So... am I understanding this right... One big building mod that adopts and improves upon everything that we know and love from the Plus mods (S+, Platforms Plus, ect)?

Plus and minus some things, yes.

My goal is to let me (and, by extension, you!) make bigger, cooler bases with less structures placed and less dodgy workarounds and building frustration. There will also be some visual and functional changes to existing crafting stations and storage options - mostly with an eye for improving base aesthetics.

That. Sounds. AWESOME!!! I know I for one will be watching this space for further info and development :) I'll also be passing it along to the admins of the cluster I play on as I'm sure they will want to know more too as time progresses :D (If you need some testers.... *raises hand and waves it around violently*) :D

Looking far into the future, I wouldn't want to go remove both P+ or this version, depending on which one is installed at the time, the moment this super mod is released, because it sounds like it's going to be different enough that current structures with P+ will be lost.

Will you be looking to make this new mod as compatible as possible? Will it have the exact same blueprint paths as the current P+ mod for easy transition or will we be able to run them together without issue?


I'm really liking the sound of what you're coming up with, and already wishing it was completed and released.

Should be a drop-in replacement, but I am going to need to check some structures for possible issues once they're changed before I release it.

Sorry if you already answered this in some way but if a have structures built with s+ will they still be there transtitioning to your new mod

Originally I would've said yes, but more and more i don't want to find myself where I can't implement x or have to do it in a more circuitous way because I'm worrying about other structures that get wiped on the majority of servers regularly anyway.

My experience has been the majority of structures on Ark private servers don't last longer than six months. For a mod like LTS, which literally exists as a replacement, it makes sense to prioritize existing structures over improvements. For something like this new mod, I have to decide if I want to sacrifice all improvements or features (or make many duplicates and bloat my mod) for the sake of incorporating as many existing structures as possible (even though many of them will have a life far shorter than this mod).

Really, it comes down to how mucking with different aspects of the mod will impact existing structures. So far everything's been backwards-compatible, but if I hit a snag there I'm not going to give up features or craft inelegant, error-prone solutions to work around the problem.

gotcha well ill be looking forward to using your new mod

any time frame for the new mod?

I've hit over a hundred new features and bugfixes I am implementing (not counting individual structures) so I'm working out how I plan on tackling it and what releases are going to be prioritized. With everything going on right now it's looking like the first release will be early next year.

I'm looking forward to seeing your mod!

However, as S+ is still a golden standard and a very fat mod on its own, conversion of existing and long-term servers like the one I'm on (with no wipe plans) is extremely difficult to implement. Since this conversaition is branching off of the LTS Platforms mod, I was wondering if you could maybe offer a standalone set of mods for servers who want to pick and choose.

Example:

Mod 1: All The Building Mods
Mod 2: ATBM Platforms
Mod 3: ATBM Trees Anywhere

Ect.

Thank you for your consideration! ♥

@Tebo I'm really looking forward to seeing more info on your new mod... is there any update on how you're getting on or planned release??????

Any juicy tid-bits to feed my community for what may be coming :)

One nice update is that WC (specifically Zen) is hard at work getting out the Genesis-ready ADK so we will have access to that content. Hopefully more of it's working by then!

I asked this in the comments section but didn't get an answer so I'm guessing the answer is either no or you didn't want to confuse people in that section as to what the mod is with your plans for afterwards. But essentially I wondered if you were going to also include things Like Snappy Saddles when you make this new Buildings based one, as well as whether you were considering expanding it to include platform saddles added after Snappy Saddles became discontinued such as for a Titan or Space Whale for example.
Also, I am very much a +1 in recommending you also look at having standalone sets. I have a few friends who love to use things that group what could be many mods together and they seriously can drag down performance unnecessarily when your only really using it for 1 aspect of it.
Based on that Crop Plots thing I hope that meeans platform greenhouses will also be less annoying to get greenhouse effect in ^^.
I look forward to what you produce when you produce it regardless though ^^.

I need to look over Snappy Saddles as it's currently super busted but I like clean rafts/platforms so i may take a stab at that. There's still things I have yet to look at since I'm waiting for the dumpsterfire that is Genesis to at least die down a bit before I play it.

From early research into greenhouse stuff I discovered It Just Doesn't Work - there's literally nothing wrong with how the misbehaving pieces are currently set up, and the trace for it (which isn't something exposed to modders) simply doesn't like the size or shape of those structures. There are some potential workarounds but they're ugly, complicated, and don't solve the problem without other consequences. There's probably some awesome solution out there but I won't pretend for a second to be smarter than orionsun and if he didn't manage to address it for years I probably won't find it any time soon.

Taking a modular approach to releases has pros and cons which I'll have to consider carefully. For the most part, the stuff I work on is going to be stuff I want to use. Also, i could part S+ and friends out into a dozen different mods easily, but server admins and players alike would have a stroke at seeing "1/49 Mods..." on joining a server. It's also a pain to manage a bunch of different mods, and every one you split off is additional overhead for authors, admins, and players alike.

People want the stuff we make to work, and that's reasonable.

People want us to make a bunch of specific stuff that we aren't interested or might not necessarily be something everyone else wants, and that's okay to ask for, I guess, and at each author's discretion.

People want us to make mods a certain way, release them on specific schedules, and arrange them so that they don't have to make use of the INI options available to server owners and players in SP...I think that's probably too much.