this mod is always must for me, i cant imagine to play X4 without it.

@Bebop Cola Please avoid editing .cat/.dat files directly. Comments recommending this will be removed. These packed files are highly susceptible to corruption, as you’ve noticed.

Instead, use the Catalog Tool included in the official X Tools to extract them properly. If you want to make local edits, unpack the mod using the Catalog Tool, then delete the ext_01.cat and ext_01.dat files. The game will then load the unpacked mod files, which you can freely modify.
For more details on X Tools, check out this thread:

https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=363625

If I want to tweak some of the values for my own game, how do I do it? Every time I try to make any adjustments the mod stops loading in game.

I assume at the moment that it has something to do with the values (byte size and hash) in the ext_01.cat, but the simple guide I'm aware of online doesn't mention there being three files in the .cat so I'm not sure what to modify to get it working with any changes I might make for my own game.

Any recommendations or pointers?

Great mod, seems to be working fine with 8.0

@HippiePeaceLove This mod should almost never break on updates. It replaces the content of equipmentmods.xml for that very reason. So yes it should work with 8.0. Especially since they didn't do any changes to equipmentmods according to patchnotes.

The obvious question: Does it work with 8.0?

Does it also affect mods drop rate? I destroyed some BUC pirate ships but no more modification dropped, perhaps due to some of them are removed by the mod?

@Drexarg thats should be vanilla behaviour if you ask me, even more if modifications are at random in vanilla. Having 4 identical guns with different stats not only make no sense, it also prevent proper aiming, especially if you get different bullet speeds.
Anyway, getting that kind of mechanics is all another level of mod, way more complex and invasive.

I don't know modding so I may be asking for the impossible, but it would be great if there was a feature to apply a modification to all turrets and shield of that name on a ship. Trying to mod all the turrets and shields of my XL ships becomes a pain when its one with 20+ m turrets.

@SkyWølf Thank you! Splendid work!

@KirBadran I've postet an update in "All Modification Values" powered by AI.

Is there an update to the "All Modification Values" page, linked above?

You're welcome!

@Fannus Family always comes first, and that means my hobby time is pretty limited. But rest assured, I'll still be maintaining this mod.

I've also been dipping my toes back into X4 non-VRO—keen to try out Vanilla with just QoL mods to see how it feels.

I'm thrilled to see the Hyperion and the Xperimental Shuttle back. The Hyperion was my favorite playership in X3. I also think timelines would've been better as a pure shippack. Right now, I'm split (license for dad jokes acquired) between a Paranid all-round with a travel speed mod or Terran with Whirlygig. The 0 travel charge time on Boron and Terran m/s has spoiled me—I can't go back to long travel charge times anymore. Instant Travelmod, this is the way.

thank you so much @SkyWølf. Have a journey ahead!

@SkyWølf
Thank you so much for the update. I will try it when I'm back from my travels.
And: I guess you already do, but just to re-iterate, please prioritize your familiy over this. If nothing else works, someone here is surely willing to take over keeping the mod up to date.

Important you might need to dismantle/recraft existing equipment mods for the changes to take effect

Update is pushed! :)

Since it came up again a while back, I wanted to touch on a contentious subject about my mod. Right now, the mod replaces the root node <equipmentmods>. This way, it’s almost impossible to break when Egosoft releases a new update. The downside is that it’s not compatible with other mods that also mess with the equipmentmods.xml file. (There's a workaround with dependencies, but let's not dive into that right now.) I could switch to a more fine-tuned approach that might play nicer with other mods, depending on what changes they make.

Personally, having a family and a full-time software engineering job to worry about (AI can assist, not replace me yet :P), I think the stability is worth the trade-off. But I'm curious to hear what you all think. How do you feel about this approach?

@SkyWølf Thank you!

awesome, thanks!

I've dipped my toes into 7.5 for an evening and I'm currently testing an update for this mod, which adds the modifiers boostacc and strafeacc from 7.5 to the appropriate engine modifications, and includes some minor rebalancing.

Still working for 7.5
It just increases the % of the already existing stats, even if those were modified in the last update. So no need for change.

thank you @gojira for the reply.

to @skywolf, i havent use it since the update but I will give it a try now. We understand. Thank you for dropping by. We wish you goodluck for whatever adventures you're currently having. More power! Cheers!

it worked perfectly fine for 7.X patches i didnt check 7.5 yet, im going to though. i think what need to be done is just adjust two stats new in 7.5

@g0ira @Cley Silverheart

Could you please let me know whether the mod has stopped working completely? If it has, I will look into it when I have some time. However, I will only address it if it is completely broken, as I stopped playing X4 between versions 5.0 and 6.0. Setting up a new development environment and a compatible save file for testing will take a lot of effort.

