Modding FAQ

[Devilbox Games]

There's little information about modding Carmageddon: Reincarnation on the steam forums so this FAQ is here to help people find mods and how to use them and information about what mod tools there are currently available. Thanks to Shane for pining this!

How do mods workin C:R

There are two types of mods for C:R: CarMODgeddon mods and ZAD mods. Both types of mods are similar but there is a key difference between them:

• ZAD mods can change pretty much anything about the game, but have the downside of being unsupported officially and trigger the game's cheat protection which locks out multiplayer and stops career mode from saving. ZAD mods affect the whole game and have the potential to require a reinstall to return the game to an unmodded state if they are mishandled. ZAD mods have the file extension of .ZAD.
  
• CarMODgeddon mods are the officially supported method of modding the game and work in multiplayer when launching the game in CarMODgeddon mode, but are currently limited to cars, wheels and levels, though there are plans to expand this at a later date. CarMODgeddon mods run in a sandbox mode and do not affect the standard game at all, they only show up in CarMODgeddon mode. CarMODgeddon mods have the file extension of .ZIP.

How do I launch in CarMODgeddon mode and what is it?

CarMODgeddon is a sandbox mode which immediately gives you access to all the game's content and lets you run supported mods freely and use them in multiplayer.

There are three methods of launching the game in CarMODgeddon mode:

1. When you launch the game from Steam you get the following prompt, select "Launch CarMODgeddon mode" and click Play: http://i.imgur.com/oNO4hO7.png
   
2. If you use the Minge mod installer tool then you can click Game Options, tick Enable CarMODgeddon and every time you start the game through Minge it will launch straight into CarMODgeddon mode: http://i.imgur.com/xUlnqwN.png
   
3. If you use a shortcut to launch the game then you can add -carmodgeddon to the command line ot launch into CarMODgeddon mode.

How do I install and use CarMODgeddon mods?

The easiest way to use CarMODgeddon mods is to grab a tool called Minge from http://carmatools.com/Tools/Minge. CarMODgeddon ZIP files can just be dragged and dropped onto the tool and it will bring up an installation prompt which will automatically place the ZIP files into the correct locations.
Note: that sometimes CarMODgeddon mod ZIP files are distributed inside other ZIP files in order to distribute wheels with the associated cars, in this case you will need to extract the contents of the distribute ZIP and drop the enclosed ZIP files onto Minge. An upcoming update to Minge will have a better method of handling bundles of mods.

After you have installed the mods you will now need to activate them by clicking on the tick boxes by their names in the list and clicking Save. This creates the configuration file telling the game what mods to use. With the mods installed and enabled you can start the game in CarMODgeddon mode and the enabled cars and levels will show up in the garage/level select.

I tried joining a multiplayer game with mods and it told me there was a data mismatch! Help!

Currently CarMODgeddon has an issue where everyone in a multiplayer game needs the exact same mods enabled. If you have an extra level or wheel or car enabled which the other players do not then it won't let you join the same game, even if those mods aren't actually used. Before you start a CarMODgeddon multiplayer game you need to organise what mods you will use with the other players and disable the rest of your mods from Minge. This is very combersome and annoying but we have been assured it will be fixed at a later date when Stainless can put their resources into developing CarMODgeddon further.

How do I use ZAD mods?

To use ZAD mods you just place the ZAD file inside the game's ZAD folder. A word of warning, though, DO NOT EVER overwrite or alter the game's original ZAD files. It not only makes it unable to be restored to an unmodded state without either redownloading the game's data or restoring from a backup, but it also has the potential to break any future updates to the game as Steam may not replace the modded ZAD with the updated official ones.

If you're using ZAD mods then make sure the ZAD files you are installing have a different file name to the original ZADs and start with the letter Z. The game loads ZAD files in alphabetical order, so ZAD files starting with Z are loaded after all the official ZAD files and the files inside of them is used instead of the corresponding files in the official ZAD files. This avoids the aformentioned issues with restoring to an unmodded state as all the mod ZAD files are clearly marked and can easily be removed and it also avoids the update issues. You still have to be careful as the mods may be based on old data and miss out on improvements and new features. For example, Psygery released a game balance mod but if an update changes the balance script you won't see those changes until you remove Psygery's mod's ZAD.

