Tew 2020 How To Install Mods

[Ceumar Pee]

Irecently did some research about installing mods in general, and then with the help of others in this forum, figured out how to get Conan mods from the Steam workshop for a non-Steam install. For the benefit of those in my Discord channel, I collated the instructions into a comprehensive solution that can be accessed from beginning to end, all in one place, and put them into a discussion thread.

Run the batch script(Run.bat). The first time you run it, it will download files that SteamCMD needs to run properly. After it does that, it will download the mods you pasted file IDs for into the ModIDs.txt file. It is a good idea to leave the file IDs inside the ModIDs.txt file, as SteamCMD checks them all for the latest version and replaces any outdated versions.

There should be a number of subfolders in there, matching the fileIDs you pasted into ModIDs.txt. Leave them as they are, as SteamCMD will check them in the future for updates when you run the batch script in the future.

If you figure out how to modify the batch script to copy the .pak files out of all the subfolders of 440900 and paste them into whatever Mods folder the user specifies, I would really appreciate having it. It seems like such a simple task, and yet my attempts so far have been fruitless.

This way all you ever have to do is use your mod updater batch file and your game will automatically use the latest mods without you having to copy any files, since your modlist is directly set to them.

As such I pointed out that, in my opinion, at the very least it needs some caveats mentioned like the fact that a majority of them are on steam and the nexus ones are outdated and whoever chooses to install from there should triple-check the update date of said mod (this ofc applies to steam too, the difference being that the majority available on the nexus are already outdated).

And once again if the scope of this guide is to teach people how to download and use / load mods, then the modlist is one of the most important parts of that process and imo. you cannot skip over explaining it.

Since we do have a lot new members in our ArmAverse, i think it isn't wrong to have a guide on how to install usermade mods and addons. For this guide i assume that you know how to use the Windows Explorer.

Well, at first you will have to download them, obviously. Mostly they come in compressed format like .zip, 7zip or .rar format. So the very first step is to unpack it. Personally i prefer the software 7zip for this but you might use other software that can handle the corresponding format. Please note that Windows by default can decompress the .zip format.

While technically it is possible to simply put the addons into the already existing addons folder, this should be prevented. If ever a usermade addons screw anything up, you might have a hard time to locate which addon it is. Using Modfolders will put you on the safe side.

Most Mods/Addons already come with the above structure preset. So after decompressing you might find a folder named @ModName with a addons folder in it and in there you will find at least one file named modName.pbo. Most likely there will be other files like modname.bisign2.pbo, they all belong together. Simply copy the @ModName folder into the Arma 3 directory, like in the example above.

If the Mod/Addon doesn't come with the required file/folder structure, you'll probably have one or more .pbo files. Simply create a folder inside the Arma 3 folder. Here you're basically free how you name it. Common practice is to start with a @ as the Windows Explorer always orders folders and files alphabetically and therefor modfolders will always be listed on top. For the rest of the name, you're free, just give it something that is meaningful. If it's a A-10 addon, something like @A10 would make sense. You get the idea.

Inside this folder now, you create another folder and this one has to be named addons and nothing else. Inside this folder you copy now all those .pbo file you've downloaded and decompressed. Don't move the .zip, 7zip or .rar files in there, this wont work. It has to be decompressed first.

Organizing Mods is mostly not necessary as they already come organized. For single addons you may organize them in a way you feel comfortable. Say a addonmaker released several single addons over time, it is up to you if you prefer to have them all in separated Modfolders or you create a single Modfolder for all addons of this addonmaker. You also might create Modfolders for specific servers if you wish. This is completely up to you.

This is done ingame. Go to Options -> Expansions. There you will find your Expansions. They are disabled by default unless you enable them in here. Enable those you need and disable those you don't need. Keep in mind that some addons do require other addons to work properly.

Also loading order does matter (which is from top to bottom). Say you have a units addon from addonmaker A which requires a weapon addon from addonmaker B. So the units rely on the weapons so these should be loaded before the units. Else you will get a error about missing addons. So make sure that such Modfolders are loaded in the correct order top down.

