You see here a feral zombie from my Higher Zombies in Spawns mod
About this image
Attention to all users.
I have been recently reported that my More Zombies mods are not working as intended. I ran some tests and found out why.
DO NOT PUT YOUR MODS IN APP DATA ROAMING 7 DAYS TO DIE FOLDER !
I repeat : DO NOT !
The developers said in A21 that they were going to change and make it so that mods need to be put in App Data folder instead of Steam folder. But they did let the players time to change habits by letting both Mods folders active.
So we were expecting that those developers actually do something with the App Data Mods folder. They haven't yet.
Instead, since b312 or b313 of (apparently the beginning said magejosh below) 1.0 unstable branch, they put an Harmony Patcher (let the technical details aside if you're not familiar with that) in the Steam Mods folder. Which makes that if you use the App Data Mods folder, mods are loaded BEFORE this patcher. In return it means that mods relying on it WILL NOT work at all.
Put yours mods in the Steam Mods folder so they are loaded AFTER the Harmony Patcher and work as intended.
Spaws will be instant, you will see result 10 seconds after loading my mods in, I saw a green zombie right after I loaded my Higher Zombies in Spawns mod, and the feral in this picture some seconds after. So it works. If not then I may be cursed.
Hopefully it will solve the issues most of users have. If needed report all problems in respective mods pages so authours stop pulling their hair and ending bald.
You can also comment the picture if you need advice or anything.
12 comments
Bro, i have never seen a modder put so much effort into thier mods. its very much appreciated. and i have been playing with mods on various games for years.
again, very much appreciated for the work and effort.
There are plenty of cool guys here who provide great work with care for their users, I can see a few. I'm not the only one who takes his work at heart trust me, but your kind words go directly to my soul.
all the mods I've installed were supposed to be installed in the steam mods folder...
I just had so many reports that I had to try and figure out why people had problems. I understood it after looking carefully at what order the mod were loaded in console checks.
Do you need help with modding the game ?
TFP needs to correct this issue. The problem is Microsoft is exerting influence upon TFP to use the Steam Mods folder. We really do not need to go into the reason behind that, do we?
Maybe the solution is as simple as moving 0_TFP_Harmony into the traditional folder. Regardless, it does need to be loaded FIRST.
All those will get erased/fooked upon when the game will update, each time : Renaming wil get erased, displacing will create a duplicate (even without update, just a files verification will do it), and the game won't understand why there's a duplicate. I would probably do nothing, but in the case the Harmony patcher is modified internally code wise, the duplicate in App Data folder will confuse the engine et provoke issues.
Microsoft can do anything they want, the final word will be in TFP's mouth.
Thing is they need to think and let us know what they are doing. Simple as that. Their lack of (good) communication is the base of all the problems we had in the past and now. Not everyone visit the official forums. And even when searched no results were provided to me about this two folders issue. Which means few people will take the time to verify and inform others.
I have been putting the mods in the D:\Steam\steamapps\common\7 Days To Die\Mods, at least since Alpha 20.6 (around 30 mods)
For v1.0 it's 20 mods so far
In the other comment you posted :
Second one, I play and mod the game since A16, and publish them since A18, so... What's your point ? Trying to be the one who discovered the game first ?
Third one is also wrong, at least in my case : As long as A18 I remember there was a "mods" folder in the Steam location (before we would modify the OG files directly), and if I'm mistaken, it's A19, at least in MY installation, again. Maybe I'm different and protected by the gods who knows ?
After, I always copied/displaced the previous versions in another location to keep them, so I could download the newer ones with a fresh install by deleting additional files. To avoid problems.
Then, I wrote white on black FIRST LINE that I was REPORTED those issues. And my main modpages have a statement in RED saying work for 1.0 without updates needed. So it's OTHER people who had problems with my mods, not me.
Plus the post adresses to people who listened to developers' statements to change mods folder. If you didn't, good for you !
You see. Reading is easy and you're not succeeding in doing it. And you make asumptions that are utterly wrong in addition. You can put all the ASCII emotes you want, that doesn't save you from looking like a fool trying to act smart.
I may make mistakes sometimes, but strawmen arguments and badly placed swagger are not among them. Now please if don't have any problems you can leave and play without disturbing people who are trying to work.
The point about not everyone visits the official forums invalidates the claim that TFP needs to do a better job of communicating with us what they are doing. If you don't go to the place for official communication, how then could they "Do Better" about it?
Man I swear first thing I did was open the Steam folder to look at the files in the Config folder, and one thing that baffled me was the absence of Mods folder.
I clearly remember thinking "Why ? Why deleting the Mods folder ? They finally decided to only use the App Data folder ?" and moved on.
It might have been a dowloading error.
Am I wrong ?