Struggling with descriptor files

[aBiscuit]

Sorry if this has been covered in the past, but I'm brand new to modding Stellaris from LL. I've installed from the steam workshop successfully several times, but I'm struggling to do it from here.

 

My main problem is:

 

I have tried playing around with where certain files should be, but my main issue seems to be that a lot of the mods from here don't have a "descriptor.mod" file. For the few mods I downloaded from here that do, it seems like they all work fine, which is why I have come to this conclusion.

 

From looking around, it seems like I need to edit the "[modname].mod" file to change where it is looking for the rest of the mod stuff, however I can only seem to open these ".mod" files in VLC media player, which doesn't give me any text or code to edit.

 

Any help would be gratefully appreciated and if anyone wants more detailed details, I can gladly provide them. Thanks again :))))

[enterprise2001]

3 hours ago, aBiscuit said:

Sorry if this has been covered in the past, but I'm brand new to modding Stellaris from LL. I've installed from the steam workshop successfully several times, but I'm struggling to do it from here.

 

My main problem is:

 

I have tried playing around with where certain files should be, but my main issue seems to be that a lot of the mods from here don't have a "descriptor.mod" file. For the few mods I downloaded from here that do, it seems like they all work fine, which is why I have come to this conclusion.

 

From looking around, it seems like I need to edit the "[modname].mod" file to change where it is looking for the rest of the mod stuff, however I can only seem to open these ".mod" files in VLC media player, which doesn't give me any text or code to edit.

 

Any help would be gratefully appreciated and if anyone wants more detailed details, I can gladly provide them. Thanks again :))))

Did you decompress the downloaded archive file into the correct folder and preserve the folder structure?

 

They should go into Your Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\mod folder and preserve the folders in the archive so you get Lustful Void.mod and Lustful Void folder in that folder.

 

That's basically what I did and it works for me.

 

If you are running on Windows and are still having problems, you might also try a dedicated archive program that doesn't suck to decompress the archive like https://www.7-zip.org/.

[aBiscuit]

On 9/29/2021 at 3:23 AM, enterprise2001 said:

Did you decompress the downloaded archive file into the correct folder and preserve the folder structure?

 

They should go into Your Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\mod folder and preserve the folders in the archive so you get Lustful Void.mod and Lustful Void folder in that folder.

 

That's basically what I did and it works for me.

 

If you are running on Windows and are still having problems, you might also try a dedicated archive program that doesn't suck to decompress the archive like https://www.7-zip.org/.

 

This is great and work perfectly, thank you so much.

 

However now I've run into the problem of dealing with mods that DO have a "descriptor.mod". When I follow these previous steps (with the "descriptor.mod" in the folder for the mod, where it is when I unpack the mod archive originally), I get this same issue.

 

I have found that if I move this "descriptor.mod" file to my ...\Stellaris\mod folder, where the [modname].mod file is as well, this problem goes away, but this mod in the Paradox Launcher is just empty, so it's not really a fix.

 

Once again any help is greatly appreciated and hopefully this should be the last problem I have with this stuff :)))))

[Renaati]

The descriptor.mod file's correct location is inside the mod's specific folder, e.g. ...\Stellaris\mod\modname.

 

For example: 

 

 

If this problem occurs with every single mod you install, you could have a larger problem with your game, as descriptor.mod files are a normal part of most mods and someone would notice if they were all broken. In that case, you should verify your game files through Steam.

 

If it's just this one mod, you can examine the files to see what's wrong with them. Stellaris .mod files can be opened with a text editor, such as Notepad or Notepad++, but Windows doesn't automatically know about this, so you need to right-click on the file and choose "Edit with Notepad++" (if installed) or "Open with > Choose another program".

 

descriptor.mod does not contain the file path, so you should be able to ignore this.

 

[modname].mod does contain the file path, so check that one first. A correct file path for a manually-installed mod (not Steam Workshop) could be either:

 

path="mod/modname"

or

path="E:/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/mod/modname"

 

i.e. a shortened path which Stellaris will automatically recognise as being in the manual mod directory, or a long path pointing to an explicit location. Whichever of these you see, make sure it points to the actual mod folder, using the correct path and the correct name of the folder.

[enterprise2001]

9 hours ago, aBiscuit said:

 

This is great and work perfectly, thank you so much.

 

However now I've run into the problem of dealing with mods that DO have a "descriptor.mod". When I follow these previous steps (with the "descriptor.mod" in the folder for the mod, where it is when I unpack the mod archive originally), I get this same issue.

 

I have found that if I move this "descriptor.mod" file to my ...\Stellaris\mod folder, where the [modname].mod file is as well, this problem goes away, but this mod in the Paradox Launcher is just empty, so it's not really a fix.

 

Once again any help is greatly appreciated and hopefully this should be the last problem I have with this stuff :)))))

 

Did you move your Documents folder? That could cause problems with mods if they give an absolute path to the default Windows Documents folder. You'd need to edit accordingly as @Renaati suggested above.

 

If that isn't it, you might have to Verify the Stellaris files in Steam. And if that doesn't work, Uninstall Stellaris, manually delete the Stellaris install folder and the Stellaris folder from Documents and then download reinstall Stellaris from Steam.

[grosaprap]

I don't promise the issue you are running into is the same, but when the LEM patch came out Steam and/or the Paradox Launcher crapped the bed for me and ended up claiming that a bunch of mods either weren't installed or were missing descriptor files. The fix for me was to follow the instructions for "Purging All Mods" on the official wiki - https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Modding#Troubleshooting_mod_installation to force the launcher to reset.

 

Hope this helps.