Okay, what are the difference between a mod and a total conversion? I’m referring to the ARK dev kit ‘upload to Steam’ screen, as the buttons to cook a mod or cook a map always seem to be disabled for me.
Mod means you modify something or add something. Can’t edit core files they won’t save anything.
Total conversion means you remake the entire game and change it’s core files. Can edit core files and they save your changes, even if you did it by accident.
If the cook mod button is disabled you are likely missing the level name of your mod level in the “Maps” field. You need the level even if you just want to cook a mod.
Is there anyway to undo this “accident” by any chance and revert the core files back to standard or is a case of having to find what was changed an changing it manually?
My way of modding a Total Conversion
I’m currently in the process of modding my Personal Total Conversion geared towards Solo or Small Tribe Play.
Due to the frequent updates to the Dev Kit and the frequent crashes which can sometimes mess it up. I concluded that I only want to redo the minimum amount of work regarding the Core files that get updated (or verified after a crash).
Updates and verify leaves everything in your mod folder untouched. So make sure you make backups of your map levels if you change those or all your hard work could be lost.
Furthermore I wanted to remain as compatible with the standard game and mods.
Therefore I took the following approach to writing my TC:
Child directly the blueprints which can be childed from the item you want to change. If you need to alter components like things with an inventory you make a copy: e.g. Mortar and Pestle, Preserving bin, … You can still child the inventory blueprint and the PrimalItemStructure Blueprint but the actual model you need to copy.
I haven’t touched dinos yet, but I assume the same will apply.
The problem with copies is that any changes to the blueprint of the item copied won’t get reflected into your copy. So after an update a check of those items is a good idea. Most functional changes into code will probably be derived from the parent class or classes and be inherited by your copy aswell.
But since you made a copy I could be likely that you need to check a boolean or add some values to your copy to stays more identical in functionality.
Also you have to remember to Remap Engrams, Remap Items (so far I only did this on Resources and Basic Craftables, probably going to need to do this for ever item that gets used as a crafting ingrediënt to keep mod capatibility as much as possible), also do not forget to Add your additional engrams and structures to place.
A lot of one time work, but hopefully a lot less when the DEVKit updates once again or blueprints gets new functionality, … .
Another thing I tried out and works is that unless you specifically need an item your TC creates I keep the standard item as crafting ingrediënt.
Like I have a Sparkpowder_Child_MyTC and in the mortar and pestle default ingrediënt I only keep Sparkpowder as the item to produce.
This in the understanding that when a mod adds their own mortar and pestle and crafts Sparkpowder it will keep functioning in mine.
Would I alter my default M&P crafting ingrediënt to Sparkpowder_Child_MyTC. I can only use my own Sparkpowder, which could become troublesome.
Any mod that wants to function properly has to also child from sparkpowder to it’s own version. That way childs of sparkpowder stay compatible.
Maybe not fullly stackable, but still interchangeable as crafting ingredients.
I remap Sparkpowder to Sparkpowder_Child_MyTC anyway so any sparkpowder created should be in theory Sparkpowder_Child_MyTC, but I better safe then sorry.
Just watch out with meat as the boolean crafting require exact resource type is enabled for those (DEVKit 240.6). I haven’t looked that far into it searching a solution as Raw Fish is a child of Raw Meat. So cooking fish would probably result in Cooked Meat. Maybe you can figgle with default engram order in the inventory. Or making Fish an independent consumable, but that could lead to a whole host of other issues with dino taming.
This is my personal take on modding for Ark. There are certainly other ways of doing it. But I think in the end this method will give me the least reworking of things and the most control. But it does kind of feel I am childing and copying each and every blueprint that there is.
The scope of my TC is huge. Simply because I do not like the weight of lots of items. Everything weighs 4.0, but sometimes require 1500 metal.
Crafting requirements are also insane for a solo player or small family playing on their own server together.
So I need to rebalance everything. Lots of work. But that is the price to pay for your own personal tweaked game, if you want to go past the Up the Harvesting amount levels of a game.ini tweak.
