Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2

234 ratings
Modify mod priority aka. Deal with conflicts
By мяFunreal
You'll learn how you can choose what mods should be loaded over others, so you can decide what parts of your mod will overwrite the other mods when you have conflicts.
   
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Foreword
It was long due to make this.

What you need to know: once you use the optional "read only" option none of the in-game modifications will work anymore. Toggling mods on or off, along with adding and removing downloaded mods has to be done entirely manually in the text file, otherwise you run the risk of having the load order shuffled every time you load the game.

Is it inconvenient?
Yes.
Can I make a mod to allow you to change the load order in the game?
No, that is not possible, Sorry.

One thing that I forgot to mention in the video, the "1" at the end of a line is a boolean.
"0" means the mod is disabled, "1" means it is enabled.
Video Tutorial
Text Tutorial
  1. Open "Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\addonlist.txt"
  2. Find the mod you want to have higher priority and move it over the one you want to have lower priority.
  3. Save
  4. Enable Read-Only by right clicking the file, open "properties" and hit the "read only" checkbox.
    Enabling "Read-Only" is optional. Not enabling it will cause the entire list to shuffle when you have a lot of workshop mods installed. It does not seem to shuffle when you don't have any workshop mods.

If you do enable "Read-Only" then you will also have to enable or disable addons manually, by turning the "1" to a "0" to turn it off, and vice versa.
You will also have to manually add addons to the list when you download workshop mods, which is done like this:
  1. Open the workshop folder "Steam\SteamApps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\addons\workshop"
  2. Change the order to "by date" so all new mods are at the top, copy the name of the thumbnails of your new mods and paste them into your addonlist.txt, along with the folder structure like all other mods.

You would also have to remove them manually, but having a name in the list that is not actually used will not cause any errors.
45 Comments
мяFunreal  [author] 4 Jun @ 3:37am 
Wouldn't be the first time someone gets placebo effect and tells people their placebo actually works.

Could be that the load order shuffled because they loaded a map too fast before it loaded all addons properly. Which happens with workshop submissions if you load the game and use the console to load a map before the game even fully loaded.
LuigiMario79 3 Jun @ 5:06pm 
@Someone from Nevada That doesn't appear to work, I tried it myself.
Someone from Nevada 22 Mar @ 7:39pm 
I just recently figured out how to sort them in order VIA drag and click in the properties tab, you just need to go on the workshop tab of the props and click and drag them in your order of mods to prioritise them…just remember to fuck around and find out if you’re risk free before telling everyone.
мяFunreal  [author] 9 Mar @ 10:25am 
Yeah. happens to workshop mods.
Gary 9 Mar @ 10:15am 
Mine are the id's not names
мяFunreal  [author] 27 Dec, 2023 @ 2:10pm 
Nah. the VAC system doesn't care about any of this.
C3ZARO 27 Dec, 2023 @ 8:51am 
>If you do enable "Read-Only" then you will also have to enable or disable addons manually, by turning the "1" to a "0" to turn it off, and vice versa.
You will also have to manually add addons to the list when you download workshop mods, which is done like this:

Sorry for dumb queston, but is it safe? Can i get banned or something because of this?
Kittycat Kye 14 Sep, 2023 @ 7:59pm 
Thank you so much for creating this guide! I really appreciate it. <3
мяFunreal  [author] 12 Jul, 2023 @ 12:36am 
The numbers are the ID of the mod. This ID can be found in the URL of the mod's workshop page.

The easiest was to figure out which mod is what is by opening the addons/workshop folder.
It contains vpk files and jpeg files with the same ID names. Find the thumbnail image of the mod you want, check what name it has and seek out that ID in the addonlist for sorting.

There is no alternative to manually figuring out which mod is what, because the game just downloads them based on mod ID.
(Renaming the vpk files will simply redownload the mods.)
Cy Bunny (#FixTF2) 11 Jul, 2023 @ 8:42pm 
Problem. The addons aren't listed by names and are instead number combinations. How do I change it to show their name or tell which is which?