RimWorld

RimWorld

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A Handy Guide On Getting Mods To Update Faster
By Bird Cryptid
Here's a list of the Does and Don'ts of getting your favorite mods to update sooner to whatever the newest release or version of the game is.
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Foreword
After having browsed the mods to see which ones of my favorites have already been updated or just need a little more time for whatever reason the creator has, I got frustrated with the sheer number of "Update to 1.3 plz" or "I can't play without this mod update please!" and decided to post something that might help some people help our amazing modding community follow up with the newest content update.
The Does
-Get involved with the modding community and offer support or assistance if you are savvy with coding
-Get involved with the modders discord or modding group if it's open and see if they need assistance with play testing
-Show your general support for modders
-If the modder as a Patreon/Ko-Fi/Fiverr/Some other payment or donation platform, donate some money to them to show their efforts and works are appreciated
-Be patient and refrain from commenting about an update until a significant amount of time has passed
-Check to see if the mod is still being maintained by its creator or someone else has picked it up to continue it's support
-Continue offering bug reports and useful information the modder asks for to help them squish bugs and improve the quality of their mod
-Be respectful about modders time, it's usually something they do for free on their spare time
-Try out some of the other mods that have already been updated
-Revert back to a previous version while waiting for mods to update if they are critical to your experience
-Pray to Randy Random that the modders have random cargo pods drop silver and chocolate on their colonies
The Don'ts
-Comment asking for an update when other's already have done so
-Yell, threaten, abuse, or otherwise poorly treat modders
-Try playing with an un updated mod and then complaining if it doesn't work (Things change under the hood sometimes)
-Forget that modders are not your personal slaves or that this is not their job
-Leave bad reviews on mods because the creator hasn't updated just yet
-Spam the modders who adopt abandoned mods and maintain them with the updates to update someone elses mod
-Forget to pray to Randy Random that a mechanoid cluster does not land on your colony and turn your colonists into hats if you do any of this
Community Suggested Things (And more indepth ways to help)
AKA the stuff I forgot because I'm stupid, and since this blew up much more than I thought it would I will be giving some more indepth information for those interested in actually helping our modders out. Love you modders.

Thanks to RedPine for mentioning the following as things that should be included:
-Use ctrl-f12, if you're using HugsLib (odds are you are if you mod the game), using this handy button combination will allow you to export the output_log.txt file. Not sure what that is? Its a copy of the text box that pops up any time you get an error with the game, more often than not with the mods running and what the error is. Uploading it gives you a good way to share with modders what issues their mods might be encountering and what it is. Even if you don't know what your looking for (and I myself am not super code savvy and will post a better explanation if someone else comes up with one), a good place to start is by running down the following list
1. Identify the Error/Mod
2. Check to see if the issue is already known
3. Report the issue
First off think back to what you were doing when the game threw the big old ugly error box into your face. Using that, try and identify what it might have been that cause it, or if there was weird behavior or bugs going on before hand. Next upload the log using ctrl-f12 and then use ctrl-F and start typing in things that relate to the suspected cause, such as mod names, mod author names, item/pawn type names, or hediffs (the things that show up in the pawns health tab). If that fails just search for error using ctrl-f and look at what comes up to see if that gives you any hints. If for whatever reason your issue doesn't even give error messages (this is probably really rare) or you can't find it (that happens), just try and gather as much information about the bug as you can (what caused it/how you found it, what it did vs what it should have done, images, and as much information as you can reasonably get on how to replicate the issue)
Next check the mods steam workshop page, github, and ludeon forums pages. I recommend googling this instead of using the steam browser so you can just spam ctrl f on all the tabs and then look at them side by side. Search keywords related to your issue or bug and see if its already reported. If its already been reported and it's got some information about it congrats! You're job is done and the issue is already known. If there is no report or the report has very little substance to work with, then share your error log (preferably with a line number to the error lines to help the mod author find the issue information faster), share any information you have on the issue such as how to recreate it and what the result was (did the game crash, did the sprites go all weird, did the screen black out, etc). Modders may ask you for more stuff to help them identify the issue, so if you see them doing this try and work with them to help them get what they need to fix the issue (could be anything from a save file to your current mod list)

-How to find the event log if ctrl-f12 is not working for whatever reason. Navigate to Steam\SteamApps\common\RimWorld\RimWorldWin_Data and look for the output_log.txt. Find your choice of file sharing software (I recommend pastebin.com since it has line numbers) and copy paste the information into there

