Modda

Automates the installation of a bunch of mods above an Infinity Engine based game. (though so far, it was only tested with BG1 & BG2).

Initial goal

Be able to generate (mostly) reproducible installations

Operation

You create a recipe that

decides which language(s) will be selected
lists all mods that should be installed, in order, and of the components for each mod

The recipe is a YAML file (This could probably be a json file, but this was not tested), for example this is for an installation on BG1 with a preference for french and fallback on english.

global:
  lang_dir: "fr_FR"
  lang_preferences: ["#rx#^fran[cç]ais", french, english, "american english"]
modules:
  - name: DlcMerger
    components: [
      1 # Merge DLC into game -> Merge "Siege of Dragonspear" 
    ]
    location:
      source:
        github_user: Argent77
        repository: A7-DlcMerger
        release: v1.3
        asset: lin-A7-DlcMerger-v1.3.zip
  - name: bg1ub
    components: [
      0,  # Ice Island Level Two Restoration
      11, # Scar and the Sashenstar's Daughter
      12, # Quoningar, the Cleric
      13, # Shilo Chen and the Ogre-Magi
      14, # Edie, the Merchant League Applicant
      16, # Creature Corrections
      17, # Creature Restorations
      18, # Creature Name Restorations
      19, # Minor Dialogue Restorations
      21, # Store, Tavern and Inn Fixes and Restorations
      22, # Item Corrections and Restorations
      29, # Duke Eltan in the Harbor Master's Building
      30, # Nim Furlwing Encounter
      32, # Svlast, the Fallen Paladin Encounter
      33, # Mal-Kalen, the Ulcaster Ghost
      34  # Chapter 6 Dialogue Restorations
    ]
    location: # here, using a json-y representation for the source, also works with double quotes
      source: { github_user: Pocket-Plane-Group, repository: bg1ub, release: v16.4,
                asset: bg1-unfinished-business-v16.4.zip }

The comments are optional of course, they are only for the reader.

Limitations

Needs weidu accessible on the path
Only tested with weidu 247
At this point, was only tested on linux
Mods that use ACTION_READLN are not handled well (installation is interrupted until the user makes some choice, and reproductibility is not guaranteed)

Errors and warnings

Mods that end in a weidu ERROR interrupt the installation.

By default, mods that emits WARNINGS are interrupted too but this can be disabled at the mod level with a ignore_warnings property

  - name: rr # rogue rebalancing
    components: [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12]
    ignore_warnings: true # component 7: WARNING: no effects altered on MISC2P.ITM

I would advise that the components with warnings should be isolated:

  - name: rr # rogue rebalancing
    description: components before number 7 which gives a warning
    components: [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  - name: rr # rogue rebalancing
    description: "components 7 alone, warns with WARNING: no effects altered on MISC2P.ITM"
    components: [7]
    ignore_warnings: true
  - name: rr # rogue rebalancing
    description: components after number 7 which gives a warning
    components: [8, 11, 12]

If the components with warning has no order dependency or reverse-dependency with the other components in the mod, it can be made simpler by grouping all other components in a single set.

Configuration

This uses a configuration file with one single config property (at the moment). The file is name modda.yml and will be taken from the current directory (first) then from the "OS conventional location for application configuration.

on linux, it should be ~/.config/modda/modda.yml
on windows, probably around %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\modda\modda.yml (untested)
on macos, something like $HOME/Library/Application Support/modda/modda.yml

It currently contains one property: archive_cache which tells the program where to store and search for downloaded modf archives.

# can be an absolute path, or can use ~ exapansion on UNIX-like OSes
archive_cache: ~/path/to/my/cache

Todo

Parallel HTTP fetching of mods using a pool
Resume aborted HTTP downloads?
Document YAML for archive fetching and unpacking (more)
Warn if the version of a mod changed ; this may impact reproductibility (component number changing, new components etc.)
Maybe use the directories projectdir cachevlue for default location of download cache?
Update or lock when using a "branch" location ?

Not sure

RAR archive support has code but doesn't work

RAR archive in Rust is sparse, few crates, mostly unmaintained
Few actual RAR archives for mods
Could use external RAR tools but fragile

The cost does seem to high for the reward.

mleduque / modda