One day, when version 1.25 comes out, it will have the following feature:
There will be a new folder under ‘data’ called ‘installs’, which will contain text files (none by default). If you add a new file to this folder called ‘mymod.txt’ and make its contents thus:
[config]
path = mymod
Then when the game runs and loads in any data, it will treat
\program files\gratuitous space battles\mymod
the same as
\program files\gratuitous space battles
So you can create subfolders under mymod which contain all the usual folders such as data\bitmaps, data\ships, data\hulls etc, and the data will be loaded from both locations. This has been requested many times, and is very handy, because it means your mod can be entirely self-contained within a single directory structure. It also makes doing a mod installer much much simpler, because you just drop a enw file into installs, and dump the rest in its own location.
This will also be the system used to add some expansion pack stuff to the game.
This stuff is coded and working today, but I will wait until the next patch, which will be bug fixing, before it gets rolled out to everyone.
This feature sounds really handy. Will there be a way to tell the game not to load some of the standard files? I intend for my mod to (eventually) replace all of the regular game’s modules, and it would be nice if that could be done without actually deleting any files.
I wondered about this myself, which would rule for total conversions, but it involves a bit more head scratching by me. I may add this to the list though, as I can see it could be useful.
Ah, but it does exist, because I’ve used it with my own mod.
Using custom sounds had me stumped for a bit though. It seems you need to specify the actual path, or place them in the default directory.
Otherwise the game will crash.
Does your mod appear in-game at all? If not, it might be because you need to recreate the data folder and any relevant subfolders in the mod’s directory.
It should be something like this: Gratuitous Space Battles\yourmod\data\bitmaps.
Did you also create the text file in GSB\data\installs? This might be another reason it doesn’t show up.
I’m actually trying to build a structure for a mod and I’m unable to get mine to show. My game says I’m running 1.26 Full - I have a 1.26 beta patch in my games folder that installed itself.
I have:
C:\Program Files\Gratuitous Space Battles\data\installs\eve.txt
[config]
path = C:\Program Files\Gratuitous Space Battles\data\installs\EVE
I have also tried just “eve” however that doesn’t seem to work.
I’m assuming my race text should just simply be used and I should see it in game however it isn’t there. If I just copy my race text file into the game data’s race folder it is fine. Of course when I do this my ships are not there either because they are in the installs folder.
