How to report bugs in mods

There's a large number of mods out there - and some of them will have errors, or be incompatible. Most mod creators will want to know about bugs, but without enough information it's hard for them to know what went wrong, and what to do about it.

This is a short guide, taken from the Ludeon forums, on how to report bugs in a way that mod creators can do something with it!

First things first

Before you submit a report, let's make sure there's actually a bug.

Restart the game!

Every time you change a setting that causes the game data to change (e.g. enable/disable a mod, or change languages), you must always restart the game! If the bug still persists after restarting the game, go to the next step.

Create a new save

Some mods can be added mid-game. Some mods alter the game data in such a way that this is not possible. Usually, mods that require a new game will say so, but this isn't always the case. To be safe, start a new colony, and see if the bug still happens.

Mod incompatibilities

It may be that there's an incompatibility between one or more of the mods you have installed. Try disabling all other mods (of course, always leave Core and any dependencies of the mod enabled). If the bug goes away, you likely have an incompatibility. This is probably still something the mod creator will want to know, as he can warn other users, or try to resolve the problem.

Did none of this help? Then let's go get some more information about the bug in the next section!

Gathering information

Many bug reports come in the form of 'it doesn't work' or, 'I can't open tab X'. This is not very useful to the mod creator, as there's likely at least some other things going on. If the bug was that simple, the mod maker would probably have caught the bug during testing!

The game keeps a log file each time you play, called 'Player.log'. This file is incredibly useful for debugging purposes, and should always be included when you make a bug report. In addition, the list of mods you use and a save game where the issue is apparent can be very useful in resolving problems.

The following will provide information on how to share these useful parts of information;

• The player log
  
• The mod config file
  
• The save game

Upload the log with HugsLib

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=818773962
Many mods require HugsLib, and if you're using mods, there's a good chance you have HugsLib installed. If so, HugsLib allows you to easily gather the player log and a bunch of other relevant information, and upload them to a free text file hosting service (GitHub Gists).

Uploading the log through HugsLib is usually the preferred method, as it gives the modder all the information they need in one file.

• Press Ctrl + F12 to open the log publisher.
  
• Confirm publishing the log, and copy the URL it gives you.
  
• Post the URL together with a description of the bug.

Upload files manually

If you don't want to or for some reason cannot upload the log with HugsLib, you can also locate the log file and upload it manually to one of many services that allow you to share text files for free.

By default, you can find the player-log.txt, save games and ModsConfig.xml files in the below locations. ModsConfig.xml will be in the Config subdirectory, and save games can be found in the Saves subdirectory.

• Windows:

  %appdata%/../LocalLow/Ludeon Studios/RimWorld by Ludeon Studios/

• OSX:

  ~/Library/Application Support/RimWorld By Ludeon Studios/

• Linux:
  'Normal' Steam

  ~/.config/unity3d/Ludeon Studios/RimWorld by Ludeon Studios/

  Flatpak Steam

  ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/config/unity3d/Ludeon Studios/RimWorld by Ludeon Studios

Provide a save game

If the bug only occurs in very specific situations, it's very helpful for the modder to have a save game available where this situation is already set up. The easiest way to achieve this is by providing a save game. Upload the save game to dropbox or a similar service (they can get quite big, so you may want to zip it!), and provide the mod creator with a link.

A note on screenshots and error messages

A screenshot of a weird graphical glitch caused by a bug can be extremely helpful. A screenshot of an error message is not.

When you screenshot or copy-paste an error message, you take it completely out of context. The modder now has no idea what other mods you have loaded, what version of the mod or game you have loaded, what other errors may have occurred earlier, and so on, and so forth. In many cases,
this makes it much harder to find and fix the underlying problem.

Always give the modder a link to the full Player.log. If you think the problem is obvious, feel free to also copy the specific error - but always provide a link to the full Player.log as well, capiche?

A final word

The Steam workshop has many benefits, but a good environment for bug tracking is not one of them. Many mods also have a thread on the official Ludeon Forums. You may want to have a look over there and see if there is already a solution to your problem. The community is really helpful and may have already found a solution for your problem, or at the very least the forums will give you a more direct way of communicating.

