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Sheep-y edited this page Jan 25, 2021 · 3 revisions

The catch-all troubleshooting guide of everything I can think of, as long as it is Windows.

(If you picked an unconventional gaming platform, well, guess you should know it well.)

Table of Contents

Flowchart

  1. If Modnix is working but you want to change game path, see Check or Change Game Path.
  2. Can the game be launched and played? If not, see Remove Mod Loaders and Reset Phoenix Point.
  3. Can Modnix or ModnixInstaller be launched? If not, see Modnix Cannot Launch.
  4. Can Modnix be installed? If not, see Modnix Cannot Setup.
  5. In Modnix, does the status on top-left says Ready? If status is red, see Modnix Not Ready.
  6. In Modnix, are the mods listed on the right? If empty or missing, see No Mods Found.
  7. If the mod you want to use is disabled (greyed out), see Mod Disabled.
  8. If the mod that is not working is a PPDefModifier mod (.json), see PPDef Mod Not Working.
  9. After launch, does any mods become red? If yes and the mod is not working, see Mod Not Working.
If nothing works, try the #mods channel on Discord, or open a new issue here with the Loader Log, to help Ovis Aries rule the world one tool at a time.

Using File Explorer

Many troubleshooting steps require you to open folder and find files.

To open a folder, launch File Explorer and copy and paste the path in the address bar, then press enter to jump there.

If the folder does not change or a prompt comes up, the folder does not exists.

To see file extensions, you need to change File Explorer options.

Go to the View tab of the action bar, click "Options" on the right which brings a popup. In the View tab you can toggle "Hide extension for known file types", among other options.

This guide assumes that you are not hiding extensions. If extensions are hidden, some steps may be ambiguous or wrong, depending on the file status of your game. And we won't want that.

Check or Change Game Path

Modnix is designed to work with a single copy of the game. It can work with multiple copies, but you need to manually install it on the extra copies.

To see which copy Modnix is working on, expand the game version on the left panel. It will show you the game path and type. Since Modnix 3 Beta 2, you can also change the path here.

To manually change the path, open the Mods folder (see Manual Add Mods), find Modnix.conf and open it with Notepad.

One of the lines should say "GamePath": and you can edit the line to specify the game path, or delete the whole line to make Modnix re-detect the game on next launch.

If the game cannot be auto-detected, Modnix would ask you to Browse the game.

Because of this, you can also uninstall, rename, or move the current game, then restart Modnix to force it to "lost" the current game and must re-detect.

You may need to re-setup after changing game path. Usually it is as simple as clicking the Setup button.

Remove Mod Loaders

Sometimes you may want to remove mod loaders to restore the game to an unmodded state.

Modnix 3 b2 and up should be able to remove all mod loaders from the given Phoenix Point. It will remove legacy loaders on Setup, and will remove all loaders including itself on Revert.

The following guide is for when you want to manually remove the loaders.

You must know the install path of your game. Typically:

  • Steam: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Phoenix Point
  • Epic: C:\Program Files\Epic Games\PhoenixPoint
  • GOG: C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Phoenix Point
The install path, or root folder, should have the PhoenixPointWin64.exe file in it, among others. It should also have the PhoenixPointWin64_Data\Managed folder which contains its code.

There have been a few different ways a mod loader may hook to Phoenix Point, so the removal depends on the mod loader used. When in doubt, do them all.

Modnix 3 Beta 2 and up

Modnix 3 Beta 2 switched to a new installation method that does not need to modify game code, so all you need to do is to delete a few files.

  1. In the game's root folder, delete these files if exists:
    1. 0Harmony.dll
    2. doorstop_config.ini
    3. ModnixLoader.dll
    4. Mono.Cecil.dll
    5. winhttp.dll
  2. You may also want to remove all .log files, if any.
Modnix 1, 2, and 3 Beta 1
  1. Launch command prompt and cd to the Managed folder.
  2. Run ModnixInjector /r. It will restore a backup.
  3. In the game's Managed folder, delete these files if exists:
    1. 0Harmony.dll (shared with PPML)
    2. ModnixLoader.dll
    3. Mono.Cecil.dll (shared with PPML)
    4. ModnixInjector.exe
  4. You may also want to remove .log files from the root folder, if any.
PPML
  1. Launch command prompt and cd to the Managed folder.
  2. Run PhoenixPointModLoaderInjector /r. It will restore a backup.
  3. In the game's Managed folder, delete these files if exists:
    1. 0Harmony.dll (shared with Modnix1/2)
    2. Mono.Cecil.dll (shared with Modnix1/2)
    3. PhoenixPointModLoaderInjector.exe
    4. PhoenixPointModLoader.dll
    5. PPModLoader.dll
    6. JetBrains.Annotations.dll
    7. README.md
  4. You may also want to remove .log files from the root folder, if any.
For all mod loaders, you may also want to remove:
  1. All .log files from the root folder, if any.
  2. The Mods folder under root. If it have the shortcut arrow on its icon, deleting it will not remove your mods.
  3. My Games\Phoenix Point\Mods in My Documents. This will remove all Modnix mods and config.
  4. All dll files in the root folder except UnityPlayer.dll which must not be removed.
If the above steps fail to cleanly restore Phoenix Point, for example if you messed up by installing different versions of PPML, go Reset Phoenix Point.

