The dangers of tinkering under the bonnet/hood?

[Stevie D]

Folks,

I just had a scan of the News and I'm itching to have a crack at OTB's IOOI demo.

My only concern is that new maps 'n' levels, especially ones that tinker extensively with the main FoT game files like IOOI or the WWII mod alter it so much, that if I were to ever want to play the basic single-player campaign, or any other custom map again, that I'd have to re-install the whole package and patch it again. Time consuming.

Is this a justified concern?

Steve

[Red]

There "big" mods don't tinker with the core files (well unless you want to). You should instead install them in a seperate directory and use the -path option.

Well I hope that's what people are doing anyhow.

[OnTheBounce]

You should instead install them in a seperate directory and use ht e-path option.

You betcha I did that, Red. I've been a champion of the -path command from the beginning. It's just so much better to be able to fire up the mod, then switch over to the core campaign to play it just as it came from MF. No muss, no fuss, no fucked up files thanks to someone's idea of how the game should have been.

Stevie Go ahead and play The Refinery, you won't screw up your game doing it. In fact, I recommend that you do the same thing with your SP mission, even if its only a few things you have to modify like the characters.txt and/or items.txt. It's much nicer to "plug 'n' play" a mod than to have to replace the core campaign's files.

(I saw the topic and thought this had something to do w/vehicles in FoT, or perhaps even the Hum-Vee in The Refinery. )

OTB

[Stevie D]

You should instead install them in a seperate directory and use ht e-path option.

You betcha I did that, Red. I've been a champion of the -path command from the beginning. It's just so much better to be able to fire up the mod, then switch over to the core campaign to play it just as it came from MF. No muss, no fuss, no fucked up files thanks to someone's idea of how the game should have been.

Damn it, I'm still such a n00b. :mad:

I DLed Endocore's Boscops mish awhile back, and installed it into the core folders, resulting in a right hash of things.

Gents, this -path command is still a mystery to me, can anyone point me to a n00b's guide to how to get the most out of it?

Stevie Go ahead and play The Refinery, you won't screw up your game doing it. In fact, I recommend that you do the same thing with your SP mission, even if its only a few things you have to modify like the characters.txt and/or items.txt. It's much nicer to "plug 'n' play" a mod than to have to replace the core campaign's files.

Yeah, it sounds like a sensible policy for a happier hard-drive.

Thanks, OTB,

Steve

[OnTheBounce]

I DLed Endocore's Boscops mish awhile back, and installed it into the core folders, resulting in a right hash of things.

It's okay, you can simply re-extract the core campaign's files that were modified and you'll be back to factory specs.

Gents, this -path command is still a mystery to me, can anyone point me to a n00b's guide to how to get the most out of it?

I'll post an explanation of how to do it in "your" thread. Unless someone knows of a place that it's already been explained, for instance the souped-up HTML version of the ReadMe.

Yeah, it sounds like a sensible policy for a happier hard-drive. Thanks...

Yes, indeed it does. You're welcome. I hope you enjoy The Refinery. Let me know what you think, of course, so that I can improve on my work.

(BTW, if anyone's thinking of using the Osceolla map for the basis of their own mission, I don't recommend it. There are eeeeevil things going on w/the occlussion data on that map. However, I did learn a lot about tilework in the half-dozen or so revisions that the map underwent. You can check the screenshots from that mission on my site and you will get some idea of how much was changed from my original plan, all thanks to people being seen when they weren't supposed to be...)

OTB

[Stevie D]

It's okay, you can simply re-extract the core campaign's files that were modified and you'll be back to factory specs.

Heh, the only files I know how to extract are the ones you need to in order to get the editor running. In the end, I said "bollocks to it" and reinstalled and patched the whole lot! Mmm, thorough. :mrgreen:

I'll post an explanation of how to do it in "your" thread.

Cool, if you could OTB, I think it would help me plan out my map's folder-system better. Or at least, I get the feeling it might...

See, I don't understand why we need to use the -path command if we have to hunt through the directories ourselves to find the 'OTBdemo' file in order to get the mission started. 'Tis a mystery to me, I'll confess.

I hope you enjoy The Refinery. Let me know what you think, of course, so that I can improve on my work.

It's looking good so far, OTB. Nice landscape... although I got pinned down and cut to ribbons after ten minutes or so, so I can't say I've seen too much of it, yet.

My two recommendations based on the short amount of time I've spent on it so far:

It might be an idea to tweak your readme to give instruction on how to create a special link to your demo's directory, rather than a player having to arse about with the Run command everytime they want to have a blast on it.

