Profiles and mods

Profiles

Since 0.2.0-dev.24 there is no profile to set up. Kiln keeps your mods in one profile, My mods, by itself, and the launcher’s main screen (Play) is one list of every mod you added, for whatever loader, each with an on/off switch. Every game start uses that list, Steam’s included. If you uninstall Kiln and install it again, the profile you used is loaded again, and a mod you drop goes into it.

A profile is a saved set of mods and their switches. For several sets (one for a server, one for a solo run), open Settings, Profiles:

Action	Does
Load	makes that profile the one in use. The list on Play then shows its mods
Save current as…	saves the mods and switches you have now under a new name. The profile you had stays loaded
Rename	renames a profile
Folders and notes	the profile’s name, mod data, drop-in folders and notes
Delete	deletes a profile, after a typed confirmation. The loaded one can’t be deleted
No profile	no profile at all: the game folder decides, and the mods in it load as they are

Each profile shows how many mods it has (of every kind) and the server it is for. A server’s modpack makes a profile named Server: <name>, listed here too. When a profile other than My mods is loaded, Play names it in one small link at the top (“Profile: Ember run”), which opens Settings, Profiles.

A broken profile file means no mods at all, with the reason in the log. Kiln never silently loads another set.

The launcher no longer has a Profiles page, a profile picker on Play, a profile’s Mods, Native, EMF, Engines, Configs and Saves tabs, or a Library page. Where those went:

Was	Now
a profile’s Mods and EMF tabs, the Library page	the list on Play
Native tab	Native and DLLs, next to Load order (from the list on Play)
Engines tab	Engines, from the list on Play
Configs tab	Configs in a mod’s menu, or next to Load order
Saves tab	the Saves page
Play a profile once	gone. Load the other profile in Settings, Profiles. Just once on Play still has Vanilla and Without mods

The list on Play

One row per mod, by name: its switch, its kind (Kiln, EMF, EML, ShroudForge, SET, Greeneye, Flame, Native and so on), its version, and a short note only when there is something to say (“Starts with your world”, “Will not run”, “Failed at the last start”, “Left in the game folder”). The line above it counts every kind: “12 mods on, 3 off.”

• The switch. Off keeps the mod in your list with its version and settings.
• The menu (the three dots, or a right click on the row): Switch on/off, Settings (for mods that have them, such as ShroudForge’s and Shroudtopia’s), Configs (when the mod wrote a config file), Use <version> (another version you have), Open folder, Remove <version> (one of several versions) and Remove.
• Above the list: Filter and Kind (with more than six rows), Load order, Engines and Add mods. Dropping a file anywhere on the window adds a mod too, switched on. Settings’ Switch new mods on (on by default) decides that; switched off, new mods are added off.
• Load order shows every mod that is on, in the order a start brings them up, then the ones that are on but don’t load (with the reason) and the ones that are off. Its neighbours are Native and DLLs, Engines and Configs.
• Engines shows which loader runs which kind of mod, how each did at the last start, and the other loaders found next to the game.

In the game folder

Mod pages often say “extract it into the game folder”. The list on Play shows every mod you put there by hand, marked Game folder, with whether it loads and why. Copies Kiln placed or synced itself, Kiln’s own plugins and hidden entries are not listed. Your files are never moved or deleted.

A game-folder mod has no switch: nothing per mod could honour one. It shows its state and, where it helps, a fix:

State	Means	What you can do
Loads from the game folder	the profile reads that folder, or the framework’s own loader runs it	nothing
Does not load	the framework’s drop-in switch is off (for ShroudForge and Enshwick also: the profile has no enabled mod of theirs). Or the mod sits in a folder its loader doesn’t read (an EMF mod in mods), or the folder holds several mods, or Kiln isn’t installed	one of the two fixes below
A copy is in your list	your list has the same mod	nothing: the list’s copy wins
Can’t run	Kiln doesn’t know it as a mod, it is a link, an Ember mod, or a DLL over 64 MiB	nothing; hover for the reason

The two fixes:

• Load them switches that framework’s drop-in folder on, when that is enough.
• Add it adds the mod to the library and to your list, switched on. Your folder stays as it is.

When a framework’s own loader is in the game folder, the launcher says so (“EML’s own loader (dbghelp.dll) is installed: it runs the EML mods in mods/”). On Windows a loader under a proxy name (dbghelp.dll, powrprof.dll) always runs. Under Wine and Proton it runs only with a DLL override, which the launcher can’t see. So there a mod counts as loading only when Kiln reads its folder, and the line names the loader.

Files a mod wrote are kept. Since dev.24, files a mod wrote into its folder in the game (settings, logs, saved values) are carried to the new version at an update, and kept in kiln/kept-mod-files when the mod is switched off or Kiln is uninstalled. A folder you changed yourself stays where it is; the launcher says so, and whether that mod may still run.

Notes about mod folders. Since 0.2.0-dev.26 the launcher tells you once about a folder it leaves alone, files it kept and its notes on your mods, not at every change to your mods. Notes above the list shows them again. In Settings, Show notes about mod folders turns them off; the one notice that still comes is the first about a folder that may still run a mod you switched off. A long notice shows its first lines and Show all.