You also have to be careful with older ZAD mods because a lot has changed with the way the game is structured since the Pre-Alpha and many early mods will not work in the best case or will crash the game entirely in the worst case.

I understand multiplayer being locked when using ZAD mods, but why does Career mode not save?

Career mode is intrinsically linked to the leaderboards and stats on Steam, which Stainless want to keep competitive and fair. If they allowed career mode to save when ZAD mods are used then it would allow someone to very easily create a mod which gives them many billions of credits for each kill and kills all peds and opponents instantly, among other such cheats, which would completely ruin the stats and leaderboards.

Where can I get CarMODgeddon mods from?

The best place to get mods from is the Modding section of the official Carmageddon forums here: http://www.carmageddon.com/forums/modding/carmageddon-reincarnation

You can look through the various threads there to find numerous mods. Here are some threads to pay attention to:

• Mad Mike's Used Cars[www.carmageddon.com] - Mad Mike has released a load of muscle cars, some heavyweight vehicls and a few remakes of old Carma cars. He's a modding machine, combing a great knowledge of car mechanics, 3d art and technical understanding of how to set up the game's cars. He has 14 cars released so far.
  
• Fat Cat's Modding[www.carmageddon.com] - FatCat is a superb artist and is improving his technical understanding with each mod he has released. He has 5 CarMODgeddon compatible cars released so far and is working on more.
  
• Alex's Garage[www.carmageddon.com] - AlexTSK's (formerly Bloodstability) skills are insane, a top class artist. He only has one CarMODgeddon mod released so far but has a number of work in progress cars.
  
• Carmageddon 1 Cars[www.carmageddon.com] - All the cars from Carmageddon 1 ported to C:R. I'm working an update to the pack and I'm working on updating the C1 levels pack I released for the pre-alpha to the full version.
  
• Dr. Fraginton is on the Right Track[www.carmageddon.com] - A half-track proof-of-concept by Doctor Fraginton. He is also working on some other mods such as a remake of Sweettooth's truck from Twisted Metal[www.carmageddon.com].

Where can I get ZAD mods from?

Again, you can get ZAD mods from the official modding forum. A couple of interesting ones are:

• Psyrgery's game balancing mod[www.carmageddon.com] which changes the balance of the game
  
• My UI mod to re-enable the pre-alpha freeplay cheats & driver picker[www.carmageddon.com].

What tools are there to make cars/levels for CarMODgeddon?

To start with cars and levels are made in 3D software like Blender, Maya or 3D Studio Max and textures are made in any image software such as Photoshop or Gimp. You also need text editing software such as Notepad, Sublime or Notepad++ to edit the scripts, materials and general paperwork files which go along with the models and textures.

There are currently two main tools for converting models into the correct format for the game:

• Flummery[flummery.co.uk] by Errol, an open source spriritual successor to Carma 2's Plaything2. It's still work in progress but it is usuable. Errol has done amazing work with it so far. He has updates planned for it.
  
• Carmageddon: Reincarnation MaxScript Tools[carmatools.com] is a set of scripts I wrote for 3DSMax which can be used to export models to C:R as well as configure a lot of parts for the car, including moving parts, suspension, etc. My development version has basic support for ped models and animation exporting and level tools such as accessory placement and opponent paths, as well as support for the new tech features such as tank tracks and more than 4 wheels.

When you export from Flummery or my MaxScript tools you can convert the associated textures automatically or you can use a version of GibbedTools which I modified to support C:R which you can grab here: http://carmatools.com/Tools/GibbedTools

Some other tools are:

• Carmagedon Ultimate Node Tool[carmatools.com] - A tool for manipulating .CNT files, which define the hierarchy and positioning of parts of a model. Handy for inspecting CNT files to see if something is wrong, using as reference for creating Structure..XML files for cars or for rearranging the hierarchy of a model without having to use a heavyweight tool like Flummery or 3DSMax.
  
