When does a mod take effect?

[Tachyonfang]

Sorry for my confusion. I hope this doesn't seem like a stupid question.
Okay, so I'm playing along and I decide to go ahead and add a mod into the game in mid-game
So I load the files into the Extensions folder just like I'm supposed to, but for some strange reason, this time, when I try to continue my game, the mod doesn't seem to take effect.
Do mods only load at the start/beginning of a new game?

Thanks for the help!

--Tachyonfang

[digdug]

the game loads up every mod in the extensions folder and validate them.
Then it depends on the mod.

Example:
If the mod contains only level XX weapons, expect to find none of them ingame

[alterecco]

In one of the recent versions the behavior changed. T now only loads new mods at start of game. When continuing a game it only loads the mods that were present in the start, and ignores the rest. If there is a mod missing the game will complain.

So, no more dropping mods in in the middle of the game (which is actually a good thing, for modders :).

[Arisaya]

There should be a way of overriding that behavior.

[alterecco]

That would be counterproductive. There was a very good reason why this behavior was added in the first place.

[Arisaya]

Here is my opinion of how mods should be handled:
1) If there is no "loadAtNewGameOnly=true" or something like that in the mod, then the mod /should be loaded even if its not already present/. Only script-intensive very specific mods require the current behavior. For say, an item re-balancing mod, the current behavior makes absolutely no sense.
2) If a mod is missing (ie, is buggy and is preventing you from continuing), you can load the game without the mod, and the game give a Y/N warning and will try to ignore all references to that mod when it loads everything up; this may or may not succeed (chance of success is higher for simpler, non-script mods), but you can always make a backup just in case. But at least you can have a chance of having a playable save afterwards.

As discussed on IRC:
1) I think this is a real issue, regardless of whatever the original rational was. (Which Alterecco doesn't even remember beyond that it was important >.> )
2) Is a real issue and I will make a ticket about it

[Atarlost]

There definitely needs to be an override with the new behavior.

The reason is simple: bugfix mods. Starting with the 1.04 Domina timer bug we're pushing out script patches as official extensions. If it weren't for the change in mod loading it wouldn't be difficult to make the patch fix old saves. Some bugs would probably be fixable only with new games, but if any are fixable retroactively, as the Domina bug would have been, the extension system needs to not get in the way of that.

[Arisaya]

Yeah, my point exactly; I had brought that up in the conversation with alterecco.