OIV installation package demand in user community?
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I have seen lots of complains about OIV install package, and many of them are coming even from notorious Redux, which people could not install.
I personally avoid using OIV installation package and doing everything manually because:- Modder is still a human being and prone to do mistakes and if anything messed up it will take unnecessary time for me to locate and eliminate issue.
- When installing manually it gives me an insurance nothing is messed up.
- I know my file structure better and how to tweak stuff when I need to.
That being said I have pretty heavily modded GTA 5 and I don't want any files disturbing the order. Never had an issue with ANY mod which is not officially broken.
Those who mod this game must understand that it hasn't official modding support and tool, everything is tailored by modding community and game wasn't supposed to be modded, so if you're going for it, you must understand basics at very least.
It's very frustrating to see how lazy and casual mod user community is, unable to copy few files, have no idea of file order and even how to tweak mod settings in .ini or .lua when modders kindly provide them. Everyone wants click one button and for installer to do all the job for you without worrying what could go wrong. It's even became mandatory for modders to put their work in OIV packages. Are you people serious?
No wonder there are complaints over complaints on every mod page of users who break their game after installing conflicting mods, and if they would just peek inside package, it would be obvious if they should install it or not, or how to install it so it won't break nothing and still work while merging functions of two different mods.
Are modder community on this site ok with this rather idiotic requirement? I mean if you really want to make OIV package, go for it, no problem, but making it mandatory? Why? What's the general opinion on this?
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Mandatory OIV?! Hell no. I do prefer OIV just to extract with winzip & use the assembly.xml to know where everything is supposed to go. If it looks ok to me I will then install.
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Until OIV packages have the ability to analyse files, know that they are modded and then merge instead of replace them, I won't touch them. They're an incredibly dangerous tool in the wrong hands, requiring careful examination of every file and folder they are going to change/replace.
The saving grace is that they're just a zip file that you can extract... it could have been very much worse. Imagine if you extracted a zip file into a folder full of files, and it didn't give you a "This file already exists, do you want to overwrite it?" warning/option... it just overwrote them. That to me, is what an OIV package effectively does. One of the most dangerous files it can do this with, is the gameconfig.xml file, I'd hate to think how many problems are caused, by that file being inadvertently replaced.
The problem is though, this is a global modding community that like many others, is dominated by people who speak English. I would hate to be someone from another country, trying to understand what could be simple instructions, in a language they just don't understand.
When you think about that side of it, it is easier to understand why there is such a demand for OIV packages. It's much easier to write "OIV please?". Instead of "I'm having a problem installing all these different files and folders with OpenIV, and I can't understand the instructions... can someone help please?" when you don't know the language.
The end result can be broken English from the user, being read by the modder who also doesn't fully understand English. I have nothing but sympathy for the modders who run into trouble in that situation, it must be hell. You need extreme patience and the ability to simplify your explanations into easily understandable terms to help them and that's not always easy.
Modders need to realise though that using OIV puts a level of responsibility on them if things go wrong. Unless you can be 100% certain that your files are not going to affect another mod, you should be prepared for some extensive troubleshooting if things go wrong.
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Er... Awesome concept, no doubt.
Thing is.. While this would work quite well for many simple replacement files like replacement vehicles and weapons, and scripts, it would certainly not work for massive mods like L.A. Roads mod, where it would be an awfully long process to make the assembly.xml.
If people had to make OIV files in a mandatory sense, you'd be sure the community of modders would shorten because they wouldn't and don't have time to mess around with such stuff.
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@Hyper-Droid said in OIV installation package demand in user community?:
Thing is.. While this would work quite well for many simple replacement files like replacement vehicles and weapons, and scripts, it would certainly not work for massive mods like L.A. Roads mod, where it would be an awfully long process to make the assembly.xml.
Like this you mean?
https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/l-a-roads-oiv-open-iv-package-installerBut you're right, the bigger the mod, the bigger the nightmare and the bigger the potential for things to go very pear shaped.
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@LeeC2202 That's the one!
He made an OIV in the end due to incredible demand. All big mods should make it happen, but we all know that the chances of it happening is near to zero, again, because as you said, it's a nightmare. I was supposed to say that that was the clear exception.
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There's a problem that some modders just forget to include installation instructions, though it happens pretty rarely, but beyond this, I don't think anyone even with minimal english knowledge should have any problems. Rather sit with dictionary than be completely lost with broken game which doesn't even launch.
And I hear many OIV package demands here and there, like in adjacent topic modder asks how to make mod more popular, and several people advice making OIV packages. This tendency is disturbing...
