By: Viz

This is some tips for people who are willing to learn to merge mods.

1) There are 5 types of files that commonly used by the game, namely .RAW, .DAT, .BINDAT, .LAYOUT and .BINLAYOUT. The only files that requires merging are the .DAT and .LAYOUT files. This means that the remaining types of files can be safely ignored.

2) Use programs like Notepad++ to merge codes between .DAT files. Sometimes its much quicker than editing through the editor.

3) Make a habit of restarting the editor every time you done a good amount of editing/code merging. This is to ensure the editor detects new changes correctly.

4) If the editor did not detect your changes, try deleting the corresponding .BINDAT/BINLAYOUT file of the file that you have edited. Then restart the editor as it will automatically create the .BIN- files again. In some rare cases, you might need to delete the EDITORMOD of your mod as well.

5) Sometimes when you unpack a mod (usually happens to a mod that changes or adds a lot of stuff), GUTS will throw a bunch of errors like this : “found property name with a hashcode XX that has no match in tags.dat”. This error is known as broken tags.

If you open the corresponding .DAT file, you'll notice an odd line of code that consist of long numerical hashes. This is anexample of such error. Did you see something weird about the code? It's in the line “<BOOL>2770992901”

While this error can be left ignored, some of these hashes might be a part of a crucial code that dictates the functionality of a certain feature of the mod. So if we goes by the example, the broken tags in the triggerable might causing the related skill to stop functioning.

Ideally, to avoid running into unexpected issue, you should take note all of the broken tags, determine which one of them are affecting any important .DAT files and try to guess what were their original tags. You can use Chton's tool called TL2 Tag Fixer found in here to guess those tags.

Outdated mods can be identified by the mod launcher. Their status would be labelled as “Compiled for outdated game ver”. However, some people are quick to jump to conclusion, assuming that these mods would no longer work for the game.

The truth is that all mods would remain functional regardless of the game version.

If you're certain that the mod is still not working, change the mod load order. Keep in mind that mods on the top of load order will override the mods at the bottom.

And if the game happens to crash while launching these 'outdated' mods, it is most likely caused by either of these.

• Conflict with other mods.
• The mod is corrupted during downloading process. Check the actual size of the mod and compare with the one that you've downloaded.
• Your character's save file is corrupted somehow.

Hopefully this would clears up the misconception about the outdated mod.

By: Phanjam

Trying to add pictures also to this tutorial by Viz.

This short tutorial assumes that you already un-packed the mods you want to merge using GUTS' unpacker utility.

1. All mods have a starting directory inside them named “MEDIA”. What you will do is “merge” these media folders together to create a new merged mod.

As Viz already said, no need to include the .RAW, .BINDAT and .BINLAYOUT files in your merge

2. Just like merging folders containing your data files, you have to be careful about file conflicts. First thing to look for are folders/sub-folders which are duplicated across the mods you want to combine. Of course, for those folders which are not duplicated, you can copy those over into your new-mod MEDIA folder right away.

In the figure below you see the “Unlimited Enchanters” MEDIA folder and the “Epic Encounters” MEDIA folder both have several sub-folders which also need to be merged.

Now you need to check inside and look for more sub-folder OR file duplication. Let's open the DUNGEONS sub-folder first.

3. Good news! The DUNGEONS sub-folder does not have any sub-folders or files which conflict.

So it's completely safe to combine the contents of this sub-folder.

4. Just keep going like this for each and every sub-folder until the source mods are fully merged into your new-mod folder. When you're done, compile your new merge-mod in GUTS and use it in game :D

Obviously the next question is what to do if you there are file conflicts. This is where it gets complicated because you will have to edit those files to try and preserve the changes made to it by the source mods, but still end up with only one file for your merge-pack.

I won't cover such file-editing in this short tutorial because that would really be a LOT of ground to cover! Pls try to read through the other parts of this wiki to learn more about the file that you wat to edit. Then just give it a try! If you get stuck feel free to ask questions in the forums ;)