Local lang dll generator?

[Goosifer]

Wanted to run this idea by everyone and see if there would be any interest for me to try and figure it out or if everyone is happy with the current system. Ok ok hear me out.

 

I've been looking at lang dll files the past couple of days and I wondered: what if there was a tool that generated a local dll file based on what's in your current download folder? For example: you have 20 mods, you run my tool, it generates a fresh lang.dll that makes all of them happy and compatible with each other.

 

What is the point?:

 

Anyone, but especially modders, would be able to create custom strings without having to modify a .dll using a hex editor. So say you have two hotdog stands. Previously we would re-use one hotdog stand string to save lines in the lang file. But with my tool, you could have one configuration file in your mod that lets you define human-readable strings of your own. It would look something like this:

 

[modstrings]
name:Super Hotdog Stand
item:Super Hotdog
guest-thoughts:
- Haha this hotdog sucks.
- Ew never coming here again.
- Oh you know what, it's not so bad if you pour all of the ketchup, mustard, A1 sauce, relish, mayonaise, and pepto bismol ontop.
item-tooltip:Don't buy this hotdog stand, guests will hate you except for the one that drowned it in ketchup, mustard, A1 sauce, relish, mayonnaise and pepto bismol. I mean maybe, that sounds pretty gross actually.

 

What about the hundreds of files without this new configuration file?

 

The tool would support old lang files if you have them. If you, the downloader, wants to customize the strings, you can just make a custom config file and make your own strings and the tool will ignore the old strings and use the new ones.

 

Considerations as a community and other limitations

 

• For new mods, it would be one extra file adding a few more bytes. (though text files are almost negligibly-small)
• It would allow redundant buildings to have their own unique names (Super Hotdog Stand, Spooky Hotdog Stand, etc.). This will fix the problem of rotating an object and the selection resetting to another object with the same name.
• The only inconvenience (at least early on) would be for users to manually double click my binary file every time they update their download folder for the lang file to update, but otherwise it would ideally be that easy to use.

 

Let me know if you have any questions! This is probably super weird and unnecessary, and maybe not enough people would find it useful, but if there are, maybe I can start working on it during the holidays. (no I haven't forgotten my unreleased projects xD). It might not even be possible but think of the possibilities.

[(Designer)Z.Z.]

Interesting.

What about the limited number of IDs available?

Would it not take up the remaining available IDs?

And would it permanently rename the buildings when created, or would all users have to make it work every time?

[Goosifer]

58 minutes ago, Z.Z. said:

What about the limited number of IDs available?

Would it not take up the remaining available IDs?

 

The current system tries to accommodate all existing mods that can use IDs across different websites, that's the only reason there are a limited amount of IDs. A typical user doesn't have all of the mods a lang file accommodates, so the idea is to use 'unused shelf space' for every user's unique download folder so the amount of IDs available would be dependent on the number of mods installed instead of all mods ever, if that makes sense.

 

58 minutes ago, Z.Z. said:

And would it permanently rename the buildings when created, or would all users have to make it work every time?

 

It would be permanent, so you wouldn't need to rename a building when placed. It would automatically be named what it should be. Instead of 'Hotdog Stand' that multiple mods share, you could have 'Spicy Enchilada Hotdog Stand' by default.

 

There is a limitation that Jay brought up the other day. I guess save files rely on IDs to keep track of what mods were installed at the time, which makes sense. If IDs are always changing, old save files would quickly become unusable. But this morning I kicked around some ideas that should circumvent that issue.

 

What I think I'll do, and I was going to do something like this eventually anyway, is make a mod manager that can do the following:

• UI that lets you manage your local mods. Attach pictures, label, categorize, disable/enable.
• Combine multiple files into one ZTD on demand.
• Generate local lang file so you can have custom strings.
• Manage ini files.

[HeatherL]

The extent of my computer knowledge is copy/paste and naming new folders.  Clarification: If I have this dll generator, and I decide to remove the Lumberjack Restaurant and replace it with the Turkey Trot, the generator will automatically adjust for the files in my dlupdate folder? Or would I have to tell it to do so?

[Goosifer]

Right now I think it should be automatic, so you wouldn't need to worry about doing anything. But if it detects that you're reaching an ID limit or file limit, it will simply alert you and then you can direct it or ignore it and try your luck.

 

My plan would be to introduce the idea of 'bundles'. You would group up to around 200 mods together that are compatible with each other and with any save files within. You can drag and drop, categorize mods using a user-friendly app and it will do all of the work to make sure this 'bundle' plays nice with itself and its group of 'save files'. From inside this manager you can change building/object names to unique ones if you want, enable/disable/delete mods, adjust ini settings, merge ztd files, etc. You would switch between bundles to access different mods and saves you've bundled. This could potentially address Jay's concern from earlier.

 

I'm sorry if this is confusing!

[(Admin)Savannahjan]

This is really interesting and could be a great new approach.   I really appreciate you thinking outside the box here. 

 

Back several years ago, Jane decided to change the way her UCIs were configured.  She created a single .ztd file (Jane.ztd) which had all her icons for items sold in it, instead of using IDs.  I don't know just how this worked and sadly she is no longer with us to explain her method.  The items did still work in the game as long as the Jane.ztd file was in the game.  At some point she decided that this way was too different from the standard so she redid the items back to the original format. 

 

 

[Goosifer]

Ohh interesting. I'm not too sure how the dll files work yet but it will be fun to see. Static file reverse engineering isn't my strongsuit though, that's more @Gymnasiast and @finnethen's lane lol.

 

I'll quietly work on a prototype and stealth release it five months from now lol. As I do.

[Fern]

38 minutes ago, Savannahjan said:

Back several years ago, Jane decided to change the way her UCIs were configured.  She created a single .ztd file (Jane.ztd) which had all her icons for items sold in it, instead of using IDs.  I don't know just how this worked and sadly she is no longer with us to explain her method.  The items did still work in the game as long as the Jane.ztd file was in the game.  At some point she decided that this way was too different from the standard so she redid the items back to the original format. 

I think it was more a case of the fact she would have to update it for every new item created. And then if people did not get the latest version the building would not show them ingame.

It was not so much new as BF used this for ZT but they were not making lots of new buildings like we all were back then.

BF were good at putting things for one game piece in various files so you would have to hunt for them.

[pukkie]

this is all mathematics to me in underwater chinese language

I would not be doing anything with anything as I will always be scared to break my game

And it's not easy to get your hands on this game anymore

[Goosifer]

Nothing wrong with that. This project wouldn't touch the game though, just the mods.