Can player maps be used in skirmish mode

Izzban

New player, I have only played the first three missions in the campaign. No way am I going to jump into multiplayer yet. I wanted to take a break from the campaign and check out some of the maps made by FAF members. I found a few I liked and DLed them.

I can't figure out how to play them in skirmish mode. They aren't populating in my map list. There aren't any options I can find in mod manager, nor any selection I can find to turn on map mods.

Can the maps from FAF be played in skirmish mode and, if so, how?

Thanks for any help.

Jip

Yes they can be. There are two approaches:

Start a game with just yourself and maybe an AI or two. This is essentially skirmish mode, except that you can not restart as easily.
Start the FAF executable directly. You can find this at: C:\ProgramData\FAForever\bin. This will launch the game as you would from Steam, but with all the patches that FAF provides. From there on you can choose skirmish.

If you do not see the maps you downloaded from the vault in your map list (after joining your game, try and select a different map. You can search for maps in the search bar at the top of the map list) then make de-install and re-install them. If that doesn't help then we can try and help you further. But it should just work.

Izzban

Thank you for the response. I'll give those a try.

Edit: I tried to launch from the C:\ProgramData\FAForever\bin but I don't have a bin folder anywhere in that location. Odd, I saw someone else pointing to that directory, maybe there is something wrong with my install?

Edit 2: I tried to play a custom game, but it asked me to point to my FAForever directory and when I selected the C:\ProgramData\FAForever folder it said, "The specified location does not contain a valid Supreme Commander.exe and is therefore is no valid Forged Alliance installation"

My guess is one of two things.

1- My steam library is on my G: drive. Perhaps I need to move the game to the C drive and reinstall FAF?

2- I have a corrupted install of FAF and I should reinstall it

Anyone have a different idea? I don't want to spend time on my ideas if they aren't the right ones.

Thanks for any help.

arma473

Are you running the FAF client? It sounds like you are avoiding using the client.

Launch the FAF client (it will be in a folder, something like DownLordFAF\downlords-faf-client.exe), log in to FAF.

From there you can download maps from the "maps" tab. You can create a skirmish game (create a new custom game, show it to "friends only" so other people don't try to join, and you can put AIs in it).

You can play the campaign missions in the client through the co-op tab. The main reason to do that (instead of playing offline) is if you want to play campaign missions with other people.

Uveso

Just to be sure;

you startet Sureme Commander at least once from steam. (downloads directx and other needed stuff)
you hosted a game with the FAF client. (creates path settings and downloads/updates needed game files)

When both points work then you can start the game by executing

C:\ProgramData\FAForever\bin\ForgedAlliance.exe

When you are asked for the FAForever directory
then try first

C:\ProgramData\FAForever

Maybe you need to point to the exe directly:

C:\ProgramData\FAForever\bin\

(Can't remember the client asked me this, maybe reinstall it)

Then check the file
C:\ProgramData\FAForever\fa_path.lua

This file should be created from the FAF client an is pointing to the installation dir of Supreme commander:
My file contains:

fa_path = "E:/games/Supreme Commander - Forged Alliance"

In your case there should be the path to your steam SupCom installation.

Izzban

Up and running now. Thank you to everyone who helped.

I hadn't run a game through FAF yet, so I didn't have the bin files. When I tried to start a game I mistakenly pointed to the FAF files for the supremecommander.exe, not realizing that it wanted the steam directory. Once I pointed to my steam library and started a game through FAF, it DLed the bin files and I can play through FAF now and should be able to start in offline if needed.

Sorry, I'm an idiot.

Appreciate all the help!

Uveso

Thanks for reporting back!

And welcome to FAForever

Uveso

Btw in case you need more help or you just want to see more of the FAF community,
join us on our FAF Discord:
https://discord.gg/jj9yGUP

You can find me always in #AI-Development in case you are interested in new AIs for SupCom.
And maybe you like unit mods? i updated some older unit mods for FAF:
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/364/updated-mods-for-faf-and-vanilla-steam

Most mods are marked with "Downloadable from Vault: Yes."
That means you can also download them with the FAF client.
So you don't need to find the right directory or unzip archives.

Izzban

Great info, thank you for the welcome and the tips, Uveso.