Distributing Mods to Non-Modders

[XionGaTaosenai]

I understand that it's against the rules to post a mod on these forums that requires redistributing the FTL Data files directly, and that's it's instead the custom for mods to be distributed as .ftl files for use with a mod manager program. Does this rule only apply to the forums here, or is it intended to be "universal"?

I've been toying with this game for over a year now, making small tweaks here and there to the data files directly using ftldat. Since it was only a project for my own personal use, I never bothered to even download a mod manager, much less use one. But now I had the idea to show off my mod on my Tumblr. Among other things, I talk about game theory and game ideas there, so presenting an actual mod I've made (which has become quite extensive at this point) would be really nice.

I will probably make a .ftl file anyway so that I can also present the mod here, but keep in mind the mod wasn't designed with a mod manager in mind (in the words of a certain parser, I don't append, I clobber) and so probably won't play nice with other mods, defeating the main benefit of the .ftl system. But more importantly, people seeing my mod on Tumblr are unlikely to have a mod manager, even if they have FTL, and I'd much prefer to just tell them "delete your existing data files or move them somewhere else, then put these new data files in their place" rather than "go download this third party program and do what it tells you to do". If there's an important reason why distributing the data files is frowned on (like say, a piracy related reason), then I'll be happy to comply, but if the rule is just there to make things more convenient for other modders, I'd like to be able to just pass the data files directly when dealing with people outside the forums who aren't modders.

[HeadHunter]

It's not a matter of convenience, it's a matter of Terms of Use. Most games do not permit the redistribution of core game files, modified or not.

The development of mod managers likely came about because it's the easiest way for users to make the modifications. I'm not sure how it works in FTL, but in other games, modders who don't wish to use such a tool will instead create some sort of batch file that will modify the files in the manner you described, allowing them to distribute their changes without distributing proprietary files. Whether or not this is permitted for FTL is a different story. I'd recommend checking the license/terms of use.

[Kieve]

It's not a matter of convenience, it's a matter of Terms of Use. Most games do not permit the redistribution of core game files, modified or not.

The development of mod managers likely came about because it's the easiest way for users to make the modifications. I'm not sure how it works in FTL, but in other games, modders who don't wish to use such a tool will instead create some sort of batch file that will modify the files in the manner you described, allowing them to distribute their changes without distributing proprietary files. Whether or not this is permitted for FTL is a different story. I'd recommend checking the license/terms of use.

Pretty much this. Matt & Justin didn't really expect modding to be "a thing" for their game at all, and their only condition (as you'll note in the announcement) is that no game files are distributed - that means packing your changes into an .ftl and using GMM or SMM to patch them in to the game's resources.
There are other, clunkier ways to do it as well, but the bottom line is that unless you have completely stripped out the game's original content, you shouldn't be sharing full .DAT files.

[UltraMantis]

The larger the mod is in scope, the less likely it is to be compatible. So you shouldn't be too concerned because if your mod is fun to play it will be played.

The way multi-mod loading works is that the 1st mod appends it's changes and each following mod appends it's own, and if they alter the same thing, it overwrites the previous changes. That means that if your mod is loaded last it's changes will be 100% in tact, but the previous mods will be incomplete. This can lead to problems if several mods attempt to alter events, otherwise it could just mean some feature would be missing.

Bottom line is, you should try to convert your work into a .ftl package. It will probably be quite a lot of work but it's the only way to share it with others. Since most of the work is already completed it is just a matter of copying data from blueprints.xml to blueprints.xml.append (and animations.xml and sounds.xml etc.) and checking if some tags need to be renamed or not or if there's other issues.

Most of my mods started as ftlDat hacks that were later converted into .ftl files, so it's entirely doable, just might take a bit of time to sort out the file structure and make sure everything is linked properly.

[aaaaaa50]

just a little footnote: Slipstream has some weird extra features that... I don't even remember what they do, but if your mod makes a bunch of big changes they might help. Also, you might be interested in looking at the big re-balance mods, The sM Polish Kit and Twinge's Balance Mod, since they're basically just a boatload of small tweaks.

[kartoFlane]

@UltraMantis
Well, actually you can just copy the files and add them to the .ftl file, and they'll completely overwrite the previous files. But that still kinda leaves the issue of redistributing the .dat files...

@aaaaaa50
"Advanced" xml tags, yup. They basically allow you to modify a single tag in a blueprint, instead of replacing the entire blueprint.

[Sleeper Service]

@UltraMantis
Well, actually you can just copy the files and add them to the .ftl file, and they'll completely overwrite the previous files. But that still kinda leaves the issue of redistributing the .dat files...

Yeah you could also do this and then delete everything from the .append you did not change. This way you potentially override less stuff from other sense. Makes sense in case you did make changes to more things than you did leave untouched.