Is there a way to prevent Steam from auto-updating mods? Because Modders have not seemed to establish a standard with how they go about updating their mods. Some chose to upload a separate new compatible version for the same item, others update the version on steam and provide a dropbox or location to download older versions... then there are those who chose to update their steam version and provide you no way to get the older version.
I hate spending days piecing my game back together so I can continue a previous save... I know, I know. Its my fault.
No, steam is designed to push the newest version to all players and you can't disable that. Even worse, if somebody decides to remove their mod from steam, the steam client will automatically delete that mod on your HD, possibly rendering your savegames useless.
What we really need is to stop using steam and develop a system where the player is in charge. ModSync Ninja (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=34443.0) had the right idea, but it was abandoned just as it was starting to get good.
QuoteQ: "How can I prevent my savefile from breaking?"
Subscribe to a mod as usual, then move the file from C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\294100\[string of numbers] to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RimWorld\Mods and then unsubscribe. This puts the mod in the default installation folder for RimWorld mods and they won't get updated without your permission.
From the Reddit Mod FAQ, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/wiki/modfaq
While this suggestion works... its extremely impractical. A mod manager for the game outside of Steam would be ideal. Something similar to what Kerbal Space Programs KSP-AVC does, letting you know there are updated versions of mods you have installed.
Man, you don't even know how many time this subject has been brought in here ;D
Don't get me wrong, I find it would be super handy and all, and I've tried to make my mods compatible for use with each and every projects like this I have seen rise and fall since 2 years I'm doing this now.
But even before SteamWorkshop era, those projects never attracted enough users - modder/user in that case I mean - to "reach a momentum" and have seen their authors dropping the project because of demotivation - and I can't blame them, even though I know those types of projects can really take time to really "lift-off".
Now that the game is also on Steam and we kinda have the modding community spreads in two parts. I fear that this fact alone will not make the chances of seeing something like that really succeeding, sadly.
Yeah, there isnt really a standard for updates in the workshop unfortunatly.
There have been some attempts to figure out what a standard should be (thourgh polls and forum discussions) but nothing defintive has really come of it.
As kaptain_kavern has pointed out, any distribution method in addition to being good itself, needs a critical mass of mods and users to really take off through the Catch 22 of without enough mods not many users will want to use it and without enough users some modders will not spend the time to upload to it.
I have an my own idea that I want to give a go at some stage, but who know if that will even work let alone be used by anyone.
Quote from: Jaxxa on November 23, 2017, 09:35:40 PMAs kaptain_kavern has pointed out, any distribution method in addition to being good itself, needs a critical mass of mods and users to really take off through the Catch 22 of without enough mods not many users will want to use it and without enough users some modders will not spend the time to upload to it.
Getting started is the issue and so is it that it's optional for modders to support it. When I released ModCheck, I considered it so great that it would be a standard for modders more or less instantly. For a while nothing happened as in I could count downloads on one hand, but now almost a month later mods have finally started to use it. Not as many as I had hoped, but I still consider it a success, partly because it has reached the level where
other people start recommending using it in mod threads or comments on steam.
I have learned that it's not enough to release great software. You have to create some awareness, possibly even hype to get people to pay attention. It looks like people didn't pay attention until I put it on steam. At first I didn't want to do that because it's a dll file to add in a mod, not really a standalone mod. However putting it on steam seems to be key to create the awareness needed. Moving through the mod threads and recommend that the mods should use it, sometimes with "add this file and it will just work" also helped create awareness.
Quote from: Jaxxa on November 23, 2017, 09:35:40 PMI have an my own idea that I want to give a go at some stage, but who know if that will even work let alone be used by anyone.
People will use it if it's better than any of the alternatives and I might have just the thing. If we join forces and merge a mod downloader/updater with what I wrote in the newest post in ModCheck, we could end up with something where it is able to not just update existing mods on demand, but also download requirements and reorder the mod list to match load order requirements. This mean when you plan to start a new game, you can request updating all mods and it will do so and restart the game. On the next startup, it detects missing requirements because some mod added more and it will download those, enable them and reorder if needed and then restart again. Not only do you not have to worry about updates breaking your savegames, modders can add requirements and players will in most cases not really notice and it will just work.
We are going through an upgrade phase from 17 to 18. Many mods breaks A17 savegames by updating to B18 while others needs to be downloaded again and enabled again. Imagine if there is a download service where the game can request the version of the mod to match the version of the game. This mean you can update (or downgrade) the installed game and then request updating everything and it will just work.
If we get a system like this, then it will have a chance of being used because it's so much better than what is currently available. Add a web interface to browse mods, which beats steam and it becomes a no brainer. One way to make the browser better would be to allow tags and filter on tags. Steam allow filtering for mods for B18 and that's it. Imagine if we add tags like weapons, animals, growing, etc, then you might actually be able to search for mods without knowing the name.
I think it will be possible to make a good mod handling system, but it requires planning and could benefit from having a team of people to do the different tasks rather than one jack of all traits to do it all.