Reset Phoenix Point

Through modding done wrong, accidents, out-of-control programs, cosmic ray, or other acts of Epic / Steam / Windows (pick your God), Phoenix Point and its mod loader may not behave as intended.

Follow these steps carefully to "reset" the game. Do not skip. Your mod, saves, achievements etc. will be kept, and download will be minimum.

  1. Reboot the computer.
  2. Find out where the game is installed (see above).
  3. Make sure game is not running.
  4. Delete all files in the root folder, including PhoenixPointWin64.exe.
  5. Delete all files in the PhoenixPointWin64_Data\Managed folder, including Assembly-CSharp.dll.
  6. "Verify Files" through the game store's client.
  7. Launch the game and play a bit to make sure it works.
  8. Keep playing if you want to, like load a save, or quit game and setup a mod loader.
All steps are important.

Rebooting will kill all zombie process, release file locks, finish any pending or partial updates, restart system services, and give you a break.

Deleting all files in the two folders will make sure that no extra or unintended dll would override and interfere the game or mod loader.

If problem persists on a clean Phoenix Point without any mod loader, in a new game, press F12 in-game to report it to Snapshot and help everyone.

Modnix Cannot Launch

If the installer or main program fails to run, i.e. you tried to run it but nothing happens. No windows, no popups, absolutely nothing. Then follow these steps.

First, disable anti-virus. Anti-virus often delay or block a suspicious program, sometime without notice.

Then, launch the Command Prompt as Administrator, go to the folder of the installer or main program, and launch Modnix while directing its outputs to a log. Example: 

    C:\Users\Sheepy\Downloads> ModnixInstaller.exe > Startup.log
    C:\Users\Sheepy\Documents\My Games\Phoenix Point\Mods> Modnix.exe > Startup.log

This should capture the startup messages and save them in the file "Startup.log". Open this log and check whether there are errors.

Note that Modnix requires .Net Framework 4.5.2 or above to run, including Setup. It come with Windows, and many programs use it so normally you'll have it.

On Linux, because of the use of WPF, the GUI is unsupported and you must install Mono and do a manual setup.

For the main program, you may also use Command line switches to avoid a few rare issues.

Modnix Cannot Setup

First, disable anti-virus, and run ModnixInstaller as Administrator.

Yes you need to be local admin, and yes a smart anti-virus should cry foul. Nothing is safe these days.

The installation will also fail if legacy mod loaders are detected and could not be removed. In that case, Verify the game first, if not Reset Phoenix Point.

The Installer should show a log when you click the Setup button. The log can help find what is preventing installation.

If all the above fails, you can try Manual Setup.

Modnix Not Ready

On launch, Modnix will do a check-up and display the result on top-left.

If it says "Game not found or not moddable", click the Browse button below to locate the game's exe. If you found the exe but Modnix still says the same, regrettably the game may be un-moddable.

If it says "Legacy loader found", "Mod loader mismatch", "Mod loader missing", or something similar, please click the Setup button. If the Setup fails, see Modnix Cannot Setup.

If you can't find the button, try click the expand (+) button to the right of Status. It is to the left of Help and should either be "Browse" or "Setup" when the status is red and game is not running.

Fails to Add Mods

It is strongly advised to use the Add Mod button to install mods. As long as the mod is in the correct format/structure, Modnix will try put it in the correct location.

If Modnix can't add or delete any mods, please whitelist it in anti-virus.

Now, if you prefer to install mods manually:

Manual Add Mods

Mods are placed in %UserProfile%\Documents\My Games\Phoenix Point\Mods\. If the folder does not exists, Modnix is not installed.

Modnix also has a button to open the folder. The button is at the bottom below the mod list.

Mods often come in archive, and you will need to use a suitable software to see its content and identify the core mod file, usually a dll, js, or json file.