I'm doing well, but I have almost no time for private mod projects and gaming in general due to work and family commitments. My backlog could fill several lifetimes, and I don't see this changing anytime soon.

Seconded! This mod almost a necessity for modifications to be useful at all

true. Hi dear @mod creator of this wonderful mod .. if you read this, we're hoping that you are doing great irl. If you have time, please update this wonderful mod. Thank you!

it would be nice to have it updated for 7.5 with flight update. but still one of the best mods for x4 game

With the way the weapon mod stats, is Obliterator BiS for main and front facing weapons and Annihilator BiS for turrets or is there an argument that can be made to use expediter for turrets?

Will this be updated to reflect changes made for 7.5 (ergo boost mod for example)?

Thank you for this mod.
The more I was played the more I was starting to realize some mods were the "end all be all". Just put on slasher on turrets and call it a day and some weapons mods existed like up to 15% faster projectile speed but felt like I could never justify using that.

But did the mining speed mods disappear? Not a deal breaker but it was funny having one or two super miners for the sake of it.

It looks like you replaced the whole equipmentmods section in the xml, it causes problem with deadair mods which add additional enties to equipmentmods.

True choice is between damage and range/pj speed. Put damage mod on long ranged guns and range/speed on high damage guns.

This mod is amazing, way better mod choices than defaults.

Is there a recommendation which weapons benefit from which T3 mods? I'm still fuzzy on reload vs cooldown vs etc mechanics for weapons.

@Pitagora thank you for the info. Yeah the mod shouldn't break unless egosoft does a major overhaul of the entire equipmentmod system.
@KoTenila no need for an update, the mod still works.

As far as I can see it seems to work on 7.00 too.

Does this mod still work in 7.10?

please update )

@Cane McKeyton you're welcome. :)

@nichtgeländegängig sorry for the GPT replyI coudln't resist the tempatation because Timelines features AI generated content. Maybe it's just my weird humor. If despite the odds here are new equipment modifications inside the DLC and a friendly modder with the dlc can pass me the infos then I'll add them to the mod.

@[TP]Heri are they still rng when you dismantle and craft them again? Sound to me like they are randomized on generation by a spawn script. Which I can't do anything about. Simple fix would be to dismantle and recraft. If that doesn't fix it let me know which equipment mods are affected.

I honestly can't fathom playing X4 without this mod so I think you for continuing to keep it updated even if you don't play X4 yourself anymore

thx...

Hey there! Thanks for reaching out. I get your worries about the 7.0 update and the new DLC. Just to let you know, if the 7.0 update does mess with the mod, I’ll be on it to fix and update when I can.

Regarding the DLC, I won’t be testing it myself as I’ve stopped playing X4. But don’t worry, previous DLCs haven’t added new equipment modifications and there’s nothing on the Timelines DLC Storepage that suggests this one will. So, the mod should be good to go with the new DLC.

Hope this helps! If anything comes up, just give me a shout.

is an update to 7.0 and DLC Timelines in planning... that´s were very nice...

hey i keep getting SOME rng on boron ships, are those included in this? :)

Skywolf -I found the folder thanks, after I uninstalled VRO last year due to update 6 it just kept coming back. It was driving me nuts. Great mod by the way

@32anChips No it doesn't. it's how the game handles optional dependencies. Nothing of VRO gets installed by this mod it's just the extension entry and an empty mod folder. See the installation guide for more information.

Adding this mod all so installs VRO ? i have been adding mods 1 by 1 to find the mod that automatically puts VRO in my extension list and its this one

@冷沔泠-35P your welcome, if you wanna dive deeper into modding the x4_modding channel from the official discord is a good place to ask questions. Lots of experienced modders there. :) Egosoft Discord [discord.gg]

Thank you for your information, it is very helpful to a layman like me.

For people trying to do local edits by opening the .dat file in an editor.

Don't do that!

If you change the file length then the file will be corrupted and the mod stops working. Instead learn how to mod properly by unpacking the mod first using the X4 Catalog Tool [www.egosoft.com]

Once you've unpacked the mod files and deleted the cat and dat files from the mod folder you can start editing the unpacked files without this issue.

Posts about editing .dat files will be deleted to stop the spread of misinformation.

@deltaCorben it should work just fine since equipmentmods.xml has nothing to do with trader inventories. I was using a mod that allowed for crafting mod components and it worked fine back in the day.