Our installation situation is a disaster - the saga of Co8 4.0.0

Okay, so I endeavored this evening to go the route any newcomer to the forums would for installing all the pertinent mods from Co8 for ToEE.

In so doing I culled information and downloads from several different threads, including:

Premade 'Toffee' 3 Pro modules

Official releases: A step-by-step download guide

Additional bug fixes & content

Optional patches & tools

entering the Ah Fong Emporium and CTD

Cujo's Mod

New PC voices, get em while they're hot!

ToEE Front-End v3.0a1

Even Ted's Blog

All these sources purport to have something significant to say about Co8's mods and what should be installed; all are accesible through different forums on this site to those seeking information, and would likely be come upon by anyone attempting a thorough install.

After downloading and installing everything I could get my hands on that seemed to be indicated somewhere that it should go in, I literally don't know what I'm running now that its all said and done.

This situation is a disaster, people. We have alternate versions of identical mods posted in two or three locations, combinations of mods here, updates to some but not all mods there, random zips of some of Drifter's stuff in one spot, other Drifter stuff in another spot, and ultimately unclear indications as to what is included in the wide variety of stuff we have available, what renders other stuff unneccesary, what requires other stuff to run, and so on.

I recall seeing somewhere in my wide search that Allyx had Toffee-ready packs posted for some stuff. Which of that should go in? Are Ted's voices included in his main mod? I came across that somewhere but can't recall now. I think Cujo's mod is included in Ted's download. But darmagon's new spells seem to remain a separate download, if I'm not mistaken. Not really sure -- I'll have to see if I can relocate that thread again.

This basically means, I believe, that the average user is going to go away frustrated after spending an hour tracking this stuff down and ending up with some unidentifiable installation on his system.

What will it take to develop a unified solution to this problem? An updated installation package. 3.0.4 is basically obsolete now, with Liv and Ted's stuff seeming to be standard, not to mention Drifter's, Cujo's, Allyx's, TOFFEE, etc. So locating and downloading 3.0.4 only gets you started on your long journey anymore.

This sort of thing is tiresome and frustrating to the average player out there. It's almost as though some degree of modding experience is neccesary to get a solid install of the game at this time. That's not good.

I'd like to formally solicit some input here:

First of all, do you agree that there is a problem?

Second, if so, is it something we should bother fixing?

Third, if it is, what's the first step to getting this done?


Sorry if I'm sounding like an a-hole. I'd just really like to see some movement in this area.

Gaear

 

Re: Our installation situation is a disaster

I believe i have removed links to my mod v1.0, and indeed old versions of patches, but I agree with the general sentiment. In fact I came online to kick the Co8 4.0.0 idea along.

Are we waiting for anything? I'd like a new protos.tab with the changes to Zuggy, but I guess they have to be pretty heavily tested. And there was the Arena of Heroes mod to finish. I have to patch my mod one last time (thats an Ah Fong thing, not a DH thing which I want to keep seperate).

Otherwise, are we waiting for anything else? Releasing Co8 4.0.0 in an .exe will deal with most - not all, but most - of these issues.

 

Re: Our installation situation is a disaster

Well, I reckon Allyx already took a big step in that direction

And i agree with the many voices that have said we should include Toffee in the official release.

<passes ball to Allyx>

 

Re: Our installation situation is a disaster

<chest's the ball down, controls it, looks up....shoots.....SCORES! Then wakes up shouting GOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!>

So you guys want me to bundle Drifters patches into the ted's 1.2.0 toffee mod pack (including toffee pro itself) and call it Co8 4.0?

I can, but I think it would be far easier for someone with broadband to do this. It takes me an hour and a half to upload ted's mod (that's why I scrapped the second version in favour of conversion files for the shopmap v2).

 

Re: Our installation situation is a disaster

Hmmmmmmm

Well I can, if thats what people want. More to the point, I can stick my voices in too, if people like those.

Is there anything else missing? And what about the portrait pack? How is that going Allyx? (Did it get released without me noticing? ) I would love to see a new bunch of portraits bundled in, both because my mod interferes with these things, but also because we have new voices and need pix to go with them, and people like them and should be saved the hassle of frigging around with installs (see first post).

Btw - i WILL yank DH if I am the one to do this, it will save many mbs of sountracks etc and give people the option of installing it only if they want it. I will leave in Playful NPCs, SaM, and Ah Fong and Yvy to get Cujo's stuff (and all Cujo's stuff of course ) And the dog who wanders around the labour camp: I find the game to be pointless and unplayable without him. :grin:

 

Re: Our installation situation is a disaster

Let's answer this question first: Should Toffee be standard? I say yes.

After that, what all's going in?

but

I agree with all of that too. But is Cerulean's Random Random Encounter patch in there somewhere? How about the Juggernaut fix?

And to specify on the others, we mean:

Co8: Version 3.0.4
Liv's: Version 1.5.1
Ted's: Version 1.2.0, SaM, Voices, Playful NPCs, Ah Fong & Ivy, Cujo
Darmagon's: All his spells
Allyx's: All his items, shop map V2
Drifter's: Everything but Humble NPCs and Max HP

Is this correct?

Specifically, we want to package it up and send it to Morpheus, who will roll it into an installer, which will then be called 4.0.0., if I'm not mistaken.

Good input everyone. Let's keep this ball rollin.' I think we'd all feel a little more liberated about moving on to KotB if we knew we'd left ToEE in its best possible shape.

 

Re: Our installation situation is a disaster

Well, I still have the Co8 introductory credit movie, if anyone's interested. It needs to be modded into the game somehow though -- replacing one of the splash logos, perhaps? It will be a large file, but this thing's already gonna be huge.

Also, what about your random encounter thing?

 

Re: Our installation situation is a disaster

There are 4 portraits.mes files in my portraits.mess thread (you have to rename the files to switch between them, sorry I got nothing more elegant than that) all .mes versions are compatable with ted's 1.2.0.

The default portrait.mes can show 70 portraits in character creation, and will show all character portraits created with any and all of the other sets. While each of the other portrait.mes files will show all of that sets portraits first (default portraits fill the rest of the spaces).

I just zipped all of the portraits (and .mes files) and it's another 9 megs in total. do you need me to post it?