lazloarcadia Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 So I'm looking at modding Dying Light. I have the Following DLC and a couple of the smaller DLC's that add in the Marksman's Rifle and the Hunter's Bow. This is the list of mods I'm looking at using. Wahkah's Dev Menu https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/233 Grappling Hook Modifications (Unlimited Use and Doubled Distance) https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/34 2x more XP https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/364 No Death Penalty for Survivor and Legend Experience https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/21 Prison Armory Timer Extended https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/390 Infinite Buggy Durability (never damaged) and fuel too https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/172 Quartermaster Bows Mod https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/143 Backpack Xpanded https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/91 No more subsonic ammo https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/324 Craft Ammo https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/153 No Weapon Degradation Enhanced Edition https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/167 No Silencer (Suppressor) https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/326?tab=description Can someone answer a couple of questions for me: 1) How can i tell if the mods will be compatible, or if one of the other mods already addresses the same thing? Some of the description pages for these mods are really badly written. 2) is there a particular tool that I need to either merge the mods, or possibly create my own mod which does several of the above (thus making the merging process more simple)? 3) How do I merge the mods, or simply use the above selection without conflict? 4) are there any special .ini edits, etc which need to be done first to enable the mods to work? Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StinVec Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 (edited) There are several issues that I see, as well as quite a bit of work to get them all to work together.You've outlined the worst of all scenarios in wanting to use mods in Dying Light, but I'll try to see if I can provide some answers to your questions. Among the issues with most of the mods you want to use: Outdated mod files- Most of those mods do not mention the game version they are for, but based on their uploaded/last modified date it is clear that they use files from very old game versions and are likely to have been changed in game updates since then. Floating mod files- Several of them simply include the modified versions of game files (which are also outdated) and they are not placed properly into their original folder structure and packaged into a Data3.pak file. Same files altered by multiple mods in different ways- Many of those mods make different changes to the same files. Couple this with each one of them also using a different out-of-date game version of the file as its base, and this leads to quite a bit of work figuring out what differences in the files are due to the mod making the change and which are due to the game version the file is from. Many of the files included in most of those mods are for old versions of the game since the mods have not been kept up-to-date with game updates. Using an outdated mod would result in changes or additions made to the files by a later game version not existing in your game. Using out-of-date file versions can lead to your game crashing due to the game trying to load something that the out of date mod file does not contain, or even due to the file still containing something that was removed by a newer game update where it still existing causes a file parsing error and crash. Also, depending on which files a mod alters and how it alters them, using its out-of-date file versions could even result in damage to your save game file. - A "pak" file is zip file, so they can be opened using WinRar/7zip, etc. to then browse its contents.- To create a mod, the "...\Dying Light\DW\Data0.pak" file is opened and the desired files get extracted onto the computer.- After modifying the file, the "...\Dying Light\DW\Data3.pak" file is opened and the modified file is placed within the same folder structure here as it exists in the Data0.pak file.---> If a file was located at Data0.pak > "data\scripts\inventory" then the same "data\scripts\inventory" structure would be re-created inside Data3.pak and the modified file placed there. Some of those mods simply include the altered files, instead of re-creating the file's location/folder structure inside of Data3.pak and placing the file there.Several of those mods make different alterations to the same files, so they couldn't just all be dumped into a single Data3.pak file as adding in the files of each additional mod would overwrite the modified version that was already added in by another mod. Quite a bit of work would need to be done to get the out-of-date mods and the mods that alter the same files to work together and updated to use the current game version of each file and then make the different changes to them that each mods makes. Essentially, each file in each out-of-date mod needs to be manually updated to use the current game version of the files as their base. Then the changes the additional mods make to the same files can be merged into it so that all of the different mod changes exist in the single copy of the file, which can then be used in the single Data3.pak file. - An unmodified, current copy of each file that is to be altered by each out-of-date mod would need to be extracted from the "...\Dying Light\DW\Data0.pak" file.- As several of those mods are not packaged properly for use on a game and just contain the individual files it alters, the Data0.pak file would need to be searched for the file name to locate where the modified file is supposed to exist and then that folder structure would be re-created inside the Data3.pak file.