How to ask help for modding [Include Tutorials]

[Lumina]

General advices

• Need help? Be helpful! Add as much info and code as possible: too often do people omit modmain.lua and modinfo.lua or reduce the crash log to the last line. Upload the files you're working with. Link the guides and tools you're using whenever possible. Detail the steps you're following. Don't make people guess what you're doing.
• Be specific! Is it a crash? A new feature you want? Porting from DS? Trouble with animation? State it in the title so people who know about it can see it right away. "Help with my character" means essentially nothing since characters can do pretty much anything.
• Don't be a jerk. Being nice is usually a good way to get people to help you.

 

Search the log for error.

One of the first step when you have a problem with a mod is to take a look at the log. When a crash occurs, the log could provide you useful informations about what is wrong.

You could find the log in

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Klei\DoNotStarveTogetherANewReignBeta (If you are in the beta branch)

Or

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Klei\DoNotStarveTogether (classic branch)

Usually, informations will be in the "client_log.txt"

Sometimes, a crash will happen server-side, so you must look at the server log. Search in

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Klei\DoNotStarveTogetherANewReignBeta\Cluster_1\Master

With "DoNotStarveTogetherANewReignBeta" your current branch, "Cluster_1" your current save, "Master" if the crash happen on surface, and "Caves" if the crash happen on caves.
Look at the "server_log.txt"

Now you have an error log. If you can, try to understand what the error log says. Some errors could easily be fixed by yourself. You could also try a search to see if someone encountered the same problem.

If it's not the case, you could create a topic.

 

Title.

The first thing people will see is the title. There is a lot of topic asking for help, so "help pls with a mod", "I need help" "[URGENT] Need help" isn't a good title, because it doesn't give a clue about what the problem is. Since people helping here are doing this in their free time, and since every modder have his strong point and weak point, your best option is to have a clear title, with informations about what you are searching. This way, people able to help you could see what help you need even before opening the topic.

For example "How to create a perk for my character" "My character mod is crashing (Mod and Error log in topic)", "How to make an aura healing others players ?". You will gain a lot of time with a clear title, and people will be more likely to help.

 

Content of your topic.

Your topic must contain a clear explanation about what you need.
If you are asking for help because of a crash, provide the error log (you've seen before how to obtain it), and attach your mod, so people could take a look at it.

You must zip your mod first, then you can see an option "drag files here to attach, or choose files". Attach the zip file. This way, everyone could download your file and see what is wrong. When searching the cause of a crash, looking at the code is often mandatory, so you'll gain a lot of time by attaching mod in your first post.

Usefuls links and tools.

[TOOL] Texture and atlas packer : a tool allowing you to easily pack or unpack texture. Great for inventory image containing multiple items images.

[TOOL] HandsomeMatt's Tools : one tool allowing you to converting .png file into .tex, another one allowing you to open .tex file and save them as .png

[TOOL] Build renamer : one tool allowing you to rename builds.

[TOOL] ktools : allow to decompile animations in a spriter file. Useful, but you need some knowledge to make it works.

[RESOURCE] DST Speech Mod Template : All the speech line in one file, useful for custom character.

Tutorials :

[TUTORIAL] Custom recipe/food visible in crockpot/farm

[TUTORIAL] How to add, not replace stuff in worldgeneration

[TUTORIAL] Basics : what to use to open .lua files and why

[TUTORIAL] How to create a Set Piece

Edited May 20, 2017 by Lumina

[Lumina]

I made this topic to try to centralize advices or tools i find useful and that could help people searching for help. Of course, this is still empty and must be improved. I'll edit it with suggestions people could have. If you have a link for an useful tool or a tutorial, post it here or send me a message and i'll try to add it to the first message.

If i made mistake or if some points aren't clear, just tell me. Since english isn't my first langage, mistakes could easily happen.

I hope it could help people

[FrontierHero]

This is very helpful; I'll definitely use this. I'm just starting out with the game and trying to make my own mods, so this is something I'll certainly follow if I need help! (I've been wondering how to open up the log to look for errors if I'd ever come across one and would need to make a post asking for help, thank you!)

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

Would you say my latest topic about segment amount and segment length was crappily executed? Just want to know, because I really want to get clear communication accross.

[Lumina]

19 minutes ago, EuedeAdodooedoe said:

Would you say my latest topic about segment amount and segment length was crappily executed? Just want to know, because I really want to get clear communication accross.

You didn't provide logs, but maybe there isn't anything useful in log, still it's better to tell it if it's the case. The more information, the best. But i guess that your main problem is that you are asking for help for something very specific, and not anyone has the knowledge needed to help you. Maybe you can try to contact the author of the mod.

23 minutes ago, FrontierHero said:

This is very helpful; I'll definitely use this. I'm just starting out with the game and trying to make my own mods, so this is something I'll certainly follow if I need help! (I've been wondering how to open up the log to look for errors if I'd ever come across one and would need to make a post asking for help, thank you!)

