Use the In-Game Community Mods - Original PA Mod Manager (PAMM) is Obsolete

PLEASE USE THE IN-GAME COMMUNITY MODS.

Installing and managing mods by hand is currently a non-trivial task, so to automate the process I present the PA Mod Manager!

The PA Mod Manager has the following features:

• NEWS FEED
  New Planetary annihilation builds, Mod updates and other PA related news delivered right to your desktop!
  
• INSTALLED MODS LIST
  Automatically detected list of mods that are installed
  
  
• AVAILABLE MODS
  An online list of all mods to browse through. If new versions of mods you have installed are available, they will be indicated.
  
  
• MOD INSTALLATION/UNINSTALLATION
  Can install new mods with a single click from within the Available Mods list, or uninstall existing mods
  
• MOD ENABLE/DISABLE
  Easily enable & disable mods that are installed.
• LOCALISATION
  Supports English, French, Dutch and German languages

Modders
See the following thread on how to get your mod added to PAMM:
[GUIDE] Getting your mod on PAMM

Version History
Version 4.0.3

• Bugfix for incorrect online mod filtering.

Version 4.0.2

• Installer now prompts to launch PAMM after installation is completed.
• Big performance improvements, both in rendering and network.
  • Filtering & sorting should be much, much faster now.
  • Check for online/offline status updated, and should now be much smoother and not lock up PAMM.
• Display & theme changes:
  • Further updates to visual theme to match Gamma UI.
  • Additional options for how the lists are displayed - both the installed mods & the available mods lists can now be set to either "Summary" or "Detailed" view. Summary view does not show descriptions or categories, and each entry is shorter.
  • Icons can be toggled on/off for the installed mods & the available mods lists separately.
  • I've enforced a fixed height for the mod entries. This means no more gaps when the entries tile. Some mods may need their descriptions updated to fit, as they have been capped at 2 lines.
  • Mods requiring updates have their titles in orange
  • When a filter is applied, a message appears. This is so that if the additional options are hidden, you can tell that you are not looking at the full list of mods.
• New/Updated Features:
  • Existing Filtering/sorting options for the available mods lists are now shown under "additional options"
  • Filter by Name added to both installed and available mods lists. Will filter as you type.
  • Both lists can also be filtered by category (by selecting "Show additional Options"). The number of mods in each category is shown next to the category name.
  • Added Enable All/Disable all buttons to the Installed Mods List additional options
  • Removed option for "Verbose Log", since there doesn't really need to be 3 Log levels (Debug Mode implied Verbose Log anyway).
  • PAMM now launches at a size dependent on your monitor resolution. It will be at least wide enough for two columns of mods, however.
• Bugfixes:
  • Sort by Build now has most recent build first

So this works by writing out a ui_mod_list?
Sounds super awesome if you can provide an online repository for mods.
If it only has support for mods that it knows it's only half as useful.

Yep, that's the core of it.

I don't think this will ever include the mods themselves, but I definitely want the mod definitions to either be online, or done in a way so that a modder can simply put a definition in a directory and it picks it up.

Edit: I don't want to make this too complicated or big, as I know this will eventually be supplanted by something that Uber do. At the moment though, editing the ui_mod_list just makes releasing mods and posting installation instructions, clumsy. Helping what that is the goal here

I just thought that adding a little mod repository would be quite awesome. Maybe make the mod manager be able to recognize a certain packaging format and let the user paste a download link to such a file. So I could i.e. release the download link to a mod and tell the user: Copy this into the manager and you're set.
Saves you the work of having a real repository, but enables people to install mods really really simple.

Hi raevyn, just been talking to ColaColin on IRC, and he pointed out your mod to me. However I can't get it to work and it seems to be because I'm using Steam. In a Steam install, it doesn't have the PALauncher.exe file. There's just PA.exe in Steam/steamapps/common/Planetary Annihilation.

Perhaps you need to make your mod manager work one directory up, alongside PA.exe?

Hope this helps!

New version out. I've separated out the mod list so modders can include their own definition.

That's not a bad idea. I'll give it some thought.

I'll look into it, I didn't realise the steam install didn't have the extra directory. In the meantime, install the new version one level up (Steam/steamapps/common/), this may work if the rest of the folder structure is the same. Note that "Launch PA" won't work, but it's not needed to enable/disable Mods.

About your update for modders: so the ini files needs to be directly in the mods folder? Not in the folder of the mod? I'd think in the folder of the mod would be better?

Currently, directly in the mods folder. I'll make it search in all sub-folders too (I agree it would be cleaner), but I have to leave the option as not every mod has a folder.

Cool!! Thanks for including the ini file for me Gonna upload a new zip with it included. BTW, this is gonna make checking my mod for workingness that much easier!

Updated to version 1.2. As people include ini files in their mods, I'll remove the in-built files.
You can now place the ini files inside your mod folder (currently only 1 folder up).
There are now also (optional) Version and Build properties you can add to the ini file.

Does this support the global_mod_list?

Sure does

I started to write a downloader into the mod manager, but the minute I saved it my antivirus gobled the file and said it was a trojan *facepalm*.

How do I make it use the global mod list?
Edit:
nvm, found it

Just use global_mod_list=<file(s)>:

Code:

[PAMM]
Name=Commander Health Display
Author=raevn
Link=https://forums.uberent.com/threads/rel-commander-health-display-v2.50584/
Category=In-Game
Folder=PA\media\ui\mods\rCommanderHP
global_mod_list='../../mods/rCommanderHP/rCommanderHP.css'
Version=2.1
Build=52168

Have you thought about including an ordering option? I'm planning on trying to extend pastats and forcing it further down the list would be useful since the mods load in the order they're listed in the file.

That's a useful option I overlooked. It currently loads them by alphabetical order of the mod's ini file (not the mod name), so for now you can name it something that comes after it. It will also load ini files in the mods folder before ini files in sub folders.

Things to do for next version:

• Mod ordering
• Proper steam version support
• Hopefully some kind of mod downloader, if I can get it to not make virus scanners think it's malicious.

Woh! good job!

How long until a steam version? So far I had like 3 or 4 people with steam who tried to install pa stats with the manager and failed. I could not figure out how to make it work with steam either.

For timing, I'm fairly busy most of this week, so I'm not sure. I'm assuming/hoping the only difference with the steam version is the lack of the top-level Planetary Annihilation folder (so their first folder would be our "PA" folder).

they have a Planetary Annihilation folder in steam/commonsomething.
I didnt get it to work by placing it there via teamviewer on somebody elses computer. Maybe it was some other problem, I have no idea. Having somebody knowledgeable with steam test the manager would be quite helpful. I dont have PA on steam.