Combing mods

How to combine your favourite mods into one mod

Hi

 

I was thinking, there are some great mods for sins out there, but sometimes your favorite ones just arn't capable of running together, which is a real shame.  So i was thinking is some way of combining the mods or the mods assests together into one single file.  I have tried this myself with my favorites, Malestrom for diplomacy, sins plus and phase scouts, without any succes.  So i was wondering dose anyone know the correct procedure for combining mods, obviously its just not as simple as copy and pasting the files of one mod into the folders of another, like i tried doing

So anyone with any knowledge of this, please speak up

7,988 views 13 replies
Reply #1 Top

The biggest issue is the entity.manifest file. Make sure this has been updated with any and all the files you transferred over.

Reply #3 Top

You open up the entity.manifest file with Notepad (it is not in binary like the other files) and input the file names similarly to the way you see them listed. Make sure to keep the file count at the top up-to-date and accurate.

Reply #4 Top

Doesn't Harpo make a .manifest creator?

Or would that be too difficult to use for the average person? :grin:

(I don't know, I have not used it.)

Reply #5 Top

actually the manifest maker was designed for a SINGLE mod at a time, not several mod folders, so if the files are all in the mod's folder structure, the the manifest maker could be a lot quicker and easier in that it would only take about 5 minuites to make all the manifests for a mod even on a slow( ie celeron 1.8ghz laptop slow) computer.

harpo

 

Reply #6 Top

oh hell yes

Reply #7 Top

Be careful about adding extras to Maelstrom, as the mod is pushing the hardcode limits of Sins.

For example the soundfiles: Maelstrom uses 1998 (or there abouts) the limit is 2000. If you go over this limit ... crash, no warning.

The meshes and textures used by Maelstrom is about twice that of the Sins base. i.e twice the number of ships, and structures, planets. Though this is possibly not hitting the game limits, by adding other mods you will slow the mod down at the very least.

By the way if you have some key additions to the mod or suggestions just let me know.

Also an expanded and optimized version of the Maelstrom mod will be released soon.

Reply #8 Top

Im wondering if you made any success. Im trying to preform the very same action expect Instead of combining Maelstom with Sinsplus im also including stars. All i wanted from sins plus are the Planetary Bonus's BUT PLEASE HELP. Ive put all the gameinfo files together, from each mod folder and used harpos manifest maker for it, updated the GalaxySenarioDef file, That entire folder is complete. But im having the most difficulty combining the Window folder and the brushes, and combining the String Files. Both are extremely hard and im about ready to give up on this so idk. My objective was to get a mod that had:

Maelstrom Factions & Planets

SinsPlus Planet Bonus's

Stars 1.2 Planets, Stars

and the other mini mods like blackknights, volumetric and so on.

 

Please help guys. Ive combined all of the Mesh, Texture, Anim, and GameInfo files together, organized them, made the manifest files. But just im stuck at the Window files and String Files

Reply #9 Top

for the strings, i was able to take the section of the strings that have the bonuses and paste it into notepad++. look at the number of lines it takes up and then divide that number by 3. then, paste it into the end of the maelstrom string file. then add the number that you got from the earlier step to the string number at the top of the maelstrom string. it sounds complicated, but really it isn't.

Reply #10 Top

You mean a combo mod like this one I made?

Reply #11 Top

knowing there are hardcoded limits, how about something like DS and Sins of the fallen, or any other mod that just adds 2-3 races?

Would that still push us over the 2 GB limit.  But didn't Malestrom add a 4GB imit patch to it's upload.  Wouldn't that work for all mods?

 

Reply #12 Top

The hardcode limits are what kept me from adding in star trek ships into that version I posted the movies of.

Reply #13 Top

Quoting walkercubed, reply 11
knowing there are hardcoded limits, how about something like DS and Sins of the fallen, or any other mod that just adds 2-3 races?
End of walkercubed's quote

I'm asking for permission to release a Sins of the Fallen addon for Distant Stars. Will have to see what Nacey thinks.