Two questions about mods

[Tam Hawkins]

Hello everyone,

I am currently planning my modlist for my next singleplayer world and I have two questions.

1. I am interested in quite a few mods that add more animals (Fauna of the stone age, draconis,Legacy of the Phanerozoic,the critters pack,...). Maybe a bit too much. I was wondering if the number of new animals modded in will actually lead to massive numbers of animals everywhere, or on the otherhand make even common animals quit rare to find because the spawnpool is so big. Does anyone have experience with adding multiple of these animal mods and how well they work together?

 

2. I am currently playing on a multiplayer server (tops) and I know that some mods will simply not interfere (the ones that run serverside) but that some client side modes migth work with servers. Do servers (like tops) simply blacklist/not whitelist client side mods and I can just leave them on without interferring with said server or do I need to vigilantly make sure my mod list (at least clientside) is disabled every time before joining the server?

 

Thanks everyone.

Tam

[Rainbow Fresh]

12 hours ago, Tam Hawkins said:

I was wondering if the number of new animals modded in will actually lead to massive numbers of animals everywhere, or on the otherhand make even common animals quit rare to find because the spawnpool is so big. Does anyone have experience with adding multiple of these animal mods and how well they work together?

As other big creature mods kindly warn, the more animals you add the more clogged the spawn pool becomes. There is a limit for how many animals the game spawns in general per area, but the more options there are to spawn from the less likely each individual one is to appear. And depending on how well balanced the spawn conditions for modded creatures are, they might effectively make vanilla animals go extinct. I have so far only used one (still outdated smh) FotSA mod alongside horses and felt them big meatslabs on legs spawning a fair bit too often/plentiful for how much loot they drop so I'd be careful ore go meddle with the configs to tweak things if you plan on ramming your game choke full of new animals.

12 hours ago, Tam Hawkins said:

I am currently playing on a multiplayer server (tops) and I know that some mods will simply not interfere (the ones that run serverside) but that some client side modes migth work with servers. Do servers (like tops) simply blacklist/not whitelist client side mods and I can just leave them on without interferring with said server or do I need to vigilantly make sure my mod list (at least clientside) is disabled every time before joining the server?

I don't have any actual experience with this as I do not play on public servers, so someone else with more knowledge may step in here - but afaik VS has no mod blacklisting feature (which people have lamented and discussed regarding client side cheats like that X-Ray one before). So if a mod runs just fine solely on the client, nothing should be stopping you from using it; except for potentially the server owners prohibiting such in the server rules and banning you. Usually that should be fine though, as the game is mostly server-side authorative (except for where cheats matter) and client-only mods can't do much by themselves so the options are safely limited.

[MKMoose]

12 hours ago, Tam Hawkins said:

Do servers (like tops) simply blacklist/not whitelist client side mods and I can just leave them on without interferring with said server or do I need to vigilantly make sure my mod list (at least clientside) is disabled every time before joining the server?

Normally, mods can be configured to be required on server or on client. Depending on that configuration, both the server and the client may have its own mods which are not synchronized between them. Most mods which add actual content, though, should get automatically disabled or enabled to match the server.

TOPS specifically does not currently permit any mods, not even client-side mods, as you can find on https://topsinfo.vintagestory.at/.

 

8 minutes ago, Rainbow Fresh said:

[...] afaik VS has no mod blacklisting feature (which people have lamented and discussed regarding client side cheats like that X-Ray one before). So if a mod runs just fine solely on the client, nothing should be stopping you from using it; except for potentially the server owners prohibiting such in the server rules and banning you. Usually that should be fine though, as the game is mostly server-side authorative (except for where cheats matter) and client-only mods can't do much by themselves so the options are safely limited.

VS has a built-in mod blacklist in server configuration, though by itself it is pretty trivial to bypass.

But there are at least four or five mods which offer more advanced functionality including a whitelist, notably FairPlayGuardian which is made by Dilli (dev and TOPS admin).

[V1ncent]

From my last experience with the all fauna and flora mod of that series playthrough. The fauna mod either appear to be ineffective at all, or biased about spawning ratio. The mod tend to keep spawning those little birds and all those died for some unknown reason. The flora mods just work fine and do provide some variety to the forest as I expected.

[LadyWYT]

21 hours ago, Tam Hawkins said:

1. I am interested in quite a few mods that add more animals (Fauna of the stone age, draconis,Legacy of the Phanerozoic,the critters pack,...). Maybe a bit too much. I was wondering if the number of new animals modded in will actually lead to massive numbers of animals everywhere, or on the otherhand make even common animals quit rare to find because the spawnpool is so big. Does anyone have experience with adding multiple of these animal mods and how well they work together?

It can lead to animals being everywhere, or some animals feeling too common/too rare/out of place due to how many different options there are. However, there is a fix for this via the Biomes mod; it will limit creatures(or natural ones, at least, not fantasy) to specific world regions, so that only the animals that match the particular region you're in will spawn(North America in North American regions, Asia in Asia, etc.)

The other main drawback here though is that adding a lot of creatures can impact your performance. Depending on what kind of hardware you have, you may or may not need to trim the list.

21 hours ago, Tam Hawkins said:

2. I am currently playing on a multiplayer server (tops) and I know that some mods will simply not interfere (the ones that run serverside) but that some client side modes migth work with servers. Do servers (like tops) simply blacklist/not whitelist client side mods and I can just leave them on without interferring with said server or do I need to vigilantly make sure my mod list (at least clientside) is disabled every time before joining the server?

Generally speaking, your personal modlist is separate from server modlists, and you won't need to disable your singleplayer mods in order to play on servers, and vice versa. That being said, sometimes issues do rear their ugly heads and you may find yourself needing to disable a mod or two in order to play multiplayer(such as disabling all clientside mods before playing on TOPS).

The worst issue I've run into lately regarding multiplayer is that if you have a newer version of a mod than the server has, the server won't let you join until you remove your copy of the mod from your Mods folder.

[Tam Hawkins]

Thanks everyone, I probably leave out the dino mods then (besides maybe the aquatic one as that area seems to be a bit empty in generall) and then see were I go from there.

For the server, it seems I will have to check which ones are client side, so I'll first check which mod that even would apply to.

Sadly I can mark only one as solution, I've choosen LadyWYT as she seems to have answered my questions most. But I also gave all of you a little blue heart so I hope that makes up for it.

 

Edit: 133 mods and only 3 are client side the others are all both.

fast maps (probably not a problem)

Extra Info (probably a problem)

Spawn Highlight reborn (probably a problem).

I can hopefully remember disabeling 3 mods every time I hop onto tops.

Edited October 15 by Tam Hawkins