VS Mod Maker

[TJ Pepler]

I'm sorry for all the weird posting and re posting, I'm trying to figure out what I can and can't post here

Anyways, here's the scoop, this application builds mods for you, well it builds ONE mod for you, but it lets you chooses from hundreds of options on what to put in your mod, for example, you want more storage, but only in reed baskets, no problem, add it.  then if you want flint spears only, to do 10X damage, put that in too, don't want monsters or bears, drop em, add that to your mod...  Once you've made all your selections hit generate and poof!  you get your very own single mod that does everything exactly how you want.  on a server, pass it out like candy to all your friends and you're golden   

 

Try it here!

Edited December 7, 2025 by TJ Pepler
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[TJ Pepler]

Try it here!

 

 

[Heart_Afire]

This is a really cool idea, I will admit. It's certainly very user-friendly!

[TJ Pepler]

Thank you   I really hope it can help people seriously trim their mod lists!  

Currently in development is armors :

And there is lots more coming, I think I can probably do all the timers as well, I'm looking into it, and I will for sure be looking into supporting popular mods as well if there is enough interest in the application.

 

[TJ Pepler]

Coming very soon...

[Broccoli Clock]

I'm going to presume that this is purely content mod as opposed to a core mod? If so, makes sense, I've thought about automating this for a while but been too lazy to bother, but it would need little more than a UI framework and a routine to create and serve the zip file that contains the directory structure and json.

Good luck with it.

 

[TJ Pepler]

Yes correct, this mod is only altering variables and creating the json and mod files to a zip.  This doesn't add any content at all.  But with that said, did you see the link to the application above?  It is already fully functional and creates working mods right now, I am only adding more features at this point.  You are welcome to create a mod and take a look, rip open the mod and see, it's very small, a complete change on a lot of variables still only produces a single 4-10 KB file.

[Broccoli Clock]

7 minutes ago, TJ Pepler said:

But with that said, did you see the link to the application above?  It is already fully functional and creates working mods right now, I am only adding more features at this point.  You are welcome to create a mod and take a look, rip open the mod and see, it's very small, a complete change on a lot of variables still only produces a single 4-10 KB file.

Yeah, I checked it out. I'll be honest, I spent more time reading the javascript than I did creating a mod..  

I've created content mods before, one is even on the ModDB here, they are very easy to do which is why automating them like this makes sense.  That's not me damning your app with faint praise, you've done a good job here.

[TJ Pepler]

I have added bulk changes to tools, weapons and armor for people who don't want to change each item by hand

Also, I am having a bugger with lighting right now, there are a lot of different ways lighting is handled it seems   Currently I support torches, oil lamps and paper lanterns, when I figure out the rest of them I'll add them.  (Biggest issue is held vs placed lights)

*in my working version I now have fire pit working as well, we're getting closer!!!*

Otherwise it's running and still makes mods, Please try it out!  

Edited December 8, 2025 by TJ Pepler

[Facethief]

Have you considered making an option for changing enemy/creature health? I don’t think it’d be too difficult, and I have some personal grievances with boss health.

[TJ Pepler]

I think you're right, I think most of this is pretty easy to access, I will put it on my list and put a star beside it  

[TJ Pepler]

I have never looked into the boss data ever so I will take a peek, but it can't be too much different than creatures, I'll add the rest of the regular mobs to the system and look into the bosses   (BTW :  there are soooooooooo many creature variables, I pulled some big base adjustments but you could really dive deep and adjust their speed in different situations and stuff, it drills down deep if you want it)

Here's a demo   

 

 

[TJ Pepler]

Here is everything I have pulled from the files, I apologize but I have never beaten the game or seen these guys so I'm flying blind

Do you just want to change damages?  We could adjust [Boss #1] the 2 different attacks could be adjusted separate or we can do one big group "Damage" var?  We can easily do health of course and it looks like the revival rate... I have no idea about the physics in this game, but I don't think changing weight would be a good idea, that might be whats keeping it immobilized, LOL

Spoiler

1. Eidolon (Immobilized)
Key Attributes:
Type: Mechanical boss, land-based
Health: 500 HP (max 500)
Weight: 2500
Size: Hitbox 1.7 x 2 (alive), 1.7 x 1.5 (dead)
Tags: ["mechanical", "boss", "habitat-land"]
Combat Abilities:
Melee Attack: 12 damage (Tier 3 Slashing), 360° attack angle, 3 knockback
Throw Attack: Throws granite boulders (8 damage, Tier 2)
Slam Attack: Ground slam that spawns bronze locusts and throws boulders
Revive: Respawns after 168-192 hours (7-8 days)
Special Features:
Boss health bar visible within 30 blocks
Custom music track: "theresonancearchives-eidolon"
Immobile (cannot move)
Drops rusty parts, temporal gears, metal parts, and metal scraps

 

Spoiler

2. Erel
Key Attributes:
Type: Mechanical boss, air-based
Health: 200 HP (max 200)
Weight: 4800
Size: Hitbox 6 x 6 (large)
Variants: Pristine and Corrupted
Tags: ["mechanical", "boss", "habitat-air"]
Combat Abilities:
Dive Attack: 20 damage (Blunt), 6 block damage range, 60 block dive height
Swoop Attack: 15 damage (Blunt), 2 knockback, 25 block path length
Fire Feathers Attack: Fires projectiles (spears and arrows) that can be collected or broken
Large usable: 9 damage (Tier 1 Piercing) - drops as collectible spears
Small usable: 4.5 damage (Tier 0 Piercing) - drops as collectible arrows
Broken variants also available
Special Features:
Boss health bar visible within 60 blocks (can show between dimensions)
Flying entity with complex aerial AI
Can flee when damaged (20% chance)
Glow level: 32
Decays after 24 hours when dead
Has an openable container
Movement Patterns:
Circles targets at various heights (60-75 blocks)
Wanders within 500 block radius
Can leave area and return to spawn point
Both bosses are mechanical entities with boss health bars, multiple attack patterns, and unique mechanics. The Eidolon is a stationary ground boss, while the Erel is a flying boss with aerial combat.

