The AAA-Optional Mod Naming Standard [version 0.1]

So I’ve had some pondering on the categories over the last few months.
The first thing I want to present is a change from the AAA-standard (which is the one you prefer over a ZZZ one, according to the poll) to a [category]-standard. It should have the same effect on the sorting, so I don’t think a poll is necessary. (Just say it if you want a vote on that). The reasons for the change are that:

a. It has the same effect on the sorting
b. It makes the convention simpler, by eliminating the AAA part, which didn’t actually convey info, and just sorted things.


The main issue I had when coming up with categories was that I wanted all types of mods to be represented, while also being able to group small addition mods together.
The basic problem was the question of what [biome] should mean, does it mean just the biome-addition mods, or all mods related to biomes.

It may make sense to have it mean all biome-related mods, because that is what the name says. But I personally wanted it to be all biome addition mods, because all mods that don’t add biomes, but are related to them, can be small modification mods for existing biomes, which is arguably differnt from mods that add entire biomes. There were more places where this happened.

The second thing I want to present is my solution for this problem. This is it:

  • Instead of one category label, every mod gets two.
  • so instead of [biome] it becomes [mod][biome] or [add][biome] (depending on the mod type).
  • There are multiple front tags, the most improtant two being: [add] and [mod]
  • [add] are for mods that add things to the game, while
  • [mod] are for mods who modify existing things already in the game.
  • there are others, which are outlined below.
  • So mods that add furniture would get the [add][items]name prefix, while a mod that remodels existing furniture would get the [mod][biome]name prefix.

Now, for the categories.

In the front categories , there are the following categories

  • [add]
    for if your mod mainly adds things. The Doorway mod would be a typical [add] mod.
  • [mod]
    for if your mod mainly modifies the game. As a rule of thumb, when your mod adds new gameplay mechanics, it will generally be a game modification.
  • [theme]
    reserved for (generally) big mods, that both add lots of stuff and modify the game a lot, generally making the changes/additions around a central theme. Frostfeast and Candledark are good examples.
  • [fix]
    mods that fix , or try to fix ‘bugs’.
  • [test], [hack] and [wip]
    self explanatory
  • [core]
    reserved for official Radiant mod folders, like stonehearth.smod or radiant.smod
  • [plug-in]
    for plug-ins
  • [pack]
    if ever there will be collections of mods that go around a theme, then the front label [pack] can be used. The secondary label will be the name of the pack that it belongs to.
  • [asset]
    for unintegrated assets folders, like folders full of models or animations, textures or sounds. Just in case that is ever needed.

Within the [add] category, there are the following categories:

  • [biome]
  • [model] voxel models and potentially the accompanying animations
  • [life] life forms
    • [creature] moving life, like goblins, or racoons
    • [nature] stationary life, like trees
  • [object] non life forms
    • [item] things like talismans or other non-placable stuff
    • [furniture] placable stuff
  • [story] or [quest] or [campaign] for mods that add storyline
  • [misc]

Within the [mod] category, there are the following categories:

  • [biome] mainly changes in world generation, water changes would fall under this
  • [UI]
  • [AI]
  • [architecture]
  • [combat]
  • [nature]
  • [storage]
  • [technology], [tech] or [code] under the hood coding stuff
  • [misc]
  • [text] language and localisation mods

within other front categories, it is preferred to use secondary labels already used above. (for consistency reasons.see “on standardized categories in my top post”)

The categories themselves are, of course, up to debate.