New to mods and confused!

[Floater]

I've been playing SH3 now almost since it came out, but never got round to installing any mods for fear of messing up. Yesterday, I decided to "push the boat out" and see what I've been missing out on. It's not worked out well so far.

Here's what I've done, testing after each stage:

- Reinstalled SH3 from scratch; upgraded to official 1.4b
- Downloaded JSGME 1.3.3.41 and installed
- Ditto for IUB, which I thought I'd try first; installed it into MODS folder
- JSGME picked up 7 different mods (ClearWater, etc), which I enabled
- SH3 did a CTD on loading missions
- Disabled IUB, tested, all seems OK
- Installed RUb1.45 into MODS; it appeared as a single entry in JSGME
- Enabled RUB1.45
- Found my SilentHunterIII root folder full of folders and files!
- Disabled RUB1.45
- Root folder still full of folders and files
- Maybe that's how it's supposed to be? Reenabled RUB1.45
- SH3 CTDs
- Disabled RUB1.45
- Removed added folders and files from root folder
- SH3 works again

What's up? I'm baffled! My install is pretty standard stuff, except that it's on my I: drive (ie my HDD - my C: drive is a card reader, blame the guy who set it up), but other than that it's a vanilla WinXP P4 system.

Please help a frustated man who is full of woe!

[Soviet_Warlord]

The folders that appear in the "Mods" folder should all contain a "data" folder, if they don't then the mod won't install correctly with JSGME.

[Floater]

RUB1.45 has a "data" folder, although it's empty.

[KptnLt Eric Karle]

Hi Floater, I don't use either RUB or IUB so I'm not exactly sure what the problem is but if you are starting to use mods for the first time I would recommend that you start be trying to install a small simple mod rather then very large complex ones like RUB and IUB. That way it is easier to see what is going on and troubleshoot any potential problems. When you install JSGME into the root folder it creates the MODS folder. Initially all that should be in that folder is an empty folder called "!Backup". Each of the mods you wish to install should be copied into the MODS folder and should be structured as follows. Lets take a simple mod like my "SHIII Internal Life Mod" (completely shameless Plug) as an example, it contains a number of wav files that go into the "Sound" folder so in the MODS folder I copy a folder called:

SHIII Internal Life Mod (Folder)
.
.
.data(Folder)...........Sound(folder)......wav files

every mod installed using JSGME has to replicate the file structure of the game otherwise the JSGME utility cannot correctly backup the original files properly or install the mod files in the correct folder. I hope this helps a little Floater, if its stuff you already know then I'm sorry. When I started using mods I had similer problems because the file structure was incorrect. I really think you should try installing a couple of simple graphic mods first to see exactly whats going on. At this stage I have 40+ mods installed and have not had any problems since the beginning.

[JScones]

Check out the great user-developed JSGME help guides on-line at http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums...3/m/3031058373

[VonHelsching]

They are probably errors due to file structue. It should be something like this:

..sh3/MODS/<mod_name_here>/data/.../

Some mods are unzipped like the following example:

..sh3/MODS/<mod_file_name_here>/<mod_name_here>/data/.../

which is wrong. Just cut & paste 1 level upwards.

Some other mods might be providing alternative versions or mod options. You just pick the one you want. Both won't work together and overwrite each other.

[Floater]

Strangest thing - I uninstalled and reinstalled RUB several times, trying to find a pattern in the way the folder structure was messed up during an install, and suddenly it worked properly.

I'll see how it goes from here - thanks, folks!