SS2 Blue Mod Manager

[6665459695d80bluemess]

Release 1.0

Some minor changes. Source code attached.

BMM features kind of reached the point I was initially aiming for, and I don't plan to develop it any further. It can serve its purpose as a simple tool, until fully featured mod manager comes along.

[666545969609cOlfred]

Nice, but why not develop it further and make it the fully featured mod manager?

[666545969621cKolya]

I think it's pretty perfect and I wouldn't really know what to add.

[6665459696528bluemess]

Nice, but why not develop it further and make it the fully featured mod manager?

Because it wasn't planned to be one. It was not designed well enough from the beginning to be the base for my idea of a fully featured mod manager. It has what I initially wanted it to have, and in its current state adding more advanced features would eventually become cumbersome and hard to maintain. Starting over, or at least thorough redesign would be required for me to comfortably develop it any further. In other words, I've started it more than six months ago, and I would do things differently now But, as I wasn't aiming for anything more than it is now, no harm no foul. Project finished.

[66654596967c8Olfred]

I understand. My thought was that maybe you don't see your work as being good enough and maybe stopped because of that. In that case a bit encouragement wouldn't be wrong
Nevertheless, you did a fine job with it, and also releasing the code, nice one!

I think it's pretty perfect and I wouldn't really know what to add.

In my mind there are at least two things to pop right up, automatic installation of ss2mod files and reading and displaying of ini files.

[66654596968f0Kolya]

Precious few people ever created a mod.ini. And then they were soon obsolete, because it's easier to update information in a post than in a download.

It's similar with ss2mod files. They never really took over and the small advantage of being able to doubleclick such a file and have the mod installed automatically (IF everything was set up for it), didn't really outweigh the confusion it caused.

[6665459696a8cvoodoo47]

finally tried this one out, and I have to say I like what I see - it's simple, easy, and does exactly what needs to be done. VERY useful if you have a bunch of mods with identical dmls that need to be active at the same time.

[6665459696d9cvoodoo47]

Proper order matters: mod that is lower on the list will override every mod above it, in each case where they address the same content.

just noticed this - I think this is slightly counter-intuitive, one would expect the mod at the top to have the highest priority.

[6665459696f1cbluemess]

There are two ways of looking at it: either treat the order number as priority, means lower number is higher priority, or expect mod with a higher number to be applied last, overriding every mod before it.

Now it works like the second way. This is consistent with the order of applying mods to DataPermMods – the last mod you unpack will override every mod before it. For me that seemed more intuitive at a time, but my point of view is kind of biased. If the other way around would be more intuitive for most, I can change it.

[666545969703fvoodoo47]

I see, but would vote for the change anyway. or maybe change the button names into increase/decrease priority instead of move up/down. maybe both.

[666545969714dOlfred]

I would also suspect that the one at the top is the mod with the highest priority.
It's just the common way for lists and stuff.

[666545969723dbluemess]

Great idea with button names, I will definitely change them. I see that this strange list order that I fancied is intuitive only for me, so I will change that too.

[6665459697367bluemess]

Release 1.01

- Changed list order - now mods at the top of the list have highest priority.
- Removed Runtime DLLs dependency, they're no longer needed.

[666545969743cvoodoo47]

good stuff.

[6665459697526Kolya]

Thanks bluemess! These are good changes.

[666545969760ebluemess]

Thank you. Let me know about other annoyances that could be improved

[6665459697708bluemess]

Release 1.02

- Fixed a bug with list update, occurring when mod's folder was deleted, while being selected and last on the list at the same time.

[66654596977f1voodoo47]

one not so basic feature - button which would drop a txt (or screenshot?) with the list of loaded mods. might be useful for troubleshooting users.

[66654596978d6bluemess]

I'm thinking auto saving log file with list of mods.

[66654596979c3voodoo47]

anything that would allow an user to quickly copy and paste all the info from the mod window would do.

[6665459697b02bluemess]

Added logging of mods setup. Not yet finished, just a quick build to show progress.

ss2bmm.log file is now created on application exit – BMM must be closed for log file to show up. Log is created only if mods setup was successfully saved. If something will go wrong along the way, log file will not be created at all, but appropriate message window will be shown.

[SS2BlueModManager_1.025_Dev.7z expired]

[6665459697bd1voodoo47]

looking good.

[6665459697ccabluemess]

Release 1.03

Added Mods Setup Log (ss2bmm.log), created on application exit, which includes:
- List of mods and settings.
- All possible warnings (also shown in status bar).
- Listing of mods folder content, two levels deep.

[6665459697db1krist2]

Thanks alot for this manager, makes it a lot easier to test out mods and play different FMs