There are tools around, created by very talented community members which might help to get addons easier downloaded and installed. Search the Forums for them, most popular being SixUpdater and PlayWithSix by Sickboy.

I get the mods to show up in the menu and am able to select to enable or disable them, however when the game says it needs to restart after enabling a mod it doesn't remember the mod has been enabled ?

The only thing the command line does for me is add an entry like the default ARAMA3 in the expansions menu, ie the added folder has no enable / disable option, and no sub drop down comes up with individual mods in that folder in expansions ?

My problem with the mods/addons is I can get them to work in-game which is great. But They are constantly enabled in the expansions menu. I cant disable or change the load order as the options to do so are greyed out. Anybody else having this issue?

I put two arma 3 icons on my desktop, one to run vanilla arma for online MP servers and the other with all my mods. So the vanilla one just has the default target line and the other one has the default target line plus all the -@mod= blah blah stuff.

I recommend not to organize them this way, for one reason: Tools like PlayWithSix or Armarize (which I use, which is great, and which also uses the PlayWithSix network) may rely on having the mods in the well known directories.

By no mean im no noob, but I have my arma 3 installed on a SSD and running my mods via the my documents/Arma 3 Alpha folder. But they do not show up in the expansions menu at all. So Any ideas. I have just been using a launcher, playwithsix, and short cuts. But If i start Arma straight with steam. No mods show up in expansions.

when organizing like this, where do I put the keys? In the Arma3 directory, or can I have a Keys folder here as well? Haven't seen a mod with a userconfig folder yet, but if there is one, same question.

With the Windows path direction you will only open your current savegame folder. I dont know yet if the Steam Version will use this path for its savegamefiles too... I will have a look at this later maybe^^

I have the latest Desura stable build download and I'm trying to use mods, I have found the mod folder, place the zip files in the folder (not in the script and stories folder inside the mod folder), and nothing happens. I start the game and I don't see a mod options menu.

Make sure that the mods are actually for the current version of Project Zomboid. You can easily tell by looking at the title of the threads and checking if the version number (for example [2.9.9.17]) matches the version you are playing. Some mods haven't been updated yet.

Turns out I have 2.9.9.10. I'm tempted to get my Steam key and go for 2.9.9.17. Maybe that will fix some mod issues. I tried unzipping the files into the mod folder, leaving the zip files in the mod folder, repeating the first 2 in Mod/Script folder, and the list goes on. I won't give up.

very new to the modding scene but huge fan of PZ and all that goes into it. Recently downloaded it from Steam, however all methods i've seen explain that the game folder should come with a preexisting mod folder. In my Zomboid Download this folder does not exist, and i'm at a loss to figure out how i can mod without it. Any sort of help with this or explanation would be HUGELY appreciated. Thanks to all,

Hey guys ,

I found a pretty annoying bug with the installation of mods, sometimes you would install the mod properly and it would even show on the in-game menu tab, however the mod wouldn't work at all.

With the newest steam build mod loader all the mods are required to have a mod.info file this one needs to consist of 5 basic elements,

these are listed in here: -how-to-use-the-modloader/ "name, id, poster, description and url" .

For some reason some of the mod developers do not add the id element, this brings(at least for me) an annoying problem:

The game tries to find the id for the mod and fails in doing so, therefore it adds the address of where the mod is located (C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Zomboid\mods\MODNAME) then the game lists the game in the "loaded.txt file in the mods folder with this "default" id.

The game then recognizes the mod and lists it as loaded, but when you load a world and the mod doesn't work at all.

I came with a solution for this(it's really simple you should have figured it out by now):

Simply edit the mod.info file and add the id element to it, use the name of the mod, preferably.

It should look something like this: "id=NameOfTheMod"

To do this i used Notepad++, but i'm sure it works without it, simply right click the mod.info file, click Edit from the drop-down list and add the id element.

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