Grand Theft Auto V: How to seperate Story Mode from Online Completely

ANY GTA V MODDERS SHOULD READ THIS GUIDE

It tells how to mod GTA V Single Player and still be able to play GTA Online.
You must have a legitimate copy of GTA V.

Don't forget to rate my guide and rep me :D

So I bought Grand Theft Auto V on PC, mainly for the single player. I also like using some mods. But, there's a bit of a problem. Every time there's an update for GTA V, I can't play unless I allow the update to install. Why? Well, because Steam is stupid. And so is Rockstar Social Club.

Even if I keep Steam in offline mode to play GTA Story Mode, Social Club has this idiotic thing it does where it will insist that I log in and "activate" the game again, every once in a while. I think it's once a week or so. If there is an update available for the game, it will also insist that I install it before it will allow me to play, even Story Mode. Obviously, updates will often mess up mods. So basically, it makes it unnecessarily hard to keep a modded copy of the game intact for playing single player whenever I want.

So I have developed a workaround so that I can play MY modded copy of story mode pretty much whenever I want, without Steam messing with it. The only drawback is that if there's an update available for GTA V, I won't be able to play until it's finished updating. But after that, I can just switch back to the modded copy and play that again.

How to switch between multiple installs of GTA V

With this setup you could have one installation of GTA for story mode with mods, and another for playing online, and/or several older versions of the game with different mods... all of which are standalone and can't be ruined by Steam's updating. Yep, each one still needs the full 60GB+ of space though. We're going to use symbolic links[en.wikipedia.org].

Here's how to set it up:

Make 2 GTA V folders, one for your modded version, and one for a vanilla version that you can allow Steam to update, to keep both Steam and Social Club appeased. You can also use this vanilla version to play GTA Online.

You can also make more copies of GTA 5 in more folders if you have that many different ones you want to switch between, but for now I'll just explain how to use 2.

This assumes you've already got a modded copy of the game that you want to keep using, and keep it safe from future updates.

Step 1:

Make 2 folders for GTA V. Example: "GTA V Mods" and "GTA V Vanilla".

Step 2:

Move your current copy of the game that you want to keep intact from Steam to "GTA V Mods".

Step 3:

Get an unmodded copy of the game for the "GTA V Vanilla" folder - or just make another copy of your current one in that folder too (you can later use Steam's "Verify Cache" feature to make this vanilla again).

Step 4:

In the folders with modded or older versions, you will need to have a text file in the folder called commandline.txt, with this text inside it:
-scOfflineOnly

The commandline.txt file goes in the same folder that has GTA5.exe in it. This will force Social Club into offline mode while playing the game. This seems to be necessary to get it to work.

Also, obviously, you can't play GTA Online from a modded or older version, but that's not the point of this anyway.

Step 5:

Set up batch files for switching between them.
All GTA V Paths are different but an example of most common paths are:

Contents of "Switch to Modded version.bat":

rmdir "C:\path\to\Steam\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto V"
mklink /j "C:\path\to\Steam\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto V" "C:\path\to\GTA V Mods"
pause
Contents of "Switch to Online version.bat":

rmdir "C:\path\to\Steam\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto V"
mklink /j "C:\path\to\Steam\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto V" "C:\path\to\GTA V Vanilla"
pause
You'll need to change the folder paths to match where you keep your own Grand Theft Auto V copies.

After you run the batch file, you can just start GTA V normally from Steam.

Each time you want to play your modded copy of GTA V, you must run the "Switch to Modded version.bat" and vice versa.

This is my setup, along with more of an explanation of how it works:

I have my modded GTA V in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto V Mods", and my vanilla GTA in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto V Vanilla". My Steam games GTA V folder is at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto V" - but this is not really a folder - it's a symbolic link that I can change to point to one of the other folders, depending on whether I want to play modded Story Mode, or Online (or just the unmodded latest version).

It doesn't matter if you have these folders on seperate hard drives or the same one, it will work fine regardless.

So, when I want to allow Steam to update GTA V, I run the batch file that changes the symbolic link to point to the vanilla GTA, and then Steam can update that. After it's updated, I will run the newly updated version just to make sure Social Club is still happy, then I exit.

Then I'll run my other batch file, which will change the symbolic link back to my modded Story Mode GTA folder, and then I can just start it up and it will work. Even offline.

I also keep a backup copy of my modded GTA V on another hard drive, for just in case I accidentally somehow allow Steam to mess it up.

Conclusion

The person who found out this strategy is amazing. I had the concept down but I couldn't figure out how to trick steam into thinking my "GTA V Mods" folder or my "GTA V Vanillia" folder was actually "GTA V". The batch file was a brilliant solution. The author of this article posted this on http://sharenoesis.com/article/grand-theft-auto-seperate-story-mode-online-completely/2165 but since nobody knows how to mod single player and still play GTA Online time to time, I decided to transfer his (or her?) work here. I am not the original other and I do not own this. I am posted this as a simple tutorial that I found really helpful and I hope you guys will too. This is protected under Creative Common so do not make duplicate steam tutorials on this topic.

Good luck guys!

A good mod for single player is LSPDFR[www.lcpdfr.com]

[kicek_kic]

ok

[AlconburyBlues]

I really wanted to try this, but then the new R* launcher came out. You might have to fully close the launcher before switching or else it will "watchdog" your installs.

Also, even with the offline command trigger, the updater still starts right after the launcher (and still goes thru Steam). So what's to prevent Steam/Rockstar from updating the game and ruining your mods? I agree during the pre-launcher days you didn't have to worry about this. Not so sure now.

I would think a better method to do this would be to use the Steam version for your legit online/unmodded use, and then use a cracked client version (with the offline command) for mod use. You can find a client version almost anywhere, and doesn't require SC or the new launcher to run. (Some versions even go straight to Story Mode with the online component removed from the game completely.)

This way you don't have to mess with batch files or symbolics at all. You only need 2 different shortcuts. At least that's what I do.

[Poo Warden]

You should really make this easier to follow.

[Sterling]

i like this way better i feel safer this way.

[=TBM= Nestor]

I created a guide based on yours. Link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=770861814

[IntoTheWildImages]

hey Pavan, one question. how do i get my ragehook to run lspdfr. i installed both those in the GTA V Mods folder and im having no luck.. mind helpin me out? thanks in advance

[IntoTheWildImages]

many thanx m8..took me a bit to understand but got it up and all running

[knownlegend]

Sigh. You guys, this was made so long ago and it's helped many! Now we have the mod folders and asi removers and car skin managers so stop being so salty on the guide.

[killer fish]

Or you could just play the game normally

[evac]

Oh yeah i haven't read the guide and i only have 1 folder but i still play online by turning the asi loader on and off for when i play online and single player :)