I'm glad to hear it

I'll probably add tomorrow a part about program you could use for opening .lua file. I use Notepad++ and Don't starve tool has Sublime, and there are others options, but the most important is to have a text editor that highlights the code so you can read it more easily.

[FrontierHero]

39 minutes ago, Lumina said:

I'm glad to hear it

I'll probably add tomorrow a part about program you could use for opening .lua file. I use Notepad++ and Don't starve tool has Sublime, and there are others options, but the most important is to have a text editor that highlights the code so you can read it more easily.

Awesome! I do use Notepad++, but I mostly have trouble navigating the code, since this is my first experience with coding. Although I just downloaded the text-reading program because I was told to in a set of instructions in a tutorial, so I do not know exactly how to utilize the Notepad++ to its full potential; you bet I'll be looking for that program guide! Thanks again!

Edited February 11, 2017 by FrontierHero
I left out a word that would probably have the sentence read and understood differently otherwise

[Lumina]

It will not be a big guide, just some basics advices. I guess it will not be useful in your case. It's more for people not knowing about programs like notepad++ or sublime.

[FrontierHero]

Yes,I know next to nothing about the program, so any help is great help for me  

[realitymeltdown]

There are also instructions on using advanced tools to make completely custom animations, sounds and tiles in the Don't Starve forum that work with Don't Starve Together.

Instructions on creating assets from scratch

[Serpens]

@Lumina could you please add your tutorial about notepad to your tutorial list?

 

[Lumina]

Sure. I wasn't sure it's helpful, so i didn't add it, but i'll do it.

[Serpens]

12 hours ago, Lumina said:

Sure. I wasn't sure it's helpful, so i didn't add it, but i'll do it.

it is very helpful, cause the best way to learn modding, is to search the game code for examples. And with notepad++ this is very easy. So I will advice every new modder to do this

[Lumina]

Now there is a link to the set piece tutorial (thanks serpens) and also an updated "Custom recipe/food visible in crockpot/farm".

If you have tutorial to suggest or want to make one, they are welcome

[orlando gonzalez]

I speak Spanish.
I would like to implement in my character things like hat and weapon but I do not know how to create them and I do not understand the tutorials above for it.
What I can do?.
in steam, my mod is kira.

[Lumina]

Hey, sorry for the delay, it's better to make a new topic for questions, people will see it more easily.

[ne_pro1]

English is not my main language, I use translator.
In the "Spriter" I change the position of the sprites, save the new .scml file, re-generate the animation, but the position of the sprite remains on the template. 
PS. the game is running. There are no errors. I can only assume that somewhere there was the old animation (the template) which works instead of the new animation.

[Lumina]

Yes, for character template, moving sprite not always work. Try changing the pivot, maybe. If it doesn't work, change the image rather than the sprite.

Good luck.

[asd1asd2206]

hi could you help me I wrote a mod for the appearance of the rooms in the shipwreck but it doesn't work I have one person wanted to test the code (I asked him ) but he's already day 3 not responding I never know who to go to and I'm a little desperate and could you please help me (please)https://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/82499-not-working-mod/?tab=comments#comment-959279 ? (Google translator )
 

[Mahoood]

Hi, I um.. don’t have a server_log.txt file..help? 

[Kronas]

what is [ Build ] exactly ???

[Lumina]

It's a file related to the animation of a character, item, effect. If you need detailled information about build, i suggest opening a topic about it, it will probably be easier.

[DinoDracko]

So, I have this issue with the mods I created.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1425456058

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1425189769

Whenever I try to enable both of them together, the game crashes to the desktop without any errors. Whenever I disable one or the other, it runs the game fine. So, what's happening? Are both these mods conflicting with each other? If so, how do I fix it?

Please, I created one of the mods for my friend and I want to play with each other with our own skins enabled

[Lumina]

Again, i suggest to ask specific questions about specific mods in their own topic. I can't see your mod but conflict between mod usually happen when they have both a file with the same name for example.

[YetiCake98]

I need help! I've not had any issues so far with my character mod -but then I need to animate them and tutorials are saying I need this auto compiler thing. Are there any other ways I can auto compile or create the animation for my character? I need to get this taken care of before I even consider his running animation (similar to Wilbur as they are both monkeys)and I'm desperate for help on somehow creating the animation.zip folder with the atlas and build files for my character. Any suggestions of other animation compilers/creators that are automatic or similar in the mod section of the forums would be appreciated!

 

[Lumina]

I suggest you to open a topic if you have specific issues.

The autocompiler is running when you start the game, as long as you have an exported folder with files to compile.

You can create files to compile with spriter (included in don't starve mod tools) and there is a tmplate for custom characters.