I'm just a wee bit confused on how to install mods. I see there is a mod manager (JSGME) but do I put that program and the "MODS" folder in the /eSim Games/ folder or do I put it in the Documents/eSim Games/Steel Beasts folder? Or am I just best backing up the folders prior to installing and just overwriting the old files?

Thanks for any guidance.. I tried using the instructions with JSGME but it didn't appear that when I used those instructions that the proper files in my game directory were being overwritten..

A look into the manual may help, the first chapter about installation also explains the file structure. Mods are to be copied into My Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\mods\... so that the integrity of all program files is preserved.

Ah..very good. I just wasn't clear on which location the mods go in..I was putting them in the main program directory, not the My Documents directory structure.. RTFM..

Beach - that section in the first chapter on the file structure of SBP is highly useful to bookmark and refer to, even for long time SB types. For reasons I believe pertaining to the contracts the company has, the distributed directory structure for quite a few functions is preferred over a consolidated structure. So locations for SB files can be challenging to remember without that reference.

For instance, I think you already know that user made scenarios are by default stored separately in the My Documents eSim folder. But sometimes a scenario will include height and/or terrain map files - and they go in a different directory within the Documents and Files section.

And...REALLY looking forward to your series on this sim.

It still amazes me how much confusion it generates when an application simply adheres to Microsoft's software design guidelines for multi-user environments. All that we do is simply to put the files where they belong so that one doesn't have to have admin privileges just to play a goddamned game. I have no idea why so few others manage to read Microsoft's rules. They are, after all, the rules of the operating system, about the most fundamental thing that every programmer should know by heart before even writing his first line of code in a new project.

It's not about "consolidated file structures". Putting everything into the program directory is something that only DOS dinosaurs would do. It was wrong even in Windows 95 days, let alone Windows NT 3.5 and later.

Although only users with Admin rights can open the map editor.

...unless an admin changes the access/security rules for the map folder. Of course you need someone with admin privileges to install the software (and eventually set up access rights). WHich is why we have that chapter, so that admins have all the necessary info to configure the user accounts properly.

MS managed to make that a right pain in the butt for an XP-Home machine with shares disabled...

The required tools or methods do exist, but are obfuscated by MS deliberately. This is probably the root of the reluctance to implement applications correctly, as a large minority of users will not have the admin tools to meet well designed software part-way.

I'm all for standardization. And I'm all for the concept of maintaining a clean "base" directory and only having mods be "called" from an independent user directory. Sounds like the right way to go..but it doesn't seem to be the industry standard (in gaming and sims anyway).

It's one of those things that once you get it figured out it works fine..but the first few days with it is a bit confusing.

I must admit to be a bit bemused by JSGME (as it applies to SB anyway) - it seems much harder to 'get it to work' than it ever has been to apply a mod through the SB 'mods' folder - especially since you need to understand how the paths work either to add a skin directly, or to place it for JSGME to apply it automatically.

Once you are done with your mods, just empty the mods folder and you are back to vanilla SB with nothing broken.