Your thoughts please as I am scared of trying mods in case I stuff up the whole DCS directory when I attempt to unzip the numerous mods I have downloaded. I do like some sort of structure, do these mods keep to their own directories in the C:\ — — — Saved Games.
Thanks
I can’t really help, because except for skins my install is ‘vanilla’.
If you have a clean backup, then go nuts - try both and see what works best for you? It doesn’t matter If you cock it up, in the worst case scenario you can always restart with a fresh install. Besides, I have learnt a lot more from my mistakes than from my successes.
Edit: A DCS essential (IMHO) is a very excellent utility by @SkateZilla - see this thread
Among all the other awesome things it does is have a very useful repair function… I have used that on more than one occasion 
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Each mod has it’s own folder inside the subfolder. so for Aircraft you’ll find the mods/aircraft folder and inside it there will be subfolders for A4, UH60L, etc. Every mod comes with the file path already indicated inside the zip file, so it’s pretty simple to see where those folders must end up.
To delete it, just delete the mods folder. heck if you don’t care about your settings you can delete the whole saved games folder and DCS will just rebuild it on the next run.
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I was a long time JSGME user, but at some point switched to OvGME. Can’t remember why, but had a good reason at the time. Perhaps, it was that the new(er) kid on the block and was being used by more mod makers. Now neither are in development.
I’m pretty happy with OvGME and wouldn’t think of modding a game without it. It’s really handy for DCS, which updates often. For example, I have a modified VR mask LUA file (removes the round corners in screenshots) in the main DCS game folder, which would get replaced by a repair. It’s a simple process to disable the mod before updates or repairs.
Hoggit OvGME guide < info on how folders are used.
One exception is MSFS, for which I use the really excellent MSFS Addons Linker, which is a mod manager specifically developed for that sim. It has useful features like being able to group mods in categories and create mod group profiles, like related to a specific time period or sim version.
Two recommendations for OvGME, 1) setup separate profiles for DCS main game folder and Saved games folder, and 2) whenever you want to move, edit, or delete a profile in OvGME, make sure to disable all mods in that profile first. Sounds simple, but forget to do that and you may spend many hours trying to reconstruct how the mods have changed your game install.
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So what your saying is there’s no “actively developed/supported” mod manager anymore?
No, only that I don’t know of any current development for JSGME or OvGME.
Ok, you always get a mod in a zip. So does this mean you need to unzip to a temp folder then Direct OvGME to that folder ( i gather OvGME isnt going to unzip it for you ). But I think some software will read inside a zip file.
You’ll have to unzip! Not sure how OVgME works though.
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