Greets all I have the next release for you all now. Simple download it and install it, if you already have Alpha 2.0 or 2.5 Mod manager install simply select Repair when prompted or if you rather you can do a complete uninstall, re-install. The Manuel/Help file is now finnaly finshed. A lot of bugs that were found have been fixed in this new release and also a few additions, depedents now function properly with mod files and also a log window has been added witch should help give more feedback to the user. And of course the big one, RETAIL VERSION SUPPORT! Hope you all enjoy it, thanks for the coninued enthuisam for this.

If you have any questions/feedback/bug reports please post them in this thread so we don't bog down the forums with various posts. I've tried to make this as freindly to use as possible but there are some limtiations not many but a few the verhist.txt as some info on that. Anywayz i'm tired *heh* and i got to get up early tommorow so heres the download link, i hope you all find this usefull it's fun working on it :) May the force be with you!

(FOR MORE UPTO DATE INFORMATION/LINKS TO DOWNLOAD CLICK ON THE NEWER THREAD BELLOW!)
Newer Thread!!! (http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?p=2029484#post2029484)

PREVIOUS RELEASE:

Greets all well its done well for a first release anywayz *hehe* first my aplgoies this took a little longer then i expected since there was some bugs i had to fix. This is still considered Alpha so there will more then likely be bugs of some kind, make sure you have .net framwork 2.0 or higher in order to use the mod manager. The help/manuel file is something to be desired i promiss to release/make a better version soon, there is basic info on how to use the mod manager and how to put your mod into the mod manager for use. Also included is a test mod I made based of bryants mod and also using chris c's space maps. This should help give you modders a basic idea of how to do your mods for the mod manager.


ORIGNAL POST:

Greets all,

I posted this yesterday in PFF and now i'm doing it here, basicly i'm let you all know what i'm planning and i'd like to hear what you think/liked to see included. Since theres quite a few mods out there for the demo and with the full version closing in and since I really havn't seen one i'd figure i'd make a Mod Manager for Empire at War. I'm working on the app currently and will hopefully have a working version for you all in the next few days. I'd like to get your input as modders for what your looking for in a mod manager. But first heres an idea of what this app will be able to do.

First and foremost it's a manager and I want to make it as originzable for the user as possible, this will also help the modder out in the long run. Basicly there will be a catagorey/sub-catagorey system for example 3 catagories may be Total Conversions, Major Mods, Minor Mods. These are basicly folders ie something like TC_CAT, MM_CAT, and MinorM_CAT as a rouge example. Whats great about this system is the user can move the mods around to diffrent catagories and even create sub catagories ie having a Star Wars Type sub-catagory under Total Conversions.

This will also allow mods on top of mods to be much easier for the modder, for example say you bryants mod as a sub-catagorie, you can set that sub-catagorie dependent to bryants mod, what that does is any mods under that sub-catagorie that have it stated in there information file will use that dependent. This should make mods on top of mods much easier to do.

It's rather a rough sketch I know but I hope you get the genreal idea of how the catagories and sub-catagories work.

Also as a mod manger options for mods will be included, bryants mod is another great example since we all know theres the Rebel and Empire side with diffrent techs in the mods information file you can add thoses as options so when the user activates the mod an option dialog will come up allowing him/her to select what option they want to select in this example weather they want to activate the mod as rebel or empire with tech 1 or 5.

Well I need to get back to work, so I hope this all gives you at least a genreal idea of what i'm planning to do with this thing, any further ideas/input would be much appricated. Thanks all.

Petro said they were trying to work in some sort of mod manager so it would be easy.

Yea i thought I saw that too, but you never can tell. In any case at least this way will have at least one at the most two :) Besides I needed to get back to programin anywayz *hehe*

Sounds good, I know myself and other modders would appreciate one of these as soon as possible. Good luck to you :)

*bump*
Just wanted to give everyone a little update on how things are going.

