The New Launcher, Your Missing Mods, and How to Fix It.

[Gearhammer]

I'm seeing some heavy handed solutions going around to fix the no mods showing up after changing your mods or reinstalling. I wanted to save some of my fellow players some extra time and trouble. I don't know if this has been covered elsewhere, but the solution is only a few steps, in most cases.
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The Problem:
The new launcher saves the mod setup you enter into it as defaultmodoptions.ini, but it is saving it to the wrong place in the directory. So when you start your WOTC game up, it either reads a blank file (No mods for you!) or it reads your old file (No NEW mods for you!)

The Solution:
Navigate to ProgramFiles/Steam/SteamApps/common/XCom2/XComGame/config
Find and copy the defaultmodoptions.ini file. It is the one with your latest mod config set-up through the new launcher.

Now, navigate to ProgramFiles/Steam/SteamApps/common/XCom2/XCom2-WarOfTheChosen/XComGame/config, and paste and replace the defaultmodoptions.ini file.

Finally, delete the following file:
Documents/My Game/XCom2 War of the Chosen/XcomGame/config/XcomModOptions.ini

Start a new game, load up the first mission, and then go back to the main menu and quit the game.

Reload the game. Start a new game and you should be good.

This has worked for me 100% of the time and with all mods, including extensive config edits.

Note: You must repeat this process every time you change mods. I haven't been able to verify if deleting your old save games contributes or not.

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That should cure your issue. Though you may need to repeat this process everytime you change your mods. Hope that helps you out. If you are having old mods you know you removed showing up in game, that is a separate issue entirely. Though, they are related.

The game has a habit of using the config in your save game directory to overwrite your new config. If you have saved a game, perhaps even started one with no mods active then it's using THAT set of config files for reference and not your new ones. This also is the cause of the mod ghosting issue, where you delete or change mods and they still show up in game.

Documents/My Game/XCom2 War of the Chosen/XcomGame/config/XcomModOptions.ini

This is the offending file most likely. It can be deleted or edited. When you restart the game it will be regenerated using the DefaultModOptions.ini from the WOTC config files. Keep in mind, this is not the config the new launcher is saving.( It is saving that config it in the wrong place.) I hope that helps.

Poking around in the launcher files reveals the error. Indeed they have a single path for both XCom 2 and WOTC. Evidence can be found in config.json in the launcher directory.

From config.json :

"50549":[
{
"steamappid": 268500,
"basic_steamappid": 268500,
"exe": "Binaries/Win64/Xcom2.exe",
"background": "img/2k/Backgrounds/14.jpg",
"exeLogo": "img/2k/ExeLogo/14.png",
"name": "XCOM 2",
"isBase": true
},
{
"steamappid": 593380,
"basic_steamappid": 268500,
"exe":"Xcom2-WarOfTheChosen/Binaries/Win64/Xcom2.exe",
"background":"img/2k/Backgrounds/16.jpg",
"exeLogo": "img/2k/ExeLogo/16.png",
"name": "XCOM 2: WAR OF THE CHOSEN"

Pointing to the .exe files. Ok all good. But...

"relative_game_paths": [
{
"id": 50549,
"region_code": "default",
"path": "../"
},

Aha! Only a single path reference. There should be two. Notice they share the same basic steamappid. The assumption was they share the same directory structure. They don't, obviously. What do you folks think?

[gamer24]

I tried this and it did not work. It booted up with out the mods again.

[valerian68]

For now, I am using AML with no issues. If this is the solution (seems simple), then it seems like an easy fix for the game programmers to patch their launcher.

[Dragon32]

I'm not the best one to comment, I've been using the alternate launcher since about March 2016, but why's 2K launcher modifying DefaultModOptions.ini?

Not expecting the OP to know. This is more of a WTF post. One of many about this new 2K launcher I think.

Shurely the launcher should only be modifying XComModOptions.ini in the user's My Games directory (i.e. copy DefaultModOptions.ini, modify the copy and write it to user directory) and not the supposed-to-be-a-blank-slate DefaultModOptions.ini?

Isn't that why those user-specific configuration files are there in the first place?

I know there is that silly bug with ModLauncherWPF.exe appending and not replacing changed lists of mods to *ModOptions.ini but this error's even more of a mess up than that.

Anyway, top marks to Gearhammer for working this out. Less than that for the people who were involved in this new launcher.

[Gearhammer]

Originally posted by gamer24:

I tried this and it did not work. It booted up with out the mods again.

The game has a nasty habit of using the config in your save game directory to overwrite your new config. If you have saved a game, perhaps even started one with no mods active then it's using THAT set of config files for reference and not your new ones. This also is the cause of the mod ghosting issue, where you delete or change mods and they still show up in game.

Documents/My Game/XCom2 War of the Chosen/XcomGame/config/XcomModOptions.ini

This is the offending file most likely. It can be deleted or edited. When you restart the game it will be regenerated using the DefaultModOptions.ini from the WOTC config files. Keep in mind, this is not the config the new launcher is saving.( It is saving that config it in the wrong place.) I hope that is better clarity. I never post. But I LOVE this game.

Originally posted by Dragon32:

I'm not the best one to comment, I've been using the alternate launcher since about March 2016, but why's 2K launcher modifying DefaultModOptions.ini?

Not expecting the OP to know. This is more of a WTF post. One of many about this new 2K launcher I think.

Shurely the launcher should only be modifying XComModOptions.ini in the user's My Games directory (i.e. copy DefaultModOptions.ini, modify the copy and write it to user directory) and not the supposed-to-be-a-blank-slate DefaultModOptions.ini?

Isn't that why those user-specific configuration files are there in the first place?

I know there is that silly bug with ModLauncherWPF.exe appending and not replacing changed lists of mods to *ModOptions.ini but this error's even more of a mess up than that.

Anyway, top marks to Gearhammer for working this out. Less than that for the people who were involved in this new launcher.

When you toggle mods on and off in the launcher, it saves that information in that file for reference by both the launcher and the game .exe file. XcomModOptions.ini in your my games directory supercedes it. That is why, when you load a save game, it knows if your missing any mods that were part of the ecosystem when you saved that game. That file will take priority, before the default files. That would also explain why some people had little trouble with the launcher. The error is present, but because they are loading their saved game directory config files they won't notice immediately. Especially, if they haven't changed any mods recently.

Likely, it was a simple error on the part of the programmer of the launcher. Xcom 2's directery structure is a little unique. You would need to know that there are two standalone games wrapped up in there, that draw from their own config files. Perhaps the launcher.ini can be edited to point the WOTC version to the correct path for saving that file with a simple edit or two. I haven't experimented with it yet, as I am limited in my technical skill.

[F23]

Months later - is this still a thing?

[Strykerdax]

Originally posted by F23:

Months later - is this still a thing?

I have not played Xcom WOTC for about a year...
Just loaded it up, a number of my mods are broken

[Old Ben]

This is an old thread....

See the following Guide to run workshop mods with updated 2k Launchers:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2207129226