Getting custom decks to appear and work in-game

[fallenangle]

I have Rick's 2014 dll installed, have installed summonole's, bloodrevyn's, and kev's dlc, and am using the skidrow version. I was able to unlock the Prophetic Ravings deck using Riiak's Deckbuilder, but now every time I download a wad and unpack it, it won't show up in the game unless I use Riiak's Deckbuilder to "Export to Directory." When I use the Deckbuilder, I can correctly view all of the cards in most decks; but when I export the custom decks (e.g., Turbo Grinding) to the game, the game will only recognize the cards from the D14 base set, making it impossible to use the custom decks. I would love to give them a try, but I don't know what to do to make the game properly recognize and use them. Any help and suggestions you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

[thefiremind]

I guess you want to edit those decks, right? Otherwise I can't see why you would have to unpack the WADs you download... they are ready for play as WAD files, no need to unpack them if you just want to play.

[wavydave]

Are you using the signature bypass dll? kevlahnota left a pointer to it in his mod post.

viewtopic.php?f=99&t=10896

Only asking as I forgot to use it and couldn't see any new decks at first.

[RiiakShiNal]

Are you using the signature bypass dll? kevlahnota left a pointer to it in his mod post.

viewtopic.php?f=99&t=10896

Only asking as I forgot to use it and couldn't see any new decks at first.

He is using the dll as he can see decks exported using my Deck Builder, though if he is unpacking wads before using them then that would be his problem because now most people are not including a HEADER.XML in the wad, they are relying solely on the wad header (which is basically the same thing, but gets unpacked as "@header.xml" in an "_unpacked" directory instead of a "HEADER.XML" in the main wad directory.

For the game an acceptable directory is structured like this:

• DATA_DLC_MY_SUPERAWESOME_MOD
  • DATA_ALL_PLATFORMS
    • Additional Directories based on what is included in mod.
  • HEADER.XML

A directly unpacked wad without without a separate "HEADER.XML" looks like this:

• DATA_DLC_MY_SUPERAWESOME_MOD_unpacked
  • DATA_DLC_MY_SUPERAWESOME_MOD
    • DATA_ALL_PLATFORMS
      • Additional Directories based on what is included in mod.
  • @header.xml

You will notice that there is an extra directory level in the "unpacked" directory and it has "@header.xml" instead of "HEADER.XML" and that file is in a different location.

Personally, I include the extra HEADER.XML in my wads as it doesn't break anything and it allows my wads to be extracted and used in directory format faster (can help with debugging a specific version). My method adds a couple of KB, but I think it's worth it.

What my unpacked mod looks like: | Open

• Data_DLC_8192_Core_Cards_unpacked
  • DATA_DLC_8192_CORE_CARDS
    • DATA_ALL_PLATFORMS
      • Additional Directories based on what is included in mod.
    • HEADER.XML
  • @header.xml

This makes it easy to simply copy & paste (or cut & paste) the DATA_DLC_8192_CORE_CARDS directory to the game directory for use in directory form if desired.

[fallenangle]

Thanks for all your help, especially Riiak for posting "what my unpacked mod should look like." I finally solved the issue yesterday after looking at how Rick added multiple decks to the deck manager list, and by looking again at the functions in Riiak's Deckbuilder. I found that if I use the "Set up Custom Folder" and "Create Core Wad from Custom Folder" options in the Tools menu, I can add core mods from different modders to the created "core wad," while I just copied the "Data-DLC All Platforms" folder to the Custom Folder in the main directory to add decks made by other modders. This way, they all show up and are usable in-game without problems. The only thing I'm still not sure about is whether I can unlock the decks with attribute set to "locked" (mostly Kev's decks) just by changing this in the Deckbuilder, or whether I have to unpack / export the Wads or Directories after I do so.

Thanks again for all of your help!

[RiiakShiNal]

The Deck Builder will only create new decks (or load a deck you've previously created). To edit a deck you will need to unpack it and edit it manually. If you "Create from Existing Deck" that is creating a new deck as a copy of an existing deck, it does not mean you are editing that deck.

It should be noted that the "Locked" availability in the Deck Builder (for DotP 2014) only means that there is no always_available="true" attribute, the deck may still end up being available because of the steam_id_1 attribute being set to an AppId you already have available (like 213850). As such there is probably no need to edit kevlahnota's decks because they are most likely already available because of the steam_id_1 attribute.