Need help with modding

from Sins Forums
At first I thought this game would be a easy one to mod, then I find that after reading and following the directions, the mod I created casued the game to lockup and crash.   Current patch version 1.04.

The mod manual does not go into detail on how to use the CovertData application. 

Is there a way or program that will allow me to covert 50+ text files into correct data format so the game will load and not lockup and crash? 

Thx.

ps. New at modding..   :)


modding
6,140 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
You don't Have to have used ConvertData to create a functional mod, if the game is crashing (assuming you have all the files in the right place) then that means you've, to put it bluntly, screwed up whatever you were modding, however without knowing any specifics of what you are trying to do we cant really help.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Yep, if your mod is crashing, there's a problem with it. Converting just speeds up the load times. To help figure out where your problem is, enable debugging by setting these lines to TRUE in your user.setting file:

LogOutput FALSE
ShowErrors FALSE
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Something i have always wondered about; by load times do you mean 'on game start up'
(where i have noticed a difference) or are the files constantly being re-loaded in game?
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Files are not constantly being reloaded, so it does mean the initial startup. There is an option however that you can toggle in the user.setting file that will actually have the game watch for file changes and apply those changes immediately, rather than you having to restart in order to re-initialize the mod in the engine.

This is fine for tweaking stats and such, but some things are bad to edit with the option on because of the way the game reads files. Syntax is very important for mods, and a few times I ran into an endless error loop because the game picked up an unfinished change and would not get out of the error, so I had to restart it anyway.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Where is the user.setting file? Could not find it. I looked in the Gameinfo folder and could not find it.

I read that manual, do not think did anything wrong, I followed the directions and the mod path from inside the game. I even read that you can use the covertdata application to make it binary but could not get it to work so would like to know if there is a program that can be used that will allow lot of data text files to be coverted into the correct binary data format so the game can be run?

Thx
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
The user.setting file is in your Settings folder in the same path where the mods go.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Found it, made the changes. Tried it again and it still locked up and crashed. Plus I tried several other mods that I downloaded from this site that uses 1.04 and they all locked up and crashed as well.

:(

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
That's strange. Are you sure the mod is set up properly, with all the GameInfo files in their respective GameInfo folder (you need all of them, not just the modified ones), the Strings file in its own folder, etc? The mod basically uses the same folder structure as the stock game.

Which mods did you try downloading?
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
I got my mod to work.

Apparently the mod folder does not work and it is cause of the lockup and crash. Found a way around it.

First thing was to go to the main gameinfo folder and made a backup copy of it and renamed it gameinfo.orginal and put in my my games folder.

Second thing was to take my modified gameinfo folder that I used for my mod and put it in the main gameinfo folder overwriting files.

Game was abled to load and start up without any lockups or crashes.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Sounds like you didn't have all the 800+ .entity files in your mod's GameInfo folder?