Organizing/Improving the Mods Screen

[El Yahpo]

I download a lot of mods, and I like organizing, so I thought I'd share a few ideas for improving the mods option screen.

Right now, it's a list of Yes - No (on, off) names. This works fine to a point, but once you get a large number of rulesets to toggle, it can be really inconvenient.

What I think would help, is adding folders that the user can create and put the rulesets into, that the options screen then displays for you in game.

For some added functionality, you could have an All On and All Off option next to the folders.

Another consideration is load orders for mods, but I don't know how to handle that right now, I'll think about it later.

[Falko]

1. modification
all "yes" mods on top the "no" mods below (the enabled mod jump to the top only after you press ok)
2. modification
add the soldier-sort buttons to the "yes" mod row
3. modification
rename all OXC-default included mods from like XcomUtil_No_Psionics.rul to #XcomUtil_No_Psionics.rul so all default mods are one block and no downloaded mods "hide" between these lines ["special char" => "#"=OXCmod-block is top, "~"=OXCmod-block is bottom in list]
4. modification
allow XOR alternatives with a "seperator"=charackter
like mybalancechange!easy.rul, mybalancechange!hard.rul, => leads to modselection mybalancechange with option easy/hard/NO

[Arcalane]

One thing mods could really benefit from is two bits of (meta)data, possibly three;

Instead of simply displaying the ruleset filename, three lines at the start of the file could define the name, version number/string, and author. These would be displayed on the Mods screen.

[El Yahpo]

Definitely the version number, but idk about the author in the options interface.

I'm all right with authors putting their names into their mod title or even in their mod files too, but I think unless the info is relevant it would just waste space.

With folders you could put all of the mods from a certain person in one folder or sub-folder.

Now that I think about it, knowing the author could help trouble shooting, but on the other hand, knowing the title is almost as good. Especially since you can just zip straight to the mod's thread.

Why do you think the author should be listed?

[Arcalane]

Well, I'm thinking you'd have four columns, and clicking on any of the column names would allow you to sort by Name, Version, Author, or Status (Enabled/Disabled). Default would be to sort by Name.

That said it does look like there wouldn't be enough room for an Author column, at least with the way the Mods screen is set up right now. The built-in XComUtil mods alone take up enough room that one of them wraps around.

[El Yahpo]

I like this, especially sorting by enabled or disabled. We could actually have both your idea and mine be used at once. Just add a customizable folder functionality. I'm thinking that the folders could be edited outside of the game (when you are installing mods for instance), and then the game reads them and displays them in the options menu.

Then, once in the game, you can use the columns to sort your mods inside the folders.

Sorting by auther could get tricky with multiple authors, but I like this. It'd require modders to put more information in their mods though, as right now version numbers are usually just in folder names.

[Qpoter]

I don't know about sorting by columns, but I agree with having metadata and being able to put groups of mods in folders.

[Falko]

i played around with the mod window and its just not big enough to do much

so how about changing the optionscreen itself -> especially changing the selection button row (video,audio,..mod) into a dropdown box
that allows a heading beside the dropdown and gives much more space for longer texts in lists like advanced or mod screen

see screenshots

[Solarius Scorch]

I'm not a big fan of the drop-down menu idea, it'd make the screen significantly more difficult to use.

How about having a separate screen for Mods? So when you click the" Mods" button, another screen opens, without the "Audio", "Video" and so on.

[El Yahpo]

Yes Solarius, that sounds awesome. A great idea (is there a thumbs up icon? because I need one)

Edit: fixed a typo, sorry Solar

[Falko]

so the first in option is simple button list and each button opens a new window?
how about 3 buttons on top

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