Syncing modded games: Mods, DLCs and Checksums

[Maty83]

Hello. I've recently come across a problem while syncing an MP game with friends (Including mods). However, there seems to be a differing issue in checksums despite the same mods AND same load order. Still, it came up false with differing checksums across all three PCs.

We all even reinstalled the game and came up with different setups. Would it be possible for this to happen by having different DLC owned?

I am the host with all the DLC, but my friends only own select ones. Could it be that some parts of the DLCs are overwritten which causes the differing checksums? If not, how would we go about getting the same checksum or forcing a join in Stellaris MP?

 

[AndrewT]

DLCs do not affect checksums. On top of that, only the host's DLCs are considered, those of other players are ignored.


You cannot force MP to work with different checksums, we need to fix that problem.


Does it work okay with NO mods enabled by anyone? If so, then all enable ONE mod only, and test. If that's okay, all enable one more mod and test - keep doing that until you find the problem mod.


If however it does not work with no mods enabled, someone has a bad installation. Anyone who does NOT see 3.3.4 (67b9) in the main game menu and MP lobby (Ignore what you see in the launcher) needs to do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere, and user_empire_designs.txt from /Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/ if you have made any custom empires or races.
- "uninstall" in Steam-Stellaris
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/Stellaris AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add stellaris.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.
- start the game with no mods active and test

In particular you need to make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam Stellaris or Documents Stellaris locations, before installing again.

Good luck!

 

[Maty83]

DLCs do not affect checksums. On top of that, only the host's DLCs are considered, those of other players are ignored.


You cannot force MP to work with different checksums, we need to fix that problem.


Does it work okay with NO mods enabled by anyone? If so, then all enable ONE mod only, and test. If that's okay, all enable one more mod and test - keep doing that until you find the problem mod.


If however it does not work with no mods enabled, someone has a bad installation. Anyone who does NOT see 3.3.4 (67b9) in the main game menu and MP lobby (Ignore what you see in the launcher) needs to do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere, and user_empire_designs.txt from /Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/ if you have made any custom empires or races.
- "uninstall" in Steam-Stellaris
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/Stellaris AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add stellaris.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.
- start the game with no mods active and test

In particular you need to make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam Stellaris or Documents Stellaris locations, before installing again.

Good luck!

Thanks for the swift reply: There is one more issue we found with the launcher: The incompatibility of the generated .json files makes it difficult to sync up the modpacks: Just enabling no-download, only assigning installed mods by the launcher would drastically improve QoL.

 

[AndrewT]

Thanks for the swift reply: There is one more issue we found with the launcher: The incompatibility of the generated .json files makes it difficult to sync up the modpacks: Just enabling no-download, only assigning installed mods by the launcher would drastically improve QoL.

TBH I'm not sure what you mean by "incompatibility of the generated .json files" ... in any case probably best to bring this to the attention of the launcher dev team here:

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