Fronter 2.0

Universal Paradox Game Converters Group Frontend for all currently supported game converters.

Written on a shoestring "budget" of three bananas and tested for whole 2 hours before proclaimed "fantastic" and sent to production.

It should work. On Windows. With some modifications, it should even compile on Linux and Mac but some functions won't be usable, namely anything dealing with windows registry and related file/folder paths.

Fronter expects to find fronter-configuration.txt and fronter-options.txt inside a folder named "Configuration/". These two files need to be provided with bundled converters as they define converter-specific required folders, files, and options.

Why two files instead of a single one? Completely irrelevant! Feel free to dump all options into either of the two files, but Fronter will whine if it can't find either. It's better to have them separate as options change often and the configuration changes basically never.

Supported and required tags (with examples):

fronter-configuration.txt

name = CK2ToEU4
converterFolder = CK2ToEU4
backendExePath = CK2ToEU4Converter # Relative to converterFolder. If file extension is "exe", skip it.
displayName = DISPLAYNAME
sourceGame = SOURCEGAME
targetGame = TARGETGAME
autoGenerateModsFrom = CK2ModsDirectory
overwritePlayset = true

requiredFile = {
	name = SaveGame
	displayName = FILE2
	tooltip = FILE2TIP
	mandatory = true
	outputtable = true
	searchPathType = windowsUsersFolder
	searchPath = "Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II\save games"
	allowedExtension = "*.ck2"
}

requiredFolder = {
	name = CK2directory
	displayName = FOLDER1
	tooltip = FOLDER1TIP
	mandatory = true
	searchPathType = steamFolder
	searchPathID = 203770
}

requiredFolder = {
	name = targetGameModPath
	displayName = FOLDER4
	tooltip = FOLDER4TIP
	mandatory = true
	searchPathType = windowsUsersFolder
	searchPath = "Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\mod"
}

autoGenerateModsFrom

Looks in that directory for mods to show in Fronter Mod tab. If "/mod/" subdirectory exists, it swaps to that instead. (Ie. you can use documents directory if you want)

overwritePlayset (true or false)

If true, and if Frontend encounters an existing playset in the launcher's database, it'll set it as active. It won't actually overwrite its contents.
If false, it will inform the user the playset exists, and bail.

In both cases, if there's no matching playset present, it will create a playset with the mod inside.

searchPathType

converterFolder - looks in the provided converterFolder in current directory
steamFolder - uses searchPathID to look for an "installation path" from Windows/Steam registry. If there's a match it will also append searchPath at the end so you can use this for Vic2installdir/mods.
windowsUsersFolder - looks in [$USERHOMEDIR$]\Documents folder
direct - copies over an absolute path from searchPath

mandatory

true - path will be checked and converter won't run without it.

outputtable (relevant for files only)

true - will be sent to configuration.txt

Rest is self-explanatory! Shoestring Budget!

fronter-options.txt

option = {
	name = shatter_hre_level
	displayName = OPTION2
	tooltip = OPTION2TIP
	radioSelector = {
		radioOption = {
			name = 1
			displayName = OP2R1
			tooltip = OP2R1TIP
			default = true
		}
		radioOption = {
			name = 2
			displayName = OP2R2
			tooltip = OP2R2TIP
			default = false
		}
	}
}

option = {
	name = output_name
	displayName = OPTION8
	tooltip = OPTION8TIP
	textSelector = {	
		value = ""
		editable = true
		tooltip = OPTION8TEXTTIP
	}
}

option = {
	name = some_checkbox_control
	displayName = THENAME
	tooltip = THETOOLTIP
	checkBoxSelector = {
		checkBoxOption = {
			name = yes
			displayName = CBNAME
			tooltip = CBTIP
			default = true
		}
		checkBoxOption = {
			name = 2
			displayName = NAME2
			tooltip = TIP2
			default = false
		}
		checkBoxOption = {
			name = sausage
			displayName = SAUSAGE
			tooltip = SAUSAGETIP
			default = true
		}
	}
}

Entirely self-explanatory. Why waste words on such simplicity.

Multiple default values set to true on checkBoxOptions are perfectly fine.

Localization

Fronter expects to find appropriate yml files in Configuration/ directory. yml files look like this:

 DISPLAYNAME: "Crusader Kings II à Europa Universalis IV"
 SOURCEGAME: "Crusader Kings II"
 TARGETGAME: "Europa Universalis IV"
 FOLDER1: "Répertoire d'installation de Crusader Kings II"
 FOLDER1TIP: "Un chemin sur votre ordinateur où Crusader Kings 2 est installé"

l_english:
 OPTION1: "Which empire inherits EU4 HRE mechanics and shatters?"
 OPTION1TIP: "Only one empire can use HRE mechanics."
 OP1R1: "The HRE [obviously]"
 OP1R1TIP: "e_hre"
 OP1R2: "Byzantium! [Holy and Roman and Empire]"

Yml files need to be encoded in UTF-8, not UTF-8-BOM.

Fronter will load the files (regardless of their actual name) and use l_language: to file the key-value pairs under appropriate language. Whenever configuration or options use these keys, it will attempt to load appropriate localization string to be displayed.

If it fails to find a key-pair under a specific language, it will default to english. If there's no english either, it will display a blank string. Look for these blank strings to see where you made a typo.

cofiguration.txt

Fronter will export a single configuration.txt in [converterFolder]/ with paired values, for all outputtable files/folders and all options:

SaveGame = "somepath/autosave.ck2"
CK2directory = "c:\Path\To\Game Installation\"
targetGameModPath = "d:\somePath\to\mods"
shatter_hre_level = "1"
output_name = "some user input"
some_checkbox_control = { "yes", "1", "sausage" }
selectedMods  = { "modfilename1.mod" "second mod filena.me.mod" "oddlynamed.mod.mod.mod" } # this one is done if autoGenerateModsFrom was used and valid

Slashes and backslashes depend on OS, so Converter is responsible for parsing them.

Mod move after conversion

Fronter will attempt to move "[output_name].mod" and "[output_name]/" folder (or "[SaveGame].mod" and "[SaveGame]/" in case output_name was not set) from "[converterFolder]/output/" subdirectory to "[targetGameModPath]/".

In case of Vic3 and newer games that don't have a .mod file, Fronter detects the presence of [output_name]/.metadata/ folder and won't try to move any .mod files (even if they exist by accident).

Success will undoubtedly vary of the amount of effort invested in this program.

ParadoxGameConverters/Fronter