Factorio Forums

I'd like a way to change the mod directory Factorio uses on the command line. Right now I have 9 "local folder" versions of Factorio installed on my desktop. The reason is I sometimes play on various public servers, or with friends, etc, and each has a different mix of mods. So what I do is make a folder for each group I play with. That way I can just run the game from the right folder, and the right mods are good to go plus the server name is saved on the connect dialog box.

If I had a --mod-directory command line override, I could use a single install of Factorio (my steam copy) and just have the mods for each server in a directory just for that server, and make .bat files instead of separate full folders for each server. Would save me a lot of disk space, and not needing to keep updating all of the different installations.

Yes I could manually juggle mod directories around each time I play, but I prefer a single "setup and click to play" system which this allows.

Bonus points if I could set the default MP server to connect to (the one that appears in the dialog box) via a command line option as well. Then a single .bat file would truly give me the same benefits as a separate install per server does.

I recommend waiting until 0.13, modpacks might be coming soon as it is. Also, it might auto install or at least enable the modpack for a server you're connecting to.

There is a better way of doing it than 8 different installations (and why on the desktop? That's a terrible idea!)

Your could simply have 8 different mod folders in your game directly, and rename the one you want to use back to "mods" to activate it.

or you could get more creative and use directory... actually, I forgot the name right now, but it's a bit more technical to do anyway.

The biggest reason I can think of for multiple installations though is that the servers might be running different game versions, 0.12.30 is still quite popular to use AFAIK, due to some map transfer issues that were introduced in 0.12.31.

bobingabout wrote:There is a better way of doing it than 8 different installations (and why on the desktop? That's a terrible idea!)

Your could simply have 8 different mod folders in your game directly, and rename the one you want to use back to "mods" to activate it.

It's just lazyiness basically. And by having different installed, each folder has the default server name saved from the last time I played. Yeah I could shuffle the mod directory name around, maybe I'll eventually adopt that. I just liked having a way to click the .exe for the server I wanted to play on and not take those steps. But I guess I could make .bat files to rename the directories...

+1 for this feature; but I would like it to be available via the config file as well.

I have a need for being able to switch mod directories at startup time without shuffling around files. I think the general goal should be multi-tenancy of factorio headless servers, and I believe this is one of the few remaining obstacles to that.

I recommend a deep view to https://wiki.factorio.com/index.php?tit ... _directory

I'm not sure (cause I never used that feature), but I would say, this feature can be moved to implemented, cause this is already possible and what's missing is just more comfort, but that takes time and is a completely different issue.

Other opinions?

0.13.10 will feature --mod-directory.

Thank you Oxyd!