need only contain the word 'Client' or 'Server' depending on where the mod goes.

 

Last time I tried to add mods to my server using Argo's mod loader, it promptly closed the DOS screen so I wasn't sure if it had done it or not. When I ran the game, the mods didn't turn up so I guessed something went wrong. After I put a pause command in the batch file, I found out there was, what looked like an error. Having absolutely no knowledge of Java, I didn't have a clue what the error was or how to correct it. If it was a Windows GUI loader, it could be programmed to interpret the java error and tell me in plain English what went wrong... Can't find xyz.jav or whatever... Ok, now I can look for that file and move it to where it can be found or find out why it can't be found. Possibly something I have not installed like a Java update or a Java toolkit or such and it could even tell me if the toolkit hasn't been installed and possibly where I can download it from. It would definitely make life a lot easier for us dimwits who don't speak Java as their primary language.