First post so, excuse me if I’m doing things wrong!
I was just wondering how possible it would be to grab a collection of the larger mods and merge/patchwork them. I don’t know if there are plans to keep updating/working on new mods like Juxtaterrestrial’s, Maternal_Reads’, or Jim’s mods, so I figured a definitive edition or something could be done given how much time it’s been.
I don’t have any experience in the matter, so I’m hoping someone with more experience can clear things up or maybe spark some interest in the game! If it’s woefully impossible, then, dang. Just hope to hear if it is or isn’t!
It’s technically not impossible, but it would require a lot of manual editing for conflict resolution. All of these mods tweak the game in different and often conflicting ways - character organs are the worst of it, and some mods directly alter game event files instead of finding ways to extend them. If I recall Maternal Reads’ mod also rewrites a lot of content like character descriptions into a different narrative perspective, so it doesn’t always mesh well with other stuff.
I know for a fact some of the bigger mods alter how the game processes some things, such as how weight is gained and calculated, and the last time I made an attempt to patch them together my poor game barely even loaded up the Command menu before dying. Like jimbobvii said, while technically not impossible, it requires far too much effort to be really worth it.
As a reference, you would have to have multiple instances of the game open at once with each individual mod on it, editing those mods in real time, and a final instance of the game ready to boot when you smash all of the edited mods together. At that point you get on your hands and knees, beg the modding gods for mercy, likely get ignored in favor of a shiny penny, then go back to the drawing board and trying to chase down the singular line of code that’s borking the whole mess.
I have a VERY healthy respect for modders and game developers, for specifically that reason. It’s like smashing your head against a concrete wall repeatable with the belief that the wall will break before your head does.
Your best bet is to pick ONE of those mods, figure out what the others have that isn’t implemented, then port those sections across. Overall, the game has enough mechanics imho and needs more content and maybe more ways to interact with those existing systems.
Ultimately I think the engine isn’t going to be used in the future and the whole project is a dead end; it just isn’t modern or easy to use enough and relies on outdated java.