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gamemanual:modinstallation

Mod Installation

Downloading and installing a mod

Steam Workshop

The central hub for downloading mods is the Steam Workshop.

Login to Steam in a browser or your Steam Client, navigate to the workshop and subscribe to mod. The mod will be automatically downloaded and updated.

Manual Mod Installation

Before installing a mod, it is required to download the mod. Usually, manually downloaded mods are packed in file archives. Common archive formats are:

  • .zip: This format can be opened by Windows Explorer and Linux themselves.
  • .rar: This format can be opened by software like 7-Zip.
  • .7z: This format can be opened by software like 7-Zip.

To install the mod, extract the archive into the Transport Fever 2 mod folder which is located in userdata/.../mods. Make sure that the mod has its own folder inside the “..\mods” folder. The folder of the mod itself should have the format author_modname_number where the author and modname do not contain special characters and the version number is 1 or higher.

In some cases, another folder encapsulating the folder of the mod with the same name is created while unpacking the mod. A constellation like mods/modname_1/modname_1/mod.lua is not valid!

Ensure that the mod.lua and other contents are one level below the mods-folder, not two levels.

Mod versions

You can have multiple versions of mods installed for savegame compatibility. When starting a new game, you only see the latest version (with the highest version number) in the mod selection.

Enabling a Mod

To enable mods, either press the SETTINGS… button while setting up a new game or click on the SHOW OPTIONS button in the savegame load dialog.

The table in the top left corner contains all installed mods 1. There are several columns that can be used to sort the table:

  • Name is the title of the mod.
  • Tags are the tags that are set by the mod author.
  • Authors is a list of mod authors
  • Source tells where the mod is installed. There are 4 possibilities:
    • manually installed mods in the userdata/.../mods folder.
    • automatically installed mods by Steam Workshop Subscription.
    • preinstalled mods by Urban Games.
    • mods that are in the staging area (mod development).
  • Enabled displays if the mod is enabled (green) or not (gray). To enable a mod, click on a gray toggle in this column, to disable it, click on a green toggle.

While in most cases it is no problem to activate additional mods at a later point of the game, deactivating mods may have a serious impact in the integrity of the savegame. There are some indicators that might serve as an orientation to estimate the impact. They can be defined by the mod authors. Be aware that it's unlikely that a mod author can test all possible combinations of mods so these indicators are a good estimation but no definitive information.

Mods that are marked with a red triangle can't be found by the game. This may happen if you want to play a foreign savegame using different mods or might be caused by some technical problems of the Steam Workshop update mechanics or a mod being removed from the Steam Workshop due to legal reasons. Click the icon to go to the Workshop page, where you can subscribe to the missing mod or see the mod troubleshooting section for further information.

To change the loading order, activate the Show loading order checkbox below the table 2. Then the loading order is visible by indices next to activated mods 3. Click on the number and use one of the four arrows to move the mod in the loading order. The double arrows move the mod to the first or last place of the loading order, the single arrows move them by one place.

In many cases it is not required to change the loading order. If you use some mods that override files of others or manipulate them by script, they might be needed to be loaded last. Some other mods might depend on scripts of other mods which have to be loaded before. Make sure that you activated all dependencies if a mod requires some, too. Usually the mod description or the description in the Steam Workshop or download location contain information regarding load order, dependencies and incompatibilities.

The right section displays the mod names, preiew images and description 4. Some mods may provide some settings. These can be tweaked in the red area too.

To unsubscribe from Steam Workshop mods, you can press the UNSUBSCRIBE button on the right 5 or go to the Steam Workshop.

Don't forget to save the settings by pressing the SAVE button in the bottom right corner 6.

Adding a Mod to an existing Savegame

It’s also possible to add mods to existing saved games (enable additional mods for a saved game).

Warning: Because some mods modify game resources in a critical way, doing this can lead to unexpected behavior or even game crashes. Nevertheless, adding mods to existing save games is needed in some cases.

To add a mod to an existing saved game, go to the load game screen. Select the saved game you wish to start with and click on the plus “+” sign in the mods area at the bottom of the screen.


gamemanual/modinstallation.1592287145.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/06/16 07:59 by kjell