issue with joining modded server

[popsweetjesus]

i downloaded the game and installed some mods to play with my friends on his server they were all activated and set and when i went to join it said 5 mods were not downloaded i couldn't figure it out so i uninstalled the game and all the mods reinstalled it and manually added all of the mods into the mod folder there are others on the sever who joined and did not have an issue but mine still has yet to work any thought or reasons that this is happening 

[LadyWYT]

First off, welcome to the forums! When joining a modded server, you should be prompted to download and install all of the mods required to play on said server. This download and installation happens automatically, once you click the button that allows Vintage Story to do the work for you. Of course, you can install the mods yourself, but you will need to get a list of exactly which mods, and which versions of those mods, you need.

27 minutes ago, popsweetjesus said:

when i went to join it said 5 mods were not downloaded i couldn't figure it out so i uninstalled the game and all the mods reinstalled it and manually added all of the mods into the mod folder

I'm guessing this is probably where the issue is though. Either you got the wrong version of a mod, or you may have gotten the correct versions but installed them in the wrong location. The Mods folder in your VintagestoryData folder is where mods for singleplayer go; mods for specific servers go into the appropriate folder within ModsByServer. If the mods are missing from the server folder, you won't be able to join the server.

[Veronica Hohenheim]

On 9/18/2025 at 11:28 PM, LadyWYT said:

When joining a modded server, you should be prompted to download and install all of the mods required to play on said server. This download and installation happens automatically, once you click the button that allows Vintage Story to do the work for you. 

How is this happens exactly ? Like does vs saves a modlist for user to enter a server and only then activate them or do they stay active even in single player worlds ? Do they turn on and off according to a sittuation ? Some games have playsets,like paradox games has them and I think they r neat.Letting player choose a modlist to use for a playsession rather then turn on and off them manually each time but I havent see something similiar in this game.

[LadyWYT]

2 hours ago, Veronica Hohenheim said:

How is this happens exactly ? Like does vs saves a modlist for user to enter a server and only then activate them or do they stay active even in single player worlds ? Do they turn on and off according to a sittuation ? Some games have playsets,like paradox games has them and I think they r neat.Letting player choose a modlist to use for a playsession rather then turn on and off them manually each time but I havent see something similiar in this game.

Mods for a server are installed to a different folder than mods for singleplayer; each server will have its own file within that folder. You don't need to mess with them at all, save for going into the appropriate server folder and deleting old mods that are no longer in use, since leaving them there can cause issues.

Mods for singleplayer though, you will have to manually switch on and off as needed for singleplayer worlds.

[Echo Weaver]

Yeah, it's kind of a mess, honestly. The mods auto-downloaded from a multiplayer server are kept in a directory named with its IP address. If you have mods in your own directory, it'll run the client-side stuff and possibly cause issues. 

I use a separate parallel installation of VS with no mods to connect to multiplayer servers. 

We've been told that mod profiles are on the roadmap. They can't come fast enough. It still perplexes me that games like VS and Minecraft have never prioritized an easy way to switch between modpacks.

If you are unable to join because some of the mods didn't download from the server, that's because those mods are not on VS's official ModDB and need to be downloaded from elsewhere. VS does not encourage doing this, and resolving it is kind of a pain. If you're trying to join a server with mods not present on ModDB, the server should have clear information about where to download the mods and what they do. To install them, you find the correct directory under ModsByServer and drop them in there manually.

Edited September 26, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[Veronica Hohenheim]

34 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

We've been told that mod profiles are on the roadmap. They can't come fast enough. It still perplexes me that games like VS and Minecraft have never prioritized an easy way to switch between modpacks.

I hope they make a kind where it is per world.Like not just start any save,world etc with this modlist but also be able to choose and save a spesific modlist for a save in a way that u dont need to go back and between modlists to change worlds.

[Echo Weaver]

7 minutes ago, Veronica Hohenheim said:

I hope they make a kind where it is per world.Like not just start any save,world etc with this modlist but also be able to choose and save a spesific modlist for a save in a way that u dont need to go back and between modlists to change worlds.

YES. I almost never play a game using the same modlist as the last. I want to be able to define a profile to go with a save game.

I have low confidence that they'll go that way, but if I can define a list of profiles, I can make the profile name part of the save name to tell me what to load. It would still be much better than what we have now, where I keep 4 different parallel installations: 3 for different mod lists and 2 with no mods so that I can connect to multiplayer servers without getting trouble from my installed mods.

ETA: It would still be MUCH better to assign a profile to a save and have that handled automatically, since if you load a save with the wrong mods, it will save when you exit, and you're screwed. I don't know how to deal with that? Kill the process? I assume that wouldn't corrupt anything....

ETA2: Actually, it seems like the right way to do this would be to select a profile, and have only the save games using that profile enabled to load. Hmmm.... I should put that under suggestions. 

Edited September 26, 2025 by Echo Weaver