New launcher version: 2021.10

[rubert]

@rubert - More information on playset ownership can be had here. And yes, of course the aim is to not break any existing features when we introduce new ones. In this case we almost succeeded

I did read that but that didn't really explain much. Here's bunch of questions, related to my earlier questions and some new ones:

• Is there option to opt-out from the cloud syncing for the playsets? Personally I think any cloud syncing should be opt-in rather than opt-out.
• Are the playsets public or are there any plans to make them public in the future (similar to Steam's collections)
• If they are public or are planned to be public, will it be opt-in or opt-out? This definitely should be opt-in.
  • If it's opt-out there almost certainly will be "<offensive description>" playsets which the users probably never meant to be public.
• Since this is currently limited to PDX's own mod site, I assume it won't be syncing anything if the user has only mods from Steam installed, is that correct? Are there plans to extend this to Steam mods?

 

[Deuterium Oxide]

I did read that but that didn't really explain much. Here's bunch of questions, related to my earlier questions and some new ones:

• Is there option to opt-out from the cloud syncing for the playsets? Personally I think any cloud syncing should be opt-in rather than opt-out.
• Are the playsets public or are there any plans to make them public in the future (similar to Steam's collections)
• If they are public or are planned to be public, will it be opt-in or opt-out? This definitely should be opt-in.
  • If it's opt-out there almost certainly will be "<offensive description>" playsets which the users probably never meant to be public.
• Since this is currently limited to PDX's own mod site, I assume it won't be syncing anything if the user has only mods from Steam installed, is that correct? Are there plans to extend this to Steam mods?

There are several ways to avoid playset sync:

1. Don't use mods from PDX Mods - Sync is only supported with backends that have support for playsets (or "playset-like" functionality)
2. Don't allow the launcher to speak to the network - Just like you do it
3. Don't log in - The solution for the "personal information" sensitive player (see also the GDPR discussion in the linked article)

Playsets are fully private at the moment. There have been discussions on allowing users to share their playsets, no current time-line exitsts for this type of feature. Should playset sharing come to pass, it will require explicit action by the player.

Should Steam start offering a feature similar to playsets, we'll evaluate the success of the current feature implementation and make a decision on if supporting their version would be worthwhile. So the answer would be "no current plans to support this for Steam Workshop".

 

[rubert]

Thanks for the information.

To be honest, primary reason why I started blocking launcher from Internet was because in the past launcher updates sometimes messed up mods or otherwise broke things so I figured "if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it".

Would be great if there was explict toggle for the syncing though.

As for Steam and playsets, like I said, Steam already has their collections where you can add multiple different mods to the collection and subscribe or unsubscribe from at the same time. They are not strictly playsets but are also used to eg. gather mods by same author(s) together. It obviously lacks access to the launcher and I don't know if Steam provides API for accessing and editing them. If there is a workable API for them I think it might be possible to use them for syncing playsets when using Steam mods.

Example collection: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=1385249866

 

[tilly]

launcher freezes for a good 20-30 seconds on startup since the update. does it every time, just genuinely runs really bad

might have something to do with how its trying to sync my mods to the steam cloud but, like, i havent downloaded anything else and it wasnt like this before

 

[Deuterium Oxide]

launcher freezes for a good 20-30 seconds on startup since the update. does it every time, just genuinely runs really bad

might have something to do with how its trying to sync my mods to the steam cloud but, like, i havent downloaded anything else and it wasnt like this before

Interesting. Bad, but interesting - although according to our telemetry this version is the best-performing yet, this may explain a fairly substantial number of outliers where long start-up times refuse to budge. I'll message you privately and we can discuss your particular setup!

 

[Deuterium Oxide]

Version 2021.10.1 is now in production - This is a hotfix release with a single fix in it:

• Local users can now edit all playsets, regardless of ownership. Only the owner of the playset can cause it to cloud sync.

 

[Zemurin]

Let's start with something simple:

I'll take a steam mod, in this case voltaire's Nightmare for EU4, and turn it into a local mod:

After cleaning up the mod and descriptor let's fire up the launcher. The launcher replaces path in mod file with absolute path (was mod/hreuniversalis prior).

