Common Sense mod is broken, DO NOT USE IT, and other issues.

[daminshi]

Had to do a lot of troubleshooting clicking mods on and off for several hours.

Braven's mod Common Sense is broken. Lot of mods from 6+ months ago before the recent updates are broken. This one would not start my game up at all.

From what the console.log said was there was something about the Alcohol unit being messed with that made the game incompatible and force stopped the loading.

The reason why I'm here is because there is no comment section for his mod. I assume that page is abandoned because several image links are broken.

The other problem is directly to the game devs themselves.

There should be a method to restart the game from inside the game or go back to the main menu instead of making me force quit from an error message that says "check the logs".

Steam also needs a way to checkmark or have some way to to tell when a mod has not been updated to the current version. I shouldn't have to double check the little date stamp on the side of the page.

Edit: Kiss my a s s

[Alex]

Originally posted by daminshi:

The other problem is directly to the game devs themselves.

There should be a method to restart the game from inside the game or go back to the main menu instead of making me force quit from an error message that says "check the logs".

But a user loaded the engine with broken lua files; hence a full engine restart is needed.
If you have a better method for unloading a broken mess from the engine, you probably should commit this code to the devs.

Originally posted by daminshi:

Steam also needs a way to checkmark or have some way to to tell when a mod has not been updated to the current version. I shouldn't have to double check the little date stamp on the side of the page.

You suggest the steam should be testing every mod for every build version of every game? That is kinda... ambitious.

Or automatically moving all mods older than the latest build to some "obsolete" category? Too much false positives, you can simply filter by date.

[The cursed Jäger]

I am using Common Sense by Braven without issue on B41. The mod works for me, has been for a year.

You likely have a severe mod conflict or are playing B42 with Common Sense, which it is not compatible with.

[daminshi]

Originally posted by Alex:

But a user loaded the engine with broken lua files; hence a full engine restart is needed.
If you have a better method for unloading a broken mess from the engine, you probably should commit this code to the devs.

Factorio does this type of thing gracefully, but I'll give you an example of an easy workaround.

Have buttons on the error page.

>[Restart Project Zomboid]
>[Quit To Desktop]

At least attempt to automate this crap.

You suggest the steam should be testing every mod for every build version of every game? That is kinda... ambitious.

Or automatically moving all mods older than the latest build to some "obsolete" category? Too much false positives, you can simply filter by date.

Also an easy fix.

if mod_time > app_update_time:
    print()  // Workshop has been updated to the current version.  No notice needed.
elif file_time < app_update_time:
    print("The workshop object is older than the app update.  It might be broken.  Contact the content author or leave a review if it is.")
else:
    print()  //  Workshop and App were updated simultaneously, possibly by the devs.

And print to the workshop page.

So instead of being a smug smart ass, think of real practical ways of alleviating stress on the user instead.

It has been hell restarting this game over 50 times trying to find the one glitched mod.

[daminshi]

Originally posted by The cursed Jäger:

I am using Common Sense by Braven without issue on B41. The mod works for me, has been for a year.

You likely have a severe mod conflict or are playing B42 with Common Sense, which it is not compatible with.

I'm on 42 for the full farm and animal experience. I know 42 is "unstable", but several of these mods have not been updated in almost a year..

[The cursed Jäger]

Originally posted by daminshi:

I'm on 42 for the full farm and animal experience. I know 42 is "unstable", but several of these mods have not been updated in almost a year..

The mod tags for Common Sense state it is for B41 and B42. Likely a mod issue on your end that makes it crash. Or it is not compatible with the latest Unstable.

Mod makers don't have to update their mods, they have no obligation too. Nor do they have to remove them if they are not working. Cool if they do but not required.

There is an updated B42 mod for Common Sense, see if one works for you. I have not tried either as I am not on B42.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3698958906
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3714335263

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by daminshi:

Originally posted by Alex:

But a user loaded the engine with broken lua files; hence a full engine restart is needed.
If you have a better method for unloading a broken mess from the engine, you probably should commit this code to the devs.

