How does the MOD system work in detail?

[soldier9945 12]

Hi!

I know how mods are used in ArmA1&2 but I'd like to know how exactly, on the technical point of view, it is applied.

First question: Does a MOD have to be activated all the time in-game, as soon as it launches? Or would it be possible to activate a mod that doesn't run on servers that don't allow this or the other mod?

Can a mod be not loaded when connecting to a new server or loading a new map in SP without restarting the game without the MOD?

That would be a nice dynamic system!

Second question: Will ArmA2 support a MOD rule in the Browser where you can show all servers accepting your sound MOD or model MOD or servers who run the MOD you want to play? I'm not aware of a system like that for now, maybe it is already there? :confused:

Thanks alot! :D

[Shadow NX 1]

Well i didnt play A2 in MP yet but i guess most things regarding mods didnt change.

If you use a mod while connecting many things can happen one of them is all players get a note that the player that joined uses modified data files so you might get kicked from servers that suspect you may have modified your A2 to cheat.

Some servers may even autokick you if you have altered files.

Addon itself are activated like this:

- Go into the folder where A2 is installed, the one where you find the Addons folder and such.

But dont put it in the addons folder instead make a new one.

Create a new folder in the A2 main folder and call if for example "MyAddons".

Make sure to go into your new folder and there make another one that must always be called "Addons".

Make sure to not forget this last step, even i sometimes do and then wonder why addosn dont show up ingame :p

- On your A2 shortcut on the desktop right click and go to propertys.

You see the shortcut to your Arma2.exe there.

Now add a space after that and add "-mod=MyAddons" so A2 will know what it is supposed to load.

In this sample i have A2 installed on the C: drive so the target line in your shortcut could be c:\ArmA2 ( depending on where you installed this to it can differ and i only use this as a sample )

So the target line could look like this:

c:\ArmA2\ArmA2.exe

So we add our modfolder like this:

c:\ArmA2\ArmA2.exe -mod=MyAddons

You want more modfolder you do it like this

c:\ArmA2\ArmA2.exe -mod=MyAddons;MyAddons2;MyAddons3

and so on depending on how you named your mod folders.

You can also add commands there like -nosplash to skip the first few splash screens before the main menue loads, in this case it must look like this:

c:\ArmA2\ArmA2.exe -nosplash -mod=MyAddons;MyAddons2;MyAddons3

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That way when you start that shortcut all mods that are added are loaded so you might get probs joining a vanilla ArmA2 server in MP.

Soon there will be tools for the case like Kegetys Addon launcher for ArmA1 where you have a graphical interface where you can activate or deactivate mods with one click before you start ArmA2.

Or maybe its already out and i didnt notice.

Another way would be to copy your ArmA2 shortcut on your desktop a few times and add different mods to each and keep one clean of addons but thats offcourse cluttering your desktop with ArmA2 shortcuts ^^

Hope this helped a bit.

Edited June 12, 2009 by Shadow NX

[Placebo 28]

Moving to A&M:D.