Shouldn't the SS2 Technical FAQ be updated to include SS2 cleaner mod?

[6750a976a40eeIronword]

Hi, I'm just a total noob, mainly a space-sim guy--FPS's often leave me bored (sorry, Half-life fans) but I did enjoy Unreal 1 very much for its lonely, mysterious atmosphere, and since the SS games are supposed to have great atmosphere, I've decided to give them a spin over the next year or so (my gaming time is rather restricted).

So I'm browsing the downloads/mods etc on this site, but I've noticed that in the SS2 Technical FAQ there's no mention of the new SS2 Cleaner Mod, https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=630.0 , which seems to do the same thing as the instructions in the SS2 Technical FAQ, only more easily.

Or am I way off base and missing something? (I tried to RTFM, but you never know...)

Thx

[6750a976a4249Ironword]

Also, one more question, important to me because I've partitioned my hard disk so that I have a special partition (F) just for games. But you say to "install the game to a short path, preferably the default path: C:/games/Sshock2".

What are the specific problems associated with installing somewhere else, with a longer path? Is it just that you shouldn't have any spaces in the path, which is fine--I can deal with that--or are there other issues?

Thx again

[6750a976a4468Nameless Voice]

My 'cleaner' method is fairly recent, a little more complex to install, and it causes serious problems if you install it after installing the mod manager*, so it's not exactly as commonly known as the standard method.


Maximum path length is 80 characters. Longer than that, and the game simply won't run.


* Then again, so does the standard method. Both need you to set up the install to be mod-ready before installing SS2MM.

[6750a976a4952miracle.flame]

So I'm browsing the downloads/mods etc on this site, but I've noticed that here in the mod FAQ there's no mention of the new SS2 Cleaner Mod, https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=630.0 , which seems to do the same thing as the instructions at the top of this thread, only more easily.

When I looked into the Cleaner mod and what it does exactly I can't say it can be considered substitute for the instructions above. I would call it only something like add-on. It only
1. makes your game secure against corruption when messing with Mod Manager far too much and
2. you can choose your permanent mods which you don't want to stick around in Mod Manager.

It doesn't patch your game in any way (like the Koyla tools do).

[6750a976a4aa1Ironword]

Thanks, Nameless & Miracle. That helps. Path <80 chars, and install ModManager last! Much appreciated.

[6750a976a4bc8Nameless Voice]

It makes the game mod-ready in a better way than the MM does.
It's not an add-on, it's an alternate (and better) way to make the game mod-ready.

[6750a976a50dcIronword]

It makes the game mod-ready in a better way than the MM does.
It's not an add-on, it's an alternate (and better) way to make the game mod-ready.

Ok, after reading the docs again, it looks to me like it's a good idea to run both SS2tool and makess2ready. makess2ready will make the install.cfg change that SS2tool makes, but the page for makess2ready, https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=8e1b7647239d7c823dd1937f48db27cd&topic=630.0 , doesn't say it will do anything else except what Miracle noted--it keeps the original dirs/files safe and gives you a safer way to deal with "permanent" mods. (I guess that means those mods which modify the .gam file, cuz you can't use more than one of those at any one time.)

But the SS2tool does more than that. Aside from installing the official patch for you, it applies a bunch of fixes through cam.cfg as well as the HD space fix, the cutscene fix, the EAX fix, and the noCD fix. That's a lot of fixes--and I don't want to do them manually when this tool will take care of them in one fell swoop!

So what I would hope that I could do for a mod-ready clean install would be this:

1. Full install of SS2.

2. Run SS2tool's "patching up".

3. Run makess2ready. (I'd think this should come after SS2tool because both it and SS2tool make folder and install.cfg changes, but the ones that you want to stick are the makess2ready changes, so they should be applied last because makess2ready will probably overwrite that install.cfg file. Right?)

5. Install "permanent" *.gam mods like ADoab, and apparently others (I don't understand how, but apparently by manipulating folders, makess2ready gives you a way to keep them separate from the main game files yet still easily available for use).

4. OK, now finally install ModManager and start installing mods like med/sci, weapon models, and so forth.

Or do I have the sequence backward, and makess2ready should be run BEFORE SS2tool? OR, are SS2tool and makess2ready simply incompatible, and running them both breaks the game? There's no way for me to tell.

Thx

[6750a976a5302Kolya]

Of course you are free to use the 'cleaner' method by NV or mix methods. There is another method around which involves using the patch dir to override native files. (I've merged this with cleaner mod method now, as it's all alternative mod loading procedures.) But all of these make the installation/mod ready process more complicated as can be seen in your list above. So they don't lend themselves to be used in the SS2 Technical FAQ yet.

I try to keep things simple there. 3 steps and you have a working SS2 installation that you can throw your mods at. Simplicity has something for it if you expect a lot of people to go by this guide.
At some point in the future either my SS2Tool or the Modmanager may be rewritten to apply the cleaner method, or we we may come up with another even simpler solution. But for now this works fine.

[6750a976a54afNameless Voice]

You have it all wrong with the permanent mods.
By permanent mods, we mean mods that you are never going to uninstall.
The only thing that really qualifies here is SHTUP. You certainly don't want to permanently install any gamesys-modifying mods, or you won't be able to play the original game anymore without removing them manually.

To use the cleaner method, I think you would have to do this:
1) Run makess2ready to set up the folders
2) Run the SS2Tool. It won't be able to move files because they won't exist.
3) Run makess2ready again so that it will overwrite the install.cfg the SS2Tool made.