Add the ability to change the destination of a MOD within the game's folder structure.

[SpudmanWP]

I would like a way to deploy a MOD to something other than the root folder of a game. This setting should survive downloading new updates for a Mod. I know that I can and have been modifying the Mod's layout in the appropriate Staging Folder, but there are several reasons why this is not ideal.

 

1. Each time the Mod get's updated, I have to change the staging folder layout over again.

2. A mod is coming from somewhere other than NexusMods and just contains it's own relevant folder structure.

3. The Mod is coming from Nexus mods but the mod creator did/will not bother to package it correctly.

4. The Mod does not actually belong in the Game's structure (ie an offline tool like and exe, xls, doc, etc file). For this last one I have been using a Subfolder called "Offline Tools" and creating a subfolder for each tool I use. This way I can have shortcuts to the destination that always work, regardless of future mod updates.

 

Thanks for the awesome tool (yes, I am on the beta track and 1.40 is good so far.)

Edited February 14, 2021 by SpudmanWP

[AugustaCalidia]

Your suggestion is very puzzling. In Vortex, to deploy normally means to establish a hardlink. Do you really want to use the hardlink deployment method for all four of the cases listed? Also, in case 1, are you talking about the mod staging folder? If so, why do you have to change its layout when updating a mod?

[rmm200]

Just a drive-by comment:

 

Giving the user community free reign on mod installation would make Vortex unsupportable.

Users would report errors and we would have no way of knowing what they had done. It is hard enough as is. We have very creative users...

[SpudmanWP]

Your suggestion is very puzzling. In Vortex, to deploy normally means to establish a hardlink. Do you really want to use the hardlink deployment method for all four of the cases listed? Also, in case 1, are you talking about the mod staging folder? If so, why do you have to change its layout when updating a mod?

Sorry for the confusion. The only change I am suggesting is the folder that the deployment of the Mod starts the process from.

 

Here is an example for Cyberpunk2077:

A Modder creates a texture replacement and hosts it on Nexus. However, he does not package it so that it has the needed folder structure that Vortex needs to deploy it correctly. He only says "download it to folder x of your game". To get this to work in Vortex, I have to go into the Staging folder and build the appropriate folder structure myself. In this case, it is "archive\pc\patch\" so that it can be deployed appropriately.

 

My idea is to have a setting in the Mods Vortex Properties window (when you double-click a mod in Vortex and edit source, name, version, etc) where I can put "archive\pc\patch\". Using this method, the Modder does not have to repackage the mod and I don't have to create the Staging folder corrections each time the Modder makes a change.

As to your last question, each time a Mod is updated from Nexus in Vortex, a new Staging folder is created which necessitates making the changes in the new folder.

 

Just a drive-by comment:

 

Giving the user community free reign on mod installation would make Vortex unsupportable.

Users would report errors and we would have no way of knowing what they had done. It is hard enough as is. We have very creative users...

Users already have "free reign" on installation by editing the Staging folder.

What I am proposing is actually safer than the current system as I would only have to make the change once to the Mod whereas currently I have to make the change every time the Mod is updated in Nexus (or other supported source). Obviously, checks will be in the code so you can't put something like "c:\", invalid characters, etc. Easier still would be a non-editable field that launches a folder explorer pop-up when you click it. That way Vortex can limit the choice to just a folder that exists and is in the game structure.

 

A simple visual flag in Vortex can be used to indicate that the Mod destination folder has been changed, maybe a grid column added, etc.

 

 

Thank you both for your feedback and I hope I answered your questions thoroughly.

[AugustaCalidia]

@SpudmanWP

 

 

As to your last question, each time a Mod is updated from Nexus in Vortex, a new Staging folder is created which necessitates making the changes in the new folder.

 

That is not correct. A new Mod Staging Folder is not created. The Mod Staging Folder is the overarching folder containing all installed mods as sub-folders (the mod "set of all sets"). When a mod is updated, the only thing modified and/or created is a sub-folder contained within the Mod Staging Folder.

 

Additionally, when Vortex updates a mod in the Mod Staging Folder, all necessary changes are made and finalized. However, you seem to indicate that further intervention is required before the updating process is complete. What are you talking about?

[SpudmanWP]

By Mod Staging Folder, I am not talking about the primary Vortex "Mods" folder, but the individual folders that are crated when a Mod is downloaded to Vortex.

 

Lets take another example from Cyberpunk2077. The primary Staging Folder is "\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\cyberpunk2077\mods". In that folder is a folder that is created each time a Mod is downloaded. Here are the latest two for "Auto Upgrading Crafting".

 

 

Note that there are two folders called "Auto Upgrading Crafting":

 

The first, "Auto Upgrading Crafting Components-806-1-2-1610177411" was created when I downloaded version 1.2. If changes had to be made to it's structure, I would have to make them in that folder.

The second, "Auto Upgrading Crafting Components-806-1-3-1610286356" was created when Vortex downloaded the 1.3 update and thereby created an entirely new folder. Because it created a new folder, no changes I made to the 1.2 folder are in the 1.3 folder and need to be redone manually after I clicked "install" in Vortex.

 

The reason that a new folder has to be created every time a Mod is updated is so that Vortex can switch between the two in the UI.

 

 

By clicking the minus sign in that popup, you would be deleting the folder for that version.

