Modding changes/new functions

[Othobrithol]

This is my current wishlist, Sami Claws.

• Move mod files out of the main directory, preferably into a designated mod tree with subfolders. Mod files should overide vanilla settings. (E,g, vanilla diy says an item takes a slender, mod says same item takes a stake. There needs to be one menu option, and the recipe should take a stake.
  
• Reformat the skills ini to be sorted by culture instead of by skill, it's far more intuitive.
  
• Add functionality to allow a % chance for an additional item of another type to be produced (E.g. how making logs from trunks also makes branches). I suggest a % chance because it doubles for creating a random quantity (E.g. 50% to make one, 50% to make 2, 50% to make 4.... etc simulates an rng. I abused that in a notrium mod to generate random drops from mobs when the engine didn't natively support that. It could also be used to regain materials used to store another material until it is used eg. a spindle holding thread or a rope holding drying fish.
  
• eliminate all case sensitivity in the modding tokens and syntax. It's a bad coding habit, yes, but it makes it more accessible.
  
• A [nofire] token than "cooks" items without requiring a fire and a [nopot] which skips the pot requirement. You could then move smoking and drying into the data files fully, making preservation and preparation of more foods possible than now. Eg Dried Berries or Dried Mushrooms.
  
• Add a % of "reference item" method to [Price:] so modded item recipes can have their profitability reduced as easily as you did for fur/leather clothes. Without knowing what base items have for [Price:], its hard to determine what to set it to. If you can set ti to a % of the base item, it also means that mods will stay consistent if you change the prices.
  
• Add the ability to add one or more custom skills to be attached to diy items. No need to add any alt-key functionality, just something that can be set in the skills ini and rise with use.
  
• [Text:Something immersive it says in the game text for flavor while you are doing a diy action]
  
• [Is:{keyword}]... something like (or a method for) the current [Material:] or [Type:] but can be set to any arbitrary word including existing item categories. All items made with this tag will fulfill that word's requirement for crafting. Eg: A recipe for tallow that [Is:fat] would fill any cooking or craftign recipe calling for fat. Adding [Is:tying equipment] to .loop snare. would allow it to be selected for like a cord.

Also, you might want to take a look at how Rimworld handles item definitions and mods. He's decided to use an xml-like system with class inheritence. You define a parent like "Wood" and assign it the propeties that it burns. floats, etc. When you define a board, you first tell it that it's wood and then only have to tell it how it's different from "Wood".Every object in the game is handled in the data files. Modification is incredibly flexible and powerful.

You know full well I'll happily wait years for only 10% of this to ever be actually implemented, just wanted to give you my thoiughts.

More will inevitably come.

Rain :D

[A Nickel]

A lot of solid suggestions here, hopefully we can get some feedback from Sami on how viable most of this stuff is. :)

[Othobrithol]

Middle of the night epiphany:

[Text:Something immersive it says in the game text for flavor while you are doing a diy action]

[Othobrithol]

[Is:{keyword}]... something like (or a method for) the current [Material:] or [Type:] but can be set to any arbitrary word including existing item categories. All items made with this tag will fulfill that word's requirement for crafting. Eg: A recipe for tallow that [Is:fat] would fill any cooking or craftign recipe calling for fat. Adding [Is:tying equipment] to .loop snare. would allow it to be selected for like a cord.

[Sami of Enormous Elk]

I dearly understand all the fun and flood of ideas regarding expanding the modding scripting, but things like these don't come easy. UrW modding was foremostly created to allow tweaking and adjusting existing features, even though it flexes beyond that too. More advanced modding some games (eg. Rimworld) feature comes from designing the game greatly moddable from the scratch. For us, as the modding is later invention and layered upon different internal design, it's not all that easy without re-designing a lot. And re-redesigning core parts of the game always need to serve the a bigger picture of development.

Nevertheless, modding is also something that will be constantly improved, within certain time and priority frame.

Commenting quickly on few of the suggestions:

Move mod files out of the main directory, preferably into a designated mod tree with subfolders. Mod files should overide vanilla settings. (E,g, vanilla diy says an item takes a slender, mod says same item takes a stake. There needs to be one menu option, and the recipe should take a stake.

Would be a huge and long-lasting redesign thing, but people who have lots of mods surely crave for better organization. I've been thinking that some sort of third-party mod organizer program would help here. Stuff could be kept in game folder, but the mod organizer program would build the resulting files in there from the mods you want to use. Mods could be keps in different folders, but only built/copied into game folder at will. Item overrides and stuff would be checked upon building. Not the lightest application to come up with, but for now it still would be easier to create than allow all this by the game itself.

Add a % of "reference item" method to [Price:] so modded item recipes can have their profitability reduced as easily as you did for fur/leather clothes. Without knowing what base items have for [Price:], its hard to determine what to set it to. If you can set ti to a % of the base item, it also means that mods will stay consistent if you change the prices.

This is something that I've been also thinking. Probably to seen.

Add the ability to add one or more custom skills to be attached to diy items. No need to add any alt-key functionality, just something that can be set in the skills ini and rise with use.

I have a hunch that you can already do that. At least I can't think of a reason why it shouldn't work. There's limited viewspace in game skill screens so many new skills won't fit, but you can give it a shot and report back if it turned out good.

[Othobrithol]

All completely understandable, I was just really impressed by how he went about doing it. (C'mon mate, it's Rain, I've been throwing massive lists at you for a decade :P)

Here's a new one : {[nearby_tile:]} could use multiple entries much like [terrain] or [effect] in the flora files do. Reason: if you want to require an action to be done at the water's edge, Water won't cover Rapids or River etc..

[Sami of Enormous Elk]

Yep. And oh I'm aware you're Rain, and I will never forget ;) Just gotta elaborate from time to time so that those who haven't been following the game for too long get an idea where we're standing, and where we're going.

[Privateer]

An expanded menu system would be A+