Mod incapatabilities

[Emacz]

One of the frustrating things about modding is how difficult it can be to get the mod to work with other people.  I'm currently using git hub (kinda a newb) 

i share the git link: Emacz2/classical-warefare-aea

and i have them download the zip, they extract to their mod folders, it shows up, they host games but still grayed out.  I am aware of the naming issue.  For example if one is  called: Classical-Warfare-AEA and the other is classical-warfare-aea you cant join games.... but what if they are exactly the same and you still can't?!?  What other issues could be causing it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Stan`]

Well instead of making people do the extracting and installing, they can just drag and drop the mod on the running game in windowed mode it will install the mod correctly on all platforms.

[Seleucids]

Maybe mod.io? If it still exists

[Emacz]

43 minutes ago, Stan` said:

Well instead of making people do the extracting and installing, they can just drag and drop the mod on the running game in windowed mode it will install the mod correctly on all platforms.

Will have to try that with someone willing to test it out! thanks 

5 minutes ago, Seleucids said:

Maybe mod.io? If it still exists

I sent an updated version to @Itmsduring a27 and never heard back. Im sure he/she/they is pretty busy

[Emacz]

3 hours ago, Stan` said:

Well instead of making people do the extracting and installing, they can just drag and drop the mod on the running game in windowed mode it will install the mod correctly on all platforms.

when you say drag and drop the mod, how do they get the mod? Do they still need to download/extract?  I downloaded the zip, and then drageed to 0ad but I got a "failed to install mod" alert.

<p class="error">ERROR: Failed to install mod C:\Users\emacz\Downloads\classical-warefare-aea-main.zip</p>\

Edited Friday at 22:02 by Emacz

[Emacz]

So far the only way to get someone to join has been by changing the mod.json;

 "ignoreInCompatibilityChecks": true,

but now anyone will be able to join and it will throw a lot of peopel off

[guerringuerrin]

3 hours ago, Emacz said:

when you say drag and drop the mod, how do they get the mod? Do they still need to download/extract?  I downloaded the zip, and then drageed to 0ad but I got a "failed to install mod" alert.

<p class="error">ERROR: Failed to install mod C:\Users\emacz\Downloads\classical-warefare-aea-main.zip</p>\

Ok, I found the problem. Your .zip file have inside an extra folder. 
 

Spoiler

This is wrong, you need to have only the folder and files of the mod without this extra folder.

I should look like this:
 

Spoiler

Also I have experienced that same error when trying to install a mod when I already have a previous version installed, because the directory and its files already exist and the installer cannot overwrite them. So, to install it successfully, I had to first delete the folder and the files from the previous version of the mod. 

 

2 hours ago, Emacz said:

So far the only way to get someone to join has been by changing the mod.json;

 "ignoreInCompatibilityChecks": true,

but now anyone will be able to join and it will throw a lot of peopel off

Yeah this is not a good idea. Youll probably will get OOS

 

 

Edited Saturday at 00:13 by guerringuerrin

[Emacz]

1 hour ago, guerringuerrin said:

Ok, I found the problem. Your .zip file have inside an extra folder. 
 

  Hide contents

This is wrong, you need to have only the folder and files of the mod without this extra folder.

I should look like this:
 

  Hide contents

Also I have experienced that same error when trying to install a mod when I already have a previous version installed, because the directory and its files already exist and the installer cannot overwrite them. So, to install it successfully, I had to first delete the folder and the files from the previous version of the mod. 

 

Yeah this is not a good idea. Youll probably will get OOS

 

 

Ill keep looking into this! Thanks.  
Originally I created the mod on my desktop and then used github desktop to upload it to git.  So I'm still trying to figure all this out.  
@Atrik wasnt able to figure it out This is what I have on my desktop, but I dont have to download from git

[Stan`]

To remove the extra folder your need to create the wip from that last screenshot. E.g ctrl+a to select all and then right click to compress via the context menu 

Then people will be able to install it.

[Atrik]

7 hours ago, Emacz said:

@Atrik wasnt able to figure it out

I cannot check all zips you distribute. If you clone (or download) your repo, you'll have the correct file structure.

On a side note this situation is NOT an isolated instance of troubles caused by compatibility check doing things that seems outside of its scope. The folder name, or the file structure shouldn't be taken into account for compatibility check. The mod.json should contain the only data used to determine compatibility, any other additional rule is likely just going to create pain for modders.

[Emacz]

7 hours ago, Stan&#x60; said:

To remove the extra folder your need to create the wip from that last screenshot. E.g ctrl+a to select all and then right click to compress via the context menu 

Then people will be able to install it.

So they shouldn't go to the GitHub link anymore?

[Emacz]

I wasnt asking you to check zips i distribute, i was trying to see if you could figure out why getting it from git wasn't as simple as it used to be 

[Atrik]

@Emacz

[real_tabasco_sauce]

@Emacz when I make mod .zips, i always select the files within the mod folder (art,simulation,mod.json, etc.) and compress those to a zip file. Then i'll just rename it to whatever the directory name should be. That makes the right file structure.

my bad, didn't see @Stan` already said this!

[Emacz]

27 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

@Emacz when I make mod .zips, i always select the files within the mod folder (art,simulation,mod.json, etc.) and compress those to a zip file. Then i'll just rename it to whatever the directory name should be. That makes the right file structure.

my bad, didn't see @Stan` already said this!

Thanks, but I don't make mod zips   I just give them the git hub link.... there was an issue downloading from git and extracting that caused computability problems.  @Atrikhas provided a fix that seems to work.

[guerringuerrin]

9 hours ago, Emacz said:

Thanks, but I don't make mod zips   I just give them the git hub link.... there was an issue downloading from git and extracting that caused computability problems.  @Atrikhas provided a fix that seems to work.

You could attach a README to your repository providing instructions, and (even better) create a release in your repository with the properly packaged .zip/.pyromod. That would make things much easier for both you and the users of your mod in the long run.

[Emacz]

3 hours ago, guerringuerrin said:

You could attach a README to your repository providing instructions, and (even better) create a release in your repository with the properly packaged .zip/.pyromod. That would make things much easier for both you and the users of your mod in the long run.

If someone can tell me how to

[guerringuerrin]

5 hours ago, Emacz said:

If someone can tell me how to

Create a Markdown file called README.md in the root folder of your local repository. Write there anything you want. It can be an introduction of the mod, instructions to install it or anything else:
Here you have a guide to use special character to give it some nice looking format:
https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/ 

Then commit and push your changes to your remote repository

If you use the command line git you can:
git add README.md
git commit -m "Add README"
git push


I was about to explain how to make a Release but @Grapjas just did it here:

 

Edited 3 hours ago by guerringuerrin