Mana Games

[manutoo]

Hello,

I have been thinking about it for a while now : a patch system for modding the menus could help mix different Mods that modify the menus. It'd also help Mod the base game by not requiring to update the Mods after a game update modifies the same files that your Mods.

The downside is that it could create really complicated bugs to track down to a change in the menu files.

The idea is that instead of taking the whole menu file and changing a couple of things, you'd create a patch that tells where to modify the current file (that may have been already modified by another Mod), by using commands to move the cursor in the file, and adding text at the current cursor position.

For example, it'd work with commands like that :
- After <Some Text> [From Start] [OnFail: GoTo <Label> | Cancel Patch | Cancel Patch and Rollback] [Go To Next Item]
- Before <Some Text> [From Start] [OnFail: GoTo <Label> | Cancel Patch | Cancel Patch and Rollback]
- GoTo next item
- GoTo end
- GoTo start
- GoTo <Label>
- Add
<Your menu code>
- Delete <some old text>
- Replace
<old text>
<new text>
- Delete Previous Line [Number of Lines]
- Delete Next Line [Number of Lines]
- Delete Previous Item [Number of Items]
- Delete Next Item [Number of Items]

< > = mandatory paremeter
[ ] = optional parameter

The system would replace tabs with spaces, and multiple spaces with only 1 space, so it'd be easier to search for everything.

And other commands you'd like to see.

Let me know...

[Jirafalox]

I'm not into modding menus myself for the time being at least, but with the huge boost of quality of AI agents, we've seen incredible mods happen that introduce things we never expected to the game like umpire saying player names or director mode mod by gyrmik and this is just the beginning so in my opinion, adding this would future proof a lot of implementation of mods that are yet to come that could basically redesign the whole UI of the game's menus and co-exist with other mods that edit smaller stuff from there.
IMO would be a great addition considering that current mods don't change the menus that much... for now.
We've seen in the XKT MOD discord server some previews of totally redesigned menus so I think this change would be very very good in the mid and long term, and also some implementations already of modding the menu files with the work matservant has done in the xkt base mod and what my latest mod works with as a baseline.

[Fed1]

this sounds awesome!! so modders would be able to edit menus and submenus? TE4 for me is the best tennis game EVER, but the ux and menus need some improvement in my opinion. The ability to select outfits for your player should be more accesible and if you could have sub menus for courts it'd be so much better (for example have the section grand slams/m1000/challengers/futures/local clubs/fantasy/historic and even 2d) or you can also separate them for years (ao 2007/ao2026), I'm also thinking about sub menus for players (male/female/legends), clothes (brand/year) and I'm sure plenty more. Like I said, best tennis game ever and I know you're a solo dev, so we can't expect you to do absolutely everything, but for me the user experience is what needs some work now. Thanks for this game manu, I keep recomending this to eveyone I know!

[manutoo]

Fed1,
Modders can already mod the menus ; but 2 different Mods cannot mod the same menu, thus the need for this new system.