Unlocked MCM - Advanced MCM script templates

What it is:

This is a script template resource designed to help modders create complicated MCM menus that don't stretch out over multiple, simultaneously running quest scripts. Its main feature is that it keeps the entering of the information entirely separate from the handling of it.

This reduces the amount of code processed when the MCM menu is displayed or anything is adjusted, improves readability & navigation for the modder, allows for almost any aspect of your MCM menu to be adjusted in-game, and avoids silly mistakes on your part when it comes to specifying UI strings because you no longer have to.

The handling of it is done in a compact handling script, which should really be all you'll ever need no matter how many options, submenus or even menus you have. It is entirely set-and-forget. (The standard script provided assumes you have your intel in quest variables, but the system can easily be adjusted to read from and write to any other type of variable storage, see the "advanced use" folder.)

The entering of it is done separately in a UDF and becomes a one-time deal, unless you change or add options in a mod update, in which case you simply run it once again. A few other aspects that don't need to run all the time, like adding the MCM items to the formlist and creating submenus, have been exported to UDFs as well.

What it ain't:

• a replacement of MCM: you still need MCM
• a patch to or modification of MCM: it's just an alternate way of doing the scripting that you have to do in your own mod
• an actual mod: don't try to install this package to your game folder with a mod manager

Why I did it:

• script size
• Rather complicated mods need lots and lots of different types of options for the player to manipulate in MCM. Creating MCM scripts isn't terribly difficult if you follow pelinor's manual & have some basic knowledge of scripting, but you soon run into problems with size and have to splice the code over multiple running scripts, several times in fact as your mod grows and you keep adding new options. This is mostly due to the fact that so far each and every bit of UI intel for every option needs to be entered in manually, using string parameters to the UI functions, and all of that takes up quite a bit of 'compiled script size'. The included handling script(s) are under 200 lines long, and can pretty much handle whatever you throw at them.

• readability, ease of use
• If you have multiple types of options scattered over multiple submenus, keeping track of what everything does and stands for becomes a headache. Got distracted for a second, now I'm gawking at some intel pertaining to option 5, let me scroll back up - oh yes, submenu 3..., what was that again?, and what sec