The new mod tags, what they do and howto use them

The new mod tags, what they do and howto use them

Discuss game development here, from a distinct game project to an accessible third-party mutator, down to the interaction and design of individual units if you like.

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AF
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The new mod tags, what they do and howto use them

Post by AF »

All the mods in the installer should have these tags, and as of 0.76b1 the lobbies will have access to them. I personally want to change the list/drop down box mod selector into a much prettier and more useful tool using this, and any old mod not implementing the tags correctly will look plain weird, that or itll look like little efforts been put into it.

Another example of weirdness in the lobbies from not using these tags would be the battle list. The new lobbies have started using the abbreviated versions of the mod names instead of the actual names in the mod column of the battle table. If the mod doesn't update the tag or puts in something like n/a or moo itll look weird.

However, some people still don't get it, so I'm going to explain it clearly in one place with diagrams, that way modders aren't chasing around the forums playing jigsaw


The magic diagram of explanation

Image

Some of these tags where added by me, some by trepan, but they dont replace any of the older tags.

Here we can see that BA and CA are not original games, they're mods of TA. This is why their game tag would have the value "Total Annihilation", and their shortgame tag is "TA".

shortgame and shortname are the abbrieviated versions of the name and game tags. BA instead of Balance annihilation, EE instead of expand and exterminate, and so on.

EE is an original game, it is not a mod of another game, therefore the official EE content will have the same values for game and name, aswell a sshortname and shortgame. A mod that was pure OTA from cavedog with no changes, aka zwzsg classic TA would have the name=Total Annihilation; and shortname=TA; as well as game=Total Annihilation; and shortgame=Total Annihilation; because it is the original, the official unmodded content.

The mutator tag should contain the value official if it isnt a mutator and its playable. If it's a mutator or variant of the mod then itll have a different value, such as the 'deployment' mutator. Putting in mutator=deployment mutator; would lead to situations such as "You are playing the deployment mutator mutator"

http://www.darkstars.co.uk/2007/the-new ... -use-them/
[11:57:26 PM] <trepan> there's also a "version" modinfo tag
This would go at the end on the diagram.
Last edited by AF on 13 Dec 2007, 01:08, edited 2 times in total.
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Peet
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Post by Peet »

Stuckied.
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Pxtl
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Post by Pxtl »

Nice. Can we get similarly clear documentation of the other bazillion tags? Or are we stuck relying on the never-updated wiki, crawling through changelogs, or bugging KDR who seems to know everything?
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KDR_11k
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Post by KDR_11k »

I didn't know before that a "blank" mutator tag should read "official", I think you told us to leave it empty when there is no mutator.
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AF
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Post by AF »

but putting 'official' in would be preferable.
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AF
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Post by AF »

[11:57:26 PM] <trepan> there's also a "version" modinfo tag
This would go at the end on the diagram.
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Peet
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Post by Peet »

So do we omit the version string from the mod name?
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AF
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Post by AF »

yes, it now belongs in the version tag.

I've updated the diagram accordingly
Last edited by AF on 13 Dec 2007, 01:24, edited 1 time in total.
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Peet
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Post by Peet »

So spring will be able to tell the difference between mods with the same name and different versions? I don't see anything in the svn rev log to suggest this...
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AF
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Post by AF »

it doesn't have to, the lobby should pass the archive name not the mods canonical name. aka BA.sdz or XTAPE.sdz
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Peet
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Post by Peet »

So how do I launch my game from spring.exe then? It goes by name, not by version or filename.
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AF
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Post by AF »

a patch to append the version number to the end seems easy. I cant do ti yet as I havent the means to test it
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Peet
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Post by Peet »

Well it needs to be done before anybody can strip the version string from their modnames.
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KDR_11k
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Post by KDR_11k »

Oh great, can't you say these things earlier? I'm not reuploading Gundam again for such a triviality.
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Forboding Angel
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Post by Forboding Angel »

do I HAVE to strip the version from the filename?
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AF
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Post by AF »

the filename can be what you want it to be.
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Pxtl
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Re:

Post by Pxtl »

AF wrote:a patch to append the version number to the end seems easy. I cant do ti yet as I havent the means to test it
Does it do the same thing for mutator?
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smoth
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Re: The new mod tags, what they do and howto use them

Post by smoth »

thanks af.
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Pxtl
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Re: The new mod tags, what they do and howto use them

Post by Pxtl »

Umm, just tried it out with the current release and they don't work. In TASClient.exe, I see three mods with the same name. In Spring.exe, I see one mod. None of the cases show the mutator name.

Besides, the packaging for mutators is a mess and has gotten messier with the new mod-install support. Mutators still must be packaged as separate files (so a single mod that comes with a suite of mutators must be unpacked instead of being a single file). Second, if you're trying to make a 3rd-party mutator, you're screwed. The modinfo.tdf file references dependencies by filename. Since the file you're depending on (let's use BA for example) could have two filenames (BA**.sd7 or BA_Installer_Version.sd7), you can't use the filename. You can't even release two versions with different dependancy names, since they mutators will hash differently and become incompatible online, even with the same filebase.
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KDR_11k
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Re: The new mod tags, what they do and howto use them

Post by KDR_11k »

Yeah, I think AF is the only one who's actually using the new tags.
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