What should I do if two mods are conflicting but I need both?

For starters, if two mods don’t play well together, there may be a conflict. Is there another update or fix for one of the mods? Modders often issue patches. Check the mod description and comments; someone may have already figured out a solution. Or just ask the creator directly; they may know how to resolve the issue, or might want to because they care about their mod being useful. You may also just have to edit the mods’ files yourself, but that is dangerous unless you know what you’re doing. Can one mod be modified to be compatible with the other? Is it possible that a third mod serves as a kind of glue between them? As a last resort, set up a testing board on your wiki where users can post compatibility issues – others may volunteer solutions. Try various combinations, but always make backups!

Second, see if either mod has any known conflicts documented. If not, contact the mod developers; many are still around and may be able to provide a solution. Third, try running them in a different order. Fourth, use a mod merger to avoid duplicate functionality, or see if one mod can simply copy the other. Either fix should be shared with other players. Don’t stop until the problem is solved.

The first step is to identify what exactly is causing the conflict – are the mods using the same script or assets? Perhaps you can contact the author of one mod (if they’re still around); if not, search through the mod files for the conflicting code. Line by line, it should become clear what’s wrong. Or, failing that, there are plenty of modding communities and tools online where experienced modders will share their solutions. Finally, you could try creating a leaner version of a mod that doesn’t interfere with another. This approach may require some “patching” and testing, but it could work.

It sucks when mods conflict, but here are some workarounds: Load one mod, export the wiki data, disable the mod, load the wiki data into the other mod, then use your JSON/XML parser to re-combine them; see if there’s a base mod that both are built on top of; ask the mod author – sometimes user requests lead the author to create a fix; check mod forums, Discord, etc. - someone else may have already solved it!