ModLoader

Onos Ate Me

<div class="IPBDescription">Easier Mod Installation</div>Right now, most mods have a complicated installation method. The user is expected to located their ns2 installation folder. Extract the mod's zip archive into that folder, potentially corrupting NS2 if the user screws up. To run the mod, they then have to start ns2.exe with arguments written precisely so or the mod wont be loaded.

<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/53107776/bolt/Bolt.exe" target="_blank">Bolt</a> allows your mod to be run from any arbitrary location on a user's harddrive and doesn't interfere with the NS2 installation directory.

<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/53107776/bolt/Bolt.exe" target="_blank">Download Bolt</a><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->

<!--coloro:#F5DEB3--><span style="color:#F5DEB3"><!--/coloro--><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Running Mods That Use Bolt<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
<ul><li> Double-click Bolt.exe</li><li> The mod and NS2 will now be started</li></ul>

<!--coloro:#F5DEB3--><span style="color:#F5DEB3"><!--/coloro--><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Including Bolt In Your Mod<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--><!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
<ul><li> Create a new folder with the name of your mod</li><li> Place Bolt.exe into the folder</li><li> Rename Bolt.exe to whatever you want</li><li> Place any tertiary files such as readmes into this folder.</li><li> Create another folder named <i>Mod</i></li><li> Place your mod files inside <i>Mod</i></li></ul>

<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/53107776/bolt/Bolt.exe" target="_blank">Download Bolt</a>
<a href="https://github.com/DamienHauta/NS2-Bolt" target="_blank">GitHub Repo</a>

fsfod

Did you ever think to to search github <a href="https://github.com/fsfod/NS2ModLoader" target="_blank">https://github.com/fsfod/NS2ModLoader</a> before creating this thread.

I do what this is doing just using a bat file
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->@echo OFF

SETLOCAL EnableExtensions

FOR /F "tokens=2,*" %%i IN ('reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Valve\Steam" /v "InstallPath" 2^>nul ^| Find /i "InstallPath" ')   DO set SteamDirectory=%%j

IF NOT DEFINED SteamDirectory (
@echo trying 64 bit reg path

FOR /F "tokens=2,*" %%i IN ('reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Valve\Steam" /v "InstallPath" 2^>nul ^| Find /i "InstallPath"')   DO set SteamDirectory=%%j
)

@echo Steam directory is: %SteamDirectory%

IF NOT EXIST "%SteamDirectory%" (
  @echo Error the Steam directory directory doesn't seem to exist
  PAUSE
  EXIT
)

set InstallPath=%SteamDirectory%\steamapps\common\Natural Selection 2

@echo NS2 install path is: %InstallPath%
@echo Mod directory is: %~dp0

IF NOT EXIST "%InstallPath%" (
  @echo Error the Natural Selection 2  directory doesn't seem to exist
  PAUSE
  EXIT
)

start /d"%InstallPath%" .\ns2.exe -game "%~dp0"

EndLocal<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

Onos Ate Me

<!--quoteo(post=1896491:date=Jan 21 2012, 05:14 PM:name=fsfod)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fsfod @ Jan 21 2012, 05:14 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1896491"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Did you ever think to to search github<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No, I search the NS2 Forums when I want to know what the NS2 community is doing. The same names was an unfortunate coincidence and I've renamed the project to NS2-Bolt.

I neither stole your code or meant for this mod to compete with yours. Yours seems to be a mod manager, aiming to allow end-users to run multiple mods at once, akin to something like <a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=640" target="_blank">FOMM</a> for fallout. Mine is to allow mod authors to release modifications with a minimal install process. It's a mini-project that began with and was shipped with the first build Radiance. I wanted to be able to install Radiance anywhere on the harddrive so that the end-user didn't have to worry about mucking up their NS2 folder or know about passing in arguments through the command line.

My program runs the same as your bat file because there is really only one solution to running a mod from an external location: lookup the HKLM hive in the registry, find the steam installation key, concatenate the value of the key with the relative location to ns2.exe, add the -game statement, tell windows to run that command. If anyone knows of another way that is next to guaranteed to work, I'd be quite interested (there is a to run ns2 with steam:// but it's not possible to supply command line arguments, thus impossible to load mods).

Just looking at the forum posts for the past couple months it's apparent that the modding community is finally starting to get off the ground. Instead of speculating and brainstorming about mods, people are actually making them now. All of my the mods aim at kindling and harnessing this community. Ns2Docs was created with the hopes of letting the coder know wtf they are looking at when they first open up a lua file. Radiance started out as a fluke but it became apparent how much more efficient it would be to edit the maps while in play. Reload is a fix to re-enable reloading so that coders can iterate as quickly as possible and not spend 10 to 20 minutes in recompilation, loading, and setting up a scene just to check out a minor change. With this mod, I hoped to allow mods get installed and running in a single-click without making something that would require a drastic change in development on the modders end.

I didn't know about your mod until you brought it up and I've change the name of my project to prevent confusion.

Onos Ate Me

<!--quoteo(post=1896491:date=Jan 21 2012, 05:14 PM:name=fsfod)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fsfod @ Jan 21 2012, 05:14 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1896491"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Did you ever think to to search github<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No, I search the NS2 Forums when I want to know what the NS2 community is doing. The same names was an unfortunate coincidence and I've renamed the project to NS2-Bolt.

I neither stole your code or meant for this mod to compete with yours. Yours seems to be a mod manager, aiming to allow end-users to run multiple mods at once, akin to something like <a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=640" target="_blank">FOMM</a> for fallout. Mine is to allow mod authors to release modifications with a minimal install process. It's a mini-project that began with and was shipped with the first build Radiance. I wanted to be able to install Radiance anywhere on the harddrive so that the end-user didn't have to worry about mucking up their NS2 folder or know about passing in arguments through the command line.

My program runs the same as your bat file because there is really only one solution to running a mod from an external location: lookup the HKLM hive in the registry, find the steam installation key, concatenate the value of the key with the relative location to ns2.exe, add the -game statement, tell windows to run that command. If anyone knows of another way that is next to guaranteed to work, I'd be quite interested (there is a to run ns2 with steam:// but it's not possible to supply command line arguments, thus impossible to load mods).

Just looking at the forum posts for the past couple months it's apparent that the modding community is finally starting to get off the ground. Instead of speculating and brainstorming about mods, people are actually making them now. All of my the mods aim at kindling and harnessing this community. Ns2Docs was created with the hopes of letting the coder know wtf they are looking at when they first open up a lua file. Radiance started out as a fluke but it became apparent how much more efficient it would be to edit the maps while in play. Reload is a fix to re-enable reloading so that coders can iterate as quickly as possible and not spend 10 to 20 minutes in recompilation, loading, and setting up a scene just to check out a minor change. With this mod, I hoped to allow mods get installed and running in a single-click without making something that would require a drastic change in development on the modders end.

I didn't know about your mod until you brought it up and I've change the name of my project to prevent confusion.

Yuuki

Works nicely! We are using fade mod in the ensl gathers and people have trouble installing and running it sometimes, so I included this.