[TOOL] The 7D2D Mod Launcher

[sphereii]

Hey Survivors,

I released a tool on the official 7 Days to Die Forum the other day, and thought I'd drop you guys a link.

The tool is called the 7D2D Mod Launcher, and allows you to play various mods easily and quickly, without doing any manual copying and pasting links.

The 7D2D Mod Launcher comes with some default mods that you may already be familiar with, including Valmar's great mods, including Expansion, Overhaul, CHS, and Horde, as well as mods such as A Clockwork Project, Spider's True Survival mod, and TheRedWolf's SteelMod.

In addition to playing the individual mods, you can also play combination mods, which would be a regular mod, plus a prefab kit, either from stallionsden's Megacity or Magoli's ComoPack.

You can read more, and find download links on the official forum post here.[7daystodie.com]

Thanks,
-SphereII

[Valmar]

This gets the fedora of approval

:)

[Im Not Allowed]

thumbs up

[Spider]

Spider approved!!

[LokitheWeaver]

Been hearing this might be in the works. Sadly my summer vacation is over, so fewer 7 days of dying. Quick question, though.

Will this also allow a player to switch back to Vanilla fairly easily? Just saw a post from someone who was having issues - has Valmod install, but wants to play coop with friends who don't. . .

If your mod loader allows us to switch our mod combos AND revert to Vanilla, I suspect it will be a great aid to those of us with limited computer skills (I know I have mucked up more than one save by accidently loading into the "wrong" save game into a modded / vanilla start : )

P.S. I also heard you might be working on a simple quest builder, where you could just add the various requirements for a quest into something like a database entry form, and then those elements would be placed in the appropriate .xml files. The quest system is not that robust, but even a bunch of simple quests would help - but for those of us low skilled people, it is a pain trying to keep track of all the different file requirements (if that makes any sense). Of course this may not be a rumor - just a strange dream I had after staring at quest examples for too long.

Cheers.

[sphereii]

Hi Loki.

Sorry for the delay in answering, I thought I had posted a response.

The Launcher has two modes: Simple and Advanced.

The Simple mode was intended to re-use your existing Steam installation and just swap mods out. This works fairly well for XML and icon mods, but is a lot more challenging with the SDX mods. More files are being affected for those, which is why I recommend using Advanced mode for SDX mods.

Also, if you use the Advanced mode, you could download the vanilla version through steam into another directory. This can be found under "The Fun Pimps" section in the 7D2D Mod Launcher. I've also listed previous versions of the game as well, which must be acquired from Steam.

Unfortunately, the game stores its saved games in a standard location, so all mods, regardless of copies, will all save and open in the same folder.

I was working on a quest generator, using another one of my tool chains. However, the quests were a struggle to deal with from a programming point of view, so progress has been slow on this.

-SphereII

[LokitheWeaver]

Originally posted by sphereii:

Hi Loki.

Sorry for the delay in answering, I thought I had posted a response.

*snip*

-SphereII

No worries. With actually having to work, now summer vacation is over, I don't even get a chance to check the forums as often as I like. I have done the various versions / modded saved in different locations, etc. Screwed up a save game a time or two, but since I tend to play a lot of "early game" and get bored (or I am just testing stuff, trying to break all of Valmar's hard work) it was no big deal.

But I can empathize with people who are faced with a wealth of mods and investment in a play-through. Especially those who want to play a modded game, but (like the post I mentioned) want vanilla to MP with friends.

Sorry to hear the "modding for dummies" program is a struggle. It was just something I think Valmar mentioned when we were discussing some quest ideas for CHS.

That being said, I have been looking forward to using your mod launcher (Valmod, True Survival, etc.) but have been on a 7d2d vacation - working and spending my limited gaming time in Skyrim, just to see where the Mole is getting all his A15 inspiration (and betting with myself whether A15 or the remastered Skyrim will drop first ; )

Cheers.

[sphereii]

It would be really nice if I could separate the save games, but haven't seen a way to do that. Even going back to past Alpha versions (Under The Fun Pimps section), it gets weird. My mouse sensitivity gets down to 0 sometimes on start up, while some alphas do save their files elsewhere. At some point, they switched.

