Creating a modpack installer

[vrakpant 11]

Hi! So for some time now, me and about 10 others have been playing various missions made by a few members of our small group, and we've been using our own modpack for some time. Recently we've been bringing a few friends who are completely new to the armaverse in to the group, and when it comes to the whole "installing-the-mods" part, a few of them start seeing this as quite the hassle (though it's not, I know.)

So recently I've been looking at creating an installer for them in stead, and this is where I'd like some assistance from you guys.

I've downloaded several programs, including IStool, innoSetup and installaware, but coding on this level is apparently somewhat beyond my league. What I am attempting is simply having the installpath be read from arma 3's registry key (many of them have arma installed on different drives, or have different path for their steam-folders), and copy a folder named "@FFG" to it, upon which it makes a shortcut of arma3.exe and adds the -mods=@FFG parameter to it. Does anyone of you guys have any pointers as to where I should begin reading, or maybe even be able to help me through PMs?

An added bonus would be to copy teamspeak 3.0.12 with the ACRE-plugin already installed (would this not just be as easy as adding the folder from my comp into the installer?) so that they would be good to go after installing the .exe.

Yes, I know I could just walk them through the process, but this is as much me wanting to learn something new, and experiment with programming on this level, as it is to help my plebian, casual friends :rolleyes:

[m1lkm8n 410]

sorta like playwithsix?

[mordeaniischaos 3]

Yeah... I really wish Workshop was functional and actually had stuff on it.

Playwithsix is one way. You can even make custom repositories that let players download exactly the same files, but this requires advanced knowledge and capabilities and pretty good bandwidth. And it requires people figuring out how to use those, and personally I feel like playwithsix is... the opposite of great. And kind of hard to figure out for newcomers beyond the absolute basics.

You could just have a list of mods for people to get with playwithsix, it requires a bit of work on their part but it's pretty much just search and add the addons. After that point, things will be kept up to date. Adding stuff is easy enough.

If you need a really, really, really freakin' simple option, you could always create a dropbox with decent storage, create a custom collection of addons (in a single @folder, with userconfig stuff,etc) and include TS3 with the plugins already installed. I did this for a while for my group. If you don't change or update the addons frequently, it's a pretty good option.

If you want to play with creating a custom installer, there are a variety of systems out there that you can use, that range from very simple to pretty complex. Just google something alone the lines of "make an installer." In theory most of them should be able to, with varying levels of success depending on your ability, install a modpack. The key thing will be detecting where things need to be installed.

Or you can try learning the basics of a language that would allow you do create your own code with that function, then look at some example projects to base yours on.

[cifordayzserver 119]

Yeah... I really wish Workshop was functional and actually had stuff on it.

Playwithsix is one way. You can even make custom repositories that let players download exactly the same files, but this requires advanced knowledge and capabilities and pretty good bandwidth. And it requires people figuring out how to use those, and personally I feel like playwithsix is... the opposite of great. And kind of hard to figure out for newcomers beyond the absolute basics.

You could just have a list of mods for people to get with playwithsix, it requires a bit of work on their part but it's pretty much just search and add the addons. After that point, things will be kept up to date. Adding stuff is easy enough.

If you need a really, really, really freakin' simple option, you could always create a dropbox with decent storage, create a custom collection of addons (in a single @folder, with userconfig stuff,etc) and include TS3 with the plugins already installed. I did this for a while for my group. If you don't change or update the addons frequently, it's a pretty good option.

If you want to play with creating a custom installer, there are a variety of systems out there that you can use, that range from very simple to pretty complex. Just google something alone the lines of "make an installer." In theory most of them should be able to, with varying levels of success depending on your ability, install a modpack. The key thing will be detecting where things need to be installed.

Or you can try learning the basics of a language that would allow you do create your own code with that function, then look at some example projects to base yours on.

Shared collections...

Sign in when you use PWS, DL, and install the mods you want on your server in whatever launch order you want.

Right click on the collection and select "share"... There will then be a shareable link that any PWS user can click on and it DL and installs that same combo of mods.

http://withsix.com/blog/share-your-experience

[vrakpant 11]

I've been doing this exact thing via mega for some time, and pws is a complete clusterfuck as far as the user interface and accessibility go. Also the repo function is horrible, why not just export a simple scriptline, or maybe even a file that makes the client download the mods, instead of having to either launch a server, or host a depository?

Anyways I modify most of the mods in the pack, small things such as having Masis devgru soldiers use HAFM-vehicles, custom groups to be spawned in ALiVE, new default loadouts, bugfixes and small things like that. And also I would just like to learn how to do this. I've also got a few ideas for a tool that would be able to create installers from modpacks quite easily. After googling this subject all evening yesterday, I found several tools that do this very thing for several games with large modding-communities.

If anyone knows how to do this; feel free to steal my idea, by all means, just putting it out there!

[cifordayzserver 119]

I've been doing this exact thing via mega for some time, and pws is a complete clusterfuck as far as the user interface and accessibility go. Also the repo function is horrible, why not just export a simple scriptline, or maybe even a file that makes the client download the mods, instead of having to either launch a server, or host a depository?

Anyways I modify most of the mods in the pack, small things such as having Masis devgru soldiers use HAFM-vehicles, custom groups to be spawned in ALiVE, new default loadouts, bugfixes and small things like that. And also I would just like to learn how to do this. I've also got a few ideas for a tool that would be able to create installers from modpacks quite easily. After googling this subject all evening yesterday, I found several tools that do this very thing for several games with large modding-communities.

If anyone knows how to do this; feel free to steal my idea, by all means, just putting it out there!

PWS does this. You click on a shared link, and it dl's all the mods that are in the collection through PWS, you click launch and it does... Not sure when the last time you tried it was, but you sound like you're describing Six Updater.

http://play.withsix.com/arma-2/stream/Collections

You just need to be logged in on PWS website, then next time you open PWS it DL's that collection... super easy.

You shouldn't EVER modify people's pbos and then redistribute them... you should make your modifications in the mission file with cfgPatches.