Tool Idea - Mod manager / Launcher

[michal]

Hello,

Long time ago we've talked on irc about some utility which could browse, download, install, enable / disable mods. It could be done as some kind of openxcom launcher.

Of course it would need some online mod repository / server too.

I'm writing that idea here in case someone is bored and would like to code smth for openxcom

[kkmic]

I have several questions:

• Can OXC provide hosting for the mods (also a interface for managing them would be nice)?
• Is this tool intended be a "configurator" (as in configure OXC and then only run it when needed) or a "launcher" (that needs to be run every time)?
• Why not buld it directly into OXC?

[michal]

Ad 1) We agreed that it would be better if those mods could be hosted somewhere else. Probably ppl will make mods with copyrighted / derived resources. OpenXcom is open source project so it should only provide foss materials.
Ad 2) I think configurator.
Ad 3) So it could be independent of openxcom main project.

Well, basically someone can make openxcom-mods site with hosting, uploading functionality and such utility which can be used with openxcom. That way it won't be affiliated with openxcom team and project.

[kkmic]

There is still need of a central repository if you want to get any kind of automation on this.

Without a central repository, how would the user know which mods are available?

Considering your observation that "OpenXcom is open source project so it should only provide foss materials", I suggest having a central management service somewhere, from which the "launcher" will get the mods and the URL from where to download each one.

Just tossing ideas around...

[pmprog]

Isn't Luke's mod site kind of like the perfect place for collating (and hosting?) mods? He doesn't *have* to host them all, just collate them with links.

[moriarty]

maybe the first step would be to allow easy disabling of installed mods from within the game by simply displaying a list of additional rulesets from the options.cfg, each with a checkbox behind it?

I don't know if a restart of the game is needed for the changes to take place, though, so a launcher might be easier.

[michal]

Isn't Luke's mod site kind of like the perfect place for collating (and hosting?) mods? He doesn't *have* to host them all, just collate them with links.

Yeah, i guess it's perfect choice. And you're right - he would just need to host some metadata (describing mod with url) files. That way this tool could just download metadata files and download mods from some url.

[darkestaxe]

maybe the first step would be to allow easy disabling of installed mods from within the game by simply displaying a list of additional rulesets from the options.cfg, each with a checkbox behind it?

I don't know if a restart of the game is needed for the changes to take place, though, so a launcher might be easier.

This was discussed a while back and the word then was that no, the program doesn't need to be shut down and restarted to update the currently running ruleset, just the currently active game would need to be cashed and reloaded or it might have to be done from the main menu.

[SupSuper]

Changing the ruleset on an existing game would be crazy dangerous though.

[niculinux]

It's a really cool idea, also it may be also merged into openxcom itself

[Jo5hua]

The modsite currently has support to display a mod list in YAML/JSON format. So this is definitely possible with the current system. I am available on IRC and on here if someone would like to discuss development of this feature.

[kkmic]

Having the ability to download the mods directly from OXC (like OpenTTD) would be nice to have.



After the devs take a well-deserved break