• LOLDecoder[carmatools.com] - A tool for decompiling the the game's LOL/LUA scripts. Based off UNLUAC. Slightly obsolete as Minge now supports either decompiling all the scripts in the game's Data_Core folder structure if you've extracted the game's data or individual scripts if you drag and drop them onto Minge. The standalone tool can still be useful though.
  
• ZADF*cker[carmatools.com] - A tool for extracting the game's ZAD data files into the correct location to run the game on extracted data using the -disable_zads command line option. Completely obsolete as I have now implemented it into Minge.
  
• VTF*cker[www.carmageddon.com] - an unreleased WIP tool I am working on for browsing the game's Virtual Texture packages, extracting textures, replacing textures and creating entirely new Virtual Texture packages for mod levels. Currently I have the first three features working and am working on the fourth. Release is hopefully coming soon.

Where can I find modding tutorials

There are a few tutorials in various threads on the official modding forums, one of particular note is Mad Mike's extensive tutorial series on using my MaxScript tools[www.carmageddon.com] and AlexTSK has done an FAQ & Problem solving[www.carmageddon.com] thread and started on a tutorial series[www.carmageddon.com]. There is a lot scattered information through out the modding forum and you can ask any questions you have there there. I have a few tutorials under way but I am currently focussing on tool creation right now.

[Krakenous]

Appreciate the info and details, thank you :). However:

I do not understand one thing. Does this game not have an offline mode? That seems like a rather unfair and limiting excuse to prevent modded vehicles/items in career mode because it's to do with statistics and leaderboards, I could not care less about any of that and tbh I don't know anyone who really does at all, guess I just don't know people who care about achievements and leaderboards...

Is there no possible way to use vehicle or powerup mods in career in a seperate, offline save file or profile so I can have my modded career path for vehicles, power ups, skins, other mods, and my "online" career mode with just the regular vanilla content? I just want to go through it in fun new ways with new content without just being forced to use freeplay.

I hope someone can find a way to allow this as I am sure you could do this in the Beta and all the stats and leaderboards just got disabled, but the career mode would ofc save and allow progression.

[Devilbox Games]

There's no possibility because, as I explained in the FAQ, career stats are intrinsically linked to the Steam leaderboards, achievements, etc and the overall in-game stats. Even if it didn't write to the leaderboards but just saved the career progress when using mods, then if you removed the mods and played it again it would be completely out of sync and, most likely, upload your stats to the leaderboards, etc. or worse screw up the save game completely, as used to happen in the Beta.

If you want to go through career using mods then just finish it without mods, so everything is unlocked, and playthrough the events again with mods. It's pretty much the same thing, it just doesn't matter if progress is saved or not in that situation.

Hopefully they will improve CarMODgeddon mode and allow a modable career mode at some point in the future to solve all these issues. CarMODgeddon is unfortunately very bare bones as they were pushed for time putting it together and Nobby just wanted to make sure people could play with mod cars and levels in multiplayer at the very least when the game was coming out of early access. They want to have a lot more official suppoort for mods and hopefully after C:MD is released they will get more time to work on that aspect of the game.

Thinking about it, it would be possible to create a ZAD mod which enables career mode in CarMODgeddon mode, though it still wouldn't solve the save game issue.

[Krakenous]

Ok so, what about the other idea of "seperate saves" that disables all the leaderboard/stats and functions solely offline, no uploading any stats, just like you were in offline mode? And then, even if you removed the mods and returned to vanilla, you would have to create a new, "online" save for the game to reach the servers to ping the uploads?

In short, seperate saves for seperate game states, one entire save state that saves and allows progression but is purely offline and specifically designed not to upload anything (because there is no internet connection) and an entirely seperate save, that is vanilla, all online, and prevents access to career mode completely?

I really thought that the carmodgeddon thing would allow this...there must be a way to make offline saves, save, no upload, and allow content in career mode.

I understand you could do it that way but i hardly have the time these days to unlock everything for access, i'd rather take the time i have to progress slowly, unlocking modded content as i go like i could in other carmageddons.

Hopefully in the future something can be sorted out, even if it disables everything apart from career mode but allowed progress saving and any modded content.

I really wish they hadn't rushed the release, it should of come out end of last year at the earliest.

