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Android

17 Aug, 2014 @ 7:56am

Issues for the Workshop Community - UPDATED FOR 2.6

Skybox has done great work to support the custom-content community. The integrated mod manager is an excellent addition to AoM. Unfortunately, there are a number of bugs and issues with this, and a few promises that the devs have yet to keep. I hope this thread will prove useful to their efforts, and of course, I gladly welcome contributions from the community.

High Priority – URGENT

Playing Modded Scenarios Online (Fix or Replace Direct File Transfer)

When hosting custom scenarios or RMS online, the file transfer between the host and the rest of the players is broken. When receiving scenario or RMS files from mod folders, players will not be able to “green up” in the online lobby, or the game will crash to the main menu on launch. Only transferring directly from \root\scenario and \root\rm2 works (requiring hosts to manually move their files around and bypass the mod manager).
Please either fix the mod folder transfer, or, ideally, allow only published mods to be hosted, with players joining the lobby making a subscription download from within the game. (Scenario or RMS files do not require a restart. More complex desync-sensitive mods will not allow joining in the first place. Essentially, this is a dumbed-down version of Kris Morness's plan for RoN.)
Contributor Uploads

Contributors cannot publish updates; only the first author can. Warning: if you fix this, please also fix the next item, otherwise multiple authors might not know about each other’s updates.

Medium Priority

Various Stability and UI Issues
- When subscribing to one of your own mods that you don’t have locally any more, it will download just fine, but then the restart window won’t come up. If you subscribe to other mods at the same time, only those will be shown in the restart window (own mods won’t be in the list).
- Changing your mod title on Steam should also change your local mod folder name and on the Steam servers. If title and folder names are out of sync you can’t publish updates (error code 9).
- Similarly, changing your description on Steam should also change your local _publishinfo.txt and on the Steam servers.
- The mod manager doesn’t like mods that use the same folder name (once you unsubscribe from one of them it’s fine). It should just recommend unsubscribe in the same way that it does for broken downloads. Examples: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=613323424&searchtext=, https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=603662633&searchtext=
- Disable Quicksearch if desync-sensitive mods are active. QuickSearch should ask the player to disable their desync-sensitive mods, then come back. (NB: only if the mods are enabled!)
Clean up “Load Scenario” Menu – EASY FIX
- In the Load Scenario menu, scenarios loaded from mod folders used to have their pertaining mod folder name added in square brackets, but this broke in one of the more recent patches. Please restore.
- The Load Scenario menu is cluttered up with old menu backgrounds (files starting on ~aom and ~ui that were hidden away in the original game) and requires lots of scrolling. Either just move them all into a subfolder or, better yet, fix the sorting mechanism: the list is sorted alphabetically with the clutter at the end, but .SCN files and mod manager files get added only after that. If you include those in the alphabetic sorting, finding your scenarios would be much more convenient.
Anim Sync Checker

WarriorMario is working on a program to distinguish sync-breaking anims and BRGs from harmless ones, which would drastically reduce the number of “desync-sensitive” tags in the Workshop. This would allow a lot of harmless anim mods to be used online, which has been a major concern for the online community. Feel free to contact him in order to discuss his code.
Fix Resized Units Under Fog of War

In the scenario editor, you can resize units by holding K or Shift+K. However, if the resized unit is visible under the fog of war (e.g. buildings, trees), its size goes back to normal. This picture[i157.photobucket.com] should help to illustrate the problem.

Low Priority – Nice to Have

Trigger Requests
- Shorten the varType="sound" warning label to “Remove '\moddir\sounds\'” so that it can be read on all screen resolutions.
- Make the following trigger effects work online (currently only working in singleplayer):
  - "Teleport Units"
    (for human players, AI, and Mother Nature)
  - "Unit Create"
    (currently working for AI only, not for human players and Mother Nature)
  - "Army Deploy"
    (currently working for human players and Mother Nature only, not for AI)
- Write an XS function: "getScenarioName(int unitID)"
  (for use in scenario triggers; sort of the reverse of "kbGetBlockID(string unitName)", see http://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=13&tn=29395&st=2#post3)
- For additional trigger ideas (optional), see here[aom.heavengames.com] and here[aom.heavengames.com]
Nice-to-Have Files for Mod Manager Support
- \sounds: The “Play Dialog” trigger supports additive .mp3, but it doesn’t overwrite the existing .mp3, which is a problem for people who want to translate the campaign.
- \trigger2: .trg
- \models: .xml
- \textures: .xml
- \data: all .xml (desync)
- Note to modders: Apparently, \startup\*.cfg files cannot be hooked up for technical reasons. If you want to change the main menu background, overwrite \scenario\~aom_pgs_greece.scx instead.
Working on .Brg and .Mtrl Files

