LightningArc.png change.

I read something about a change to LightningArc. As a guy who plays with every Mod in the Index on this makes it kind of hard to play in the new patch how I usually do.

This is what I read from Nicholas: Lightning arc: Yes, modders will have to update their skills. We put this in for all patch RCs from 1.0.9 onwards, but I guess it wasn't clear that people should delete the old files for compatibility purposes. Essentially, it used a different convention from everything else in the game and this bugged David... or something? I dunno. Regardless, this is a good time for everybody to update their mods to ensure compatibility with the full game release.

While I'm sure there are some mods made by people who no longer play the game or update the skills, I was wondering how I could go about updating these mods to be compatible.

 

1. Unzip each mod file into a folder with the name of the mod. (7-zip or WinRAR, etc. can do this easily for you.)
   • For instance, the contents of FaxPax must be unzipped into a folder named FaxPax.0.6.DA.RevA. The whole path should look like this: "\Gaslamp Games\Dungeons of Dredmor\mods\FaxPax.0.6.DA.RevA\"
   • Inside that you will see a "mod" folder.
   • Inside that you will see a spellDB.xml file.
2. Use a text editor to search each spellDB.xml file for the text "lightningarc_" (sans quotes)
   • A really good text editor like UltraEdit or Notepad++ will let you search the entire directory tree in one search to find all instances.
3. Remove the underscore each time you see it. That is, change "lightningarc_" to just "lightningarc"
   • A line you need to change will look like this:
   • <anim sprite="sprites/sfx/lightningarc/lightningarc_" frames="7" framerate="90" sfx="lightning_bolt" />
   • Just remove that first underscore.
4. Save each file as you fix them.
5. Run Dredmor and see if it works now. No need to re-zip the mods again until you are certain they are working, but you should move the old zips out of the mods folder or else every mod will appear twice in Dredmor.

Repeat these steps for any other graphics that cause the same error.

 

Thanks for the aid. It gives me something to do!

Also, didn't know you could just run mods from the zip. I've always just unzipped them into the mod folder. Silly me.

 

Note that *Some* mods used to not work if zipped. I never actually figured out why in all cases. But some were made on a Mac and there were issues with the PC side that made no sense. Others did not include the ../mods/.. stuff directly, they were instead in a subdirectory like ../Nameofmod/mods/.. and such.

Those could usually be fixed by unzipping it and repacking it to the normal way. But there were a few that did not work when you did this. I am uncertain if they still have those problems or if they have standardized yet. I check each and every mod I download to verify the structure is correct.

*Edit* On the subject, anyone know if those worthless thumbs.db files are actually used by the game in any way, or are they literally artifacts of the OS? I do not use thumbnails at all in my OS and delete them anywhere I see them except in the game and mods. Would I be safe deleting them from the game and mods too?

 

Yes. Modders should take care not to include unnecessary OS files in their mods.

 

Most probably do not see them at all since Windows and most OSes have them hidden by default since they are flagged as "System" files.

In any case they are a petty amount of wasted space. They just annoy me. I remember my first 10MB hard drive. Needless to say, old frugal storage habits persist.

 

Alternately, if you're lazy, find lightningarc.png and copy it and rename the copy lightningarc_.png. That works, too.

 

To be fair out of my...37 mods, only two needed to be fixed.