Playing Mods

The following guide will help you download, configure and play a new mod for Star Traders: Frontiers on Steam.

1. Download a Mod
In order to install a mod, visit Star Traders: Frontiers Steam Workshop page and browse the mods listed there. Subscribe to any mods that catch your eye. After you have subscribed to a mod, the Steam client will download it. You will likely see the Steam client initiate and complete a download.

Note the numerical ID of the mod which can be found in the URL as it is needed to configure the mod. In the following example URL, the ID is 2478216983"https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2478216983"

In general, it can be tricky to find a mod on your system, after you have downloaded. On Windows systems, start here:

/steamapps/workshop/content

Now you have to know the numeric ID of the game you are looking for; Star Traders Frontiers is 335620. Move into that folder.

Now you have to know the numeric ID of the mod you are looking for. If you have a number of mods downloaded and you don't know which is which, then you have a problem ... Try looking into the folders to see if there are any filenames you recognize. For "database" type mods which affect gameplay, most modders will include a file named .sql, so you can tell. The final location of the mod folder will be like:

/steamapps/workshop/content/335620/2478216983

You can check the file timestamps here to make sure you have the latest version of the mod; this should match the time that steam downloaded it.

2. Configure a Mod
In the Steam client, right click on Star Traders: Frontiers and choose: Manage > Browse Local Files. For Linux and Windows systems, in your filesystem, create or open the configuration file with a text editor: modversion/mod_config.txt For Mac OS systems, your will need to edit the mod_config.txt file which exists in your saved game location (which can be found in the FAQ) instead of the modversion/ installation folder.

Add the numerical ID of the mod to the configuration file and save the file. Any time this file is changed, the game must be restarted to reload the entire mod configuration.

Loading Multiple Mods
If multiple mods are configured, the order in which they are listed is very important. Mods are loaded in priority order from the top of the file. Therefore, the mod listed on the first line of the file is the highest priority and will be loaded after any mods below it in the configuration.

Here is an example mod_config.txt file with 2 mods in which 24198718012 is loaded as the highest priority mod, overwriting any files that it and 38688131882 share.

In general, two mods may or may not conflict with each other. There can be two kinds of conflicts: either both modify the same graphics resource, or both modify the game database. If both modify the same graphic resource, there is currently no solution; whichever mod you list higher in the configuration file will "win". If both modify the game database, there is a possible solution. You can use a "mod manager" to merge the database files. See FMM Mod Manager for more details.

3. Launching the Modded Game
Before you can play the modded game, the mod must be downloaded and configured. Do not start the game until both steps are completed.

To play the game with one or more mod installed, when you are launching Star Traders: Frontiers from Steam, pick the "Play Moddable Star Traders: Frontiers" option.

Some people are used to launching steam games by right clicking the steam icon in the system tray and selecting one of the five most recent games launched. This does not work for modded Star Traders Frontiers. It will always launch the non-modded version, without presenting the above dialog. Be sure to launch the game from the full steam window, library tab, "play" button.

Modded Saved Games
Most mods have unique content that will cause saved games created under a certain mod configuration to crash under other mod configurations. When playing a saved game, you should always use the same mod configuration.