(Updated first post to reflect some current ideas.)
lolol get your reading glasses.I really like the "Mod Library" idea and think it would be helpful to implement. I would like to make it a bit more specific, though. I am thinking it could be done two ways: Generate the library based on mods on the user's machine, or retrieve the information from an online database (or, perhaps, both.)
Creating it on a local machine would mean that it would need to locate which version the mod should run based on the mod's executable, or have the user input the version (automation would be nicer.)
An online database would probably be more complex and have more components (the program module, online service and database), but be more useful. If mirrors are used, a configuration value could hold the servers (though the problem with databases would be keeping them consistent.) It would find a server and send some information that the server could interpret and reply with version information.
But how would the database be managed, anyway? Would the program send information for unknown mods, would I (or perhaps other appointed individuals) manually add mods, or would it be open like EUDDB where everyone can contribute?
Also, with the online database would the database be polled every time the user wants to patch, or would it only check the database for new/unknown mods? The latter seems nicer as it saves on bandwidth, other than the initial request no connection is needed, and it would probably work faster.
After [re-]re-reading Hercanic's post, how would the mods get put in the library to be looked up in the first place? A plugin to add to every mod seems a bit excessive, a button to manually locate mods would be a bit annoying to set up initially, but maybe an add folder button for people who put all their mods in one place.
Another afterthought: This database could also be used to inform users if a mod version they are running is out of date. I don't want to make this a mod updating device, but it could at least help point a user in the right direction to get the latest version (i.e., it links to a download page.) However if this were done that would mean it would need to frequently check the server... Perhaps it could be on demand rather than automated. Honestly, though it may be useful, this thought doesn't seem like something necessary.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 19 2008, 9:12 pm by FaRTy1billion.
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