Hasselshoff
commented
2 years ago I reviewed all open feature requests before posting, but I somehow missed one that is referencing the same concept of mod conflicts. In #20, an idea is posited of highlighting conflicting mods while a mod is selected in the mod collection table.
This would be a poor solution on its own but perhaps not without value. Obviously, any large playset would require scrolling to see the highlighted conflicting mods. I definitely would not prioritize this mod conflight highlighting proposal over any of my more comprehensive implementations.
EDIT: I have changed my mind on this matter. For modlists of average size (<100), the amount of scrolling required isn't bad at all. After simulating the work on my biggest modlist, the extra scrolling is definitely cumbersome, but I definitely wouldn't let it stop me from using the feature. The user can just move the conflicting mods closer together before fine tuning the load order when using a large modlist (>300 mods). Since Irony has the ability to tell a mod to jump to a load order position - instead of dragging clicking up/down - this really isn't as bad as I thought.
bcssov
LordOfLA
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe:
(More of a major nuisance than a problem with Irony Mod Manager.) Irony's Conflict Solver is amazing for resolving conflicts & creating a custom patch. Making a comprehensive custom patch with the Conflict Solver prevents any & all load order issues; as long as the user resolves every single conflict, the loaded file/key will always be the one the user wants.
But making a custom patch isn't & shouldn't be always necessary when adding a new mod. That would be tedious. Of course, a custom patch will always be the most surefire way of guaranteeing the loaded files are the intended files. But even a short mod collection can have thousands of conflicts, creating an intimidating factor that deters new mods. So a method of approximating conflicts would be most welcome.
Most of the time, a satisfactory solution would be to just move mods in the load order so they are before/after conflicting mods, as appropriate to ensure the intended mod is loaded. But how does one know what load order to use without knowing what mods are conflicting with that one? Most mods don't have that many conflicts, so a lot of the time, it really is that straightforward & simple. This is the principle guiding how both Vortex & Mod Organizer 2 deal with mod conflicts & load order.
As it is now, I have to resort to making a custom patch with the Conflict Solver for every new mod collection and at times even have to painstakingly compare & write down what mods my major mods conflict with. And, yes, as bad as that sounds, that is still significantly less work than making a comprehensive custom patch.
Describe the feature solution you'd like:
FEATURE REQUEST: conflict summary for each mod in Irony's modlist, listing all the mods conflicting with that mod.
BONUS FEATURE: plus the specific files conflicting for that mod).
Vortex & Mod Organizer 2 both have conflict icons next to each mod in the modlist that has conflicts with other mods (see image 1 below). Hovering on the conflict icon produces a tooltip listing the other mods conflicting with that mod. Clicking on the mod opens a menu listing all the conflicting mods & the specific files which conflict (see image 2 below).
<img src=https://wiki.nexusmods.com/images/e/ee/Vortex_1.PNG
<img src=https://wiki.nexusmods.com/images/7/75/Rustic_Wins.PNG
As a bonus feature, Vortex uses rules to dynamically & automatically generate a load order, rather than manually moving one mod to be after the other. For every mod conflict detected, the user can specify the load order relationship of the two mods (which one should come before/after, i.e. mod A is always supposed to be after mod B). This rule-based approach to the load order truly shines with large modlists, where manual load orders would be highly time-consuming, especially as mod relationships start to chain (i.e., mod A has to be after mod B, but mod A also has to be before mod C).
Obviously the rule-based load order is too much to ask, but a conflict summary for each mod in Irony's modlist, listing all the mods conflicting with that mod, would be my number 1 feature request.
Describe the implementation & alternatives you've considered:
Hovering/clicking this icon would lead to a tooltip or new menu showing the conflict summary for that mod, ideally listing both the conflicting mods & the specific files, but just knowing the conflicting mods would be huge on its own for enabling the user to make an informed decision on their load order.
An alternative to a conflict icon would be a whole new column in the modlist UI, where each row in this column contains the names of mods conflicting with the mod in that row. To avoid this information contributing to clutter, this column could be hidden/shown with the click of a button. For mods with tons of conflicting mods, it’s not feasible to display the names of all conflicting mods, so each cell can be capped at 5 mod names or whatever value. That cap value could even be user configurable possibly.
Another viable alternative is adding a new field or dropdown option to the Conflict Solver where all mods that conflict in the current search are listed in one place. Combined with the existing mod filter functionality, this list would comprise all mods that conflict with the filtered mod. The Conflict Solver’s mod filter can already show all file conflicts for a given mod, but making an exhaustive list of which mods conflict currently requires manually browsing all file conflicts and keeping track by hand. Given the mod differential infrastructure is already in place, compiling this list would be as easy as adding together the names of the conflicting mods from all file conflicts. Compared to the minimal effort of this solution, the former two possibilities appear a bit more involved; for starters, Irony only calculates definitions & conflicts after the user opens the Conflict Solver, so showing conflicts on the main menu would require adding the ability for Irony to calculate conflicts on launch or on demand (in either case, it would be outside the Conflict Solver).
A crude but effective band-aid is to allow the load order to be modified while the Conflict Solver is open. Basically, if we can’t show the conflicting mods on the load order, we bring the load order to the conflicting mods, which are already sort of shown in the Conflict Solver when using the mod filter, just discretely instead of exhaustively. Even without any of the other proposed features, this would have at least some impact. The user would get a sense of what mods are conflicting immediately, which is useful even if incomplete. The user would have to browse all file conflicts to get a full list of conflicting mods, but since not every mod is going to have dozens of conflicts, in many cases this could be done fairly quickly. Plus, this method retains the minimal UI of Irony’s main menu. On its own, this feature is still an improvement on the current situation & probably tied with the 3rd proposal (list of conflicting mods added to a new field in the Conflict Solver menu) for the cheapest solution to develop. A combination of these two would be best, if either are to be developed.
Additional context
Irony already has a built-in difference tool, so I doubt it's necessary, but WinMerge or other external tools could be leveraged to make things easier. It's also worth considering that Vortex & MO2 are both open source, if you're curious about their mechanisms.