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Idiots guide to SDX7 modding needed!!

B

Beard_One

Refugee
After hours of struggling to understand SDX modding and how to make simple changes to the game (amount of zombies that spawn in various POIs being the main one), I'm putting out the Bat Signal for someone to help walk through, with a step-by-step, idiots guide to modding. I know modding has changed from A16 to A17, but every explanation I can find always points to prior knowledge or a pre-required understanding of modding.

I would love for a knight in shiny plant fibre armour to take some time to post a comprehensive "how to" on SDX modding, from installation to running. I've tried following other step-by-steps but they either are out of date, or don't explain things in a way that doesn't require previous experience to the world of modding...

Help me Obi-Wan; you're my only hope!!

In any explanation, as well as a how-to-get going, if someone in "the know" could please explain how to mod the amount of zombies at POIs/biomes, I would forever be in your debt. This community has been so supportive in the past, and that has been so very much appreciated. Thank you!!

 
After hours of struggling to understand SDX modding and how to make simple changes to the game (amount of zombies that spawn in various POIs being the main one), I'm putting out the Bat Signal for someone to help walk through, with a step-by-step, idiots guide to modding. I know modding has changed from A16 to A17, but every explanation I can find always points to prior knowledge or a pre-required understanding of modding.
I would love for a knight in shiny plant fibre armour to take some time to post a comprehensive "how to" on SDX modding, from installation to running. I've tried following other step-by-steps but they either are out of date, or don't explain things in a way that doesn't require previous experience to the world of modding...

Help me Obi-Wan; you're my only hope!!

In any explanation, as well as a how-to-get going, if someone in "the know" could please explain how to mod the amount of zombies at POIs/biomes, I would forever be in your debt. This community has been so supportive in the past, and that has been so very much appreciated. Thank you!!
Click to expand...
The SDX tutorials are still mostly relevant. Not much has changed in the way that scripts and patch scripts work. SDX changes code in the game, and unless you have prior experience with some kind of programming, it will likely be a struggle. I do need to update the tutorials, but they are not meant as beginner walk through on how to make changes using SDX.

For the amount of zombie spawns, would that not be in one of the XMLs?

 
Thanks for the reply. Yea, I do appreciate that the walkthroughs are not meant for beginners. Would be awesome if they were; I'm in a group of half a dozen who would love to get into modding but are struggling to make sense of it all. The programming of it is actually pretty easy; the installation and file structure is the main hurdles we are facing and can't make sense of... Makes it tricky, but another way could be to maybe download the file structure of someone else's (simple) mod and play around with that, or something...?

 
Most "simple changes" do not require an SDX mod.

Also, without "real" coding experience, SDX mods will likely remain out of reach.

 
Hey Gazz - I would beg to differ on that ... i taught myself SDX modding for a16 with no prior experience and changed loads of things, learning how to do it as I went along... But a17 seems to have changed the way it works and I'm struggling with the installation and file structure/setup change; thats the main thing. The actual coding found in the .xml files makes perfect sense, now i'm used to it...

 
In A16, SDX offered up the following abilities:

XML XPath Merging

Patch Injection (modifying existing code)

Scripts (adding new classes)

Resource loading ( custom assets, textures, etc)

Localization Merging

In A17, the following is offered in SDX:

Patch Scripts

Scripts

Localization Merging

The XML and Resource loading is now in vanilla. There's tutorials present for those.

I do appreciate that most of the barriers with SDX is based on uncertainty. The original tutorials were meant to lower the barrier to get involved, and its encouraged to dig right in.

Take a look at my SDX Repository on GitHub for some SDX mods, their structures, and their code. Most are documented, and they deal with just about everything basic that you want to learn: https://github.com/7D2DMods/SDXMods

 
Mind you I haven't look up the SDX Tutorials yet, so sorry if that's already covered (and I'm about as sure it is),

I have patched my DLL through dnSpy de- and recompiling with

a) changed values

b) added code in existing functions

c) added new class variables and complete functions including new class dependencies

d) I haven't done complete new classes yet, still that's an option too of course

The DLL changes DO work as can be seen in my Mod(lets)

(examples: power-less Turrets, InfiniteAmmo, 255 Quality, StatsRandomizer, HigherStageWanderingHordes)

is all of the above more or less easy to integrate via SDX scripts or are there restrictions I need to be aware of?

Question is, I'm still heavy modifiing the DLL as I integrate more additional features,

so is it advisable to already change to SDX or still go the direct dnSpy way?

greetings

 
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Mind you I haven't look up the SDX Tutorials yet, so sorry if that's already covered (and I'm about as sure it is),
I have patched my DLL through dnSpy de- and recompiling with

a) changed values

b) added code in existing functions

c) added new class variables and complete functions including new class dependencies

d) I haven't done complete new classes yet, still that's an option too of course

The DLL changes DO work as can be seen in my Mod(lets)

(examples: power-less Turrets, InfiniteAmmo, 255 Quality, StatsRandomizer, HigherStageWanderingHordes)

is all of the above more or less easy to integrate via SDX scripts or are there restrictions I need to be aware of?

Question is, I'm still heavy modifiing the DLL as I integrate more additional features,

so is it advisable to already change to SDX or still go the direct dnSpy way?

greetings
Click to expand...
It's definitely worth the hassle to learn SDX to apply your patches. When you edit your DLL, especially a lot of little changes, you will lose them when a new version comes out, and you'll have to redo them.

It sounds like with some of your changes, you'll want to add new classes and just inherit from the base class. In a lot of ways, that's a much cleaner solution, and more stable

 
Thanks for posting these. I'm testing it all out to see if I have it all correct, and am just looking for a quick pointer if possible.

Capture.jpg

You will see from the attached that my SDX is recognising the mods, and i'm clicking BUILD with no issue or error. However, when i click PLAY through SDX, the game runs and goes fine, and i go to test it out by going to a boarded up window and trying to "TAKE AND REPLACE" and there is nothing... No option to do so. So i'm guessing that the mod hasnt taken properly... Could you give me a pointer please sphereii? Once i get going with how to build mods into the game, i'm sure i'll be able to get cracking no problem but i'm falling at the first hurdle! Cheers muchly!

 
In settings, what's the game directory? also, it only picks up some things, like boarded window sheet weak. spawn one of those and test. I build using just the 2 modlets you showed and its working

 
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After your build and play through the SDX Launcher, go to Helpers -> Open Log.

1) Check to make sure it actually added the SDX hooks:

Code: 
SDX:  SDX detected base game directory as: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\
SDX:  Could not find sdx config file: ''. Using default settings
The could not find sdx config file is normal. any mention of SDX indicates the hooks were successfully applied.

Next, look to make sure the modlet loaded:

2019-03-16T10:30:05 6.923 INF [MODS] Trying to load from SphereII Take And Replace

2019-03-16T10:30:05 6.924 INF [MODS] Loaded Mod: SphereII_Take_And_Replace (1.0.0.0)

If you see both of those, then SDX has successfully added the Take and Replace.

Next thing to check is the XML. Verify that the xpath was applied successfully. This is the same steps as you would for non-SDX, running the game, doing an exportcurrentconfigs, and checking to make sure the xpath changes to the blocks.xml was applied. It could be that the boarded up window you tried to change wasn't configured for the Take and Replace modlet.

 
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