Mod Configuration Tool: Reborn
Hello and welcome to my TedTalk.
Backstory. A couple years ago, DrunkFlamingo and I got together and designed and developed the Mod Configuration Tool https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1576253740, with a desire to increase modder power in Lua through TW. Unfortunately, there were a couple of foundational issues with just the general design that limited what modders could do with it, and that baggage made it a little less useful than it could’ve been.
I’ve been slowly working out better UI modding, and eventually landed on the UI design you see above. The core design is (hopefully) less limiting for modders, allowing for immediate settings being applied, settings being changed mid-campaign, settings to save so you don’t have to redo them for every single campaign you start, etc.
Please inform me of any issues you have with the mod!
As an attempt to explain this mod-
This mod on its own is just a UI panel, its own initial set of options to choose from (all but one being test dummies, during the beta), and a series of script functions that other mods can use to add their own options and hook into the UI panel and internal functionality.
I do not go through and write every setting for every mod. Those are done through mods that hook into MCT; they use the script functions I wrote here, they reference them in their mod, and that’s it. Think about this before reporting issues pls – if it has to do with an option not working as expected, it’s probably not this mod. If it has to do with ALL options not working as expected, it’s probably this mod. If it has to do with a typo in an option, it’s not this mod.
Thanks
This mod is mostly useless on its own. The real rub is getting modders to start testing incorporation and seeing what can happen.
Modders – I’ve written up documentation for this mod that I’ll be updating as time goes, found at https://chadvandy.github.io/mod_configuration_tool/topics/manual.md.html
It includes all the Lua API that is needed, and a walkthrough for first setting up your, well, settings for this mod.
I fully recommend setting it up so this mod is not a required item, unless absolutely necessary. Even just setting in default values that are overwritten if MCT is enabled (there’s an example in the docs) will be enough for a safe fallback.
If you have any suggestions, requests, issues, or bugs, or whatever else: please let me know either here, or in the Modding Den Discord channel (linked below in "Contact Me"). I will certainly be more responsive in the latter, just due to me using it more often. You can also check in my GitHub repo[github.com] for this mod. Feel free to make a pull request, if you have the desire to make any updates manually. I’ll go through anything submitted through Pull Request/Issues and make sure all are resolved!
To use this mod, make sure you enable it in the mod manager after subscribing to the mod here, and in the main menu there should be a new button on the top left corner of the screen with a settings-esque icon. Press the new button, and it’ll open up the new MCT panel with all current options. Go through all the mods listed in the panel, change and choose your settings, and then press "Finalize Settings". Once you do that, those settings will be used for any new campaign you create.
Some modders will set their settings as changeable mid-campaign; you can open up the MCT panel (in the same spot in campaign, in the top left) and change these settings to change them only for that campaign.
It doesn’t work like MCT 1.0, where a pop-up would trigger very early in the campaign. If you don’t open up the panel in the main menu and change settings, the settings will default to whatever value the modders set for their stuff – for instance, all of Confederation Options’ options are defaulted to "No Tweak".
This will work, presumably, alongside the former version of MCT. If any mods you are using require that mod, feel free to use both, but bring it down to just this one otherwise. Once this mod gets out of beta and into full comfort, the former version will be removed from the workshop, but we thought it’d be better for the modding community not to pull an immediate switcheroo and leave a trail of destruction, considering just how much has changed moving over.
This mod will work with whatever, otherwise.
Multiplayer safe! The Host of a campaign will have their settings applied when making a new campaign, and for simplicity’s sake, only the Host can change settings. Modders can opt-in to make settings "local only", which prevents those from being communicated between the two PCs – for instance, the internal MCT log is local only, which means one player can have it enabled while the other has it disabled. Only non-game-editing settings should be local only, otherwise there will be a desycn
I’m not aware of any pressing issues with the mod, except for the missing features and option types.
shameless copy-pasta goes here.
If you’d like to get in touch with me about my mods or whatever, don’t bother with Steam. Join me and a bunch of awesome modders in the Modding Den[discord.gg], a Discord channel. It’s a great place for people who love mods, or Total War, or gaming, or want to learn how to mod. Come join the fun!
In case you’re not in the loop, I’ve made a modding website for tutorials on how to mod Total War games[tw-modding.com]! Click that link and check it out, let me know how you like it. Modders, if you have an interest in helping me out, PLEASE reach out!
Thanks to DrunkFlamingo, who paved the way for the first version of this mod and did the vast majority of work that time around.
Big thanks to sm0kin for early beta testing.
Thanks to my significant other for giving me the mod image solution when I was wondering aloud, "What should the mod image be?"
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
