Mod Builder - Revived

A tool that makes it easy to customize and create mods for theHunter: Call of the Wild (COTW).

Enable mods by adding the following launch options to your game executable:

--vfs-fs dropzone --vfs-archive archives_win64 --vfs-archive patch_win64 --vfs-archive dlc_win64 --vfs-fs .

Release builds are available in multiple locations:

• GitHub: https://github.com/RyMaxim/cotw-mod-builder/releases
• NexusMods: https://www.nexusmods.com/thehuntercallofthewild/mods/410

Updating Mod Builder for New CotW Releases

After each game update to theHunter: Call of the Wild, Mod Builder needs to be updated with the latest game files. While I perform this process for each new release, the files can also be updated manually by an end-user.

NOTE: Depending on the scope of changes from a game update, some mods may require code updates to continue working properly. Patching updated files into an older Mod Builder - Revived version not built for those files may result in bugs/crashes.

Asset Bundles

Several .ee files have reached over 100mb in size and can no longer be uploaded to GitHub in the source code. This is an issue for developers and users that run Mod Builder - Revived from source (hatch run modbuilder).

Users that download the full release (modbuilder.exe) from NexusMods or GitHub do not need to worry about this. All required files are still included in built releases.

To work around this issue for other devs, I publish separate asset bundles with each release starting with version 2.6.0. Each bundle contains all required files in the org folder and name_map.yaml for that release along with instructions on where to place the files. These are generally version-specific files for each Mod Builder - Revived release and plugins are updated alongside them each time new content is added to the game. Mod Builder - Revived will check the application and asset file versions on startup and provide a warning if there is a mismatch.

Update Game Files in the /org Folder

1. Download the latest release of DECA
2. Use DECA to unpack theHunterCotW_F.exe
3. Look in the /modbuilder/org folder to determine which files to extract with DECA
4. Use the "Extract Raw Files" option to extract each new file. In some cases (ammunition + weapon tuning files) you can extract entire folders
5. Copy the extracted folders (not individual files) from DECA's /work/hp/extracted folder
6. Paste the copied folders into the /modbuilder/org folder. Overwrite any changed files

Add New Item Names

Internal item names from the game files are mapped to human-readable names in name_map.yaml. This file can be found in the _internal folder of an already-built Mod Builder release to update an existing version. When new items are added to the game they will appear as equipment_<type>_<name>_01 in mods like Modify Ammo, Modify Store, and Modify Weapon. Adding the appropriate data to name_map.yaml will allow all of the mods to display a proper name.

1. Determine the "internal" name of the item by reading the name parsed and displayed by Mod Builder from Modify Store (reads from equipment_data.bin)
2. Open name_map.yaml in a text editor
3. Find the appropriate location to add the equipment. Ammos/Sights/Weapons/Lures are organized by type. Try to keep things mostly alphabetical
4. Add the item name as a new key, removing the equipment_<type>_ prefix. Variant suffixes (_01, _02) should be removed to group reskins of the same item (common for weapons and structures).
5. Fill in relevant data for the value (name, type, variant info)

Modify Weapon pulls names from .wtunec tuning files in org/editor/entities/hp_weapons. These names often do not match the names from other locations. Some weapons have multiple tuning files for different ammos (shotguns with shot/slugs, Grelck Drilling Rifle, etc). Most of these are handled as duplicate entries using YAML anchors (&item and *item), with an optional ammo value to differentiate mutliple tuning files. Follow the examples in the file to see how to format new additions.

How to Build Mod Builder - Revived

NOTE: This was built and tested with Python 3.12.10

1. Install hatch: https://hatch.pypa.io/latest/install
2. Set up the virtual environment:

   hatch env create
   

3. Run the application to test:

   hatch run modbuilder
   

4. Build and package the application. The modbuilder_X.Y.Z.7z file will be placed in \dist

   NOTE: This can be run on macOS to produce a Mac-compatible build

   hatch run build
   hatch run pack
   

Credits

This project would not exist without several generous developers that chose to open-source their tools and mods:

• cpypasta: Developer of the original Mod Builder that this is forked from
• kk49: This project relies heavily on the wonderful DECA to extract and modify game files