XCOM2 Mod merging, is it possible?

[braven25]

Lets say I found several mods I will prob always use on Steam Workshop or nexus, and for personal use only I wanted to merge all those mods into a single mod.

 

 

Is it possible? and If so how would I do it?

 

I not a experienced modder so am guessing its prob out my league, but sometime things are easier than they look.

 

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Alternatively, maybe its possible for a mod tool that would essentially do it automatically for us? that be genius.

 

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Yea I understand I maybe asking for too much, but I figure i put the idea out there.

[UhuruNUru]

You could combine them in a single mod, but I wouldn't recommend doing so. Better to just use the individual mods. There's no plugins or limits to mods that requires merging, that I'm aware of, at least.

Mods are isolated in separate folders, so no benefit is gained by combining them. Mod isolation is always the best method to use for modding.

 

Using a good Mod Manager may help with control and compatibility mods may also be required. Merging, is avoided by the way XCOM 2 mods work, it'a just like how Mod Organizer stores the mods separate from the game files.

In fact except for MO's Virtual Data Folder, it's the same basic setup.

[Drakous79]

Some merging might be requested for, because of ini mods and class overrides. I already saw one mod in Steam Workshop, that merged two others.

 

Imagine ini mod 1 changes KeyA = 1, KeyB = 2, KeyC = 3.

Mod 2 changes KeyA = 0.

 

Atm I am not sure what would be result of KeyA, if both mods were installed.

 

 

3) Class overrides

 

If you've gotten down here, the easy times are over. This requires some programming abilities.

 

XCOM 2 allows overriding classes when they are created at run-time using new or Spawn. (New is for things derived from Object, Spawn for things derived from Actor). This leaves out a few things, such as archetypes and game states, so it won't work for everything.

 

To override a class, add the following to an XComEngine.ini config file in your mod:

[Engine.Engine]
+ModClassOverrides=(BaseGameClass="ABaseClassName", ModClass="YourModClassName")
The mod class needs to extend the original base game class, using standard OOP inheritence techniques.

I've listed this at #3 in difficulty, since it's not too hard, but it's not good for mod compatibility, since only one mod can overwrite a particular class. Since the overrides are in a dynamic array, I'm supposing that it's the first one in the array that the native override code handles, so it's whatever mod that gets loaded first that succeeds at the class override

 

Considering our past direct hex edits, imagine one modder overriding a class to change just one integer, but locking a class from everybody else.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Drakous79