Mechwarrior Foundry Wiki

=  Welcome to the Mechwarrior Foundry  =

We're a collaborative community whose goal is to share knowledge about Mechwarrior 5 Modding. While there are many written and video tutorials covering nearly every aspect of using the Unreal Engine 4. There are a lot of things that are particular to the Mechwarrior 5 Editor. The goal of this site is to compile the experience of the modding community in order to encourage growth and more fun for all.

Getting Started
Initial Setup

How to start your modding journey.

Modding Tips

Detailing things that are specific to the Mechwarrior Editor that may not be immediately obvious.

FAQ

External Links:
Official MW5 Editor Tutorial

Official MW5 Mission Editing Video Guides

- MW5 Mission Building Part 1 Level Setup

- MW5 Mission Building Part 2 Markup Levels and Locators

- MW5 Mission Building Part 3 Area Specification Setup

- MW5 Mission Building Part 4 Mission Flow Nodes

- MW5 Mission Building Part 5 Finishing the Mission and Deploying the Mod

How to Install Mods for MW5
Installing mods for Mechwarrior 5 will vary slightly depending on what platform you are using to download your mods and which platform you own your copy of Mechwarrior 5 through.

Epic Game Store Mod Page:
You can currently find some mods available for download on the Epic Games Store. If you click on the three dots under the Mechwarrior 5 icon in your library you will see a pop-up menu. From there you can either explore existing mods or manage the ones you have subscribed to. If you click on explore mods you will be greeted with a page that displays all the current mods available on the EGS. When installed these mods will update on your system automatically when the mod creator publishes an update. One thing to keep in mind is that the current file size cap on mods for the EGS is 500MBs uncompressed. What this means in a practical sense is that you aren't going to find any mods that extensively overhaul sounds or a large amount of graphics because these tend to be larger sized mods.

Once you have decided which mods to install you need to open that drop down menu again and navigate to the "Manage Mods" section. From there you will see a list of your installed mods with a toggle next to each one. You will need to make sure each toggle is set to active so that your mods will update automatically. Once done you will also need to activate the mods in game via the mod menu.

If you need to access the actual mod files for any reason they will be located at ...\Epic Games\MW5Mercs\MW5Mercs\EpicMods.

Steam Workshop (coming soon)
(More info coming with the release of the DLC and Steam versions coming Spring of 2021)

Nexus Mods
Installing mods downloaded from Nexus is rather simple. Find the mod that you want. Download the .zip file. Then extract the folder inside the .zip or .rar file to the mods folder. If you find yourself moving .pak files around make sure that you didn't navigate too deep into the .zip or .rar file. If the only file inside the compressed file is a .pak file type then move on to the section about .pak files.

The best way to find your mods folder is to open Mechwarrior 5 and click on the Mods option in the main menu then, once the next screen loads, click on the "open mods folder" at the top.

However, if you find yourself needing to navigate to the mods folder outside the game than you will find that folder in different places depending on which store you own the game through.

Epic Games mod folder is located in ...\Epic Games\MW5Mercs\MW5Mercs\Mods. Windows Store is located in ...\Appdata\Local\MW5Mercs\Mods

Currently there is no Vortex support for Mechwarrior 5 so you will need to check in periodically on the mod pages for updates.

In Game Mod Menu
Mechwarrior 5 comes with an in game mod manager menu. From here you can enable or disable any given mod and see any potential conflicts between active mods. If you enable or disable a mod you will be required to restart the game. Mods start disabled by default so any newly installed mods will need to be enabled regardless of which method of installation you have used.

If you are having issues with any given mod it's best to check for conflicts first. You can see specific mod conflicts indicated by a yellow warning symbol. Clicking the drop down menu will show you which mods are creating the conflict and what specific assets are being modified by the mods in question.

Installing .pak file mods
Some mods on nexus exist as a single .pak file. This is a relic of how the Modding Toolkit used to package mods before an update in the spring of 2020. To install these mods you need to drop the .pak file into the folder located at ...Epic Games\MW5Mercs\MW5Mercs\Content\Paks. These may or may not show up in the mod menu depending on how they were structured. If the do not show they are likely active regardless of their lack of appearance.

If you are running the windows store version you will not have access to the paks folder. To install a .pak mod you will need to drop the .pak file inside another mod's folder. This may or may not work every time. If you are having issues getting a .pak mod installed feel free to go to the MW5 discord's modding channel and ask for assistance.

Editing .json files to set load order
Sometimes you will need to set a specific load order to clear conflicts between mods. The most direct way to do this is to edit the mod.json file located in the specific mod's folder.

Use an app like Notepad++ to open the mod.json file and edit the line "defaultLoadOrder": This value sets the load order. 0 being first and then moving down the line as you increase that number. Mods that are loaded after another mod will overwrite shared assets. So, if Mod A has a load order of 0 and Mod B has a load order of 1 and both mods change the mechlab than Mod B will overwrite any asset that Mod A changes that Mod B is also set to change. You can use this to clear up potential mod conflicts by making sure that a mod that is designed to modify another mod is set to load after the original mod. Though, this will not always be the case so make sure you read the installation instructions included with the specific mod.

If two mods share the same load order value than the game will load them in alphabetical order.

Current Major Mods for Mechwarrior 5
This is a section containing mods that are large enough to need their own wiki.

Reloaded

A gameplay overhaul that changes the mechlab and other mechanics to play closer to Mechwarrior Online

Yet Another Weapon
A large weapon pack that pushes the tech level to the jihad era.

Yet Another Mech
Adds many variants to existing mechs.

MercTech
A Gameplay and Mechlab overhaul that focuses on changing mechwarrior 5 to be more simulation heavy.

PirateTech
Expansive mod that adds a large amount of weapons, equipment, mech variants, new mechs, and some gameplay changes. This mod is built off merctech.

TTRulez_AI Mods
A suite of mods that overhaul the AI of both enemy and friendly units.

Recommended Mods
This will be a curated list of mods recommended by the creators of this wiki. This is not, by any means, a comprehensive list of existing mods.

MW5 Realism Project


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 * Rules of this wiki
 * Getting Started
 * How to Contribute
 * Guides