[MENTION=435174]ShaZZa BFE[/MENTION] I would of replied earlier but the forums would not link me to your quote and gave me issues.
To restore a file you can do a verify, but it will go through every single file and check for any changes and remove EVERYTHING different from the original version that is NOT in a separate Mod folder.
If you accidentally made a change to a file, you won’t know until after a verify/update where it will give you a list and quarantine the altered files. If you make a backup of the projects folder you can manually restore files but only if you know what you have altered, you can do a diff search comparison of files, but it’s very messy with a proprietary binary system such as the .uasset files that Unreal has. You might be able to find software that is able to do it.
@ wait so they changed TC Mods to work and be created in the exact same way as a standard mod now? The whole thing about TC vs Normals, was that you had to remap every **** thing related to Chitin Paste if you edit the cost to craft it, and TC you could just edit Chitin Paste and cook a TC and be done.
Ok thanks for the reply Akukiyo. I was getting some strange errors yesterday when loading the dev kit but just let them pass by. Was still getting them today and after I made the post I found the verify option and did that. Seems to have fixed it (thank goodness).
Well they didn’t change the way you can do a TC. But if you mod hundreds of files. Do you want to recheck every single one after each update of the modkit to know if they changed it or not? Yes it is easier to directly edit the Core files. But each update behind your back needs to be checked and redone. And the verify option I already had to use lots of times. So all your work becomes overwritten, with a nice backup. But then you have to restore those files and hope nothing goes wrong.
My way of doing a TC still limits you, and basically it is like writing a mod, but I still reserve myself the option to edit a few core files when appropriate. An option I would lack when writing a normal mod.
My goal is to stays as compatible as possible with normal mods, but saving myself a lot of hassle later on.
If an Update happens, you get a backup of all your changed files yes. But than you have to revert those. But how will you compare your work versus the new and update files? What changed? When writing a TC much like a normal mod, with all files in a mod folder instead of editing Core files. You can still compare your Copied Blueprints. The Childed ones will be less affected and probably inherit all new functionality and variables at the default inherited settings.
If ARK was a finished product. Writing a TC in the altering core files kind of way. That would be fine. But for now, way too much work to verify everything. And the unreal editor doesn’t provide a nice way of comparing blueprints with an identical parent that I am aware of. If it exists please enlighten me.
For now I see the TC way of modding for things quick and dirty. Your own settings and doing the rest with other mods.
Simply the tweaking of a few files. Quickly checked upon Devkit Updates. But for a full blown out of your world heavyly changed game. You will either break compatibility with a lot of mods anyway. Doing a lot of their work again.
And then you can do it write a TC as a regular mod kind of thing. Providing you with some more options versus regular mods, but still also inherit some drawbacks. My way also provides me with the options to leave out core file changes and cooking it as a regular mod if I want to.
Everything has it pros and cons. If Ark was finished: hell yeah I would be changing CORE files directly, but I am a single person doing my own thing. Time is limited so I need to prepare as best I can for coming changes with the least amount of redoing things.
I’m certainly not advocating my way as The Way to handle TC modding.
I don’t really see a need to make a TC mod mostly, I don’t have issues with resource costs and balancing of engrams, it’s not designed for solo play, however if you are a solo player like the first modder to replace every item in the game because he altered chitin paste lol… He did have methods for file comparisons amongst a large portion of the files and had scripts to actually replace data, don’t know if he is still around or even remember his name TBH.
So I have not had the anxiety and stress from doing TC mods and losing work to updates/verifys, and have not kept up to date with TC mods. I kind of just looked at how they worked and noticed the verification flaw immediately, and just turned a blind eye and let it be on it’s way lol.
I’ve become an advocate for fragmenting and limiting what you do with the DevKit, primarily because steam times out for 30mb+ initial uploads for myself and many other people, and secondly because ADK can crash, without any notice, and without you even changing a file. That’s not inherently ADK or StudioWildcards fault, anything can crash, and for any reason, it’s a side effect of computing. And it’s just further strengthened my resolve to not do a TC mod, to not even begin looking at or working with them.