Mad Help

Mad Help is a mod designed for mod pack creators at the request of GreatOrator the creator of the tolkiencrat mod pack.

Features:

• Map Installer
  This is mad help's main feature. It allows pack creators to set up a list of maps that the user can select from. The mod can then download and install these maps in the client.
  Along with full maps the installer is also capable of downloading specific regions and merging them with an existing map.
  
  
• Splash Screen
  This is a configurable "Wall of text" that can be displayed the first time the pack is loaded before the main menu. It can also be configured to show every time the pack is loaded, When the pack is updated, When an online configuration file is updated or not at all.
  
  
• Cheat Deterrent
  This is an option that allows you to remove the "Game Mode" and "Allow Cheats" buttons from the LAN Multiplayer menu. Of course if players are determined enough to cheat there are ways around around this such as simply disabling this feature in the config. But by removing the easy option this should reduce the temptation to cheat. 
  
  
• Online Configuration
  The json files used to configure the list of map downloads and the splash screen can be stored online e.g. in a github repository. This allows the pack creator to  update the map selection and splash screen on the fly without having to release a new version of the pack.

Setup and Installation:

• • Installation
    Install as you would any forge mod. This is a client side only mod. Theoretically it should not cause any issues if installed server side but it would not serve any purpose.
    
    
  • Map Setup
    On first load an example configuration json will be generated config/madhelp/MadHelpContentList.json You can use this as a template to setup the map downloads. This json contains an array of objects one for each map. Each object has the following fields.
    
    displayName - The name of the map that will show in the download list
    
    fileName - The file name for the zip file that is to be downloaded e.g. ExampleWorld.zip
    
    description - A very short one line description for the map
    
    info - This allows you to add a bunch of information about the map. See the example that is autogenerated for more information about formatting
    
    releaseNumber - This is used for update tracking. It is a simple number that should be incremented each time a new version of the map is released. This is used to display a update notification when a map update is released.
    
    downloadURL - This is the link to the map download. This needs to be a direct download link. The download needs to be a zip file which contains only one folder (the world save file) You are allows to add other files to the zip such as text files for things like credits etc.
    
    isRegional - If true this download will be treated as a regional download. This type of download allows you to download and install pacific world regions into an existing world. 
    
    regionInputPath - This should point to the folder inside the map download that contains the region files that are to be merged with an existing map.
    
    regionOutputPath - This should point to the destination folder inside the world folder that the region files are to be merged with.
    
    
  • Splash screen setup
    After first launch there will be a MadHelpSplashScreen.json file in config/madhelp this is used to configure the splash screen. This json contains the following fields.
    
    revision - This should be incremented every time the splash splash screen is updated. If using an online config this will display the splash screen whenever it is updated. As opposed to just the first time the pack is launched.
    
    infoText - See the generated example file for info about formatting the splash screen text.
    
    
  • Cheat Deterrent
    This is a simple option in Madhelp.json enabling it will remove the "Game Mode" and "Allow Cheats" buttons from the LAN multiplayer menu.
    Note. If you are using NEI in your pack NEI has a similar config option to disable cheat mode. 
  Note: This is a client side mod! It will crash if you try to run it on a server.
  
  This mod requires Brandon's Core version 1.0.0.7+ Available at: http://minecraft.curseforge.com/mc-mods/231382-brandons-core/files