Installing Mods

Installing Mods

Mods are installed and managed on the launcher's Mods page. The game loads the switched-on mods at its start.

Install

1. Open the launcher's Mods page.

2. Install .zip… for a mod you downloaded, or Install folder… for a mod folder.

3. The launcher checks the whole package ("Installing and checking…"): its files, its resource.toml, and every file an entry names, decoded within the limits. If it passes, the package is copied into your mods folder, listed last and switched on ("Installed Neon board 1.0.0 (3 files) and switched it on."). The check's notes and warnings follow that line: the first three in the message, and when there are more, the first 40 of them under Remarks of the install below it (with the count of the rest). If it does not pass, nothing is installed and every problem is shown with its file and line:

   …: the package does not pass its check:
   resource.toml:4:1: error: unknown field `titel`, expected one of `name`, `version`, `title`, `authors`, `description`, `api`, `type`, `priority`
   

4. If a package of the same name is installed, the launcher asks first ("Replace neon-board 1.0.0?"). Replace moves the installed version to the system's trash (where there is none, it is deleted) and puts the new one in its place on the list.

The Mods page

INSTALLED lists the mods in their load order, each with its title, version, priority, authors, type and what it contains.

Control	Does
the check box	switches a mod on or off
Up / Down	changes the load order (Load Order and Priorities)
Remove	moves the mod's folder to the system's trash and takes it off the list (where there is no trash, it asks to delete it for good)
Forget	takes a listed mod whose folder is gone off the list
Install .zip…, Install folder…	install, as above
Open the mods folder	opens the folder in your file manager

A mod with GPU code (shader hooks) or ActionScript (menu screens) says so on its row; servers refuse both.

BEFORE PLAY works out what the game will load at its start, as the game does:

Section	Lists
Skipped at the start	mods the game will not load, with the reason (a missing requirement, a newer API level, a broken file, a blocked file)
Blocklists followed	the blocklists the mods were checked against
Conflicts (one id from several mods)	each id several mods supply, with the winner
Ids nothing below them has	overrides of ids that do not exist: "A typo, or an id of another version: the game uses these files nowhere."
Patches of ids nobody provides	patches with nothing to change
Replaced in the game	per mod, how many of the game's ids it replaces
No effect yet	entries of kinds the game does not read from mods yet

Where mods live

	Folder
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Project Avalanche\Mods\
Linux	~/.local/share/project-avalanche/Mods/ ($XDG_DATA_HOME/project-avalanche/Mods/)

The list of mods and their order is mods.toml in the folder above Mods:

format = 1

[[mods]]
folder = "neon-board"
enabled = true

[[mods]]
folder = "bots"
enabled = true

A folder copied into Mods by hand shows at the end of the list, switched off, until you switch it on; it has not been through the install's check, so prefer Install folder…. When mods.toml cannot be read, the game loads no mod and the page says why; a change on the page writes it again.

Starting without mods

avalanche-game --no-mods starts the game without the client mods of the list, for when a mod keeps the game from starting.

Mods and servers

On a server, the server decides what your mods may do (Client Mods on Servers). The game puts your mods back when you leave.

Blocked mods

The game follows the project's blocklist: a mod that holds a blocked file is skipped at the start, with the reason under Skipped at the start.