Initial Release: Federal Unit Manager v1.0r
Starship Troopers Terran Command Mod Manager
Federal Unit Manager (FUM) is an all-in-one Mod manager for Starship Troopers Terran Command. This utility is brought to you by Nivium.
What Does It Do?
FUM allows you to download other people's mods in the format of .modpack and install them into your game!
Using Federal Unit Manager not only streamlines installing mods for this Starship Troopers Terran Command, it also allows compatibility between many different people's mods! No longer do you need to go into different files and nitpick out differences in things that are difficult to understand, FUM allows you to Overwrite or Merge installed files if it detects any compatibility issues between your files and your mod files!
Want to nerf Scorpion Bugs? Takes 30 seconds. Wants to create a brand new Unit donning completely new guns and abilities? There's a copy and paste Unit feature! It simply won't be easier than this to make (Entity) mods! If you make a mistake, backup files are automatically created for you to restore.
FUM also allows you to, in application, export your own modified files as micro-sized .modpack files which can easily be shared. between other FUM users in seconds!
It is encouraged to port your mods in .modpack format to allow compatibility with many different people's mods. Please take the time to do this, it's super easy and only takes a few clicks if you are a mod maker.
In addition to this, it also contains a detailed list of all parameter types and, for the ones I've looked into, has a description of each, saving you time to figure out what parameter means what. This also includes a Guide section, allowing easy access to an archive of helpful information regarding entity modification. This includes icon images and their IDs, traits and their meanings, and some game commands to easily memorize. There's also a detailed, images included, manual for usage of the application.
Finally, this modification creates "Patches" as well, modifying files outside of the initial scope of the application such as removing the despawning of dead units. (More patches to come in the future)
As of now, the only thing that is planned and is still in early BETA is a level editor. Level editing is possible but I've not looked into an easy way to streamline modifying levels and scenario via programming but this is coming in the future. If you download a level editor, please install it as normally outside of FUM until the feature is added.
How Does It Work?
FUM is designed to import, format and modify entity files. It also removes blank space and extras from the files it imports to help with compatibility. When installing .modpack files, FUM checks your current files to see if any of your units would be overwritten. If, for example, someone created a modification to the Rifle Squads, it'll detect the conflict and ask if you'd like to merge the entity or simply overwrite it. Merging allows you to see the exact differences between the entities. The rest of the non-conflicted entities will install as normal.
A Level editor is planned and is being worked on. For now, please port your entity mods as a .modpack and upload these instead of full files!
Packaged with Federal Unit Manager are a few of my own personal mods. If you lose those, they also exist as separate mod installs. For more details on how to use the application, use the in-app Guide and read the README!
Ready yourself up, troopers! We've got bugs to kill!
~Nivium