BetterScoop is not working in Update 3

[Maverik]

Hey there, have you had a chance to test this mod yourself? It doesn't seem to be functioning on my end, the range, speed, and other changes are not taking effect. While I'm not familiar with C#, I took some time to decompile the game's DLL to see if they may have changed anything else, and it looks like _maxRange may now just be MaxRange.

Originally posted by @JC-Cervidae in #6 (comment)

[Maverik]

Hi JC, yes I'm aware of the more general problem with Scoop at this point but my last feedback from player was they were happy with the updated scoop and they didn't need the mod anymore.

I appreciate you going in for investigation and indeed there's some renames but they've also done some much more time consuming (from modding perspective) changes to scoop by hard coding many things directly.

When I get around to actually going through all the changes, I'll update this issue but frankly my motivation is extemely low given the non-existent player feedback, interaction. It takes weeks to do a mod proper and 1000+ downloads later people can't even leave a thumbs up or just say thank you in discord.

This particular change will need me to spend at least a solid day hunting down all the changes and likely another day to code the whole thing all over again to respond to Update 3 changes. Meanwhile, Focus Entertainment are actively being hostile with their EULA to Modders (creators not the consumers).

I've personally binned the game since Focus Entertainment decided to get involved and push the last two EULA updates targetting modders.

I'm of half a mind to deprecate all my mods and let Focus Entertainment have their game. I've spent 8 weeks+ on creating mods, last thing I need is a VC harassing me for making community content for free or worse, outright banning my legitimate purchase.

I'll leave this issue open as I haven't made up my mind about what to do yet but thats the reality of it.

[JC-Cervidae]

Hey again Maverik, thanks for the in-depth response on all of this. I appreciate that you've taken the time to provide a comprehensive answer.

You have my sympathies regarding the lack of feedback or interaction, I could only imagine the frustration that you must feel when it seems like your work goes unappreciated. While it must be a cold comfort, I can speak for myself and my play group in that your deconstruct mod in particular is one of the largest QOL improvement we've had the pleasure of playing with (and I'm immensely happy that it's been so resistant to updates thanks to your work in keeping the game from marking them as permanent fixture!)

After reading your comment here, I'd intended to visit your mods to like them within the Thunderstore mod loader, but it doesn't seem like it's possible to leave a thumbs-up within the application. It may be possible if you're logged in, but since the app doesn't require it, I could only guess that many other users aren't aware that they'd need to visit the website and create an account to do so.

While I'm unfamiliar with VC's or the EULA changes, I am sorry to hear that you've had such a rotten experience with things lately. I'd be happy to offer my time to try and locate these changes, I'd only caution that I've only begun to read up on the necessary tools and programs as of a few days ago, so my eyes aren't quite as trained as your own.

Regardless, thank you again for your response on this matter, and your continued work with these mods.

[Maverik]

@JC-Cervidae Thank you for your kind words. And I have a feeling you've gone above and beyond even with that thank you! If this comment made sense, you have my thank you as well! If not, no worries, just ignore it :)

Nah, don't worry about tracking the changes down. I've already had a quick peek but its less the rename kind of changes that are the probelm. Its the fact they've made many variables const (constant) which means when the compiler compiles the code, it does a search and replace and put the value in individual spots rather than referring to the variable.

When you mod this new code, you have to drop down to assembly level code to replace it in place. Here's an example of what I'm talking about.. this is IL in C#:

VoidCrewMods/BetterShields/BetterShields.cs

Lines 14 to 26 in 9a291d1

	static readonly CodeMatch[] _codeMatches =
	[
	//IL_0000: ldc.r4 10
	new(OpCodes.Ldc_R4, 10f),
	// IL_0005: ldc.r4 1
	new(OpCodes.Ldc_R4, 1f),
	// IL_000a: ldc.r4 5
	new(OpCodes.Ldc_R4, 5f),
	// IL_000f: ldc.r4 0.5
	new(OpCodes.Ldc_R4, 0.5f),
	// IL_0014: newobj instance void CG.Ship.Shield.ShieldConfig::.ctor(float32, float32, float32, float32)
	new(OpCodes.Newobj, _ctor)
	];

So, I just need to write custom code for the new update whlie in the past it was a straight forward variable patch but they've now changed it so I have to do each individual use now. A prime example of modding hostility. It didn't need to happen and it took them probably 30 seconds to make a change on their end and modders would spend days to deal with the after math of such changes.

But I'll look into it. If there's at least one group of players benefiting, I'd do my best to sort it as soon as I can.

[JC-Cervidae]

It was my pleasure, really. I'd only just noticed your Ko-fi while looking for where I could thumb-up your mods, and I figured that'd be a much better way to show my appreciation for your efforts.

Those kinds of changes do sound like they've overly complicated things for you. I'll be certain to provide feedback to the developers regarding the mod-friendliness of their coding practices and I certainly hope that it will be taken into account in the future. If I may suggest, I feel that many on the Discord are both unaware of these difficulties you're facing and would be more than happy to support your push for more mod-friendly coding practices, especially given that you're one of the very few people creating mods for Void Crew.

Thank you for looking into these issues, and please let me know if there is anything that I may be able to do on my end to assist you.

[Maverik]

@JC-Cervidae I've finished doing a test build with the fixes. Hit me up when you're up next and lets run it together to see if it works proper before I push it to public. Primarily, I want to make sure that the new code hasn't found a new dependency where clients needs the mod as well.

Since you were the primary motivator to get me to do this fix, I feel its only right that you get to test drive as the first person :)

[heaventwig]

Chiming in here to say I'm loving your mods, @Maverik, and would be happy to help chase down weird bugs if that's of any use to you. Not finding your Ko-fi linked from any of your profiles -- @JC-Cervidae where did you see it?
Anyway, I love your mods, found the buggy behavior of the scoop frustrating, and would be happy to help fix it, test your patch, and/or advocate for more mod-friendliness. Seems like it'd be in line with the devs' values around cooperative play and community engagement, and it's weird to think some VC would oppose the approach that made so much money for Unknown Worlds Entertainment.

[Maverik]

Well you know the legal department rarely matches in it's idea of acceptable behaviour compared to what the artists vision is.

But so far it seems I've fixed the issue. I've pushed the update live thanks to @JC-Cervidae motivating me with the appreciation of the work. It's always nice to learn that my mods have helped.

My most recent feedback post-update3 was that people are not using mods anymore cos the base game has improved and I'm like ok then I guess i can just let the mods deprecate.

But scoop should be alive and well now until they push next update out.

As for ko-fi. I highly appreciate it, but please do not feel like you need to do anything. Simply hearing you guys enjoying the work is even pretty motivating. The link is on thunderstore readme (but also in your README for mods in the directory).

I think i'll push an update on the github landing readme to add a badge at top to make life easier for people. Thank you both for chiming in and I hope you enjoy the game.

If you're using other mods and they're not working please drop me a shout, I'll fix them reactively as I'm not playing the game myself right now (I'm having Warframe craze right now :D)

Closed via 1fdb76a