[Devilbox Games]

An offline save state could be an option, but it would require a major rework of the savegame system. It would be better for them to do a CarMODgeddon specific save and enable career functionality there. The end goal really should be that all mods go through CarMODgeddon so there's no need for mods in the vanilla game.

We all thought CarMODgeddon would be more encompassing than it is, this was just what they could achieve in the time they had. At the time of the game's launch cars and levels were mostly the only types of mods being made so they took priority, no point in adding ped support when peds couldn't be made, for example. Compared to the rest of the game's work, CarMODgeddon is low priority and a lot of work to support all aspects of modding safely because of how much of the game can be modded. Even just doing what they have done with it has led to unforseen problems, such as the data mismatch issue in multiplayer.

Even if they released it at the end of last year they wouldn't have had any extra time to work on CarMODgeddon mode. I've been pushing for more features and better functionality for it pretty much since launch and Nobby has been kind enough to forward all my requests on to the actual dev team but the unfortunate response has always been "we're far too busy to work on CarMODgeddon right now." I'm not complaining, I fully understand how small the team is and how big a job the work they've been doing is, but it's frustrating they don't have enough resources to put on it right now.

They've been plenty helpful with information about modding and Stanless have mentioned how they want CarMODgeddon to be all-singing-all-dancing, so their desire for modding to flourish is certainly there. It's just all they've been able to do in terms of improving CarMODgeddon mode so far has been to fix a game breaking bug we discovered with the TDX textures of mods not being loaded in CarMODgeddon mode (thank god for Errol reverse engineering the older IMG format for us to use temporarily until it was fixed) and changing the package format from ZAD to ZIP to avoid confusion with the main ZAD files. Even those weren't exactly quick coming despite being a pretty simple change. It really sounds like it's been non-stop crunch there for the past couple of years.

Like I said, hopefully once C:MD is released they will have more resources to put towards CarMODgeddon mode. There's lots of improvements which could be done for it and lots more content types which should be supported. What would be great is if they support total conversions properly and let mods have their own career modes. It would be awesome to see an SoD style TC for it or if I could turn the C1 car and level ports I've been working on into a full TC with menu and career.

I started fiddling with enabling Career mode in CarMODgeddon mode earlier, btw. It works so I just need to make sure it has everything unlocked, it matches the opponents to the tier you're playing instead of the highest unlocked tier and try to make it throw in the mod cars too. That should be suitable for a rudimentary CarMODgeddon career mode at least.

[Krakenous]

Awesome information, thank you :). I understand it more now I know you are key key figure in the striving for mod support and have done a superb job so far so we appreciate that very much. It does seem a shame that whatever process went on, has hindered it a little from being the true mod friendly system we hoped for, but striving community efforts are thoroughly appreciated and we look forward to future progress :). The thing you said at the end would be awesome too, even if it's just a start that would be more than suitable until something bigger comes :). Roll on the future updates, I hope plenty more can come of it.

Especiallly with the console release they want to improve so much...I am devastated at the 54/100 on metacritic for the game...even though deep down, no one should care but I bet it really upset the guys at dev because it DOES affect sales, DOES affect the devs protrayel and gives the game a bad name, even if in reality the game is a lot better than a 5/10. Hopefully it time, they keep on expanding, improving, updating and supporting this game for a long long time to come, just like the older games.

Also, bit off topic but, C:MD is just an update to C:R right, not a completely new game? By which I mean the content will just update over C:R when it releases, correct? I hope so anyway I don't want them making a completely seperate game of the same game but as two seperate titles...I.E...doing what Planetary Annihilation did with it's "Titans" expansion, essentially a re-release to get around negative steam reviews, sucked that I paid £90 for it and they release a standalone seperate game lol, at least it was free but seems really bad to seperate them up.

[Vektor T]

So the way save system and online leaderboard was developed just sounds like a terrible design choice to me... I mean, OK, I get how they are tightly connected, but I don't get why they made it that way in the first place. Not giving the option of an offline save game where I can screw how much I want the game with mods and still play a nice career mode like in the old Carmas sounds just like a frustrating design choice that made mods AND career pointless...