 

[TJ Pepler]

OK, we're updated with creatures and bosses... I decided to do specific attacks for better customization, then one can be very strong and another weak if someone wants???  now I didn't generate any errors but I have not tested the bosses, because I don't know how to get them in game   Is there a CLI way of doing this?  or a command to tp to the boss location? Prolly not that, they are prolly generated when required...
Anyways, we're getting there... that was a good suggestion FaceThief.

Anyone have anything else they would like to see added?   Would anyone like any or all timers included as well?

Seriously folks... I'm so so bored not being able to work this month, please give me suggestions  

 

[TJ Pepler]

I am going to keep adding more features until I cant adds no more but, I have decided for now anyways not to do mod support for other mods... I have read and seen some of the horror stories other mod authors have had to deal with over compatibility and honestly some of your favorite mod authors are killing themselves for countless brutal hours to keep your favorite mod updated and working with everyone else, I salute them but I don't have that in me 

Any core game modifications you'd like to see added however and I'm all ears. 

[Broccoli Clock]

8 hours ago, TJ Pepler said:

I have decided for now anyways not to do mod support for other mods...

That is the most sensible decision, you're making a mod wrapper not a specific mod. So, for example, if you were making a very niche farming mod, you'd perhaps be expected to make it compatible with the commonly used farming mods. However, it's to be expected that a "mod roller" would be vanilla specifically.

In terms of modifications, it really depends on two things, how much down the rabbit hole you like to go, and how much you over engineer your code. Less is sometimes more, and having the basics covered in a very generic format I think provides what I'd (and possibly others) expect from the app. 

The only thing I can see, and this is purely because you chose to create your json/zip file using a remote api, you might want to log what the most common combination of "traits" people add, and have cached versions to reduce traffic and footprint on the server. That's probably overkill for the scope of the app at present, but it's about the only thing I can think of that you'd maybe look at.

Edited December 10, 2025 by Broccoli Clock

[TJ Pepler]

Thanks for the feedback Broccoli Clock.  I'm not too worried about the traffic or server though, I'm a very old man and I used to have to modify my config.sys and autoexec.bat to maximize use of my 640k of RAM   we are pushing tiny little data around here, if you modify every variable, you still finish with a mod file that is ~40k..ish
(for any kids reading, 40kb is so small that you can make and store more mods on your phone than you have time to make in your lifetime, LOL)

But you remind me of one of the best engineers I know who thinks the same way, always safety first, big picture stuff so thank you  

[Broccoli Clock]

One thing you might like to do is add the icons for the items. There is actually a console command which will output all the icons as png files so you don't need to capture them individually in game.

Sadly, it was some time ago I used the command, so have forgotten it. I'm sure some kind person on here will know it though.

[TJ Pepler]

I might do that actually, 
.blockitempngexport [inv/all] [size] [exportDomain]  is the in game method, but it causes an immediate crash to desktop when I try to run it so I wrote my own python code to do the same function but all I get is like 3800 texture looking files...   I think that maybe icons are generated from the model in real time or something like that???  I was working on replacing the handles on spears with a vibrant texture to make it easier to find them and when I did change the texture for the handle, handle.png the in game icons of the spears changed to have a red striped handle, so I think I pulled all the textures from the game but I think the official tool must actually build items and create icons???????  I don't really know, you have any idea?

[Broccoli Clock]

Ok, so I did a quick check, and on my computer there is a folder called VS Textures, not sure if that naming schema is mine or the way the files output, and I honestly don't remember the command line to output the files. IIRC it was just one command and took a few seconds. Now, if I look in that folder (one deep, no sub folders), there are lots of .png files relating to textures. So, for example, there is a file called fertmedium.png and it is 32x32 and looks like this..

What I can't find is the rendered icon for things like the axe, rather than the texture of the axe. Interestingly I do have a folder with those icons in it, but it's far from complete and I think it's just a few icons I moved over from another folder containing the full set.

Thing is, I outputted them a good 8 months ago, and have forgotten the command line, what's more I suffered an HD failure between then and now, and while I have backups for everything, they are scattered all over the place.

In short, it is definitely possible to export the textures, I'm pretty sure you can export the rendered icons, but I am not sure of the commands for either. Even if the latter is not possible, and I could be getting a little mixed up, you can rip those icons from the Wiki, for example here is the axe..

https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Axe#/media/File:Axe-copper.png

..and there is the chance that's where my incomplete tool folder comes from, I may have just ripped them from the wiki, although the consistency of the image is not all that good, with that axe png being 400x400, and I've noticed other icons, say the one for meat is much less..

https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Meat#/media/File:Bushmeat-raw.png

..it is just 100x100. 

I apologise if  I am leading you astray here, someone with better knowledge about how the games internal files are structured will be able to correct me.

Edited December 12, 2025 by Broccoli Clock

[TJ Pepler]

Heh, I did the same thing for the Ingot calculator, I just ripped stuff from the site
I will keep poking at it, it would be a handy resource for any number of mods to have a nice fat complete icon set for the whole game