- Then each old mod file would need to be compared against its current game version to see what is different and then discern what differences are due to the mod changing it and which differences are due to game updates making changes to the file. Then make those same mod alterations to the current version of the file.- Then where several of the mods alter the same files, all of the mod-related changes made to the files by each of the different mods would need to be merged into the same file, again with the latest version of the file from Data0.pak as a base. WinMerge is a useful program for quickly merging differences from one file version over into another. https://winmerge.orgThere are other alternatives programs that can help speed up merging different versions of a file, but WinMerge is free and works very well with quickly sending a change from one file version into the other.You can:- Compare an unmodified, current version of a file against an out-of-date mod's version of the file.- Discern if a difference is mod-related or game update-related and then quickly send the difference over to the current game version of the file.- Save and then compare this file against another mod's version of the same file and end up with all of the mod-related changes present in one up-to-date copy of the file to use in your Data3.pak file. _____I'll attempt quick responses to your numbered questions:1) Comparing the file names that each mod alters can help discern any file conflict issues. Data3.pak files are zip files, so you can open them with WinRar/7zip and then browse the contents. I would recommend creating a text document and note the file names that each mod alters as well as its location (data\scripts\blahblah). You can then Compare the mods to see where any conflicts might be that would need to have their mod-related changes merged into a single copy of the file (with a current version of the file as the base) due to both altering the same file. 2) As I noted above, I would recommend using the WinMerge program for merging differences between files into a single file to then use. 3) After updating all of the out-of-date mod files to use the current game version of the files as their base, and then merging the mod-related changes to conflicting files into a single instance of the file, these files can be placed into their proper, original folder locations inside of the Data3.pak file. 4) There are no .ini files to edit to load mods in Dying Light. The game uses the official versions of files that are present in Data0.pak and other pak files. If a file is also present inside of the Data3.pak file and located in the same folder, then this version of the file is used at runtime instead of the vanilla, official version of the game file. If I copy out the "data\scripts\inventory\inventory.scr" file from the Data0.pak file (scr files are not screensaver files, just text files, so open them with Notepad or other text editor), and then I modify it and place it inside the Data3.pak file in the same "data\scripts\inventory" folder structure, my copy of the file be used at runtime and not the Data0.pak version. Now, if I broke the file so it doesn't parse and the game cannot load it, the game will either crash (depending on the file) or it would switch to instead use the vanilla version of the file in the Data0.pak file. This is why you should never alter files inside of Data0.pak without making a backup copy of the pak file first since breaking a file in there will cause there to be no clean copy of a file for the game to fall back to using and the game will not load - a complete reinstall would be needed to restore the official, unaltered version of the file again. However, in some cases, an official game pak file has to be altered in order to make a change. Such is the case with my No Night Hunters mod. To remove that enemy in the DLC Countryside map, a DLC file needs to be altered that cannot then be placed inside of the Data3.pak file but instead must be altered directly inside of the DLC pak file. With that mod I stress multiple times to make a backup of that DLC pak file prior to altering it, I then clearly mark what changes I make and to which files I make the changes in case someone needs to undo the changes the mod makes due to ignoring my warning to first make a backup of the file. _____ I hope something I've written here helps you. Unless you do not mind having to do the work to update a mod to be compatible with the current game version -due to the author not keeping it up to date themselves- before you can use it, I would recommend avoiding all outdated mods entirely and to only use mods that state they are for the current game version. Edited October 16, 2019 by StinVec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazloarcadia Posted October 16, 2019 Author Share Posted October 16, 2019 wow....well, ok. For starters thank you for taking the time to explain this. On the upside it is more or less what I was expecting to be the case. On the down side, it sounds like a tedious, time consuming pain in ass...which is what I was afraid of. I'll take a couple of days to digest this before trying to get under the hood of the game files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StinVec Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 I'm sorry if I may be making it look worse than it is. It isn't as bad for someone like me who is used to interacting with the contents of the game files and can see what is a normal change due to game updates and what has been changed by mods. It sounds like you are interested in learning how to update and merge mods yourself, which I think is fantastic. I will definitely help out here with any more pointers, guidance or assistance you may want if you would like me to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGGKDOSKASODS Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Does anybody have original data 0 pak file?I forgot to back it up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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