-Save files can be found at the following locations depending on your OS.
Windows: ThisPC\DriveYourOSIsOn\Users\%YourName%\Appdata\LocalLow\Ludeon Studios\RimWorld by Ludeon Studios\Saves (if you have trouble reaching the Appdata file location hit the windows key and R at the same time and then type in appdata into the window that pops up).
Linex: ~/.config/unity3d/Ludeon Studios/RimWorld by Ludeon Studios/Saves/ Unfortunately linux is alien to me so I will not be able to provide any information on this OS. Google however should help you there if you need
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/RimWorld, I don't use macOS either, however the Rimworld wiki says that |open "~/Library/Application Support/RimWorld/Saves/"| may be used to directly open the save game folders using Finder

-How to find Mod Files and mod IDs. If your using mods you downloaded and installed from git or the ludeon studios forums you should already know where your mod folder is. If you don't I suggest looking at a guide for installing rimworld mods on your respective OS. If you are looking for mods that you have installed from the steam workshop, I have a way that I think is somewhat strange but works well for me. First Ill open file explorer and cram this into the bar at the top, C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\294100, this will usually bring you directly to the mods you have installed. If it doesn't, check what hard drive the game is installed on and go from there. The problem is they're all numbered and there is no indication as to what mod is what! If you know what mod you are looking for, look on the steam workshop for said mod and look at the URL. Ill be using HugsLib as the example mod. Within the url there is a portion that says ?id=some numbers. For HugsLib (the url is SteamsWorkshopurldotcom/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=818773962&searchtext=hugslib), the ID is 818773962. Find the number associated with the mods ID and bam, you have your mod files!

-The different kinds of error/data logs and how to get them. I don't think I can explain this well enough in all honesty, if a modder requests a specific kind of log they should be able to help you better than I would, so Ill be keeping this note here until I either come up with a good explanation or someone posts one.

-Find the mod authors Discord server. More often than not if a mod author has a dedicated server for their mod it will be within the description of their mod or on their steam profile. Otherwise, check the official Rimworld Discord to see if you can find more information about the mod and/or their discord server there (Just for the love of god please do not use this to harass mod authors). Don't pester the mod author with error logs in their dms, instead see if someones already posted about the issue, offer additional information on said issue (more info helps find the source of the bug faster), and post it in their respective channels.

Due to an unfortunate user asking for help I will also post how to revert back to 1.3 when you are ready to do so.
-Right click on Rimworld, Properties, Betas, click on the drop down menu and then select None
17 Comments
Lava 6 Nov, 2022 @ 2:20pm 
completely unironic by the way
SolarFlare1234 1 Nov, 2022 @ 12:21pm 
i cant read either :(
engineer gaming 30 Oct, 2022 @ 9:17pm 
Too bad I can't read
Mudkip Matt 15 Aug, 2021 @ 5:40pm 
my achtung! is giving an error for this guide, how do fix? here is the error.
Exception in RimWorld.FloatMenuMakerMap.ChoicesAtFor: System.MissingMethodException: bool RimWorld.PawnUtility.CanCasuallyInteractNow(Verse.Pawn,bool)
Thanks
Rethliel 13 Aug, 2021 @ 7:38am 
UPDATE TO 1.3 WHEN?!?!?!?!
Shadow Wolf 8 Aug, 2021 @ 9:07pm 
Test the mod to see if it still works in the current version, in spite of the version number.

As someone who's modded, I can tell you version number doesn't indicate compatibility - it just means we changed a number in a text file. The code is what matters.
A mod unupdated that just adds some weapons will be infinitely more compatible than a mod whose systems actively clash with the DLC, but is claimed to be functioning.

'1.2' and '1.3' are just numbers when it comes to mods - by ALL means, back up your saves, things can definitely break, but keep in mind it may work.

(Source: I have some Stellaris, EU4 mods. My Stellaris mods worked fine after numerous updates, but my EU4 ones were broke an update later because what they added were to systems that were revamped)
Cake_Commander 1 Aug, 2021 @ 10:05pm 
a bit of me dies inside whenever i see somebody demanding something from a modder, as if its their right to free content
Gray Sanddragon 27 Jul, 2021 @ 3:29pm 
omg my bad.. i had a temporary glitch and couldn't see the rest of the title so it just said "A Handy"
Floppy 25 Jul, 2021 @ 8:35am 
Great guide, as much as you might want your favourite mod updated its not fair to harass the modders who make said mods for free.
Evill Bob 24 Jul, 2021 @ 6:43pm 
Update guide for 1.3 plz