DevnullMod for SEV

[Devnullicus]

I'm getting to the final "tweak" stages for DevnullMod for SEV, so I figured I'd put out a teaser and give a little bit of info about it (as well as ask a question or two of the various modding gurus here).

Here's a section of the readme that gives an overview:

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This mod is intended to make a somewhat faster-paced, though still epic-scale game of Space Empires V while addressing some of the balance issues that I have found in the weapons, facilities, and the tech tree. Through the use of the principles of miniaturization (i.e. the higher the tech level, the smaller the component/facility) and durability (the higher the tech level, the stronger the component/facility), and balancing, this mod attempts to introduce a new feel to the game and give a somewhat faster pace to the timing. Research starts out a little slower, but has a much higher potential to build up, usage of minerals, organics, and radioactives is somewhat reduced in many areas and much more balanced in general (i.e. most things don't just use minerals any more, but a more balanced mix of resources).

DevnullMod is NOT a direct port of DevnullMod for Space Empires IV, but there are a few of the same guiding principles. The changelist is just as large, though and I've personally lost track of where the mods have diverged. Suffice it to say, DevnullMod for SEV is a new mod that gives a nod to the previous mod, but is really a new and standalone mod.

This mod was built from a base of Captain Kwok's Balance Mod, V 1.09 and if many of the files look familiar, that's why. I have found Captain Kwok's work to be invaluable and a vast improvement over stock SEV (for many reasons which I won't bother going into here) and thus it was the best choice for a base to start from for DevnullMod. I have also included the readme.txt for the Balance Mod in order to give the reader a better idea of the changes from stock that the Balance Mod introduced.
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And finally, I have a question. The modding guide gives a list of globally-available functions that can be used in formulae. I'd like to add some functions that I can globally use in component ability formulae, but I can't see where to add those in the script files. Does anyone know where I can add such functions?

[Fyron]

The scripts and the data files have exactly 0 correlation with each other (besides AI building facilities and such by name). It is not possible to define new functions for use in the data files (other than planet temp type formulas that have explicitly hard-coded hooks in Formulas.txt).

Its unfortunate that you are building this now, just before Kwok has his new 1.10 version ready.

Any plans to make use of the extra comps and such in the Multimedia Pack? There are a bunch of extra ones Agent Zero made for SE5, but that never got used in the game.

Any plan to update the FQM integrated into the mod? Whats in BM 1.09 is horribly out-dated. Of course, there is a new beta 12 build just about finished, which can be seen on the Dev page.

[Devnullicus]

As new versions of BM Mod come out, I will try to keep DevnullMod updated with relevant changes (assuming I have time...and we all know how my schedule goes ). I know that the FQM stuff that's in 1.09 was a straight port to DevnullMod from BM Mod as I made no edits to those files. What will be harder to integrate are future changes to Tech Areas, Components, Component Enhancements, and Facilities. However, I've added some enhancements to the editor to make comparing two mods much easier, so hopefully that will make slurping in future changes from other mods into DevnullMod relatively easy.

[Devnullicus]

As for the multimedia pack, I hadn't seen that before now. I would indeed be very interested in utilizing some of that and will have to consider how much work it would take to integrate it. I don't want to have to require users to download multiple files and do multiple installs to get my mod working, so I'd probably want to integrate the files into DevnullMod. However, I'd also like to avoid having a really HUGE mod download file, though, so we'll see how much extra filesize it adds.

[Fyron]

Integrating the multimedia pack files into your mod download defeats the whole purpose of it. Please do not do that; it will set a bad precedent. Just like the image mod for SE4, the whole point is an install once type deal, and all mods have access to the images automatically without requiring a ton of excessive downloading for all.

[Suicide Junkie]

It is just like the Imagemod packs for SE4; just use it and then post a link to the mirrors/torrent along with your mod files.

[Devnullicus]

Requiring users to download adjunct packages for a mod requires the users to have some technical savvy, though. It's far easier to just provide a .exe installer and have it do all the work (like I do with the editor).

What I might do, though, is have the installer do an optional install of the multimedia pack that I'll bundle in the .exe. That way, if you already have it, you don't need to install it and it will still keep it a separate mod.

[Fyron]

Personally, I find mod installers somewhat annoying when the game has a well-defined structure. Hopefully a nice rar version (sans MMP) will be available as well.

What if the installer checked for the presence of the proper MMP version, then downloaded the pack(s) if they were missing? That could potentially waste less bandwidth..

Each pack of the MMP comes with a "_credits.txt" file, though it doesn't list any sort of version numbering... It would probably help your installer if it had such things in it.

[AstralWanderer]

I'm happy to hear of this since I have fond memories of DevNullMod (aka "Kitchen Sink Mod") from SEIV.

I would agree though with keeping the likes of the Multimedia Pack separate (not least since bundling an older version of MMP could cause problems with other MMP-reliant mods). If an installer is going to be used, then it could just check for the MMP and give a message (including a download URL) if it isn't found.

[Spoo]

You could just provide two versions: one that requires the MMP, and one that includes all needed images.