However, this won't do:

You can see the descriptor above. Launcher hasn't edited it.

Now, let's try doing this:

Steam mod cleared itself up:

Kill, launcher, restart it again:

Quite dead still.

Soo, how do we fix this?
Obvious solution would be this, but this does nothing:

This is where "Paradox Launcher Expertise" extra narrow skill kicks in.

Move the mod far away:

Start launcher, mod is gone:

Kill launcher, move mod back.

Ta-daa.

I'm sure you can find several issues in this relatively simple example:

- Having 2 mods with same name corrupts ... something for sure
- reload button doesn't fix it
- error about the descriptor is false because descriptor has nothing to do with anything
- and a few other but I have other potatoes to fry.

Please to fix, thank you.

 

[Zemurin]

Let's move to a more advanced issue.

Hi! I'm a mod developer. I developed a mod that's called Mod and I'd like to update it. I'm also subscribed to said mod because I have multiple computers and I really want to play with my Mod.

Warning Alarm: "Hey, did you remove the local mod from disk after pushing? Because subscribing to it will corrupt the launcher?"
- Sure did, no worries there, my mod list is clear as a whistle!

I keep my mods *far* away on a storage drive and process of updating is quite clear:

Step 1: Unsubscribe from the mod.
Because collision.

Step 2: After confirming launcher deleted it move the mod into local folder and edit it:

Here, I updated the mod's version. Now let's fire up the launcher.

Step 3: Try to locate your local mod:

Nope not there. But you can see the Voltaire's Nightmare mod present and looking good although it's been deleted from disk (see first picture).

Never fear, we have reload button.

Aaaand:

It seems to work - but only if you hit it *twice* - however this is a mistake.

The Upload Mod form will be devoid of any mod info, such as entire description. You'd be nuking your steam description if you push.

Nono, what you need to do instead is launch the launcher *second* time - so the mod is properly initialized (something reload button fails to do):

Now final steps.
First we kill the launcher and backup the edited mod.

Mod folder is now clear.

What of the Launcher? It depends. In this particular instance yes, it registered the change and I can proceed to subscribe to my mod once again. In most ofther cases it didn't register the removal of the local mod and required another launcher restart before it clears itself up.


-----

Ok, this is the simple procedure of how to deal with launcher in order to upload or update an existing mod.

Now, I'm no UX specialist, but I can think of a few measures to make it... 90% less ununtuitive.

1. Entire dance around having the same-named mod both locally and coming from steam is horrible.
2. Launcher frequently fails to update status of local mods and requires two launches to do so.
3. Reload button is, as always, useless for local mods.


PS, just some cream on the cake, this is what happens when I press upload mod button on that mod folder (one picture above):

It's offering me to upload a mod that's not present on disk, coming from a location that doesn't exist, for a game version that's how old? Why is it even here?

 

[grotaclas]

1. Entire dance around having the same-named mod both locally and coming from steam is horrible.

Would it really help if the launcher could handle that? In my tests eu4 can't handle the situation of two identically named mods either and only one of them will work.

 

[Zemurin]

Would it really help if the launcher could handle that? In my tests eu4 can't handle the situation of two identically named mods either and only one of them will work.

Yes but this issue goes beyond eu4 itself. What Launcher should do is either refer to the mod by its filename (ugc_xxx.mod, themod.mod...) or - seeing how it's happy to edit and resave every mod file on disk on every lauch, alter the name so there's a difference. Put a (2) or something so collision is avoided.

Currently it does nothing.

Now, I'll give a RL example where this goes wrong regularly - people provide offline mods. Voltaire's Nightmare which I used as an example, does this. User, oblivious, both subscribes to steam version and downloads the offline mod, and then is left witha "descriptor is broken" message (which is completely false) and 0 functioning mods. Seen this countless times, current behavior causes nothing but confusion.