For simple mods, that have a single .dll or .js file, the most fool-proof way is to put the file in the Mods folder, instead of putting in a subfolder.

If it is a dll, right click it and select Properties. If at the bottom of the property windows it says the file is downloaded, please Unblock it.

For legacy PPDefModifier mods, that have one or more .json files. These mods depends on PPDefModifier to work, so you must install PPDefModifier first and make sure PPDefModifier is listed and enabled.

The .json file must then be placed in the PPDefModifier subfolder under Mods, i.e. %UserProfile%\Documents\My Games\Phoenix Point\Mods\PPDefModifier\

PPDefModifier will then parse and execute these mods. These mods do not show up on the mod list and cannot be disabled.

If you wish to put mods in subfolder for better organisation, mods in subfolders are loaded if and only if the folder name matches the file, e.g. SkipIntro-3-0\SkipIntro.dll or LaserOnFire-12-456789\LaserOnFire\LaserOnFire.js

After manually adding a mod and optionally unblocking it, you can Refresh the mod list in Modnix to see whether they show up.

As always, the log panel can reveal the reason of why a mod does not show up, esp. at Verbose level. It will log which folders are Scanned, which files are Parsed, and whether it is Found to be a mod.

If a folder or file is not scanned / parsed, that means its file extension is unrecognised, or its file name does not match its containind folder.

If a mod is scanned but not found, that means it is incompatible. Please review the mod's documentation to see which mod loader it supports. Modnix 3 is designed to be compatible with PPML 0.1 mods, PPML 0.2 mods, and all past Modnix mods.

Mod Disabled

If the mod does show up but is not enabled (greyed out), please click on it.

The left panel should show the detailed mod info, such as its name and version. The bottom of the first paragraph lists the reason(s) why the mod is disabled.

For example, if multiple mods declare the same internal mod id, only the latest version would be kept.

Some mods may requires that a certain mods are installed and enabled, and would otherwise refuse to work. Likewise, some other mods may self-disable when certain mods exists and are enabled, or even force-disable outdated mods that it overrides. If the mod is .js or .json, you can edit the mod to override or disable these actions. For .dll mods, there is currently no way to override them.

Of course, mod authors who put these actions in usually have good reasons to do so. So don't be surprised if the mod does not work after modification.

Note that a mod that reports warnings or errors are not disabled. They will be marked as blue or red, which means Modnix did try to run the mod; it has not been disabled.

PPDef Mod Not Working

See Manual Add Mods.

Note that Phoenix Point have changed a lot in the year since release, and may early PPDef mods are not longer working due to the changes, error or not.

Mod Not Working

If Modnix lists a mod, and it is enabled, but it is not working, well, it is usually not a Modnix problem.

You see, Modnix is just a doorman. It opens a door for mods, where non exists before. What the mod does, why it works (or not works), normally does not concern or involve Modnix.

But if the mod is in blue or red, that means Modnix at least caught some warnings and/or errors. Read the Loader Log to try to find the warning or error.

Because in very rare cases, a mod may log a warning or error in human-readable text, rather than in Sheepish. (Do you want to learn Sheepish? We can rule the world together and Save Earth!) For example, Dump Data will log a warning when Scripting Library is unavailable, because it can't export some minor game data.

Otherwise, contacting the mod author is generally preferable than seeking help in the Modnix wiki.

Loader Log

When you ask for help, the developer may ask for your loader log.

You usually want to set it to Verbose level, to provide more information at a slight performance hit.

  1. Run Modnix, switch to Logs tab and make sure Verbose is checked.
  2. Switch back to Mods tab and Launch the game. This should create a new log.
  3. Start or load a game. May be enter a combat. Exit game.
  4. In Modnix, switch to Logs tab and click "Loader Log".
  5. Verify that the time on the first line matches the time you launched the game.
If the Loader Log button is disabled, or the time does not match, the mod loader is not working. This can happen after the game is patched or verified, a process that may remove the mod loader.
  1. Switch back to Mods tab.
  2. If first button says "Revert", click it.
  3. Otherwise, or after revert, it should says "Setup". click it.
  4. If first button is "Launch", click the expand button next to "Status" text to see setup button.
  5. Re-launch the game after setup and check the log again.
If the log's timestamp is correct, look for "exception", "error", and/or "fail", in this order. It is usually a good idea to include a few lines above and below the line of error. When in doubt, upload the full log somewhere (e.g. Google Drive) and link it when you seek help.

Loader logs are generally safe to be made public. Modnix log only the bare minimum, like mod path and game version, and I haven't seen anything in them that can reveal your identity or must be kept private.

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