How to Add Mods to Your Avorion Server

Avorion comes with its own mod system. You do not have to upload the mods yourself — your server downloads them from the Steam Workshop on startup. All of this is controlled by a single file: the modconfig.lua in the folder of your galaxy.

Warning

Stop your server before adding or removing mods. After a game update, mods may be incompatible and cause crashes. Also create a backup of your galaxy beforehand.

Find the Workshop ID

1. Open the mod in the Steam Workshop
   Open the Steam Workshop for Avorion and look up the mod you want.

2. Read the ID from the address
   The Workshop ID is the number at the end of the URL. For https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1691539727 the ID is 1691539727.

Add the mods

1. Stop the server
   Stop your server via the dashboard.

2. Connect via SFTP
   Connect to your server via SFTP or use the file browser in the dashboard.

3. Open modconfig.lua
   Navigate to the folder of your galaxy – where server.ini and admin.xml are located as well – and open the file:

   /galaxy/<galaxy name>/modconfig.lua

   Note

   The galaxy folder is named exactly like the galaxy name configured in the dashboard (Galaxy Name). If the file does not exist yet, start your server once so the folder structure is created, then stop it again.

4. Enter the mods
   Add each mod with its Workshop ID inside the mods block:

   modLocation = ""
   forceEnabling = false
   mods =
   {
       {workshopid = "1691539727"},
       {workshopid = "1691591293"},
   }
   allowed =
   {
   }

   You can leave the allowed block empty. If you additionally want to allow client-side mods, add them there using the same notation: {workshopid = "…"}.

5. Save and start
   Save the file and start your server. On startup it downloads the configured mods and activates them – the first start can therefore take a little longer.

The blocks at a glance

Block	Meaning
mods	The mods your server loads. One entry per mod with its Workshop ID.
allowed	Optional list of client-side mods (mostly UI mods) that are allowed on your server. Can be left empty.
forceEnabling	Forces the mods to be enabled. The value stays at false.
modLocation	Alternative location for the mods folder. If the value stays empty, your server uses the default folder mods.

Leave forceEnabling at false

The developers of Avorion explicitly recommend leaving forceEnabling turned off: the option is aimed primarily at mod developers and can lead to broken or corrupted savegames.

Do players have to do anything?

When joining, players are shown the mod list of your server. Via the connect & download button the client automatically downloads and installs the matching Workshop mods before joining.

Tip

Your server stores downloaded Workshop mods inside the galaxy under workshop/content/445220/. That is how you can check whether a mod was actually loaded.

Important

Watch the commas and the curly brackets. If the modconfig.lua is faulty, your server cannot read the file and will not start properly. When testing, comment out mods one at a time instead of changing several at once.