How To Install Far Cry 4 Mods
Maranda
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.
A few more things in general and about this tutorial
If you got KSP on Steam, it is recommend to move the game directory out of the Steam directory to prevent auto-updates! It is not possible to deactivate updates on Steam but a new game version may break a mod and/or your (modded) savegame, so you definitly don't want to update the game before you know if all your mods will still work fine or got updated.
Keep in mind that many mods which are compatible with KSP 1.4.x, are still compatible with 1.5.x and 1.6.x. If you play on 1.5.x or 1.6.x and the mod you want to install isn't available for your specific game version, you can still try an older mod version with good chances of success
For most parts of this tutorial, I'm going to use "SCANsat" as an example, for various reasons
Before you install a mod, you should know your game version so you can get the corresponding mod version. If you are not sure which game version you got, launch the game and take a look at the lower right corner in the main menu:
On Spacedock, you can download the latest mod version via the "Download" button and the compatible game version is listed in the information panel. If you need a different mod version, open the "Changelog" and Spacedock will present every previous released mod version to you, together with the game version it was build for:
The "Release" section looks a bit differently but the latest version will always be the first entry. Old mod versions are available as well but there is not always the corresponding KSP version number listed. Sometimes it can be found in the mod name or the changelog of a release. To download the mod, just click on the link for the .zip archive:
Quite a few mods require one or more other mod(s) to run properly or at all, these "other mods" are called dependencies. A distinction is made between hard- and soft dependencies:
Hard dependency: Required with no exception. If you don't install a hard dependency, you'll experience crashes, errors and misbehaviour of the mod.
Soft dependency: Required for additional features but not necessary to run the mod.
First of all, you need to find and open your KSP install directory. The install location depends on your system and where you bought the game so if you don't know where to look at, search your system for the "KSP_x64.exe". Keep a window with your KSP directory open.
Mods are usually distributed within .zip archives. You can un-zip the archive in a separate folder or unpack the files directly where they are supposed to be, that's up to you. I prefer the latter method
Open the folder/zip file of the mod in a separate window and place it somwhere next to the window which shows your game directory. Now, there are two cases which can happen:
Case 1: The mod folder comes with a "GameData" folder
As pointed out by @MaltYebisu, this method doesn't work on MacOS. Mac users, please scroll down a bit and read about case 2
If the mod folder contains it's own "GameData" folder, you can drag and drop it directly into your game directory, which also contains a "GameData" folder. This will merge both folders together (should work on each operating system):
On a sidenote: Some mod authors who wrote/maintain multiple mods, uses an additional sub folder for all of their mods (for example: Kerbal Alarm Clock and Transfer Window Planner). Don't worry about this, just treat them like the mod in the case 1 scenario and merge the folders together
(Case 3: ModuleManager)
"ModuleManager" (MM) is powerful mod on it's own and a common dependency for many other mods but so far, the install instructions don't fit for MM. It is a little bit special in two ways: First of all, you will not find a release version within the github repository, on SpaceDock or CurseForge. In order to download ModuleManager manually, you have to visit the MM thread here in the forum:
If you cannot find your KSP version in this list, follow the instructions in the MM thread.
Also, MM is distributed as a plain .dll file and to install it, you have to place the "ModuleManager.dll" directly within the "GameData" folder of your game....no sub folder or anything else, just like this:
(Picture was added quite some time after I wrote this tutorial, please don't get confused by the different mods which are installed here, compared to previous screenshots)
That's already everything you have to do, MM is now installed properly