I'm about 55-60% done with a first release of the mod manger. I'm just finshing up the orgnizational part of the manager and will then be working on the main meat of the program witch is the actviation/de-activiation of the mods them self. All in all i'm making great progress and it's my hope to have a first release out to you all by the end of monday at the earliest or mid tuesday at the latest. Of course if anything major comes up that pushes this to a latter release i'll let you all know. In the mean time if any of you modders out there are intrested I could release the a .mod template file for you all, this is the information file that tells the mod manager what your mod is and the like. If anyone is intrested in seeing this to get a heads start on updating there mod for use with the mod manager please just post here. If enough people are intrested then I will post it. Anywayz back to work, laters all :)

*bump* DL is up and linked, if anyone would like to be a mirror by all means please do so and post the link to the file. If anyone has problems getting to the site link for the dl, make sure your using internet explorer, other browsers seem to have a problem with the site. Thanks.

ive got a problem with that thing ...
I tried to make Chriz Mod 7 mod manager ready.

this is the .mod file: (the descriptions are in german)


7.0



Chriz Mod Version 7



Chriz7\



Chriz



http://www.eawhq.de)



http://www.hqboard.net)



Chriz Mod Version 7 ergдnzt die Demo um vieles, was der ursprьnglichen Demo gefehlt hat. So kann man nun nahezu alle verfьgbaren Schiffe und Einheiten bauen. Auch das Imperium wurde freigeschaltet und mit ihm nahezu alle imperialen Einheiten, die in der Demo keine Abstьrze verursachen. AuЯerdem gibt es einige neue Spacemaps und und und...


[SUBCATDEPENDT]
NO
[/SUBCATDEPENDT}


0 = Die Rebellen

1 = Imperium



The folders look as follows:
Chriz7\GameData\Data\ <--- in that folder there are Art\ and XML\
and
Chriz7\Imps\GameData\Data <--- in that folder there are Art\ and XML\

So, what have I done wrong?

Heya Don,

First of all your VERSION tag info is wrong way wrong, this is for the version of the mod manager not your mod. (read over the modstemplate.mod comment under the VERSION tag for more details) so since were using ALPHA 2.0 of the mod manager this should be 2.0A

Also your directory structure dosn't need a GameData directory in it, because your mod folder already ACTS like a GameData directory so it should be as follows:
Chriz7\Data\ <--- in that folder there are Art\ and XML\
and
Chriz7\Imps\Data\ <--- in that folder there are Art\ and XML\

That should fix your problems, again my applogies that the help/manuel file isn't very detailed i will start working on a much better one latter today. In the mean time again use the modstemplate.mod file for information on .mod files and use the included Quickshot14's Test Mod as an example/comparsion.

Lastly if you encounter any errors when trying to load the mod manager again after correcting what I stated above try deleteing the eawmm.cfg in the application directory and try again. Sometimes when crashs occur during load the .cfg file gets currupt/incomplete.

Thanks and rember to post any bugs/feedback/questions here again. May the force be with you :)

k, thx, ill post whether the problem consists.

EDIT: I just did what u told me and now it works! Great. Thanks for your help.
So now, that i can make mods mod manager compatible, i will host your mod manager at our page.

EditІ: So now it works, but it doesnt properly work. I cant choose which side to activate.

may the force be with you

Heya don,

hmm is the options dialog just not showing up or is the option you picked not being 'activated' properly? The mod options dialog should show up after you click activate witch in turn you pick witch option from the dropdown list. If it's the latter, ie not being activated properly double check the directory name in the {} of the option is correct (i made this mistake when making my test .mod file so it can be common) if not try to give me a step by step of what happens or if you can a screenie would help. Thanks

no. the problem is, that he doesnt give the dialogue to choose whether I want to install Rebels or Empire. When i click "Activate" he just installs the Rebels.

Hmm thats odd, the dialog should appear....without acutally trying it myself i'm not what sure to say, from your code everything looks right. You can send me the mod and i can look into for you or/and you can try to delete your eawmm.cfg and try it again, i doubt thats the problem but you never know. (keep in mind any catagories/sub-catagories you may have created or any catagories edits will be lost ie everything will return to default when you delete the eawmm.cfg and start the mod manager again)

Hmm that is odd it should show up, thats all I can think of sorry I can't do more for you without acutally seeing it.

no, sorry ... dont know the reason for that. maybe im blind? dont know. deleting the eawmm.cfg doesnt help either.

So get the mod here:
DOWNLOAD Chriz Mod 7 (MMR) (http://outpost.cnc-hq.de/TRIALS/DonBilbo/EaWHQ/ChrizMod/Version7/Chriz7(ModManagerReady).zip) - doesnt work till now

I converted Cains Warlord v6.0 to the Mod Manager, all faction options work. Difficulty options i dont think you can get to. So i included them for manual installment. Heres the link http://files.filefront.com/Warlords_v60_MM_Versionzip/;4737419;;/fileinfo.html)

Heya don,

I overlooked your .mod file and your were right and I think I have found the problem. For some reason or another the language chars you use in the info portion of the .mod file throws the mod manager off when it's reading the options information. (chars like these: д or ь or Я etc.) because the manager can't find the correct option syntax because it's been thrown off it comes back that there is no options/ignores them.

