How to automate your dedicated server mod updates

[szalkerous]

Posting this quick note for the server admins out there.

I got sick of having to manually update mods off my desktop to the server, so I threw together this quick and dirty method of updating them (similar to how Ark does it, but we're doing it externally). Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for you messing up anything. If you're not savvy with managing servers with batch/scripting find someone who is.

You will need SteamCMD.

I assume you've already set the mods up once by hand. You could extend this batch to do it for you. I will probably do that at some point.

My Conan Exiles server is installed to D:\ConanExilesServer. I have created a copy of SteamCMD at D:\ConanExilesServer\SteamCMD. Your paths are likely different. Adjust as necessary.

Batch file ("UpdateMods.bat"):

@echo off
@echo Downloading/updating mods...
D:\ConanExilesServer\SteamCMD\Win64\steamcmd.exe +runscript D:\ConanExilesServer\modscript.txt
@echo Copying new or updated mods...
for /r D:\ConanExilesServer\SteamCMD\Win64\steamapps\workshop\content\440900 %%f in (*.pak) do @xcopy %%f D:\ConanExilesServer\ConanSandbox\Mods /D /Y
@Echo Done!
timeout /t 5

My mod list is specific to what I've installed. Add/remove whatever mod IDs relate to the mod PAKs you have defined in your MODS\modlist.txt file.

SteamCMD script ("modscript.txt"):

logon anonymous
workshop_download_item 440900 1377172507
workshop_download_item 440900 1121057177
workshop_download_item 440900 1185321962
workshop_download_item 440900 1369743238
workshop_download_item 440900 1211904989
workshop_download_item 440900 864199675
quit

Profit and stop manually copying your mods from another PC!

Feel free to suggest any edits/fixes/better ways of doing things below. This took me all of 3 minutes to put together, but I assume others would probably want to benefit from the legwork.

[ᚾᚪᛋᚠᛖᚱᚪ²]

i dont think xcopy would be an efficiant way to do this, have you concidered powershell ?

[szalkerous]

Originally posted by Naz:

i dont think xcopy would be an efficiant way to do this, have you concidered powershell ?

This all certainly could be done with powershell, but I find legacy batch files to be sufficient for most simple tasks and more commonly understood. I don't want to assume everyone reading this is a sysadmin by profession.

Ultimately if I wanted to more polish on it, I'd write up a quick tool in C to make the process seamless... but I figure this is a good start for folks.

[Hotsauce]

I tried this, changed the directories to suit mine, and it says it failed to load the script file Directory\Example\modscript.txt.

[AceLan]

Looks like it downloads all mods files every time I run the script. Is there any way that I can check if they have updated before downloading them?

[AceLan]

Answer myself.
No, it won't download whole files, steamcmd is smart enough to check if a mod has been updated.
This is a good way to maintain mod files, I'm going to adopt this method, thanks.

[HerrWilhelm]

Originally posted by szalkeroustm:

.......

Batch file ("UpdateMods.bat"):

@echo off
@echo Downloading/updating mods...
D:\ConanExilesServer\SteamCMD\Win64\steamcmd.exe +runscript D:\ConanExilesServer\modscript.txt
@echo Copying new or updated mods...
for /r D:\ConanExilesServer\SteamCMD\Win64\steamapps\workshop\content\440900 %%f in (*.pak) do @xcopy %%f D:\ConanExilesServer\ConanSandbox\Mods /D /Y
@Echo Done!
timeout /t 5

.......

For what reason you copy all the mods to the mod folder?
Inside the mod folder I have a modlist.txt referring to the location of the mods elsewhere on my harddisk:

D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\440900\1382754198/Stack5kJayshua.pak
D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\440900\862116109/BarkByProduct.pak
D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\440900\956573266/PrimalArmors.pak
D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\440900\925197087/DyeMoreBetterer.pak
D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\440900\1577650015/LovelyHairstyles.pak

But thanks for the easy update info, I going to use this part of your batch script:

Batch file ("UpdateMods.bat"):

@echo off
@echo Downloading/updating mods...
D:\ConanExilesServer\SteamCMD\Win64\steamcmd.exe +runscript D:\ConanExilesServer\modscript.txt
@Echo Done!
timeout /t 5

and leave inside the modlist.txt inside the conan mod folder the locations of where steamcmd downloaded the mod to.

[szalkerous]

Please remember that this mini-guide was relevant for Spring 2018 and if the game has changed significantly in any way you may need to adjust it as necessary. I no longer maintain a Conan Exiles server and will not be updating this script, but anyone is free to take it, improve it, etc. Feel free to post links here for updated version for others to use.

[HerrWilhelm]

The game changed, but your script still works!

[Apokalypz]

Hi! I just wanted to let you know that I was able to successfully use your script to automate my mod updates for my dedicated server!

Just a quick note to anyone who has a script load issue and uses a path that has spaces (ie C:\Path to my Server) you will need to place quotations around the path.

@echo off
@echo Downloading/updating mods...
"D:\Conan Exiles Server\SteamCMD\Win64\steamcmd.exe" +runscript
"D:\Conan Exiles Server\modscript.txt"

like in the example above you can see I placed quotation marks around the path to make sure it works properly.

[Mace]

Hi,
is there such a possibility also with G-Portal servers?
currently there is only the StartServer.bat

ConanSandboxServer.exe -log

can you change this synonymous that the mods are always kept up to date?

[X3RØ]

This is a life saver!!! THANK YOU!!!

[World_Gamerz]

Damn Hero's all of yall

[Dallarius]

Works perfect and saves a lot of time - THANKS! :-D
Ever thought of making a guide...? It's easier to find, favorite & vote ... ;-)

[szalkerous]

Originally posted by Dallarius:

Works perfect and saves a lot of time - THANKS! :-D
Ever thought of making a guide...? It's easier to find, favorite & vote ... ;-)

I don't play anymore but anyone has my blessing to convert it to a guide if they want, no credit needed.

[MrFun01]

I prefer "KISS" for all my server automation.

G:\WindowsGSM\bin\steamcmd\steamcmd.exe +runscript G:\WindowsGSM\servers\1\serverfiles\modscript.txt
for /r G:\WindowsGSM\bin\steamapps\workshop\content\440900 %%f in (*.pak) do @xcopy %%f G:\WindowsGSM\servers\1\serverfiles\ConanSandbox\Mods /D /Y

I'm using a server manager to manage all my game servers. It's called WindowsGSM but it does not automate my mod updating so this batch file was perfect.
Thank you for this, sorry for necro'ing the thread, but I had to say thanks for putting in the work for me.