Drop-in folders

A profile’s Folders and notes (Settings, Profiles; also on the Load order view) has one switch per kind of folder:

Switch	Folder
Kiln mods, Native mods, Plugins, EMF mods	kiln/mods, kiln/native, kiln/plugins, emf/mods
EML mods	mods, kiln/eml/mods
ShroudForge mods	ShroudForge’s mods folder (mods unless its settings say otherwise)
Greeneye mods	greeneye
Flame mods	mods
Shroudtopia mods	mods
Enshwick mods	mods
shroudlink mods (servers)	shroudlink_mods

The one rule. With a profile loaded, a framework’s own folder is read when its switch is on, and not otherwise. Every framework follows it since dev.22. Before, Greeneye, Flame, Shroudtopia, shroudlink and Ember read their folder whenever the profile had no mod of that framework, and Enshwick’s loader ran for every hand-installed folder.

Profiles from before dev.22 keep loading what they loaded. The launcher shows their switches as on, and saving the settings writes them down. Only a profile.json you wrote by hand, without the list of switches, stops loading those folders.

Some loaders read their whole folder themselves once they run: ShroudForge, when Kiln hosts it for an enabled ShroudForge mod of the profile, and Enshwick’s loader, once the profile has an Enshwick mod. The switch doesn’t change that. SET has no switch: shrouded_engine_tweaks/mods always loads. Ember’s mods are found but don’t run yet.

The library

The library is where Kiln keeps every mod’s files, by version. You don’t open it to add a mod: drop the mod’s archive (zip, 7z or rar), folder or DLL on the launcher window, or choose it with Add mods above the list on Play. The launcher identifies it (Kiln, DLL, EMF or another framework) and adds it to the list, switched on. What it accepts, and how mods with capitals in their id or a loader DLL in the package are handled: Adding mods in the launcher. A mod for another framework is listed under its id in lower case, with its own id shown next to it.

Settings, Library shows how many mods and versions it holds, its size on disk and its folder (Open).

• Remove is in a mod’s menu on Play. The mod leaves your list, then its versions leave the library. It is one click with a plain confirmation; to type the mod’s name first, switch on Type a mod’s name to remove it in Settings. Another profile that lists the mod is named in the confirmation, and shows it as missing afterwards. Remove <version> removes one of several versions.
• Clean up (Settings, Library) removes every version no profile and no game uses, after a typed confirmation. It never lists a version the game’s loaded profile uses.
• While Enshrouded runs, removing is refused: “Close Enshrouded first: the game may be reading this mod”. Force doesn’t change that. A running server blocks removal only when its profile points into the library. (New in dev.21.)

The data folder

Everything Kiln keeps lives in one data folder: the library, runtimes, modpacks, profiles and backups. It starts as %LOCALAPPDATA%\Kiln on Windows and ~/.local/share/kiln on Linux. Since 0.2.0-dev.26 you can move it: Settings, Library, Data folder, Change, then pick a folder or a drive (a drive root such as D:\ becomes D:\Kiln).

• Kiln copies everything, checks the copy, switches to it and only then removes the old folder. A move that fails or that you cancel changes nothing.
• An interrupted move removes only the files Kiln can prove it copied; anything else stays and is listed.
• A place whose paths would be too long for the game is refused, with the reason.
• After a move, start only 0.2.0-dev.26 or newer: an older launcher doesn’t know the new place and starts empty.
• Close Enshrouded and stop your servers first: the move is refused while one of them runs.

The move was tested by the launcher’s own tests, not yet in the installed launcher or on Windows. Keep a copy of your backups elsewhere before the first move.

Without a profile

With No profile (Settings, Profiles), Kiln loads the drop-in folders kiln/mods, kiln/native, kiln/plugins and emf/mods, and the other frameworks’ own folders (where they are). Play then says “No profile is loaded: the mods in the game folder load as they are.”, and the switches stay off until you load a profile. With a profile, each folder is read when its switch is on. An empty .disabled file in a mod’s folder switches it off.

Mod settings

Each mod has a commented JSON file in the profile’s config folder. Change it:

• in the launcher: Configs in the mod’s menu on Play (it opens the config editor on that mod’s file), or the Configs view next to Load order. ShroudForge and Shroudtopia mods also have Settings in their menu;
• in game, in the Kiln menu: press Insert, or choose Mods in the main or pause menu, then Config.

Kiln checks every value. Most apply at once; the form says which need a restart.

The Kiln menu

Tab	Shows
Mods	the mods of every framework: version, state, errors and settings
Network	the server’s Kiln version, mods and warnings
Keys	key bindings: click one, press the new key
Overlay	display scale and a test message

It works with gamepad, mouse and keyboard.

The mod manager in the main menu. Since dev.22 MODS in the game’s main menu opens this menu’s Mods tab as a page in the game’s own look. Its left column has All mods, Needs attention (only when a mod failed or its folder is missing) and one row per framework with its count. The middle column lists the mods with a state: Loaded, Waiting, Off, Failed, Not loaded or Missing, and has a search box (every word must match the name, id or framework). The right column shows the selected mod with the full reason and what to do about it. Escape, or B on a gamepad, goes back to the main menu. In a world, Mods in the pause menu, or Insert, opens the same list over the game. Where the game’s menu page can’t be used (another game build, say), Mods in the main menu opens that list over the game as well. The page itself has not been reported from a real client yet.

Since dev.24 each ShroudForge mod has a page there with its switch, its settings and its buttons, and an EML mod that ShroudForge does not run says why. With ShroudForge mods on, Kiln’s entries are in the main menu again (ShroudForge wraps the game’s menu entries, and Kiln’s were lost behind it); that was seen in a real game (Linux, Proton). A ShroudForge mod that does all its work at startup shows “applied” instead of “Waiting”. Next to ReShade or another overlay the page is no longer empty; when Kiln still can’t draw, kiln.log says why.

Logs

The Logs page follows Kiln’s, the game’s and each mod’s log, and lists crash reports. Its Save report button makes a zip to send when mods don’t load: Save a support report.