After removeing all thoese chars from the info text the options then showed up correctly. Obvisouly this is a bug and means I need to find/do a better way of parsing through the mod options. So we weren't going crazy just found something never even thought of. This is good and the point of why it's still an alpha ;)

the only think you can do at this time is remove the chars/try to avoid using them, I aplogize for the incovence but at least we found this out and i will be sure to find a way to correct the issue by the next release :) *hehe* I knew there was going to be a bug like this somewhere lol always seems to be. :)

Anywayz I hope that helps, may the force be with you :)

I tried it and it appears that that is the problem with his conversion, i took out all the non-standard symbols and wala it works

Yea, now it all works properly! Big thx man.

So now I will host your Mod Manager at EaWHQ.de
I also will convert all mods we are hosting to be Mod Manager ready.
This thing is just great ... exactly what I was looking for. Surely needs some bugfixing, but its already very useful and makes things more comfortable.

Just send me an PN when a new version is released - then Ill host it on our page.
Later, when the full version is released this for sure will be one of the most useful tools for EaW.

Just a tip from me: Later when the full version is released u'll need another subcategory, something like "Small Mods". I know, its possible to create your own, but i think they would be shown in Demo Mods for example, right?

May the force be with u

EDIT: yea yea ... you should make it compatibel to german spcial letters such as "Д", "Ц", "Ь" or "Я".

*hehe* thnx thats very encoruging to know don. Not bad for my first real attempt at a mod uttility/tool. I will do so for you don since your requested it and of course i will update this post when theres any new veersion/update to the mod.

I cerintly hope so it will at least give us one way to orignize and switch between mods.

I'll gladly take into consideration adding any default hardcoded/non-hardcoded catagories into the mod manager. Esppically thoses from modding groups for example and the like. I'm very proud of the orignization system I have in place, it acutally was the bulk of programing time since it was rather the first time i attempted to program something like it *heh* needless to say i'm very happy with how it worked out.

Yes I defintly will, means reprograming a block of code but then again that block was rather messy anywayz in the long run it wil defintly work out and thats the whole point of all this. I'm also going to be adding a log-text box. I don't know why i forgot to add one in the first place, this will give feedback and should help with any future bugs/problems like the one you experince.

Of course theres more to add/work on. I don't expect any major .mod file changes untill after emprie at war comes out. So just forewarning on that. But again the mod manager will be useable for both the demo and retial that i promiss.

Well back to working on the real manuel/help file *heh* again thanks for the encourging feedback and for your patince in working through the problem with me. The force is strong in this one, and the force will be with you always :)

Oh admiral sith btw nice work on the conversion with cains mod i'm glad to see it went ok, as to your concern/question about the diffcuilty. Besides doing it the way you setup (manualy) you could potential do it as an extra mod? Hmm something to think about on my end, mods that require mods maybe somehting to add to the subdependt or something? (since the subdependt check really dons't work yet hehe) anywayz something to look into any ideas or thoughts would be appericate.

Thank you all please keep it coming. May the force be with you.

Quick note to Admrial sith:

I noticed that you forgot to add the Data directory in the mods directory (in the zipfile) for example:

is: Warlords Mod v6.0 Total Expansion\Play Admrial Zaarin\XML\

should be: Warlords Mod V6.0 Total Expansion\Play Admrial Zaarin\Data\XML
and so on.
I note it becuase if the mod manger can not find a Data folder in the mod folder/mod options folder it WILL ignore the mod/mod option. Wanted to give you a heads up on that :)

again thanks for the encourging feedback and for your patince in working through the problem with me. The force is strong in this one, and the force will be with you always

You're welcome :) Already having a mod manager for the demo is amazing. for some much older games im still looking for a properly working one. so i try to support u as much as i can ;)

Whoops, fixed it here you go http://files.filefront.com/Warlords_v60_Mod_Manager_Versionzip/;4737905;;/fileinfo.html)

Now if only i could get ROR ATOR to work, i have everything in the right place but the dialog wont appear

Admrial Sith,

yea much better :) Hmm check for any special/unusal chars in the info box since that was the problem with that before. If there is none you can always post the .mod file code and i can take a look at it and see if anything is out of place :)

First thing i checked, http://files.filefront.com/ROR_ATOR_Beta_V04mod/;4738309;;/fileinfo.html)

admrial sith:

Hmm everything in the .mod file looks in order and you say the options don't come up? I havn't had a chance to acutally test it with the mod manager yet i'll try to do that sometime today but i'm not sure when i have a tight schedule today. Once I get a chance i'll run it through the mod manager and see what i can find may be wrong :)

heya,

it's done! I uploaded your mod manager and also wrote a german tutorial and converted some mods to be mod manager ready!
http://www.eawhq.de/index.php?go=news&news_id=315)
==> its in german, but u can see the news.

