Wow it looks amazing. I have to read carefully everything.
Spartan,
Total Modder is benitomuso's frigging awesome application which allows for better management of MODs, and also allows for advanced stuff like packing and unpacking SFS files. It is a sophisticated alternative to JGSME. It enables a caching system which allows for mods to be installed without having to copy them to their directories, so unlike JSGME, you do not duplicate the amount of harddrive space... it takes care of setting up the IL-2 files to go to the proper directories, and it customizes the IL 2 executable to handle your settings. Very brilliant...
However, there are a few things to keep in mind:
* DO use TM for MODs that are pre-loaded, that is, the files that go into the mod folders, such as #SAS, #DBW, #UP#, and the SAS autoload folder
* DO NOT (in fact you CANNOT, per benitomuso himself) use it for files which go into user content categories, or files in directories which are read after loading (the so called Java content)... these are custom missions, skins, and any other content that does not get pre-loaded. This type of content should be used with JSGME (if you don't mind the slight HDD space wasted, since these are typically not that large), or just copy them manually.
* Order matters in loading, like JSGME, so whatever you want to overwrite previous version when you have many MODS, has to be loaded first... fortunately it has a kick ass method of allowing to assign order, instead of having to give folders and files weird names.
* All ini files are handled as whatever is loaded first, is the one used... so you can either manage the order they get loaded, of you can assign a single location for all of them, that way you have absolute control over files like air.ini, etc.
For Mods that include both pre- and post-load content, such as new aircraft that include skins, then the skins folder will be ignored by TM, however if you want to use them you need to manually place them in the proper directory... it is easier than it sounds here.
Anyway, if you can't tell, I am a big fan, and since TFM (now CFM) is being tested with it, that is great news.
Best Regards,
UberDemon/danzigzag
www.uberdemon.net