In addition, many authors host their mods on GitHub or a similar service. These websites are built with open-source software development in mind and have a sophisticated issue tracker that is specifically meant to report bugs and issues. If you can, use it! The mod creator will thank you for it.

Thanks for reading all of this, and hopefully we can start bashing those bugs together!

[lordravenx]

Importing a mod string does not work
Export Active Mod List => As Shareable String
Import Mod List => From String
I paste in the string. I get this error:
(It seems it doesn't matter if the string is valid or not, the error always pops up)

Exception filling window for ModManager.Dialog_Import_FromString: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
at ModManager.Dialog_Import_FromString.DoWindowContents (UnityEngine.Rect inRect) [0x0008a] in <2ca82dec63114fd79277fc14a069ebde>:0
at (wrapper dynamic-method) Verse.Window.Verse.Window.InnerWindowOnGUI_Patch0(Verse.Window,int)
UnityEngine.StackTraceUtility:ExtractStackTrace ()
(wrapper dynamic-method) Verse.Log:Verse.Log.Error_Patch0 (string)
(wrapper dynamic-method) Verse.Window:Verse.Window.InnerWindowOnGUI_Patch0 (Verse.Window,int)
UnityEngine.GUI:CallWindowDelegate (UnityEngine.GUI/WindowFunction,int,int,UnityEngine.GUISkin,int,single,single,UnityEngine.GUIStyle)

[smitty_the_smith]

Not so. Just hard to find. If you go to his Ludeon page there is a little gear icon. My issue is already known.

[groovybluedog]

All of the links are removed to where to report bugs on the Mod Manager page...

[erikfischeller]

Hey Guys, i have a problem with Divide et Impera, New World and Medieval 1100 AD Mods. It s always the same that i miss many names of units, building and nation description and other textes in game. Maybe there are downloading problems but i had already disabled viruses and threat protection while subscribe.. Can someone help me?

[ジャッキー・ザ・トキ]

https://gist.github.com/HugsLibRecordKeeper/38372562d29bacba74144a495aaf8d8c
Debug actions not opening please help me? I dont see any hits of what mod might do this

[Nova]

Exception filling window for ModManager.Page_BetterModConfig: System.NotImplementedException: The method or operation is not implemented.
at ModManager.ModButton_Installed.DoModDetails (UnityEngine.Rect canvas) [0x0038c] in <b3e85f9025ea40c6a9d67a1aeffeb20e>:0
at ModManager.Page_BetterModConfig.DoDetails (UnityEngine.Rect canvas) [0x0003a] in <b3e85f9025ea40c6a9d67a1aeffeb20e>:0
at ModManager.Page_BetterModConfig.DoWindowContents (UnityEngine.Rect canvas) [0x00120] in <b3e85f9025ea40c6a9d67a1aeffeb20e>:0
at Verse.Window.InnerWindowOnGUI (System.Int32 x) [0x001d3] in <99518a644a3e4a7ea3fde566568df84a>:0
UnityEngine.StackTraceUtility:ExtractStackTrace ()
Verse.Log:Error (string)
Verse.Window:InnerWindowOnGUI (int)
UnityEngine.GUI:CallWindowDelegate (UnityEngine.GUI/WindowFunction,int,int,UnityEngine.GUISkin,int,single,single,UnityEngine.GUIStyle)

[Nova]

In the mod manager menu, a repeating error shows up when I click Ideology.

[DGP]

I have 2 "Tend to self" work priorities. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

https://gist.github.com/95585d448835078bd0d828918657f94a

[Keyara]

@Fluffy Thank you for your help.

[Fluffy]

@SigmaSquadron; thanks, added to the list.
@Keyara, not that I'm aware of, but that would be a good idea. In general, look at the stack traces for names of assemblies that you can recognize. `Verse` and `RimWorld` ar core game things, but `Fluffy.AnimalTab` is going to be my Animal Tab mod. Similar for names of defs going wrong, and you can also do a find in files operation on you mod and/or data folder to find the mod containing those defs.