9 réponses à ce sujet

[daywalker03]

I'm starting to hear of problems with mods that make changes to the same gda files; many of the incompatibilities seem to stem from the idea that you simply have to make your desired changes and drop them in the override folder. While that works for simple mods on your own system, it can, and does, create problems on the computers of the people that install your mod. If two modders make changes to the same file, only one set of changes will be recognized by DA2, so how do you make both sets of changes work together? Bioware knew of this problem from modder complaints about having to edit 2da files (which is what gda files were called in earlier Bioware games) from people that made mods for Neverwinter Nights, and designed a system for DAO and DA2 that enables modders to change only the rows they need to, or add entirely new rows to the files, without having to directly edit the files that come with the game and include the entire file; I will explain how the M2DA process works so that modders that wish to have their mods "play nice" with other mods that edit the same gda file will know what they should be doing.

The first thing to know is that any gda file you edit will be merged into the game version automatically, as long as you retain the same base name. For example, if you're editing abi_base.gda (which a number of mods do), you should name the gda file you create abi_base_<suffix>.gda; the game knows when it encounters your gda file that it needs to merge the contents of your file with the default abi_base.gda.

The second thing you need to know is that you do not need to include any rows you have not edited. This saves space on the end user's hard drive, though it may seem that it's unimportant to consider that. This also means that if two mods edit the same base gda, they will not override each other as long as they don't edit the same rows.

The third thing you need to know is that in the rare case that two gda files edit the same row, but a different column in the row, you can simply make a second gda mod that contains the content of both mods for players that may wish to use them both at the same time; I would recommend that you contact the other modder and make sure they are aware of this before actually posting it anywhere, just in case they object to you doing so.

[translucentwolf]

Thanks for this. I can now attempt to reconcile some of the many abi_base files I've been considering using.

Modifié par translucentwolf, 20 mars 2011 - 02:06 .

[daywalker03]

I've requested that this be made a sticky, so hopefully it can be easily found in the future.

[Ironhammer500]

So if i wanted to add 2 mods that edit the base.gda i add like base1 to one of them?

well ill try this i wanted to add 2 mods relating to skills but both mod the base i think.

[Cambios]

It is a really great idea that you are raising awareness about this now.

Every modder needs to start doing this, if they are not already, to maintain maximum mod compatibility.

[KwanGong]

For those who are attempting to mod, well mods, on their own. You must remember that if the person who released the mod released the entire base file, even if you rename the files to something that extends the original gda file, it will still have other conflicts.

Edit: +1 for sticky.

Modifié par KwanGong, 20 mars 2011 - 04:25 .

[iceofwolf]

KwanGong wrote...

For those who are attempting to mod, well mods, on their own. You must remember that if the person who released the mod released the entire base file, even if you rename the files to something that extends the original gda file, it will still have other conflicts.

Edit: +1 for sticky.

Oof.  Yeah.  I tried downloading pyGFF and looking at the abi_base.gda file I have (sustained effects gone) to combine it with another I want (improved spell effects), but, ermm... that's a lot of code that I'm not gonna learn how to modify in ten minutes.

Edit: Oops.  Saw another thread that referred me to GDApp and that was much easier to read, but it's still not something I'm gonna pick up in ten minutes. 

Edit2: Spoke too soon.  GDApp is wonderful and all my problems (including a heretofore unknown problem with the mod that fixes Varric & Isabella's friendship bonuses being overridden by the other abi_base mod) have been resolved.  Thanks for this thread! 

Modifié par iceofwolf, 22 mars 2011 - 05:50 .

[daywalker03]

Glad I could help; I'm still waiting for this to be stickied.

Edit: I kant spel tonight...

Modifié par daywalker03, 25 mars 2011 - 02:57 .

[pvpgirl]

Hopefully more modders read this. I would've thought it had become second nature after the m2da's of DAO, but I just spent the last few hours consolidating 4 different abi_base files that (of course) each had the entire file not just the lines modded.

[daywalker03]

mcomommy wrote...

Hopefully more modders read this. I would've thought it had become second nature after the m2da's of DAO, but I just spent the last few hours consolidating 4 different abi_base files that (of course) each had the entire file not just the lines modded.

I suspect there are a lot of people modding DA2 that have no experience with modding DAO and don't know about using M2DAs, so hopefully this will show them how to do things properly.