)
by v1.0a will be released in a couple of weeks and will let you install, handle & uninstall several Mods much more easily than before.
Basics :
On 1st run, the game will create a "Mods.ini" & a "Mods" subfolder in your game or user folder, whose location is :
- on Windows, usually: "C:\Program Files\Tennis Elbow 2013\" or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Tennis Elbow 2013\" ; or in your user folder if the game folder isn't writable, ie: "C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Tennis Elbow 2013"
- Steam version on Windows : <SteamFolder>\SteamApps\common\Tennis Elbow 2013
- Mac OSX AppStore version : ~/Library/Containers/com.managames.Tennis-Elbow-2013/Data/ ; to reach this folder in Finder, click on the top menu "Go" then "Go to Folder" and enter "~/Library/Containers/com.managames.Tennis-Elbow-2013/Data" (without the quotes) and click "Go" (alternatively, click on the "See Profile Folder" icon in the Save/Load game menu, which will open "[...]/Data/Profiles/[YourProfile]" and then go up 2 folders to reach "Data" ; use Column View in Finder to do that, HowTo => https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19059 )
- Mac OSX ManaGames.com v1.0h and later + Steam version on Mac OSX : "Documents/Tennis Elbow 2013" folder that was created when you launched the game for the 1st time
- Linux version : "Tennis Elbow 2013" folder that was created when you double clicked on the TennisElbow2013.zip to install the game
To easily locate your Mods folder, on all versions of the game, click on "See Profile Folder" in the Save/Load menu of the World Tour, and then go up 2 ranks in Windows Explorer (or in Finder on Mac) ; there you should see the "Profiles" folder, and next to it the "Mods" folder.
To install a Mod, simply copy all its files & subfolders into the "Mods" subfolder followed by the Mod's name ; for example, you'll get : "C:\Program Files\Tennis Elbow 2013\Mods\SuperMod" ; 1st Pak file of the Mod should still be Pak03, and you'd find it here : "C:\Program Files\Tennis Elbow 2013\Mods\SuperMod\Data\Pak03.Pak" (Mods containing Pak01 or/and Pak02 will see these 2 Pak files ignored by the game).
Note for Mac OS all versions : if you need to locate your game files, right click on "Tennis Elbow 2013.app" and select "Show Content", then go to the folder "Contents/Resources".
Advanced Options & installing several Mods together :
The default Mods.ini will contain something like this :
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[Mod]
BasePath= Mods
Load = <All>
Profile = <None>
[Menu]
AddAction = 2000
AddItem = 2000
AddCfg = 5000
AddParam = 10000
AddShader = 1000
BasePath lets you define another folder to look for Mods.
Load lets you specify the load order of the Mods ; if you have only 1 Mod or the order isn't important, you can let it to "<All>" ; but if order is important, and you have ModA and ModB with ModA modding the game, and ModB being a Mod for ModA (and possibly also the game), then "Load" would be :
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Load = ModA, ModB
So the game will look for files in ModB 1st, then if not found, will look in ModA, and if still not found, will look into original game files.
If you have a lot of Mods, and only a couple needs to be ordered, you can use this :
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Load = ModA, ModB, <All>
or this :
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Load = ModA, <All>, ModB
or this, depending in what order ModA & ModB have to be applied :
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Load = <All>, ModA, ModB
/!\Warnings :
1- the game engine usually looks into the file system for existing files, before to look for the file within the .Pak files ; that means in the case above, it'll look for files within ModB folder, then ModA, then original game, then ModB's Paks, then ModA's Paks, then original game's Paks ; so it's way better to have Mods being packed into Pak files instead of normal files (except for files that are outside any Pak in the original game, like Sound files, Tour bases, etc..), as it will avoid confusion when you install several Mods together if they mod some identical files of the game. If 2 Mods modify different stuff, then it doesn't matter much if the files are outside or inside Paks.
2- do not create a "Profiles" subfolder in any of your Mod folders ; Profiles are for settings and must be loaded/saved, while Mod folders can support only loading
Profile lets you set a chosen profile ; it can be useful in case you have different separated Mods installed (see below) ; let it to "<None>" if you don't want to change the current profile.
The [Menu] section will help to fix one of the most common bugs occurring when installing several mods at same time : the engine runs out of memory for menu structures ; in case your game crashes on load or the menus don't display correctly, just raise these numbers ; multiply them by 2, 5, 10 until it works ; if multiplying them by 10 doesn't fix your issue, then it's likely not related to menu structures.
Different Mods in 1 install :
You also now get the possibility to have different Mods without having to install TE2013 in several different folders.
To do so, you can launch the game indicating an alternate Mods.ini, like this, if you have a "My2ndMods.ini" file :
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TennisElbow.exe -ModsIni My2ndMods.ini
And, for example, in Mods.ini, you'd have :
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Load = ModA
And in My2ndMods.ini :
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Load = ModB
You could also install the Mods in 2 different folders, and have this in Mods.ini :
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[Mod]
BasePath= Mods
Load = <All>
and this in My2ndMods.ini :
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[Mod]
BasePath= My2ndMods
Load = <All>
And lastly, you can run the game without loading any mod like this :
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TennisElbow.exe -ModsIni #None#
or using this line in your Mods.Ini :
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Load = <None>
Updating the game & Conclusion :
This new way should make updating the game much easier, as installing the latest demo or patch shouldn't disturb your installed Mods' files (on Mac OSX & Linux, you'll have to move the "Mods.ini" file & "Mods" subfolder from your previous installation folder to the new one).
This new way should be compatible with all existing mods, except the ones that make use of Pak01 & Pak02 (but these should already not work well with game updates).
Thx!
