Overview
Mods are the backbone of this wonderful game and have kept it alive so far. The way to start mods is going to the game menu and select the mod. Then the game will re-start and hopefully the mod will have been loaded.To me the time needed for this operation was too much: I wanted a quick way to start a mod directly from the library. This guide is intended to automatize the start of mods from the Steam library.Changing the start options of the base game sometimes can be tricky if you forget which mod you started (expecially if you start them using the workshop numbers).The problem is that if you play multiplayer and have different mods enabled you shall crash the saves!That’s why I decided to make a link in the library for every mod I play, so you won’t make any mistakes.
FIX IF YOU ALREADY FOLLOWED THIS GUIDE AND THE LINKS DO NOT WORK ANYMORE AFTER THE UPDATE ON 2021-01-15
If you have already used this guide to create links (or is the first time you are reading it) after an update coming out from the game developers the links need a “pre-processing” procedure (really dumb I assure you) in order to work.
You need to instruct the Steam library to look for Forces of Corruption directly when loading the mod.
The following has been suggested by Sudno in the following discussion and has been re-written also here in this guide.
SUGGESTING DISCUSSION: [link]
In order to do this
1) Go to the forces of corruption folder loacated at
“steamappscommonStar Wars Empire at Warcorruption”
2) Create a simple text file and name it “steam_appid.txt”
3) Open the file with Notepad or any file that can modify text files ( I use NotePad++ for instance)
and simply write inside the number
“32470”
After this quick solution If you have already created the links using this guide, everything works.
Otherwise, If it’s the first time you are reading, then let’s go to the next section.
OUR FINAL PRODUCT
I managed to make them work like this, I hope you shall as well.
Do the steps as I wrote them and following the order, it should work.
If it doesn’t, try reading back.
I don’t want to make a statement of rules, this method was best to me but couldn’t for someone else. Free to choose of course!
This will be our final product:
DOWNLOAD A SMALL MOD FROM THE WORKSHOP AS AN EXAMPLE
The mod in question is “ESB to RotJ” and you can find it in the workshop.
I choose this one because it’s quick downloading.
For those who don’t know, to download a Workshop mod just click SUBSCRIBE in the workshop mod page and await for the download to finish.
LOOKING FOR THE MOD FOLDER DOWNLOADED FROM THE WORKSHOP
1) Once you have downloaded a mod from the workshop, its folder shall be in the path
(YOURSTEAM FOLDERsteamappsworkshopcontent32470MODNUMBER)
MODNUMBER is because the mods are referred to with different numbers the computer can understand. Not very friendly and to us it’s very easy to mistake the folders.
In our case, the mod we downloaded is in this folder:
YOURSTEAM FOLDER steamappsworkshopcontent324701207694913
As you can see I have many folders for the various mods in my 32470 folder.
CREATING A LINK IN THE LIBRARY TO ACTIVATE THE MODS
This new folder can be called from Steam Library creating a new Game Link and changing its Running options
1) At the bottom left side of the library press ADD A GAME – -> ADD A NON-STEAM GAME
2) You will open all the program files you installed onto the PC, click BROWSE
3) Look for the Steam folder where you installed Empire at War Forces of Corruption, the last folders in the path are:
…Star Wars Empire At Warcorruption
4) Inside you will find “swfoc.exe” which is the executable to the game. CLICK IT and then press ADD SELECTED PROGRAMS so it can show itself in the Library.
5) Once done the new link in the Library will be called “swfoc”.
SETTING THE LINK TO CALL THE MOD
1)Click Properties and Rename it to the mod you are going to activate when you click upon it.
In our case I shall call it:
Empire at War to Return of the Jedi
The link in the library can be as long as you wish to be self-explanatory when you have many mods links.
2) SET LAUNCH OPTIONS
The final step is telling the link which is the path to the mod folder.
Just paste the following line:
STEAMMOD=1207694913
Obviously you shall change the NUMBER based on the mod you are selecting.
4) I did for every mod I have in the library so, whenever I want to play a different mod, I just have to press the link and it will automatically start the mod, without changing any parameters.
It’s just as easy as playing an ordinary game in the Steam Library.
CHOOSING PROPER ICONS FROM MODS FOLDERS
Usually, in the mods folders you shall also find an icon image. It is just needed to find where it is.
1) Select icon from the link just created
2) Go to the path of the mods
“steamappsworkshopcontent32470”
3) Open the correct folder where your mods reside, in our case we know the example mod is in
1207694913
Now what? There are no icon files 🙁
That’s because the procedure is looking for “Program files”.
Guess what, we can look for “any kind of file” and we shall also find icon images.
4) Selecting “All files” we can find the mod icon
5) Clicking on it we shall insert the mod icon in our Steam library link.
Hi Luke!
CONCLUSIONS
I hope this monologue has been of some help to those eager to play wonderful mods out there and I apologize for my English because I’m not mother tongue so forgive me If I made some mistakes.
Enjoy!
SOME WORKSHOP MODS AND THEIR NUMBERS
Usually in the Mod page in the Workshop they shall write down which is the number of their mod.
Otherwise you can right click on top page and click Copy URL.
For the mod used in the example
if you paste it in any text file you shall get this for example.
Guess what, the number towards the end of the line is the mod number you where looking for.
Enjoy !
Here I summarized some of the numbers
Awakening of the Rebellion 2.8 1397421866
Empire at War Remake 1770851727
Republic at War 1129810972
Battlefront commander 1125764259
ESB to ROTJ 1207694913
Phoenix Rising 1126761873
FOC Alliance 7.63Xb 1125874785
Absolute Enhancement Mod 5.2 1161377079
Thrawn’s Revenge: Imperial Civil War 3.0 1125571106
Fall of the Republic 1976399102