Installing mods

Glest has a wide variety of mods, all which are installed in the Glest folder. First of all, you should be familiar with what the Glest folder is. This is the installation folder, where you installed everything either by telling the installer where to place the files or by manually copying the files into this folder yourself. If you used the Windows Installer and not sure where you installed it, it's probably either "C:\Program Files\Glest_version" on 32 bit operating systems or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Glest_version" on 64 bit operating systems.

Archives

Because mods are usually a compilation of multiple files, they are usually compressed into an archive. This is a special file format that greatly reduces filesize and ensures that all the files are available together. In order to use the files, you must first extract them from this archive. Common archives used in Glest are:

• 7z - One of the most common, this is the 7-Zip file format, and has the best compression rate. The free program 7zip is required to extract/archive them.
• zip - This is an old format, and not very common anymore, due mostly to its poor compression rates. Windows, Linux, and Mac can all extract and compress zip files by default, as can the program 7zip.
• rar - A less common program because free tools can only decompress it. 7zip (free) or winRAR (commercial) can extract these files. Only winRAR can archive in this format.
• tar.gz / tar.bz2 - This is a duel file format. First, the data is stored with the Tar format, then compressed with Gzip/Bzip2, providing better compression than all but the 7z format. If extracting, you must extract TWICE (once for the gz/bz2, once for the tar file). Linux can extract by default, as can the 7zip program.

Installation

All files are installed in the Glest Folder, which is the installation directory.If you used the Windows Installer and not sure where you installed it, it's probably either "C:\Program Files\Glest_version" on 32 bit operating systems or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Glest_version" on 64 bit operating systems.

Factions

Factions that do NOT contain the tech tree in which they should belong (ie: dark magic. It is meant to go within the magitech tech tree) should generally go inside the magitech or a related techtree (such as the Megapack). Alternatively, you can copy and paste the magitech tech tree to have a copy for the new faction. All factions go inside the techs/techtree_name/factions folder, where techtree_name is the name of the techtree (ie: magitech). How do you know if the mod you have is a faction or a techtree? Well, open the folder. If there is a resources folder, it is not a faction, but rather a techtree. If there is not a resource folder, it is a faction.

Techtrees

Techtrees are separate from factions because you can only have one techtree for the entire game, and all the player's factions must be in that tech tree. Thus, you can't play military against dark magic because they do not belong in the same techtree. Techtree's are simply copied into the techs folder. How do you know if its a techtree? Open the folder, and if there is a resources folder, it is a techtree. If there isn't a resources folder, its a faction (see above).

Tilesets

Tilesets go into the tileset folder of Glest.

Maps

Maps should be either a gbm (glest binary map) or mgm (megaglest map) file. All gbm and mgm files are placed in the maps folder.

Languages

Downloaded language files (their should be one sole .lng file) go in the data/lang folder (or gae/data/lang if using GAE). Note that this merely installs the language. To use it, you must start glest, go to the options menu, and set the language to the specific langauge.

Scenarios

The scenario's folder needs to be placed in the scenarios folder of Glest. In GAE, it goes in the gae/scenarios folder.

Tutorials

In the original Glest and MegaGlest, tutorials go in the tutorials folder. In GAE, they go in the gae/scenarios/tutorials folder.

Game Saves (GAE Only)

Game saves go in the savegames folder. This only applies to GAE. Note that if using someone else's saved game, you must have the map, tileset, techtree, and faction that they used.