Some of the devs have made promises to release a brg–fbx converter https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/workshop/discussions/-1/558755529558828765/?appid=266840#c558755529762009114. However, we already have an excellent converter in AMP by Tasev (Ryder25)[aom.heavengames.com] as well as his material converter[sourceforge.net]. It would be much easier for you to release some information on the .brg and .mtrl file structures (which was promised as well, https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/workshop/discussions/-1/558755529558828765/?appid=266840#c558755529798188796, https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/workshop/discussions/-1/558755529558828765/?appid=266840#c558755529798188796) so that Tasev (Ryder25) can update his program.
Originally posted by morness:
Hi, we are going to be working on a brg conversion tool, so stay tuned for an update involving that. We do want people to be able to modify the models of the game. We are thinking fbx for intermediate format is probably the way to go. Any thoughts?
Originally posted by gijs.kaerts:
I will be writing up a more formal specification of the BRG file structure in the near future including proper file layouts which I'm sure we can share with you guys. We actually do have a proper in-house BRG parser, but we have so far only used it to do material extraction.
Originally posted by gijs.kaerts:
The reason for us moving the material data into separate files was for ease of editing and modding. We have an in-house tool which can compile new materials from XML data, and it would have been very frustrating to overwrite parts of the BRG files every time we wanted to update a material. On that note, I'm sure we can look into hooking you guys up with the material file layout :)

Fixed :-)

Loading Mod-Folder Scenarios Results in Crash - FIXED IN 1.11
(At least for singleplayer; see “Playing Modded Scenarios Online”)
Player Options for Hosting Multiplayer Scenarios (“No AI”) – FIXED IN 2.0
Unsupported File Types – FIXED IN 2.0.2 AND 2.2
Mod Manager Stability, Syncing and UI Issues – mostly fixed in 2.02, see above
Patch 2.1 Breaks Mod Manager – FIXED IN 2.2

Thanks for reading and keep up the great work!
Android

Last edited by Android; 26 Sep, 2017 @ 11:48am

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Showing 1-15 of 85 comments

WarriorMario [developer] 9

17 Aug, 2014 @ 9:33am

Nice list! I just thought of a problem with modded multiplayer scenarios. If it requires data changes the players will have to restart their game first before they can join :( Same applies to models. I think textures will be fine because the game can reload textures if you add megaPostLoadForceTextures to your user.con . If the devs could add something like megaPostLoadForceData and megaPostLoadForceModels that only gets activated when it is required then players do not have to restart to join but instead load a few seconds longer which I doubt is a problem. Oh and about the anims just leave that because it's not done yet.

Edit: Oh and I think ai files aren't ignored by the mod manager.

Last edited by WarriorMario; 17 Aug, 2014 @ 9:36am

Shrink

17 Aug, 2014 @ 11:26am

Great post. I wonder why so many of the files in the data folder aren't supported by the mod manager? You would think there must be some reason for it, but whatever that reason is, it is surely undermined by the fact protox IS supported - so why not the rest?
Increasing the support would make installing mods considerably less tedious.

It would also be a bonus if scenario files would automatically show in the scenario menu in the single player menu, which would again avoid the tedious nature of having to move a file from the mod folder to the base folder, or having to first go into the editor and play from there.

Automatically downloading mods in a scenario lobby probably wouldn't work for the reasons warriormario has said. You can't download a modified protox or anim file and then have the game use it while it is using the normal file in the background (as we know, AOM always has a scenario running behind the main menu). People would have to restart their games.

WarriorMario [developer] 9

17 Aug, 2014 @ 11:54am

That the mod manager support the protox is a bug btw.

Android

17 Aug, 2014 @ 12:36pm

Thanks guys. Yes, there'd have to be a restart. I'll add it to my post. :-) Thing is, if there is no way to share mods in the online lobby, you can't ever play a modded scenario without prior agreement to subscribe to a particular file, then meet online at a particular time - kinda like Voobly all over again.

Mario, AI is not supported, I'm afraid - I just double-checked. :-( RMS is, however.

Shrink, modded scenarios do show up for me? Place them in YourMod\scenario, then load it from Single Player -> Load Scenario. It might get lost between all the ~*.scx (it's not alphabetical). Or maybe it didn't work for you because you were a victim of Randomization (see above). ;-)

Last edited by Android; 17 Aug, 2014 @ 12:43pm

WarriorMario [developer] 9

17 Aug, 2014 @ 12:43pm

Seems like you're right about the AI. Btw my mod manager only randomized if I did stuff offline so it looks like its a sync error no?

Android

17 Aug, 2014 @ 12:51pm

I guess so, but I really don't know. I hope they'll look into it.

Ozhara

18 Aug, 2014 @ 4:03am

For the unsupported files - I wrote about that with morness some time ago (feels like months now) when working on my xml file merger.

