Slowly working through the editor and Unreal familiarizing myself with the layout and how everything works while I finalize my mod idea that is hopefully going to expand the meat gathering aspect of the game (Butchering mod). I have managed to work through and do everything so far myself and the nice tutorials that are available on the forums and elsewhere have been super helpful appreciate those guys/gals.
Now reading around I see a lot of posts suggesting that you should create your own custom crafting stations instead of editing the default core files (not only to stop from breaking other mods but allowing your to be compatible with others). Some of the mod items do require a unique crafting station (I got a hold of that aspect), while others could easily be placed into existing ones and this is where I’m at an impasse. I would like my mod to expand the core functionality, but I really don’t like the idea of creating multiples of an item when only 1-2 items really need to use a certain structure.
For example I have one item that I’d like to add to the preservation bin’s possible craftables. While creating my own “preservation bin” copy would solve this, I was hoping not to make copies of every structure I could use (cooking pot, industrial grill, camp fire, industrial cooker, preservation bin). It tends to just clog the engram list that is already starting to become very large but is there a workaround somehow to add into these structures without editing the core files? I see some mention of additional structures in primalgamedata and being able to just add extra engrams to existing structures without editing the core files but I am unsure on this.
Nothing is stopping me from doing this mod but I am aiming for it to be as compatible as possible with the core game and other mods as well so I was hoping to get some tips from the forum on best approaches to mod compatibility. Already some idea’s I have that are on a back burner for the mod would involve editing dino drops, adding in a new weapon type (meat harvesting knife) to increase certain gains, and an idea for checking whether a dino corpse is on a certain structure (later down the road idea if at all possible.).
The new engrams that you add to Additional Engrams will need to have the actor, that their linked Primalitem points to, placed in Additional Structures to Place. The Additional arrays in primalgamedata are the safe ones. You can remap things in some of the other arrays, but doing so makes your mod unstackable with others so new items are always best for compatibility as you mentioned.
I’ve heard users of my mod talking about other mods that irritated them and ones needing a 10th smithy in their base were pretty high up that list. I originally used the smithy as my crafting station then quickly made something that fit with my mod as a new crafting station. Are you making 3 items or 30? Why not brand your changes to Vohjiin’s Crafting Station and make simple mesh that stands out? If many of these ideas center around cooking, try to use that aspect if it makes sense. Anything other than a straight duplicate will really help your mod in the long run. It will also make your mod green in that aspect with no possibility of conflict unless you use really generic names for your items.
For now on proof of concept I do use just meshes available in the game assets for the moment. I do plan on having custom meshes, as you said having 5 stations lined up that all look the same is irritating and you can forget what is where and again just doesn’t look very nice. The core concept of the mod is to extend into meat and processing meat (Butchering) to provide some additional options as far as food goes (custom recipes and adding variety for RP). It does sway over into a cooking mod more after that point which I have separate idea’s for. Initial set is adding 10+ items with the possibility of more (working out that the mod works and is enjoyable) though with the custom recipe option in the game I can get away with not making many things and just letting the players have fun on that end.
I was just hesitant to make extra structures that literally would process one item when there is already so much available in-game now that could be used. I also have toyed with the idea of a ‘All in One’ structure but it kinda goes against the way the game currently works and I am hoping to have the mod just kinda fit seamlessly with everything else and feels like it belongs.