Searches Using a Mod's name Filters all of that Mod's Content or Settings

[amgtree5@gmail.com]

When using the focus search (ctrl-f or magnifying icon), typing a mod's full name should highlight all content from that mod across various menus.

For example, in mod settings, searching "Alien Biomes" currently only shows settings with those exact words in their names , not all settings from the Alien Biomes mod (in fact it filters everything out since no setting is titled under that). Since mod settings are already grouped by mod, this feels like missing functionality.

This would be valuable beyond just mod settings. In crafting menus or inventory screens, searching for a mod name like "Space Exploration" should show all items, buildings, and recipes from that mod. Currently, you'd need to know specific item names rather than just remembering which mod added them.
This would improve usability when dealing with a large number of mods. Instead of scrolling through potentially hundreds of options or memorizing item names, users could quickly filter to just one mod's content.

A simple implementation would be to add a hidden prefix to each setting/item containing the mod name, which the search function could match against. Alternatively, items could have a secondary search string property that contains the mods title or reference to where the mods title is stored. Whether to require the full mod name or allow partial matches is a design decision worth considering.
Thank you for your time and consideration.

[Der_Failer]

Bump,
This has been bugging me for years. I hardly ever use the search function in the mod settings because its not at all helpful.

TL;DR

The current search function in the mod setting is not very helpful, only showing specific setting instead of all setting of match mods.

What?

The search function only shows based on the name of a setting, this means finding all setting for a specific mod is not possible (unless the mod creator adds the name of the mod into the setting name).
I see two options here:
1: The search also includes the mods display name
2: some form of filter like "mods:" showing results only based on the names display name

12-26-2025, 13-44-26.png (68.06 KiB) Viewed 500 times

Why?

Currently unless i know or guess the name of a setting right, i have to manuell search them all (those names are also often fairly vague and you need to read a tooltip or even a description of the mod page to understand what they do).
This mean that players need to scroll thought three different list to check for setting from a single mod. With larger mod list or specific mods adding many settings this becomes very tedious.

History!

This has come up before btw. Back then the suggestion was the ability to collapse individual mods, this was/is(?) not possible and seems like a worse option compared to an improved search function.
Dec 2024
Apr 2017
Those two i found with a single search (and this post itself), so i wouldn't be surprised if there are more examples.

[Stargateur]

can't agree more, search based on setting name sux for mod

[zin]

I can’t overstate how much I want this feature. I’ve been longing for this for years as well. It would be fairly trivial to implement (I understand stating this is usually not a good idea, but as suggested by the OP, the mod name could be a hidden prefix to settings or controls options, and mod name search is already done in the mod manager) and would save players a lot of time. If implemented, it should apply to mod settings and controls settings.

It’s frustrating to locate mod settings, especially as many mods have settings in multiple tabs, leading to players completely missing settings they might be looking for, especially when they have a lot of mods installed. I second Der_Failer’s suggestion(s). I think either one, or even both, would work perfectly. I’ve found myself typing mod names in the search field numerous times despite knowing it does not work.

[Thremtopod]

+1, but...
I think there is a tradeoff here that's gone unnoticed: it would make it impossible to filter settings by any string that also happens to be a substring of any mod's name. E.g. if I search "alien" in the mod settings menu because I want to find settings called "alien X..." and "alien Y...", if I have alien biomes installed then this search won't work well because all the alien biome settings won't get filtered out.

Instead I suggest a slight alternative: when searching, still filter out mod settings exactly like happens now; but if the search matches a (part of) a mod's name, the mod's section in the settings gets included in the search results. Then if I search "alien" I'll get an empty section for alien biomes, plus the settings I'm looking for. And if I actually do want the alien biomes settings, I can just delete the search term to restore the settings (as long the settings page stays scrolled to the alien biomes section).