[Dev Blog] Steam Latest Branch Updated To Build 162

Development
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http://stonehearth.net/2014/11/20/steam-latest-branch-updated-to-build-162/

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I don’t get the versioning. It’s nice to have something official, I guess, but without any word on to what effect it has on the game, if any, it seems like an useless addition.

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Well, for example, it prevents the Candledark mod from running unless you’re in the A5 version of the game. So people who upgrade from A5 to A6 and have candledark installed won’t immediately crash on load.

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So it’s tied to the game version? The example isn’t really simple to understand (1?). So what does it go for? The build? Also, is “silently” really silent or will there be at least some mentioning in a log that a mod wasn’t loaded because of a version conflict? Silently doing things is never good.

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just went and snuck an update in, didn’t ya? :smile:

t-minus “imminent” till alpha 6! :+1:

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with this being alpha the code is always changing preventing past versions from fully functioning properly

I think it’s good thing that they are keeping updates flowing and I wouldn’t call them silent cause the current updates are optional the major one like alpha 6 are like mile marks that vastly improve things sense the last official update and they will let you know when it is nearing

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Which isn’t true. There’s still stuff that’s been written in Alpha 1 and works like a charm.

If you read again what I’ve replied to and what I have replied, you will see that I’m talking about the silent not-loading-of-mods, not the communication by the developers or anything else.

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I believe @RepeatPan is referring to this phrase from the stonehearth.net official update:

“Starting in Alpha 6, your mod will need to include a version number. Stonehearth will silently fail to load any mods with a missing or incorrect version.”

His concern, if I interpret it correctly, is also a concern that crossed my mind when I first read this phrase - if the mod doesn’t get loaded but there’s no warning, some one may be trying to figure out why the mod isn’t quite working (this can be more subtle depending on the type of mod) when playing the game, and trying to troubleshoot potential “ghost” bugs, when in fact it is simply that the mod is not loaded at all due to incorrect version.

I think the idea of “compulsory version” is good, but perhaps it would also be good if the game will send out a warning message box stating something like “Incorrect version for mod. Mod not loaded”.

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I understand that now

if they plan to have a detection that prevents older mods from running they could possibly have a mod tab that shows running mods with mod names as well on the main menu I think this would prevent this problem and I believe it would be relatively easy to do as well

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Just have to say, thanks for tightening up the performance. I’m in constant fear of my computer catching on fire when the game’s been running too hard for too long…

I’m loving these pathfinding improvements, keep up the good work! :smile:

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You bet! I’m always expecting the game to crash in my computer each time there’s an update, but they’re always improving the older and newer systems in the game, so instead of that, everything runs each time smoother :smile:

I think until now when there was a problem with a mod, it appeared in the stonehearth.log. Something along the lines of “can’t read the manifest of YourMod, skipping in world generation” or when it could be correctly loaded but had some other problem, you’d see error messages inside the game, like when it couldn’t find some important file of the mod, etc.

I guess those messages will still appear, if not, we won’t be able to debug our mods :confused:

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Agreed, things seem much improved since the early days where a scenario couldn’t be played for too long before some bug ruined any progress.

Now I can happily say that I have played a game to completion! Never thought it would be so fun to watch my citizens get murdered by 40 some goblins swarming them :stuck_out_tongue: . The swordswomen fought valiantly, but 4 v 40 was a bit too much…

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There is some mining UI already present. If you press 3 or m. Unfortunately it does not do anything :disappointed:

2014-11-23_00002.jpg1280Ă—1024 103 KB

2014-11-23_00003.jpg1280Ă—1024 172 KB

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I’m a little confused about the version number.

Is it the mod version or is it tied to the SH version?
Does it have to be an integer? or can it be a string or decimal?
What is an “incorrect version”?

Thanks :smile:

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I think the main reason for now is just this

To prevent the candledark mod from crashing the game. Any number will do for now. But maybe they use it in the future for their mod API.

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Random irreproducible gif… (I think it’s from r156 didn’t know where to put it :sweat: ):

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I did a couple tests, and version has to be an Integer. Decimals and other number do not work.

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@RepeatPan and @Relyss, yeah, sorry, we could have been more clear. :wink: According to @Ponder, the version in the mod is the version of the API, not the game, so it can evolve separately. Right now, set it to 1. Also, if the mod doesn’t load, there should continue to be a line in the log file to this effect.

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Cheers - now that sounds more useful :wink: Although at this point, shouldn’t/can’t we kind of expect this number to go up with every release as well, seeing as there… is no finalized version of the API? Little bits change all the time, maybe a mod relies on exactly those things?

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I guess it depends on whether or not our API changes are additive-only or whether they change existing functions. Probably both, but let’s start as we mean to go on. :slight_smile:

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