[AugustaCalidia]

@SpudmanWP

 

Thank you for clarifying your confusing use of the term "Staging."

 

Also, I understand fully how versions work in Vortex. Thank you for the lesson anyway. :smile:

 

However, I find the following sentence confusing:

 

 

The reason that a new folder has to be created every time a Mod is updated is so that Vortex can switch between the two in the UI.

 

In your reply, you've already shown that there is a mod ver. 1.2 and a mod ver. 1.3 in your Mod Staging Folder. Why then does a new folder have to be created when switching between versions? The two folders already exist. But maybe you're trying to say something else?

 

I'll hazard a guess as to what you mean. The "new" folder you mention is one which has a game compatible format. Since Vortex itself will not rectify the format of an improperly constructed mod, you yourself have to create that "new" and corrected folder. Hence, your proposal for a "mod redirection" option in Vortex.

 

There is some merit in your proposal. However, your proposal seems more suited for "power users" (a term that I've always found amusing, for some reason). In agreement with @rmm200, I think that it would generate forum chaos (my words, not his). Perhaps your proposal could better be implemented through specialized and completely optional Vortex extensions? That would allow power users to have an additional tool while preventing forum meltdown.

Edited February 15, 2021 by AugustaCalidia

[SpudmanWP]

a new folder has to be created every time a Mod is updated

A new folder is not created when you "switch" versions, only when you download a new version.

 

You got it right here:

"I'll hazard a guess as to what you mean. The "new" folder you mention is one which has a game compatible format. Since Vortex itself will not rectify the format of an improperly constructed mod, you yourself have to create that "new" and corrected folder. Hence, your proposal for a "mod redirection" option in Vortex."

 

As to a power user, I don't see this as the case. In my previous example of the Nexus Mod that would not package the Mod correctly, I feel it would be easier for the average user to click a button once in the UI and choose a destination folder, rather than have to modify the Mod Staging folder each time that the mod is updated. I have seen folder structures that stretch for at least 4 layers and it's much easier to misspell/misplace one to those than pick the wrong one in a UI.

[HadToRegister]

a new folder has to be created every time a Mod is updated

A new folder is not created when you "switch" versions, only when you download a new version.

 

You got it right here:

"I'll hazard a guess as to what you mean. The "new" folder you mention is one which has a game compatible format. Since Vortex itself will not rectify the format of an improperly constructed mod, you yourself have to create that "new" and corrected folder. Hence, your proposal for a "mod redirection" option in Vortex."

 

As to a power user, I don't see this as the case. In my previous example of the Nexus Mod that would not package the Mod correctly, I feel it would be easier for the average user to click a button once in the UI and choose a destination folder, rather than have to modify the Mod Staging folder each time that the mod is updated. I have seen folder structures that stretch for at least 4 layers and it's much easier to misspell/misplace one to those than pick the wrong one in a UI.

 

You are manually micromanaging your Mod Staging Folder when you don't need to. AND YOU SHOULD NOT MANUALLY CHANGE THINGS IN THE MOD STAGING FOLDER

 

It's all hands off if you'd allow it, you are obsessing over something that's completely pointless because it's automated.

 

 

In your screenshot with 1.3 and 1.2 All you need to do is click the Screwdriver Icon to REMOVE 1.2, then just install 1.3

 

You don't HAVE to manually change the folder names, that's a waste of time, and completely unnecessary

 

It's much easier (Especially if you have 7z installed, and the file is a ZIP or a 7z) to just move the files around INSIDE the zip or 7z to where they need to be, or to just extract the zip with a right click, and repackage them mod properly ONCE, instead of messing around manually in a folder you shouldn't be messing around in

 

[SpudmanWP]

That was not the point of the pic.

 

The Vortex Deployment process is only automated if the Modder who packaged the Mod did so with Vortex in mind. That means that there should not be any instructions in the Mod to "copy the file to x directory" as the files should be packaged correctly from the Mod creator. Here is a simplified example of what I am talking about.

 

The 1st time I install the "Generic Skin" mod (Nexus #999, version 1.0), it created a folder called:

 

Vortex

---\MyGameName

------\mods <-- This is the "Mod Staging Folder"

---------\Generic Skin-999-1-0-0123456789 <--- This is the new folder that is created for the individual mod

 

In that folder it put the new skin:

\Generic Skin-999-1-0-0123456789

---\SkinName.skin

 

If I deployed that now, it would put the skin file in the root folder of the game, which is the wrong place.

 

To fix this, I have to go into the folder and create the proper folder structure that matches what the game expects:

\Generic Skin-999-1-0-0123456789

---\plugins

------\assets

----------\skins

-------------\body

----------------\SkinName.skin

 

Now I can deploy it so that it "just works".

 

It will continue to work until Vortex downloads a new update to the mod. For example, version 1.1 will create a new folder and put the files right back in the root position.

\Generic Skin-999-1-1-2255441122

---\SkinName.skin

 

I have to go back in and make all the changes over again.

 

If I could store the "\plugins\assets\skins\body\" string as part of the Mod's core properties and it survived updates, then I would never have to micromanage the deployment again. Contents of each Mod's Staging folder would not have to be changed as the Deployment process would look to the folder setting and start there. If it's blank, then it will default to the game's root folder as it does now.

Edited February 15, 2021 by SpudmanWP