Mods become pointless because there isn't much fun only using them in a sandbox races, not in an actual career wich is the main appeal. And career become pointless because after a single playthrough you saw it all, plus there isn't that many cars and you get them too easily now and mods was one of the only ways to counter it. "Car collecting", wich was a blast in Carma2, become tedious now not only because you get them for free by defeating them and don't actually has to earn the credits battling countless races, but there are fewer cars nows compared to what was possible in a modded Carma2 career (the way it was most fun to me).

Modded Carma2 was the series prime even today in my personal opinion. To me it always was more about collecting fun and crazy new cars than actually finishing the campaing itself. I played and replayed the same scenarios countless not only to get a new car, but also to earn the credits to purchase it. With tons of modded cars, the campaing could last as much I want and the replay value and excitement of purchasing a new car was almost infinite. Carmaggedon: Reincarnation does almost everything right over Carma2, minus this very important part of car collecting wich kept me playing Carma2 for ages while Reincarnation became a "what's the point?" after just a couple of hours... by chosing the way you earn new cars of Carma1 instead of Carma2 it didn't went 'vintage' to me, it just went antiquated: it choosed and older and least inspiring formula when a better one already was in front of them. To make things worst, by removing modded content from the career, a single player career, it crippled not only the game longevity but the fun itself, since both the cars you face and the cars you drive becomes repetitive faster and you wont be getting that crazy car you saw in a mod page.

Back in Carma2 I must had spent as much time tweaking the files that I spent playing, only to get the best balance of the modded cars I downloaded and putting their performance at my own taste... and it was very funny to after all that work play a campaing on the way I want it, on the way it suits me. Reincarnation just took it away by problematic design choices that I can't understand why they choosed it, and to make it even more bitter the gameplay actually is very good, so they got so close but still so far...

If they actually release a DLC or something with the gameplay rules like that in Carma2, where cars costs credits earned in races and you actually being able to play a singleplayer career with modded files, I would even pay the double of I already paid for Reincarnation, just because I know the game will rock my balls out just like Carma2 did... or even better! Carma Reincarnation still can be perfect and the best Carma ever to me, it just need a little bit of tweakening from the devs and it will totally overcome the status of "remake" to be a true "reincarnation"... because so far it is more to "pointless"...

[Spocks Toupee]

Darn it, that's going to be a real deal breaker for me, as I couldn't care less about Leaderboards, online mode and anything Multiplayer

[DrNewcenstein]

"To keep the leaderboards competitive and fair". Am I the only person who doesn't get anything tangible from leaderboards? Bragging rights is not an issue by any stretch of the imagination. "I completed the single-player game!" "Yeah, by cheating with mods" 'Who got cheated? You because I got to the end of a single-player campaign and a Steam badge before you did?" "Well, yeah." "You have mental issues."

[Carmageddon]

What happened to the Modding sub-section on the mail carmageddon website? Where is it gone?

[Devilbox Games]

It got renamed to Max Damage as Max Damage is an updated version of Reincarnation.

[Yanoi~SA]

Yeah all of those mod sites don't exist with exception to Carmatools.com which features one mod.

I wanna make all the cars not slide around so much and with much better handling.

[ौौMajor Kuznetsovौौ]

Welp, rip ALL mods... Only wish they were uploaded to one of the COMMON modding websites like Nexus, Moddb and such instead of a website that ended up being temporary. :/

[Devilbox Games]

Most Max Damage mods are still available over at https://cwaboard.co.uk and there's still mods being made for it. STShotgun recently released a major overhaul mod, Mad Mike keeps pumping out his incredible cars every now and then, I'm in the process of porting all the Splat Pack & C2 cars and levels.

[ौौMajor Kuznetsovौौ]

POG, that is great to hear, just recently I had got that big ass Car Pack fro Mad Mikes.
I just got a tad scared cause that day the Computer would NOT shut down and it stayed ON while monitor and everything else was OFF :p

[muttgirl STOPKILLINGGAMES.COM]

Locking up the career is bullcrap, and a great reason to pirate the game. If it can already detect you're using mods, why not use that same code to trigger a flag that just locks your score from being uploaded to the leaderboard? You came up with a really lazy anti-player solution instead