Which Files to Edit for Modding in General

[Clara149654]

Hi everyone, I am completely new to modding and want to ask about which files/folders I should be editing. If I want to change the behaviour of domesticated beefalo, for example, do I edit beefalo.lua in data/databundles/scripts, or do I only make changes in the mods folder to override beefalo behaviour? If the latter, would I need a new function in modmain.lua or a new beefalo.lua file in the mods folder (or something else)?

I apologize for such a simple question that may have been answered before, but a reply or link to a reply would very much appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help!

For context, I am playing with the Tropical Experience: Volcano Biome mod, and I would like my beefalo that I am riding to be able to wade through shallow water similar to how the Ox/Water Beefalo can. At this point, I'm not too concerned about graphics - only functionality - so I would be pretty happy with my beefalo just walking on top of the water. If I can make this work though, will definitely be coming back for more help on the TEX images!

[Ultroman]

You NEVER edit game-files! You write code which is loaded and run during the server's start-up sequence, which changes certain variables or alters certain entities AFTER they've been spawned. Perhaps you add things to the game, like new items or characters, but only in the weirdest of edgecases would you have to directly edit game-files. It should never be something you choose to do.

Look at this post for a kind of introduction to the most basic mod-files.

Here's a post with some tips on how to get started making mods, and where to find information.

Some information about modicons.

To see how it's done, download a few mods, and look at their code. I can recommend this one for a simple TUNING-variable tweak, and CactusArmor.zip for a simple armor.

Edited March 1, 2019 by Ultroman