If I remember right, he said there'd be two reasons for this:
1) They want the game beeing 'ready' before allowing these files so their final usage and syntax are set. Just to avoid mods beeing broken by changes they might make to these files.
2) Several file(format)s could be used to do 'illegitimate' stuff with them. Therefore they want to check each file and allow them seperatelly.

This of course is a huge drawback for modding and I really hoped some of the points listed above would be fixed with 1.9. Especially for they know these things for some time now and also worked on them - as you can see at the seperate mod manager branch that is available since then.

Big thanks to morness at this point for his quick fixes and answers in the beginning!
But seems to have been seased somehow latetly.

It seems mod support isn't that much important for them right now... :(

Android

18 Aug, 2014 @ 6:01am

Thanks for your input - let's hope they have a few more patches in the works. Remember, they've been patching AoE2HD for quite some time now and they still are, so I assume they'll be doing the same with AoMEE. :-)

It'd be great to get a dev response on some of these issues!

Nosh

18 Aug, 2014 @ 12:54pm

Originally posted by WarriorMario:
Nice list! I just thought of a problem with modded multiplayer scenarios. If it requires data changes the players will have to restart their game first before they can join :( Same applies to models.

I don't think reloading assets, after everyone is ready in the in-game lobby, would be a problem? I mean you're already restarting the game, from within the game, while exiting the in-game mod manager, after doing mod changes, and that goes very smoothely. The restart of the game could surely be automated, so that it closes, opens, connects you to the other players and directs you to the multiplayer scenario.

Thanks Android for putting the time into writing this post. This should definately be a sticky! I'm going to post my mod-manager.txt and mod-status.txt logs in another seperate post, please link to them. I'll PM you the url.

Last edited by Nosh; 19 Aug, 2014 @ 1:04pm

Android

19 Aug, 2014 @ 6:38am

Cool :)

Actually, I think Shrink is right, scenario support for the mod manager seems to be broken. Scenarios in mod folders do show up in all the menus (Load Scenario, LAN, Online) but they won't load (crash to main menu). The only way to load them is through the editor or by manually copying them into the game directory. Anybody else experiencing this?

EDIT: Added this to the main post!

Last edited by Android; 19 Aug, 2014 @ 7:41am

#10

Nosh

19 Aug, 2014 @ 1:03pm

Originally posted by Android:
Cool :)

Actually, I think Shrink is right, scenario support for the mod manager seems to be broken. Scenarios in mod folders do show up in all the menus (Load Scenario, LAN, Online) but they won't load (crash to main menu). The only way to load them is through the editor or by manually copying them into the game directory. Anybody else experiencing this?

EDIT: Added this to the main post!

I've always thought that they dont show up unless you move them, however I think I saw a subscribed scenario in the in-game list. I've always just moved them over and then unsubscribed. I don't really like having to subscribe to maps. I may keep a subscription if the map is in testing, or if I may want to comment on it after playing. So I've never tried playing maps/scenarios from the mod folder. But I'll give it a shot.

EDIT: Yes I can confirm that scenario support for the mod manager seems to be broken. It just takes me directly to the main menu after choosing the map.

Last edited by Nosh; 19 Aug, 2014 @ 1:16pm

#11

morness

19 Aug, 2014 @ 4:36pm

Thanks for this list. Btw, in case your wondering why I've been quiet lately, I've been busy porting this mod system to Rise of Nations. Two completely different technologies. Anyways, I will try to fix these issues. I do really want to fix the enable/priority bug though.

#12

WarriorMario [developer] 9

19 Aug, 2014 @ 7:25pm

Just found a problem:
2 "LegTaurus' Taunt Pack v1.0" 3 No 30371295 1947831680 76561198040872438 0
I´m not the creator of this mod (My id is 76561198033095029), not even subscribed to this mod and unsubscribing from ingame doesn´t work. I tried to subscribe to the updated version of his mod "LegTaurus' Taunt Pack v1.2" but the game crashes before the main menu loads.

#13

Android

20 Aug, 2014 @ 3:04am

Originally posted by morness:
Thanks for this list. Btw, in case your wondering why I've been quiet lately, I've been busy porting this mod system to Rise of Nations. Two completely different technologies. Anyways, I will try to fix these issues. I do really want to fix the enable/priority bug though.

Sweet. It is a great system. If you can fix just the top-tier items on this list it will work like a charm! :-)

Jnx; thanks! And don't forget to update your logs! ;-)

Mario; that sounds like a very specific issue. Have you tried unsubscribing here on Steam, then deleting the folder and mod-status.txt manually?

Last edited by Android; 20 Aug, 2014 @ 3:13am

#14

WarriorMario [developer] 9

20 Aug, 2014 @ 6:34am

Did not delete my folder or mod-status yet but un subscribing is not possible if I'm not subscribed. Somehow another mod is broken too now. I think it has to do something with first having to manually install the mod becuase the files were not compatible with the mod manager.

#15

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Date Posted: 17 Aug, 2014 @ 7:56am

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