Kitty Isolation mod not working

[ladyofDaisy]

Hello, I have a question about the kitty mod.
I have downloaded it from Nexus. When I initially open it in file explorer, there's no option to extract, so I copied the mods Data file into steamapps/common/alien isolation.

This took a few hours to do. Once that was completed, I then began extracting the files. However, it didn't seem to make a difference to the game. So for my second attempt, I deleted the vanilla Data file competely and copied the kitty mod and then extracted it again into steamapps/common/alien isolation.
Unfortunately after doing this, the game failed to start.

I'm new to modding, so it's probably me being really dumb and making mistakes.
I would be really grateful for some advice.

[NinthElement]

Deleting the vanilla Data folder was a mistake, as you only need to overwrite it with the modded Data folder - this modded folder doesn't contain all the necessary files for the game to run that are in the vanilla folder, only the ones that need to be overwritten. The good news is that you can easily restore it using the "Verify integrity of game files" option (right-click on game, select Properties, click on Installed Files tab to find this option) - this will download and install any missing files.

You need Winwar or 7-Zip application to unpack the archive, then all you need to do is right-click the DATA folder within and select Copy, then right-click your Alien Isolation folder and click Paste, then when a warning pops up just select to replace files of the same name.

[Sethioz]

Originally posted by ladyofDaisy:

Hello, I have a question about the kitty mod.
I have downloaded it from Nexus. When I initially open it in file explorer, there's no option to extract, so I copied the mods Data file into steamapps/common/alien isolation.

This took a few hours to do. Once that was completed, I then began extracting the files. However, it didn't seem to make a difference to the game. So for my second attempt, I deleted the vanilla Data file competely and copied the kitty mod and then extracted it again into steamapps/common/alien isolation.
Unfortunately after doing this, the game failed to start.

I'm new to modding, so it's probably me being really dumb and making mistakes.
I would be really grateful for some advice.

i took a quick peek and seems like this mod has installation information, but file structure seems like you just need to drop the content into the game folder and make sure /data/ goes into /data/.
i suggest make a backup before overwriting any existing files.

as you already deleted original files (which was bad idea), delete the data folder completely and use steam to verify game files, once verified, make sure game starts, then make backup of the /data/ folder (just copy it somewhere else) and then extract the mod files again and overwrite when asked.

[ladyofDaisy]

Many thanks for you responses.
I did feel like a bit of an idiot when I deleted the vanilla folder lol.
It's back to normal now and I've made a back up of it, just in case.

I think I know where I was going wrong.
After copying the mod files over, I then tried extracting them and saw errors for each file I attempted to extract.
Am I right in thinking that copying files is the same thing as extracting them?

When I downloaded the kitty mod and opened in file explorer, the only thing my pc will let me do is either 'open' 'explore' or 'copy.' I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen, but it's why I've gone down the copying route instead.

[Sethioz]

Originally posted by ladyofDaisy:

Many thanks for you responses.
I did feel like a bit of an idiot when I deleted the vanilla folder lol.
It's back to normal now and I've made a back up of it, just in case.

I think I know where I was going wrong.
After copying the mod files over, I then tried extracting them and saw errors for each file I attempted to extract.
Am I right in thinking that copying files is the same thing as extracting them?

When I downloaded the kitty mod and opened in file explorer, the only thing my pc will let me do is either 'open' 'explore' or 'copy.' I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen, but it's why I've gone down the copying route instead.

it sounds like you're trying to work directly within the archive, that's why.
first step is to extract the archive itself. i suggest get winrar or 7zip.
winrar has working trial copy that throws trial messages, which can be annoying, but it does the job just fine.
7 zip is free and has more features, but bit more complicated (still easy enough).

first extract the mod files to its own folder. i'm using winrar mostly, because it's faster and simpler. when i download a mod, i right click on it and click on "extract to name_of_mod", so it makes new folder and extracts the mod there.

then open the mod folder and look at the folder structure and compare it to the content of game folder. once you know where the modded files should go, then make backup of game files and then move mod files into game folder and overwrite when asked.
for example in your case mod files are in /data/ folder, so that's only folder you have to backup.

mods that only have few files, i usually just look at the folder structure and where each file goes, then i manually rename original file extension to .bak.

i'm sure there's some free tool that can rename (backup) files automatically, but never bothered to look. for example "teracopy" has feature to keep both files when there's filename conflict, but it can only rename the file you are copying, not the original, which means you'd have to find every duplicate file with (2) in end of the filename and then rename original to .bak and rename (2) to what original was.

[ladyofDaisy]

I've made a short video clip showing exactly what I do.
This time I tried with winrar. Still no success though.
https://youtu.be/Itk-r_3ic0Y?si=KM3dAh0b0yQY7OEP

[NinthElement]

Originally posted by ladyofDaisy:

I've made a short video clip showing exactly what I do.
This time I tried with winrar. Still no success though.

You're almost there, but I see a slight error. From 1:26 to 1:32, we can see you are copying the items from the Kitty Isolation Redux (namely its DATA folder) into the vanilla DATA folder. The result of this is likely to be that you have the modded DATA folder inside the vanilla DATA folder, but doing it this way won't work because the game only reads the vanilla DATA folder and ignores the modded DATA folder inside (instead the game only opens the folders and files that it's programmed to open within the first DATA folder). The only thing I am not sure of is why the warning appears for overwriting files of the same name this way, unless you previously copied over the modded DATA folder in the same way before making this video.

The solution should be to copy the modded DATA folder into the Alien Isolation folder, not the DATA folder. Because the directory won't allow two folders of the same name to sit side-by-side, it will merge them and then ask you if you want to overwrite files of the same name.

[ladyofDaisy]

You were correct, there was a modded folder there already. I've now deleted that mod folder.
I have copied it over so many times now, so that might be why there was a warning.
I got steam to verify the files, in order to start from scratch.
I followed your advice and placed it inside the alien isolation folder this time...and it works!
My only concern is there's no pink and purple colour scheme, or a kitty tattoo on Amanda's hand.
Everything else seems to be in working order though..

Is there a reason why there's no pink colour scheme? I was really looking forward to it lol.

I'm really grateful for your help btw. Thank you 😊

[NinthElement]

Originally posted by ladyofDaisy:

Is there a reason why there's no pink colour scheme? I was really looking forward to it lol.

The public version released on Nexus Mods doesn't contain the texture changes. But you can find this version linked as a resource on the speedrun.com leaderboard https://www.speedrun.com/kitty_isolation/resources (scroll down to "Patches" and click the link that's number 2 in the numbered list). This version is a slightly bigger download at 5 GB.

[ladyofDaisy]

Ah, I see. I've looked at that site before and thought about signing up. I've watched tons of AI speedruns on YouTube. Always fantastic to watch, and certainly helped me when I was new to the game.