Factorio does this type of thing gracefully, but I'll give you an example of an easy workaround.

Have buttons on the error page.

>[Restart Project Zomboid]
>[Quit To Desktop]

At least attempt to automate this crap.

You suggest the steam should be testing every mod for every build version of every game? That is kinda... ambitious.

Or automatically moving all mods older than the latest build to some "obsolete" category? Too much false positives, you can simply filter by date.

Also an easy fix.

if mod_time > app_update_time:
    print()  // Workshop has been updated to the current version.  No notice needed.
elif file_time < app_update_time:
    print("The workshop object is older than the app update.  It might be broken.  Contact the content author or leave a review if it is.")
else:
    print()  //  Workshop and App were updated simultaneously, possibly by the devs.

And print to the workshop page.

So instead of being a smug smart ass, think of real practical ways of alleviating stress on the user instead.

It has been hell restarting this game over 50 times trying to find the one glitched mod.

Factorio does it gracefully, But Factorio also doesn't utilize the Steam Workshop or have to deal with Steam's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Factorio can do things with their mods that PZ can't because Factorio uses it's own home-made modding system from back end to front end. From their own modding repository to how it can be interacted with from the Factorio client, it's all in their hands and they can make it do whatever they want.

PZ on the other hand suffers the Steam Workshop and all of it's many problems and limitations. They can't just do whatever they want.


With that said, Everything that modding entails from start to finish is on the end user's head. Developers are under no obligation whatsoever to deal with anything related to mods. What any developer does on the subject is purely gravy from the end user perspective. It's on the enduser to figure things out, resolve their own issues, do their own problem solving when something goes wrong. It's also on the end user for having such a massive mod list that they can't quickly diagnose what went wrong.

And lastly, Your proposed if/else/print 'solution' would be tripped like 90% of the time, Alot of mods are ancient but still work in the present version of the game.


The only thing that the devs need to do, imo, Is add a basic trace to any error that points back to the origin mod that made the call that lead to the error. If multiple are involved, list them all and leave it to the user to figure out. As it is, the error window is basically useless, imo. It doesn't list what specific mod the problem came from, you often have to read through it line by line and then try to guess what mod it leads back to based on what it affects. Which is, imo, dumb. (At least that's how it was in b41; If it's been fixed/changed in b42, then yay.)

[Kittytig]

Originally posted by The cursed Jäger:

Originally posted by daminshi:

I'm on 42 for the full farm and animal experience. I know 42 is "unstable", but several of these mods have not been updated in almost a year..

The mod tags for Common Sense state it is for B41 and B42. Likely a mod issue on your end that makes it crash. Or it is not compatible with the latest Unstable.

Mod makers don't have to update their mods, they have no obligation too. Nor do they have to remove them if they are not working. Cool if they do but not required.

There is an updated B42 mod for Common Sense, see if one works for you. I have not tried either as I am not on B42.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3698958906
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3714335263

can confirm the second works for me in B42.17 and i am still able to get into my games without it crashing.

[Raymond]

why don't you just make this post on their mod page, rather than the general discussion?

[daminshi]

Originally posted by Raymond:

why don't you just make this post on their mod page, rather than the general discussion?

They disabled the comments full stop. There is no way to even post to the author.

[daminshi]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

The only thing that the devs need to do, imo, Is add a basic trace to any error that points back to the origin mod that made the call that lead to the error. If multiple are involved, list them all and leave it to the user to figure out. As it is, the error window is basically useless, imo. It doesn't list what specific mod the problem came from, you often have to read through it line by line and then try to guess what mod it leads back to based on what it affects. Which is, imo, dumb. (At least that's how it was in b41; If it's been fixed/changed in b42, then yay.)

This, exactly.

I had to have Grok look through the console file because it was just 1.7mb of mostly junk data that didn't tell a lot of anything. Couldn't parse exactly what was wrong except map locations were clashing. Gave up on that and have to go through pages on the favorites page to narrow it down.

