Please Check Your Dependancies

[Nuke]

3 times now ive downloaded mods that while claiming compatibility with the current version of ksp, dont work because they rely on plugin dependencies that have not yet been updated. i dont want to point fingers or name names, but i would like to ask mod makers to take a second to make sure dependent 3rd party plugins are also compatible.

[Alewx]

I support this.

[Padishar]

I presume that virtually everyone would support this but it would be much more helpful to post in the affected mods' threads (if you haven't done so already).

[blizzy78]

Also, "not naming names" is not exactly helpful this time

[J.Random]

2OP: dude, relax. Modders don't owe you anything. Check dependencies yourself.

Of course, automated dependency tracking would be nice, but it would depend on modders willing to add some sort of manifest to their mod - and most of them aren't willing, if I remember Majiir's thread about repository correctly. Deal with it.

[Nuke]

i did, and thats how i recognized the problem. if a 0.24.1 mod ships with a 0.24.0 dependance, and this results in mod-breakage, then can that mod very well be considered 0.24.1 compatible? i think not.

as a modder i would never claim compatibility if installing it breaks something.

Also, "not naming names" is not exactly helpful this time

think of it as a psa

Edited July 25, 2014 by Nuke

[Alshain]

2OP: dude, relax. Modders don't owe you anything. Check dependencies yourself.

Dude, relax. He is making a request. He even said please.

[Kamuchi]

Would rather see that modders would just create a "required" section with link to their dependencies.

It is a nightmare trying to keep updated dll`s and cfg`s with every including "a version".

Link to original so we can update without nuking our savegames with incompatible/old dll`s as some one didn`t update it in their mod.

[Creeperchair]

'Nuke does not have internet' - Nuke

[tygoo7]

Just because it says that on start up doesn't mean the mod doesn't work. I have about 6 mods that say they are incompatible and they are working just fine.

[RSF77]

Would rather see that modders would just create a "required" section with link to their dependencies.

It is a nightmare trying to keep updated dll`s and cfg`s with every including "a version".

Link to original so we can update without nuking our savegames with incompatible/old dll`s as some one didn`t update it in their mod.

What would be even more awesome is if modders could share resources, so we could download one version of helloworld.dll/kspapiwtf.dll and all corresponding mods share that instead of having multiples of the same file all over the gamedata directory in all kinds of different mods folders.

Or at least thats the rational way of doing things like that. Then they could do what you said above and just link to the thread for the latest version of that as a dependency.

[Justin Kerbice]

One of the main issue users and modders have here may come from the KSP organisation/designed way itself and probably a bit of bad habits. I mean, everything has always imagined, thought, designed and made such a way it is a independent piece of software which much lies in its own directory and don't go outside to mess anything else.

But, plug-ins evolve and modders start to add re-usability, "sharability" and more which is the true spirit of libraries, but this has almost never change how people made things, except for ModuleManager, which is the only one I know to don't lie in a dedicated place and be quite "global" to KSP mod folder.

If modders who've made such libraries (smokescreen, some/many firespitter's modules, ...) have not thought IMHO about plug-in/mod but library at the very first design step, we would have now something sightly different with a generic "mod" folder called "libraries" with all of these re-usable/shared modules in them with a strict and strong versionning. The same thing as unixes shared libraries.

One typical pitfall encountered with this design is the so hated modstatistics for which Majiir have probably done unnecessary and not very clean, I guess, checks to be sure the first loaded one prevail on other instances found. If it was made as a library in its very beginning, no modders would have need to add the (ironically*) "shared libraries" in his/her own mod folder, but some config file which trigger the feature or a glue code/call inside their own mod.

*ironically cause DLL is supposed to be a shared library ! :/ (but not shared this way, imagine if each windows programs comes with its own "unshared" libraries, like msvc*, directx, etc you'll have probably GB waste of duplicate libs in many versions)

[Javster]

I think it falls under false advertising. If mod A depends on mod B, and mod B doesn't work with 0.24, mod A doesn't either.