Building a total conversion, not sure I'm doing it correctly. Can anyone take a look and help?

Development Modding ARK: Survival Evolved
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I tried posting this in support initially, to no avail :confused: hopefully someone could at least comment and say what info they’d need from me to help?

I’m trying to build a TC changing several aspects of the game including:

Dino character BPs and settings blueprints in primalearth/dinos and primalearth/dinos/base BPS respectively. Settings I used to change the multipliers of certain types of damage to certain or all dinos (explosive from 1.5 to 3.0 for example). The character blueprints I was going to make the tamed/wild sprint speeds of dinos equal, and possibly add the giga’s rage buff to all large carnivores/make the para/phioma passive tamable. Maybe at some point make a copy of each dino type and add in untamable ‘adult’ dinos.
Dinocharacter status component blueprints in coreblueprints: used to change the Giga’s health and the stamina cost of jumping for the roo/frog/saber
Coreblueprints/items/armour, changing cloth armour to have 1 armour per piece instead of 10, and fur armour to require far less fur.
In structures/thatch, structures/wood, structures/stone - changing brokenbystone, brokenbymetal, brokenbyexplosives to allow dinos to destroy buildings more realistically/faster

I followed this tutorial initially - YouTube for the primalgamedata etc, and then copied the required files over to the mod folder, rebuilding the folder structure within the mod (for my benefit so I remembered where everything came from). I then edited the files I wanted to, compiled and saved them, and cooked/uploaded it to steam as a total conversion. so far as I’ve been able to determine while running the mod, nothing I changed has worked…

Now, I have a suspicion that I know somewhat where I’ve gone wrong, but I’m not sure how to fix it. Either:

The folder structure I made within the mod is meaning the files aren’t being read/recognised (fairly sure it doesn’t work that way, but I suppose it’s possible.

Or I need to point all the files I edited at the appropriate other files that were connected to the original. I thought the copied files overwrote the originals when the mod was installed, but I could quite easily be wrong there.

Or I should have created child instead of copies of all the files, and that’s why the files aren’t connected.

Or that tutorial isn’t appropriate for creating a total conversion and I’m missing a step somewhere.

I’m happy to provide any other information that might be useful, could anyone help me figure out what I’m doing wrong here?

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Not sure if this also applies to TC’s but would imagine it does. If your folders are empty that usually means 1 of 2 things:

  1. The “PrimalGameData_Yourmod_BP” is not properly referenced in the orange “Yourmod_Map” file for your mod
  2. The “TestGameMode_Yourmod” is not properly reference in the “PrimalGameData_Yourmod_BP”

Also, I’m pretty sure you could probably accomplish your goal with a mod instead of a TC although it would be dirty mod and may have stacking issues. Really whats the difference though. With a TC they can only use your TC. With a mod they could still use others but some aspects may not work for one mod or the other. There is a trade off either way.

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Thanks for answering :slight_smile:

I figured I might as well make at a TC as it will allow me to change anything I want down the road, and also I wan under the impression mods had to create new alternative versions of game files, not change the existing file (so you basically have to replace all the engrams etc you change, including things like fabricators which would be a massive pointless pain…)

But if I’m wrong, awesome :slight_smile: might as well continue with the TC now though, as it’s only designed for friends of mine on a server, not for widespread use. Not that I’m going to make it private or anything, I’m just not aiming to promote it.

As for the folders, when I look at the files the mod downloaded from steam, it only seems to have downloaded the structures/thatch and structures/stone files. And I’m fairly certain I did reference the PrimalGameData_Yourmod_BP in the in the orange “Yourmod_Map” file (on the menu to the right, in a sidebar style setup right?) and the TestGameMode –> primalgamedata I’m pretty sure I’ve referenced too, though I will double check.

So apart from that, do I have to reference each file I edit (ie: point the files that rely on it, at it, and the ones that it relies on, at it)?

Or if I’ve copied the files, should they overwrite the originals and do that automatically?

Did I do the right thing by copying or should I have created a child (I thought child was creating an alternate version, but I thought I’d check anyway)?