r/BattleTechMods • u/Dry_Pension_9866 • 1d ago
Folders after installing BEXT
Does anybody have some screenshots of the the file folders should look like after installing BEXT? I've been mucking about this for days and when I start the game it's still just vanilla.
I have tried it inside steam and outside. Fresh install of battletech, download BEX and extract the files to a holding folder then copying them to the battletech root folder (extracting directly to the root folder just gets stuck)).
Downloaded cab installer, hit update all and forever later it creates files in the mod folder.
I think all is well, start the game and it's just vanilla. what am i missing? I see a modinject file but not one with an .exe?
I tried moving the mod files from the bex mod folder to the battletech mod folder, but still same result.
Anybody have any ideas?
2
u/deeseearr 1d ago
First off, make sure you're installing the latest version from https://discourse.modsinexile.com/t/battletech-extended-tactics/1859 .
The install directions are pretty clear: "Download and unzip the BattleTech Extended .zip file to …\Steam\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\. You should see scores of folders within your …BATTLETECH\Mods folder including BT_Extended, BT_Extended_3050, BT_Extended_CE, etc."
Just to be clear, you are unpacking Extended_Tactics_2_0_0_4.zip directly into the game's install directory, which will be Steam\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH on Steam or something very similar for GoG. That means that you will be putting files like "libdoorstop.so" right next to "Battletech.exe". A new "Mods" directory will be created in BATTLETECH which contains all of the mod content. That is the only "Mods" directory. BEX doesn't have its own, CAB doesn't have its own, and Battletech doesn't have its own. They're all the same one.
If you've read anything about putting mods into "Documents\My Games\Battletech\Mods\" then just step away from whatever you were reading, put something heavy on top of it and never read it again. That's how the built-in modloader (sort of) worked at launch time. BEX replaces all of that with ModTek which is like replacing a Ford Model T with a Dire Wolf.
What should happen is that the game should start by running Battletech.exe (Steam does this for you, and that's fine.) Battletech.exe then looks in the current directory and sees libdoorstop.so which was installed as part of BEXT. It loads that (because why not?) and that then looks in the "doorstop" directory (also installed by BEXT) for some more files to load and run, and then _that_ finally decides to look in BATTLETECH\Mods\ModTek and load the Mod manager. All of those files should be right there where Battletech.exe can find them otherwise nothing interesting is going to happen. When it works you will see a "ModTek" banner in the initial loading screen, and it will announce each little sub-mod as it loads it. There will be a lot of them.
Past versions of ModTek relied on you running an "Injector" to modify Battletech.exe. That's no longer required, so ignore anything which tells you to do that. Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth (Okay, like four years ago. The dinosaurs got around.) there were also things like Battletech Mod Manager or Battletech Mod Loader which tried to do the same job as ModTek. Just say "No". You don't want or need anything like that, and playing around with them is much more likely to cause problems than solve them. Everything you need to run Battletech Extended is in the downloaded package, which you extract directly into the game directory, and the CAB, which runs its own installer and should figure out where the game is installed.
1
u/Dry_Pension_9866 1d ago
Looks like the unziping might be the issue. it freezes when I send it to the Steam\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\ so I extracted to another folder and copied it to the Battletech root file. It freezes when it gets to the mono-2.0-bdwgc.dll
1
u/deeseearr 1d ago edited 1d ago
You didn't install Steam under Program Files, did you? The "freezing" might be Windows security trying to prevent you from doing something that you might want to do. If that's the case there should be some kind of "Use my magical Administrator powers to bypass this" button, but you may need to find that on your own.
mono-2.0.bdwgc.dll is a new file which should be placed in steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\BattleTech_Data\Managed. You may have more luck, or better feedback, if you tried copying it individually. It might also be helpful to copy everything _but_ the BattleTech_Data directory, which really only contains that file and a copy of sqlite3.dll, and see if you're able to do that.
1
u/Dry_Pension_9866 1d ago
Thanks for the feedback. Steam is just under a hard drive directory. I had read to do a fresh install outside of the steam environment which i did but hit the same roadblock. I'll try the manual copying which was why i was looking for a map of sorts...the ones I found online were outdated. If nothing else I will just install BEXCE and rock that. Here is hoping
3
u/Lost_Tumbleweed_5669 1d ago
Assuming you are downloading from the correct mods in exile site it literally has the instructions. You should see scores of folders within your …BATTLETECH\Mods folder including BT_Extended, BT_Extended_3050, BT_Extended_CE.
So those extracted files Mods, Battletech data etc should be in the same file as the exe.
Then run CAB which targets the Mods folder.
Your “Checkout workspace” should be located on the same harddrive. I usually make a CAB folder on my game/c drive for this on the same drive as BT.
CAB Install Mode: All
Click “Update CAB”
Maybe post a pic of your folder.