Mod folder

[sittinhere]

Hello all,

So I have a question and what the majority of players do with their mod folder and maps. I’ve heard people still maki multiple mod folders for each map. (Was a thing in fs15/17). I also hear people dumping all their maps and mods into the mod folder. The game only loads that map and mods selected, so I was wondering how everyone does it. Is it necessary to have separated maps or no?

[juf.de]

In general you should have multiple mod folders as soon as you use usermade scripts or mods containing usermade scripts.

[ctb123]

In general you should have multiple mod folders as soon as you use usermade scripts or mods containing usermade scripts.

The more script-related mods you use, the more important it is to only have what you are using on map, and one map for that matter in a folder. Another huge benefit of separate folders is it is much easier to troubleshoot conflicts, and loading time can be significantly faster.

[sittinhere]

Right, but since fs19 changed how mods are loaded, only the map that is being played is loaded and the mods. There are people that like to use lots of different equipment for their maps. So, the downside to have multiple mod folders is the duplicating of mods and storage space.

For example, my mod folder is 7gigs roughly 100 mods. Now I don’t use all of them (currently downsizing) but it is more of a chore having to go in and out of the game to get different mods.

Just curious is all as I hear more and more people going away from the 1 map per mod folder scenario.

[DEERE317]

I couldn’t even fit 2 different mod folders with mostly replicated equipment. But I also play with the same scripts across the board.

[Farmer686]

If your like me and have.too many mods, I have them split up so 1 mod folder is.aboit 2 save games and I swap them out.

[DEERE317]

As in I don’t know if I even have the space to replicate it. (Yeah a new HDD is on the plans somewhere...)

[sittinhere]

I hear ya Deere317. I have about 3-4 maps I play then the occasional ones I try out. Just isn’t feasible for me. I also don’t play on to many maps that are heavily scripted and the scripted mods I do have are used across the board

[Dorsai]

Since i do FA edition maps mod folder is set for same scripts, mods i use.

[DEERE317]

I hear ya Deere317. I have about 3-4 maps I play then the occasional ones I try out. Just isn’t feasible for me. I also don’t play on to many maps that are heavily scripted and the scripted mods I do have are used across the board

That’s actually a big reason I deleted REA after I stopped using it due to all of the little things and I don’t run any of the Maize mods even if I do anything on a map supporting them. Whenever I download new mods I just deselect and reselect all mods and disable unwanted Geos and hit play. No hunting for that one script which will break everything if I don’t disable it on map A and if I don’t enable map B delete something the relies on that script.

[cwattyeso]

Right, but since fs19 changed how mods are loaded, only the map that is being played is loaded and the mods. There are people that like to use lots of different equipment for their maps. So, the downside to have multiple mod folders is the duplicating of mods and storage space.

That's not accurate at all, if you look at your log file the next time you launch and play the game, you'll see that FS19 still loads every single mod you have in your mod folder despite whether you are using it or not in a save game.

For this reason I always use a separate folder for every single map, and even more importantly when using script mods, to ensure only the ones I'm using on a save are getting loaded into memory and therefore reducing the possibility of conflict with mods that whilst not active in a particular save could still cause issues because of how the engine loads every mod.

Now for the people that complain this method of using separate folders causes issues with space because of duplicating mods that they use in every save. The solution to this is to place your "Always" used mods into the PDLC Folder of the game (Where your DLC is downloaded and installed), which means they will get loaded every time you launch the game, regardless of which mod folder you select beforehand. This way you don't need to duplicate the mods you use on every save, and can just have the one instance of those and therefore take up no extra space each time you create a new mod folder.

[DEERE317]

Right, but since fs19 changed how mods are loaded, only the map that is being played is loaded and the mods. There are people that like to use lots of different equipment for their maps. So, the downside to have multiple mod folders is the duplicating of mods and storage space.

That's not accurate at all, if you look at your log file the next time you launch and play the game, you'll see that FS19 still loads every single mod you have in your mod folder despite whether you are using it or not in a save game.

For this reason I always use a separate folder for every single map, and even more importantly when using script mods, to ensure only the ones I'm using on a save are getting loaded into memory and therefore reducing the possibility of conflict with mods that whilst not active in a particular save could still cause issues because of how the engine loads every mod.

Now for the people that complain this method of using separate folders causes issues with space because of duplicating mods that they use in every save. The solution to this is to place your "Always" used mods into the PDLC Folder of the game (Where your DLC is downloaded and installed), which means they will get loaded every time you launch the game, regardless of which mod folder you select beforehand. This way you don't need to duplicate the mods you use on every save, and can just have the one instance of those and therefore take up no extra space each time you create a new mod folder.

The game does not fully load them when initially fired up, to my understanding it essentially does a roll call of all mods installed so it knows what to show up in the installed mods tab and the mod selection screen (at least to my knowledge.) And then when loading a savegame and selecting/deselecting mods then it commits to memory active mods. And otherwise why would GIANTS have went through the effort of making the mod management tools?
And in some of our cases we play with the exact same set of mods across the board so multiple folders would be a total waste (All my saves are Seasons, have Courseplay, etc)

[cwattyeso]

Like I said people who use the exact same mods across the board on multiple saves, can do so by placing those mods into the PDLC Folder so they'll always be loaded when the game is launched and available to select on the mod screen prior to starting/loading a save and therefore you only require one copy of those mods on your system.

It just is incredibly bad to have one Mod Folder and be loading every single mod you have each time you launch the game, if you're only using a fraction of them in a save. Also it removes the headache of having to scroll through a huge list of mods activating and deactivating what you want or don't for a save. With a separate mod folder, you can just quickly hit the select all on game creation and you are away. I would never dream of using one mod folder and loading the 262GB of mods, which is basically every mod I've ever downloaded, every time I launch the game, when I'm at any time I'm probably only using 3-4GB of mods on any save. So I'll always use separate mod folders, and actually have an entire hard drive in my PC dedicated as a 'Farm Sim' drive, where it just contains mod folders for every single save game and multiplayer server I have ever played.

[Illinois Farmer]

What do you label the different folders, so they show up in game correctly?

[juf.de]

I just create for each map a folder and place my finished und filled up mod folder inside of each, when i play a specific savegame i move the mod folder to the correct destination and launch the game. I keep the folders in the same location as the mod folder, so it's easy to navigate.

I name them:
[SP 01] mapname
[SP 02] mapname
[SP 03] mapname
[MP 01] mapname
so they line up after another