 

[revolver275]

Had some issues yesterday.They might be linked. Haven't played stellaris in a while so i made a new playset for a new playthrough. coupled with some issue below every restart of the launcher it was finding like 10 - 100 new mods each launch.. Seems very odd because those were not new and i used those in my previous playthrough.

1 issue was i was deleting some older playsets and it wasn't responding so i tried deleting 2 of them, then went to my active playset i just made minutes ago. A few seconds pass and it deletes 1 old one and my current one that i did't ask to be deleted...

The other issue was with mods just not being present on disk even though they are so after unsubbed deleting files resubbing about 10 times for multiple mods they finally show up properly. But when the launcher said file is not present on disk i had tons of freezes if like it was searching for them or something. Now my playset is fixed and the issues went away.

The last issue i had redownloaded this mod multiple times so i gave up and made a custom mod and copied it's files into that and for some reason this fixed the subscribed one...

there are still a few mods in have subbed that say "There is a problem with the downloaded mod files, this mod is missing a descriptor file" But if i relaunch the launcher after it has been added to a playset it will say "This mod is not present on disk" and on that launch it will start freezing for a bit a few times.After each freeze is over it will also say that there is no internet connection for a few seconds before it fixes itself.

 

[AndrewT]

My standard procedure for such issues is:

- unsubscribe from all mods in BOTH the Steam Workshop and the Paradox mod site mods.paradoxplaza.com
- delete the folder Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/mod/
- delete the file Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/mods_registry.json (if present)
- delete the file Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/launcher-v2.sqlite (if present)
- run the game up and check the launcher is okay with no mod or other errors
- subscribe to a few mods

- run the game up and see if those mods are now available to you.


However if you have hundreds of mods - is that right? - you might start by just doing the three delete lines, see if that helps first.

 

[Alexander Altdorf]

I have the "Database migration failed" bug with the new launcher, for both HOI4 and Stellaris (eu4 and ck3 not tested). AVG user, tried whitelisting/launcher reinstall/ disabling ransomware protection but nothing worked. I've read here and in other topics that opting in to beta version of launcher could solve the issue. How can one do that? Steam launcher only allows me to opt in to beta of games.

Thanks in advance.

 

[AndrewT]

I have the "Database migration failed" bug with the new launcher, for both HOI4 and Stellaris (eu4 and ck3 not tested). AVG user, tried whitelisting/launcher reinstall/ disabling ransomware protection but nothing worked. I've read here and in other topics that opting in to beta version of launcher could solve the issue. How can one do that? Steam launcher only allows me to opt in to beta of games.

Thanks in advance.

You do that in the launcher itself, under launcher settings.

 

[revolver275]

My standard procedure for such issues is:

- unsubscribe from all mods in BOTH the Steam Workshop and the Paradox mod site mods.paradoxplaza.com
- delete the folder Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/mod/
- delete the file Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/mods_registry.json (if present)
- delete the file Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/launcher-v2.sqlite (if present)
- run the game up and check the launcher is okay with no mod or other errors
- subscribe to a few mods

- run the game up and see if those mods are now available to you.


However if you have hundreds of mods - is that right? - you might start by just doing the three delete lines, see if that helps first.

Yea that's what i do but i also delete the one in the steam library. I use a software called everything and that searches well everything put in the number for the mod and makes it so easy to find the documents one and the on in steam workshop. But i haven't deleted the launcher or mods registry will try that next time.

Also did a verify of file integrity just now and it seemed to have fixed a bunch of mods that did't show any problem in the launcher..... Like with only starnet ai on ai would't expand... Now they do with my 68 other mods on.. While before with that list i did't get much pops up at the start about configuration now i get like 6 of them a lot of mods seemed to /were broken without me even knowing it....

Might want to add that one to you procedure if it's not working..

 

[revolver275]

Launcher is still awful is anything going to change? Right now i am changing my mod list and unsubbing just freezes the mod launcher for minutes. This is a giant pain to handle to se what mods to trim.+ the things from above still apply.

 

[AndrewT]

This is no longer the latest launcher version (that is 2022.1) so I'm locking this thread.

Please post your issue in a new thread in the Tech Support forum for whichever game you are referring to, thanks.