[MV75]

Originally posted by daminshi:

Originally posted by Shurenai:

The only thing that the devs need to do, imo, Is add a basic trace to any error that points back to the origin mod that made the call that lead to the error. If multiple are involved, list them all and leave it to the user to figure out. As it is, the error window is basically useless, imo. It doesn't list what specific mod the problem came from, you often have to read through it line by line and then try to guess what mod it leads back to based on what it affects. Which is, imo, dumb. (At least that's how it was in b41; If it's been fixed/changed in b42, then yay.)

This, exactly.

I had to have Grok look through the console file because it was just 1.7mb of mostly junk data that didn't tell a lot of anything. Couldn't parse exactly what was wrong except map locations were clashing. Gave up on that and have to go through pages on the favorites page to narrow it down.

How to read the error log:

Open it up in a text editor
CTRL-F and type in stack, have direction of down and enter, it'll take you right to the stack trace which shows the mod, file, line of error occuring. No slop required.

[LUCKY JOHN]

Originally posted by Raymond:

why don't you just make this post on their mod page, rather than the general discussion?

Braven mods doesn't seem to have any form to comment on the mod page. What I've understood, is that braven is not updating mods anymore, some say abadoned. Hard to tell, because there is no direct communication, only a mod description page. Perhaps will be back when B42 is stable in 2-5 years.

[daminshi]

Originally posted by JOHN:

Braven mods doesn't seem to have any form to comment on the mod page. What I've understood, is that braven is not updating mods anymore, some say abadoned. Hard to tell, because there is no direct communication, only a mod description page. Perhaps will be back when B42 is stable in 2-5 years.

At that point, I'd just take the mods down. They'll be outdated and broken within 6 months. Nobody is going to donate and be very angry at a highly rated mod being on the front page and abandoned. I don't think even the "See Also This Mod" function at the bottom of the page works to find similar mods to replace it.

[Leader of the Zakonistians]

Originally posted by The cursed Jäger:

I am using Common Sense by Braven without issue on B41. The mod works for me, has been for a year.

You likely have a severe mod conflict or are playing B42 with Common Sense, which it is not compatible with.

Which one? There are two Common Sense mods. There's the normal one and then a Rebirth mod version with more settings

[MV75]

Originally posted by daminshi:

Originally posted by MV75:

How to read the error log:

Open it up in a text editor
CTRL-F and type in stack, have direction of down and enter, it'll take you right to the stack trace which shows the mod, file, line of error occuring. No slop required.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3716390440

You wouldn't know either that part of this was a specific issue to Project Zomboid would have dedicated to Linux.

The other errors aren't helpful either.

zombie.world.WorldDictionaryException: World loading could not proceed, there are script load errors.

HOW USEFUL! WHAT ERRORS?! WHAT! IT DOESN'T SAY WHICH?!?! FANTASTIC!!!

ERROR: General      f:0> ScriptManager.PostWorldDictionaryInit> Exception thrown
    java.lang.Exception: Fluid not found: Alcohol. line: fluid 0.1 [Alcohol] at InputScript.OnPostWorldDictionaryInit(InputScript.java:965).
...
ERROR: General      f:0> GameLoadingState$1.run> Exception thrown
    zombie.world.WorldDictionaryException: World loading could not proceed, there are script load errors.

Related to alcohol, but that's because the current game screwed with the Alcohol functions and some random mod somewhere caused a panic. Still doesn't say which file or trace.

ERROR: General      f:0 at Basements.mergeRoomsOntoMetaCell    > duplicate RoomDef.metaID for room at 12830,1610,1

That's either somewhere in Irvington or related to a modded bunker\elevator in the 3 mansion complex near Louisville. Neither one was the problem when I turned related mods off.

♥♥♥♥ off with this "just do it yourself and go through the giant console file"

The devs need to focus on giving more useful information in their logs if they expect us to troubleshoot anything.

I gave you the steps to literally give you the mod name, mod file and line number within that file. The very things you asked for. Yes to us the file is largely just junk. If you really want to, type in "stack trace" to the find. It should take you either way, if there are real mod or even base game file errors, to a section with:
===============================
STACK TRACE
===============================

Like that ^ with the lines under it.