Request Details
Keeping track of, in my case, over 200 mods in each Sonic Adventure game, wouldn't be possible without labels of some kind. For this task, I came up with these:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H7P32sA30hkCECDv9kmGW2cbgJwNKwvw/view?usp=sharing
In this image, you'll see pseudo-mods I made that just exist as spacers between catagories rather than actual changes to the game. This works, but it's clearly a band-aid solution.
Ideally, one could simply select multiple mods from a list and select a "Group Mods" option from the right-click window. It would then prompt you to name this new group, and now the group would appear in a similar effect to a group in Google Sheets / Microsoft Excel; the only difference is that the group has a header. This would, in turn, enable the following options:
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Group movement - while holding left-click, one can drag and drop the header like any other mod, except that all mods that are part of that group (attached to that header) will move with it.
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Group collapse - Either as an option from right-clicking the header, and/or from plus and minus boxes like in Sheets / Excel that could be left-clicked, the group can be collapsed so that only the header is visible. This does not affect the mods' respective enabled / disabled state, but would make navigating exceptionally long mod lists dramatically easier. Group Movement could still be performed on collapsed groups.
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Add To / Remove From Group - If a new mod (or mods) is to be added, drag them over the existing group. The group (or just the header if collapsed) will be highlighted, and the new mods will be added to the bottom of the group's mod list. Removing a mod from a group will be the same drag and drop movement, but reversed to be out of the group and into either another group or an ungrouped portion of the mod list. Removing all mods from a group does not delete the header.
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Group rename & Group delete - pretty self-explanatory right-click options, with the only clarification being that deleting a group simply deletes the header, not the mods it has grouped under it-- those will instead be moved back into the ungrouped section of the mod list the header was nearest-to (or to the bottom of the list if that's easier to program).
Other issues to get in front of:
-
What if people try to group mods that aren't already together? Either A. Throw up an error message telling the user to move them together, or B. Automatically move any displaced mods to be right underneath the highest selected mod. My mods are already in a de facto correct order, so either is fine with me.
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What if people don't use Maintain Mod Order? Realistically, no one would use this unless they were also using that, so just make "Enable Mod Groups" an option toggle that's only available while Maintain Mod Order is on. The only limitation with that is, if you ever toggle off Maintain Mod Order, it'll have to warn the user that all of their group headers will be deleted in the process.
I'm fully aware that programming something like this could be very involved. However, as more and more mods get released for the Sonic Adventure games every day, the need for something like this is only going to grow with time. That might also mean that Maintain Mod Order could become the default behavior down the line, but that's a separate discussion. All the same, thank you for reading, and thank you so much for the work you've already done on making the mod manager as good as it already is!
Additional Information
No response
Request Details
Keeping track of, in my case, over 200 mods in each Sonic Adventure game, wouldn't be possible without labels of some kind. For this task, I came up with these:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H7P32sA30hkCECDv9kmGW2cbgJwNKwvw/view?usp=sharing
In this image, you'll see pseudo-mods I made that just exist as spacers between catagories rather than actual changes to the game. This works, but it's clearly a band-aid solution.
Ideally, one could simply select multiple mods from a list and select a "Group Mods" option from the right-click window. It would then prompt you to name this new group, and now the group would appear in a similar effect to a group in Google Sheets / Microsoft Excel; the only difference is that the group has a header. This would, in turn, enable the following options:
Group movement - while holding left-click, one can drag and drop the header like any other mod, except that all mods that are part of that group (attached to that header) will move with it.
Group collapse - Either as an option from right-clicking the header, and/or from plus and minus boxes like in Sheets / Excel that could be left-clicked, the group can be collapsed so that only the header is visible. This does not affect the mods' respective enabled / disabled state, but would make navigating exceptionally long mod lists dramatically easier. Group Movement could still be performed on collapsed groups.
Add To / Remove From Group - If a new mod (or mods) is to be added, drag them over the existing group. The group (or just the header if collapsed) will be highlighted, and the new mods will be added to the bottom of the group's mod list. Removing a mod from a group will be the same drag and drop movement, but reversed to be out of the group and into either another group or an ungrouped portion of the mod list. Removing all mods from a group does not delete the header.
Group rename & Group delete - pretty self-explanatory right-click options, with the only clarification being that deleting a group simply deletes the header, not the mods it has grouped under it-- those will instead be moved back into the ungrouped section of the mod list the header was nearest-to (or to the bottom of the list if that's easier to program).
Other issues to get in front of:
What if people try to group mods that aren't already together? Either A. Throw up an error message telling the user to move them together, or B. Automatically move any displaced mods to be right underneath the highest selected mod. My mods are already in a de facto correct order, so either is fine with me.
What if people don't use Maintain Mod Order? Realistically, no one would use this unless they were also using that, so just make "Enable Mod Groups" an option toggle that's only available while Maintain Mod Order is on. The only limitation with that is, if you ever toggle off Maintain Mod Order, it'll have to warn the user that all of their group headers will be deleted in the process.
I'm fully aware that programming something like this could be very involved. However, as more and more mods get released for the Sonic Adventure games every day, the need for something like this is only going to grow with time. That might also mean that Maintain Mod Order could become the default behavior down the line, but that's a separate discussion. All the same, thank you for reading, and thank you so much for the work you've already done on making the mod manager as good as it already is!
Additional Information
No response