Mod Downloader for gamers and server hosts alike... Keep those mods updated with ease!

[Barbinger]

I thought I'd make my very first post here something useful. With the contributions of many awesome posters on stackoverflow I believe I've built a smart and robust little script. I've put many hours into testing and (hopefully) perfecting it.

Basically I wanted a bit more automation with using SteamCMD to download mods. Because of the directory structure it uses to download, I had two full copies of the mods sitting on my drive. I have about 1.7 GB worth of mods, most of which is Survivor Radio (love it!). However, using Windows' built-in Symlinks I make SteamCMD download right into the <USERPROFILE>\Zomboid\mods folder.

There will be a few links to helpful scripting tips in the .bat and in included files.

This script:
does request UAC elevated access for itself if it does not already have it! This is because creating symlinks appears to require admin
rights.

will NOT automatically enable your mods within the game. It just makes them available to the game.

creates a nice readable log file with standard outputs and error messages.

needs to be placed wherever you decide to put the SteamCMD.exe.

will probably not work on network based drives, at least not without further trickery (or so I've read, not tested). This is a limitation of symlinks themselves. I do have it working across two internal physical drives, however.

will attempt to delete existing folders where the symlinks need to go, BUT ONLY if they are empty. It will gracefully ignore folders if they are in-use, restricted, or contain files/folders and inform the users at the end with instructions to resolve manually.

will create a '.log' file and '.list' file with the same name as the .bat file (minus the .bat extension obviously). It will look for these based on it's own name.

was built around Project Zomboid but may work for other mods with a bit of tweaking. With the above feature, you can create a different .bat/.list for each game and run them separately. This is on you to figure out. I will NOT be updating this to work with your specific game. I've tried to write it as genericly as possible so that YOU can do that if you want to figure it out. It will depend on whether the game in question has a mod directory structure that can be faked out with a directory symlink.

SteamCMD:

The first time SteamCMD is run it will need to update itself, but still seems to handle downloading the mods when it's finished. Obviously it needs write access to it's own folder and below.

*BUG?* SteamCMD has an internal and non-adjustable timeout for downloading any particular mod, at least when you use anonymous login (as this script does). To overcome this, simply duplicate the mod entry in the .list file once or twice. It seems to pick up where it left off.

There are commands for adding your own Steam login, but I DON'T recommend it. If you feel like updating it to prompt for Steam login info at runtime, be my guest. I don't want to go anywhere near that.

Downloads
OneDrive: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmgG9Z-LdkKxgQfzaYQgjY8jkvWe
DropBox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bj4pv3hqbv1tit5/SteamCMD%20MOD%20Downloader.zip

[Barbinger]

Updated link in case anyone copied or reposted....