Also, some of your punters might not have installed their copy of FoT to the same directory as (the admittedly) default one you've laid out in the cut-and-paste Run-command in the readme's idiot guide.

Steve

[Red]

Here's an article I wrote quite a while back describing how FO:T figures out which files to use when running mods, and includes a description on making shortcuts. I revised it (to version 1.1) correcting some typos and other stuff just now, although if you already read it you won't really learn anything new.

Code: Select all

			Understand the FOT file system.
				Version 1.1 by Red!

There's a lot of mods for FOT which simply tell you to copy all your files into
a specifc directory of the game.  This works fine, but can cause a lot of
problems, especially if you extract all the data from the BOS files. This is why
I made this short (?) explanation of how the Phoenix engine figures out which
files to choose when running mods (using the -path option).
First of all, you'll need to get the target audiance to accept the fact that
they'll need to use shorcuts.

Creating a shorcut:
	Go into your fallout folder (Usually something similar to
	 C:\Program Files\14 Degrees East\Fallout Tactics)
	Press Ctrl and Shift at the same time, then click and drag (while
	still holding Ctrl and Shift) the icon onto your desktop.
	A little Arrow at the bottom left of the icon should have appeared,
	indicating that this is a shortcut rather then a copy of the program, and
	the tilte of the icon is usually something along the lines 
	"Shortcut to BOS.exe". If the little arrow icon isn't there, then make
	sure the file is still in the Fallout Tactics folder, if it is, chances
	are you copied the file	instead of creating a shortcut to it. So delete
	the desktop one, and start over, making sure you've pressed both the
	Ctrl and Shift keys at the same time.
	
Updating your shorcut to use a mod:
	Right click on the shorcut you just copied, and select Properties.
	In the Target editbox, update the text, and add -path <modname>, where
	<modname> is the name of the mod you installed.  Note that if the
	executable is quoted, which it most likely will, you'll need to append
	the -path option AFTER the quotes, not before!
	Here's an example, where "red" would be the mod you wish to use&#58;
		"C&#58;\Program Files\14 Degrees East\Fallout Tactics" -path red

Multiple paths&#58;
	The engine accepts multiple mods using several path statements &#40;ie&#58;
	"-path red -path coolmod -path yey" &#40;without the quotes&#41;. I don't recall
	the precedence of the paths however &#40;ie&#58; say both red and coolmod modify
	the "railgun.ent" file, then, which has precedence? the first in the
	path statements or the last?&#41;

This is the model it uses for assigning files&#58;

1&#41; Read all the BOS filesfound in the path's root.
2&#41; Read all the files starting from the path specified.
3&#41; Read all the files in the core's BOS files.
4&#41; Read all the files in the core's directories.

Let's make an example, here is a sample structure,
> denotes "inside a zip file"
\ denotes "in folder".

Fallout Tactics
	\core
		\entites
			\norml_entity.ent
			\test1_entity.ent
			\other_entity.ent
			\third_entity.ent
		\test.bos
			>entities
				\other_entity.ent
	\red
		\entities
			\test1_entity.ent
		red.bos
			>entities
				\third_entity.ent

If you run the game normally &#40;without the shorcut&#41;, you'll use&#58;
Real path				Engine path
core\entities\norml_entity.ent		entities\norml_entity.ent
core\entities\test1_entity.ent		entities\test1_entity.ent
core\test.bos>entities\other_entity.ent	entities\other_entity.ent
core\entities\third_entity.ent		entities\third_entity.ent

If you run it using the shorcut &#40;as specified in the example above&#41;, you'll use&#58;
core\entities\norml_entity.ent		entities\norml_entity.ent
red\entities\test1_entity.ent		entities\test1_entity.ent
core\test.bos>entities\other_entity.ent	entities\other_entity.ent
red\red.bos>entities\third_entity.ent	entities\third_entity.ent

Now my goal is that the even the map designer get to understand this as they can
even ask the end user to put their maps in a special mod folder for that map
instead of plaguing the map folder. All we need now is a proper way to manage
mods - specially before entering in LameSpy Arcade &#40;tm&#41;, so that the end user
could mix and match mods without thinking too much about it, and without toying
with the shotcuts all the time  If someone could tackle this project, it'd be
great, and it should be fairly simple. I might take it on, but I'm rather busy
with my editor &#40;and personal life&#41; right now.

Hope this helped.