The Simple mode works, and works quite well, for XML-based mods. I quickly patched together support for SDX mods, but the Simple mode's clean up hasn't caught up to it, unfortunately. I'm still working on the SDX support to make them download faster.

The thing with SDX support is that the mod launcher doesn't do any compiling. It relies on modders like Spider to create a working mod, and then release it. This has pros and cons to it.

For one pro, it allows modders to make sure everything works before releasing it. Since their SDX mod is based directly off their test folder, it reduces room for errors.

The con is that it is a bit more work on the modder's side of thing.

Skyrim is one of these special games. I have sunk in a lot of hours into that game, before I even knew there was mods. I had to stop playing it though, since no matter what my intentions are when I roll a new character, I usually always revert to a stealth assassin...

[LokitheWeaver]

Had a few minutes of down time between teaching classes and followed your link, watched the video etc. Am downloading (after a clean 7d2d install) a test of Spyder's mod and Valmar's CHS and Overhaul. Forecast says rain for this week-end so perfect enviroment for a zombie apocalypse.

But now I have a specific question. From what I can gather, the mod lancher seems to require an active internet connection - so it can check and download latest versions . . .

Unfortunately my off grid cabin has no internet. Typically I bring my computer into the office and download the mods (or just put them on a usb drive.)

So what happens when I try to run the mod launcher and it cannot connect to the internet to update the mods? Will it give me a simple error message and run with what is on my hard drive? Or will it fail to run?

(I know I can still run the .exe file from the specific folder, so I suspect it is not the end of the world. But over the years I have run into a few players who have limited internet access, metered or non-available, so I thought I would post the question.)

Thanks.

P.S. Have done the Elder Scroll series from the start. Usually never finish, just get caught up in the world and start wandering : ) And I played Skryim for about a year before I found out about mods - when one of my students suggested I try one that let you place "stuff" like forges and buildings. Now I have 30-50 mods, some always used, others switch in / out for a specific concept / theme <LOL>

[sphereii]

When the Mod launcher starts, it checks to see if there's a new version available. If it can't connect, or there is no update, it should still run.

If you have already installed a mod using Advanced, then you still shouldn't have a problem with being offline. It'll try to download a new version, and will fail, and then it'll launch the game with the last installed mod.

You can uncheck the Refresh Mod Automatically to save it from trying to re-download the mod, but the effect should be the same.

[LokitheWeaver]

Three strikes and I am out : (

Tried several times to download a mod (True Survival, Valmod Overhaul, CHS+Compo.)

Everything seemed to go fine, but when I click on play, it goes through several loading screens / messages then tells me that it cannot connect as Steam is not running . . . while I am on Steam, making comments . . .

Output log file at:
http://pastebin.com/qwPjkqJH

This is just the last of the three. Same issue with each mod install.

P.S. - It does not seem like there is a stand alone CHS mod in the set up, only the ones with the compo or Open City POI sets. Don't know if that is intentional or just an oversight.

Thanks.

[HekatesZombie]

I am getting the same error. Says cannot connect to steam because it isnt online. But I am online and so is steam. Not sure what is going. Would really like to use this mod launcher, is there a solution?

[sphereii]

Try adding the 7D2DModLauncher to Steam as a non-Steam game. Then re-launch from within Steam, and see if you have the same results.

[sphereii]

Add CHS to the mod list too, without prefabs. That one slipped through the cracks. Thanks for pointing it out.

[LokitheWeaver]

Okay - the "Steam error" may be something with Steam. Just tested setting up a stand alone (2nd) version of 7d2d with CHS mods and tried starting it as normal (not in the Steam directory). It gave me the same error. It seems the only version it will run is the one in the Steam directory, started through the "play" button . . .

Will try the end run of adding launcher as non steam game.

Edit: update - the end run works. Add the mod launcher to Steam (as Sphereii suggested), run it from Steam. NOW it will recognize that Steam is active and allow you to start (tried with all three mods: True Survival, Valmod Overhaul and CHS. Made it to the game / options screen, did not actually start a new game, but looks good so far.)

Thanks.

[sphereii]

Great!

Working "with" steam can be a bit of a challenge sometimes.