Where to put addon in the latest Simutrans

[shi4stone]

I have searched the forum and found several different answers, from My Documents to Pak specfic folder or to an addon folder in the root directory.
Tried all of these, none seems to work, as the loading screen now doest not have a tick option for load addons.
Used command line -addons in shortcut, no luck there either.
Really frustrated. Could someone enlighten me?

[gauthier]

There are several answers because the way of adding addons changed several times in the past.
The current way of using addons is going in your_documents/simutrans/
_ create a folder named "addons"
_ go into this folder
_ create a folder with the exact same name as the pakset (the name of the folder containing the pakset which is in your main simutrans folder, where you installed it).
_ put your addons in it.

It should work, and if it still doesn't ... well, you can still put your addons directly in the folder of the pakset. Therefore, Simutrans won't detect your addons as addons so you won't see the "load with addons" option, although your addons will load with the main pakset.

[shi4stone]

Thanks Gauthier,

I am really eager to try out your excellent addons
I did what you described, but never see the splash screen ask whether to load addons or not...
But I will try again. This part confuses me
'the name of the folder containing the pakset which is in your main simutrans folder, where you installed it'
for example?

Can I put addons in a folder within the pakset folder? e.g. pak128/addons, or I have to put pak files directly into /pak128?
And what is the best way to detect if addon is loaded or not?

Thanks a lot!!!

[Combuijs]

Look at the directory My Documents\Simutrans.

You will see some files there and at least one directory called "save" and possible "maps" and "screenshot".
Create a directory "addons" there.
In the addons directory create a directory "pak128". Put your addon pak files there.

[shi4stone]

I tried this way but did not work out. Will try again.
How do I know if the addon is loaded or not, apart from checking the trains in the depot, for instance, will I see new buildings at the start of the game?
Or do you get the notification for tick whether to load addon or not?

[Combuijs]

I never use addons, I make my own pakset, so I can't tell you.

Switch to public player, select the editor toolbar and press "place urban building" or something like that. You now get an overview of all available buildings. The same goes for factories and attractions.

[gauthier]

There is no way to detect a particular addon but checking for it (like looking in the depot for a vehicle). Keep in mind that most objects of Simutrans, including addons, have introduction year and retire year, your savegame must be between intro year and retire year of an object in order to see it. For example, if you dowloaded the train SNCF_z22500 which appears in 1996, you won't be able to see it if your savegame is in 1945.
A good way to test addons is having a test savegame with timeline disabled.

Installing addons is one of the numerous points of the game that confuse new players, I'm gonna write a page about addons installing on SNFOS site, with very detailed explanations, and link to it in this post as soon as I finished

EDIT : http://www.simutrans-france.fr.nf/doku.php?id=en:installation_addons

Please tell me if it's clear enough.

[shi4stone]

Thanks Gauthier!!
It worked out in the end. And in fact once addon folder is correctly put in My Doc, the splash screen does show the option of loading addons.
I would suggest to highlight that all pak files should be put in the same addons/pak_name folder, and not in any subfolders.
This may seems obvious for some, but took me a while to realize it (too used to organize my plugin folders in simcity4)

[gauthier]

I would suggest to highlight that all pak files should be put in the same addons/pak_name folder, and not in any subfolders.

Right, I'm doing this. Thanks for your feedback.