Genearl modding questions

Development Modding ARK: Survival Evolved
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I have a few questions about modding and hope someone knows the answers.

1 - When modding an existing item. I’ve been making a copy of the item and then renaming it and giving it whatever changes I wanted. Like say I wanted a generator that didn’t make noise. If I made a mod that copied it and removed the noise, now I would have the existing generator from the core game and the modded generator. Will doing this create any sort of performance issues? Can I make modified versions of however many items I want? I understand the mod size will grow and require a bigger download, but does this hurt the performance when the mod is hosted on a server? I get many players asking for specific changes to existing items. I’m just afraid that the more I add the more it will be a problem. How does ark deal with this type of thing? Or does it make no difference and I can make as many as I want?

2 - At first I was creating many small mods thinking that it would be better because I could make changes quick without the long cook times. I then took and made a single mod combining the 4 different mods. I found the exact same content from the single mod was around 5mb where the combined 4 mods were around 15 mb. I realize that most of this was the 3 genericmod files that I have to use with every mod. Does using many smaller mods affect server performance? Does it use more memory on a server? Is it better to have less number of mods with more content in them on a server or is it better to have lots of small mods? Which is better way to go?

3 - When changing an existing item. Am I better off to make a child of that item or make a copy of it? What is the benefit for either method? Like say I modify a storage box to allow it to hold more items. Would I be better off making a copy or a child? Would making a child make it that if there were ever changes made to the box that it would carry over to my box as well? Does it being a child allow it to work that way?

4 - Is there any time that I should force reset on Mod GUID? I’ve tested numerous times making changes to my mods while my server is online. The server continues to work just fine and I can update it at my leisure. If I reset the GUID then nobody can connect to my server until I update it. Is there ever a reason that this is required? All I have seen about this is it’s done so people can be sure that servers are running the most recent copy of their mod. Is that the only good reason? As a server owner, I’m checking for mod updates frequently but honestly hate when I get that email saying your server isn’t letting me connect because a mod updated. So I’m trying to avoid doing that to servers running my mods.

Thanks in advance for any help with these items. I’ve done lots of searching and seen many different answers to the same questions.

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Does anyone know answers to any of these questions?

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  1. No difference in performance assuming its just a remade copy of a vanilla item without blueprint graphs. If its something like ORP or anything that runs custom logic, that is all on the mod dev to get it right. Other than that, its just another item just like the vanilla items. The only difference is how long it takes the server to start up. You may also want to look at engram overrides (Game.ini options) to hide the vanilla engrams to just have yours as direct replacements.

  2. The map file is only used to bootstrap PGD, which is then used to bootstrap the rest of your mod. The map and PGD are flushed from memory after the mod is loaded and it moves on to the next mod to load, or starts the play. The real advantage to having separate mods, is a little more flexibility for server admins to pick and choose what they want, without having to dig for engram overrides and the like.

  3. If you want to maintain the functionality of vanilla items and such through updates, it would be best to create a child of the actor you are copying. That way, any modifications ARK Devs Make to the parent, can be picked up by your mod.

  4. ModGUID reset is mainly used for mods that are running blueprint graph code where most of that code is run server-side. This can cause issues like crashing the server when an updated client gets on the server and the server isnt updated, or crash clients but not the server. ModGUID reset ensures that if they are on the server, they are running the same version of the mod. It can also be used to lock out a server if there is a security issue/major bug with the previous version. You need to reset ModGUID before cooking to properly use it.

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Thank you very much!