**see bottom of this post for new alternative method**

This post will explain how to solve/prevent a couple problems:

• Game updating to new version.
  
• Mods updating to new versions.
  
• When running Steam in offline mode, mods go into "Downloading" status

Use this procedure if you want to use a previous version. When new versions come out or are just about to come out you can also use this procedure to keep game from updating to new version.

1. Go to Steam Library game list
2. Right click on Rimworld in list
3. Select "Properties"
4. Select "Betas" tab from the Rimworld properties window
5. In the drop down selection select the version of the game you would like to be running (e.g. "alpha16")



This procedure should prevent a couple of non-ideal behaviors.

• The dreaded "Downloading" problem as seen with the Workshop mods currently.
  
• Mod updates mid-game that could possibly prevent you from finishing your current game.
  
• Mod updates when new alphas/betas come out. (some mods launch new mods for new alphas/betas, some mods update in place for new alphas/betas)
  
• Mods being removed from the workshop, which will wreck your game.

Folder locations:

Please note, these folder are dependent on where you have Steam installed on your computer, so the location may be slightly different prior to the "\Steam\Steamapps..." portion of the location.

Steam Workshop mods:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\294100

Manual mods folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RimWorld\Mods


Procedure:

1. Subscribe to all the mods you want to use.

2. After Steam downloads the mods, go into the Steam Workshop mods folder and then copy all of the folders present. (Drag a selection box around all the folders and then right click on one of them and select "copy")

3. Go to the Manual mods folder and then paste those folders to that location. (Right click empty file area and select "paste")

4. (optional) You can rename the folders from the steam id number to something more meaningful if you'd like. This has no bearing on how they will look in game, just makes it easier to manage within Windows. To figure out what mod is located within that folder you can go into that folder, then into the "About" folder. From there you will need to open the "About.xml" file, within the first couple of lines of that file you will see the name of the mod. This name is also what you will see when selecting the mod in-game.

5. (optional) At this point go back to Steam and un-subscribe from the mods. You don't want to leave them subscribed as having two versions of the mod has the possibility for messing things up. I would suggest making the mods a "Favorite" to make it easy to find them again.

6. (optional) If you followed step #5, Steam at this point will delete all the mod workshop content. It seems to leave the folders behind in the Steam Workshop mods folder, but the folders are empty at this point. I usually clean up by deleting those empty folders, but that also is completely optional.

7. Launch game and select mods as per usual.

8. Play!


If mods have already updated to a new version in Steam it is to late to use preventative measures. You will have to find and download the previous of the mod. A good place to start looking is either in link in next paragraph or check out the mods Workshop page and see if there is a link to an archive of previous versions.

Another option is to download and use all manual mods. Most mods have threads at the ludeon forums, you can usually find links to download current and previous versions of many mods there. https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?board=12.0

**New method** You can now use a mod to help you manage all of this. Fluffy (author of many great Rimworld mods) now has a Mod Manager:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1507748539

________

Just for some additional info, Tynan has now made sure Steam Workshop download works:

"On further prompting and investigation, it turns out that there is a setting for this. Seems like Steam added it at some point and it defaulted to off. I've enabled it."

from this post: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=50850.msg474280#msg474280

{LINK REMOVED}http://steamworkshop.download/ This is for downloading mods directly without using the ' subscribe / save_locally / unsubscribe ' method