Issue with starting mod-nation games in text mode

[llamabeast]

I guess this post is primarily for Edi's attention, but I am interested if anyone else has anything to contribute/suggest.

This is an issue that was brought up by Gandalf quite some time ago - however I didn't feel that he described it very clearly. I couldn't find it in the bug shortlist either.

Essentially the issue is this: The game does not appear to load mods before checking for the presence of pretender files in a game directory when creating a new game.

The general procedure for starting a new MP game for use in PBEM is to put all the pretender files in the game directory, then "Setup a Dominions Server", and once the game is started cancel it and run it as as PBEM. When starting the game, Dominions automatically includes all the nations with pretender files in the directory. However, it does not include mod nations.

In the GUI there is a workaround. If one first clicks "Create a New Game", this apparently causes Dominions to load the selected mods, because quitting that and then going to "Network" and starting the game as described above works fine. So this is all good.

The problem is that there is no workaround in text-only mode. It is therefore impossible to start a game with mod nations in text-only mode.

I would imagine that the fix might be quite simple. The game needs to load mods before checking for pretender files. It basically just needs to emulate clicking the "Create a New Game" button, which of course is impossible in text-only mode.

I bring this up now for two reasons. Firstly after the recent incredible flurry of modding fixes, basically all my wishes except this one have been fulfilled, so I guess I'm feeling hopeful. But more importantly, this is the only thing I'm aware of which stops me from fully automating the LlamaServer. I can't tell you how much time that would save. So for me, and for the LlamaServer, this would be a hugely important fix.

I hope that was fairly clear. This seems to be a strangely difficult issue to describe clearly. It's a very important one to me though.

[llamabeast]

PS Edi, apologies for being annoying if I should have just put this in the bug thread.

[lch]

I remember Gandalf and you bringing that up, too. And yeah, easy fix would be that the text mode server loads mods as the very first thing. Including propagating the new nations. I have one more thing which I'll add to the bug list now...

[Edi]

No, it's all good. This seems like a complex enough issue that it merits its own discussion thread and if there is to be a bug thread post, easier to link the thread from there. I believe it's in the shortlist instructions, actually, that discussion threads are quite okay and linking to such from the main bug discussion thread is encouraged.

As far as this issue goes, the explanation is clear. Whether the fix is just as clear may not be. If Dom3 needs to load mods before starting a game with mod pretenders, there would need to be something in the pretender file that identifies which mod should be loaded. So the procedure would need to be "check pretenders - check required mods - load required mods - recheck pretenders - if ok load game" for it to work fully automated.

Otherwise you might get all kinds of errors if the wrong kinds of mods loaded. Since otherwise it might start a game with some mod loaded that should not be in the game and then it all goes kaboom. If I read this right at any rate, which is not a given.

If anyone else has any good viewpoints here, go right ahead. I'm a total n00b with regard to the networking and server side issues of Dominions, so I need a lot of help getting those bugs into a comprehensible shortlist format.

[llamabeast]

When you start the game from the command line you actually have to tell Dominions which mods to load. You have to type something along the lines of:

dom3 -STd --enablemod Ulm_Reborn.dm --enablemod TombKings.dm --otherswitches -g MyGame

Because you have to explicitly list which mods you want it to load, the issue you describe shouldn't arise.

[Edi]

Okay. In that case, yes, it should load the mods before game creation. That example clears things considerably for me.