Thats great don, thanks! :)

Admrial Sith:

I check it out and it seems to be the same problem that don was having, i'm not exactly sure what specific char in the info section could be causing it but i am certian it's only 1. In the mean time this confirms that I do need to find/do a better way of parsing the options section. I assure you in the next release that bug will be corrected :)

Admirla sith:

Concering the warlods mod it looks like you forgot the Data directory in the mods folder (not the options the main mods folder) and because of that the mod manager skips it. This is of course a bug and something i'll fix, i know i know i gotta get you guys that log window comming promiss *hehe* Just wanted to let you or anyone else know if they just add and empty Data directory to the warlords mod folder then it will work just fine :)

Don:
I noticed you got some replies that look like people haveing issues if you need my help with them let me know or if there bugs or something they find also please let me know thanks :)

I've started work on the next release now, and I hope to have it out to you all soon, i'm not sure when but it should be before the retail version of the game comes out. I'll let you all know when it's done. Thanks and keep the feedback/bugs/questions coming! may the force be with you!

Hey Admrial Sith/Don:

Wanted to give you a quick heads up I just finshed programing the next release of the mod manager. I'm not releasing it yet because i'm still working on getting a proper manuel/help file together. But I wanted to let you all know that all previous bugs you two encountered or course mainly that special chars is now fixed and working properly :) WOOT! *hehe*

Took some time to setup the new code properly but now it works with no problems. BTW sith I tested it with the rise of rebellion .mod file you posted and it worked (shows mod options) now. So there was some kind of special char somewhere. I also discovered a few other bugs witch I have also now fixed. If you know of any other bugs/issues i may not be aware of thou please let me know. In the mean time I will finsh the manuel/help file and hopefully get this out to you all by the end of monday, not sure on that but what i'm hoping for.

Of course I will update this post once the new release is out, and as you requested don I will pm you. Keep the feedback coming, thanks and may the force be with you!

*bump*
New release for download. Post updated with the information.

Also want to let you all know i'll be re-doing my system for a hard drive upgrade for a couple days so if you ask any questions/problems it may take me a day or two to respond, just wanted to give a heads up to you all :) Thanks and may the force be with you!

Its cool, but it seems to take huge amounts of times to load or deactivate a mod

heya admrial sith:

This should only happen once everytime you run it there is a bit of the pause because of various checks and what not, if it seems to be rather constant that it's possible the having the log window save to text file could be the culprit since it's updateing the log constanly during a activation/deactive of a mod.

Otherwise i'm not sure why you' have thoese problems i have very few and what ones i had i contrinubted to cpu/applications i had open. Still something to keep an eye on :)

404 when trying to access the site for the 2.5 version of the mod manager.

dark:
if your getting a 404 error make sure your using IE/try IE.

From some reason other browsers don't like web1000 very much. (i just tried it and it worked fine) if you still can't get to it then try and wait untill eawhq has there mirror up. Thanks sorry for the incovenence i miss my old main website :(

*bump*
New release! Retail version support!!!! Mod manager now functions for both demo and retail versions!!!

Heya all, well sorry it took so long got caught up playing EAW of course *hehe* but here it is all ready for everyone! Let me know if you spot any bugs/problems, also finnaly have a full manuel for you all hope it helps! Any feedback/suggestions please let me know, enjoy it and may the force be with you all! :)

Can you post a list of FULL GAME mod manager ready..mods. Thats alot of mods. Like your program.

As far as i know no one has made/done any full game mod manager ready mods for the mod manager yet. Thats upto the users to do and release all i'm providing is the tool and the means :) I hope i anwsered your question, if i understood it properly *heh*

This is very convenient, nicely done, may i suggest a brand new thread so everyone can get this, since 2/3 of the posts are about the demo. :)

Cool Ill have to have a look at this.

will this work with, the final release of EAW(as in the one that came out recently)?

This thread was created on 2/6/05. What do you think?

you dont have to be smart. I am well aware when it was created, i saw this thread when it first came out. There a possibility, small as it may be that it would work. + i dont see it in the demo mod forum, so my first thought, it might work