Fast facts:
- This is no overhaul mod like those numerous ones out there!
- Absolutely lightweight mod, only necessary data touched and uploaded
- Snow chains now usable in mud and snow as it would be in reality - so it's not overpowered!
- Mud tires and heavy mud tires are slightly better on road.
- Supports multiplayer!
- Manual installation only - see easy tutorial below.
Did you encounter any issues? Please leave a comment! If you like the mod, please subscribe - thumbs up - unsubscribe =) Or stay subscribed to get update notifications!
If there's a game update that changes how this mod works, I'll update the mod asap.
Description:
What does this mod do and why the heck did I create it? Aren't there enough of those out there?
That's an easy one: Can you all remember when you first went to Alaska? You probably wanted to use snow chains for a nice and snowy adventure only to find out, that those chains just prevent you from slipping on ice without having any significant snow or mud performance! A bit later in the game, you probably found out that you are having a really hard time driving on tarmac with mud tires. I definitely don't like the way, how both of those tire options are integrated into SnowRunner, as well as the different surfaces. Since Phase 1 DLC I wished for actual snow chains even more! I tested lots of mods only to find out it is another complete game overhaul - and I just didn't like it. So I tested a lot of different values for the tire friction. With this mod, my goal is to make snow chains actually usable in snow and to slightly improve road performance of mud and heavy mud tires without changing the game's balance too much!
The outcome: This very lightweight mod, which only changes these two 'major issues' with tires:
I changed as least values as possible, and I made it as close to the base game as possible.
Snow chains now do work in snow and mud - like it is in reality! However, it is not overpowered, at all! You can and you will get stuck with chains as well as with mud tires in deeper snow. So you can use either. Although it is kind of stupid, I let chains 'skip' icy surfaces, so they are still doing what they are originally intended to do.
Mud tires do have a slightly better performance on tarmac surfaces. This only has one single reason: It makes those tires finally drivable on road. It still rumbles a bit, it's not a road tire after all.
But what went wrong in the first place?
The game has a very easy, but also a bit lazy way of handling surfaces:
Snow is basically the same as mud, dirt is the same as the hard snow surface, then there's a road surface and ice - that's it. Snow chains have the possibility to 'skip' ice - so ice won't have any effect on tires with chains. Wait, what? Yeah, that's kind of stupid. In reality, regular snow chains are not used for driving on ice, but for driving in snow as well as driving in mud. You'd still slip like an ice queen on a pure ice surface with snow chains.
Does this mod make it more realistic or does it make the game too easy?
I drove several offroad vehicles in my life. I also had my everyday truck equipped with MT tires and drove it like that for four years. It may sound a bit dull, but if you ever felt the need to instantly go offroad, it's actually amazing to have MTs on your daily driver. Road performance was superb - a bit slippery when wet. I also drove with chains, and I can tell you, that they have little to no effect on pure ice. Snow performance is amazing if you have enough ground clearance with your vehicle.
So is it more realistic? Partly, yes. In real life I tried to drive in deep, wet snow with MT tires once. It didn't go well, I can tell you that. While this game treats mud and snow as the same, there is no way to make it actually realistic. With this mod, it surely is a bit closer, though. As I mentioned, with this mod you will get stuck even with chains in deep snow and mud just like with mud tires! In my opinion, it does not make the game too easy especially while snow chains don't have a better mud/snow performance than mud tires. For me, it also has an immersive factor. Driving with mud tires in the snow? It didn't like that - now I can finally choose the correct shoe for the correct surface! =)
Installation:
Make sure, you have WinRAR installed! No installation with subscribing as with all mods around here, that change base game files.
Manual installation:
- Download the mod
- Navigate to the path you have SnowRunner installed to
- Follow the folders: SnowRunner\en_us\preload\paks\client
- Create a folder called 'Backup' to save your original file.
- Copy the file 'initial.pak' into that Backup folder. Now you are ready to install the mod!
- Open the original file 'initial.pak' with WinRAR.
- Open the mod-file with WinRAR, as well.
- Now drag and drop the [media]-folder from the mod-zip-file into 'initial.pak'.
- The files in 'initial.pak' will be overwritten.
- Close everything and you can start playing.
- If you don't like it and want to revert: Navigate back to your installation folder and delete the edited 'initial.pak'. Then copy the original file from your 'Backup'-folder, and everything is vanilla again.
Please understand, that I give no permission to upload this mod to other pages. If you want to share the mod, only use the original download link.
26 comments
Can I pull the wheels folder out directly to change them? I made my own truck mods and don't want to lose them.
1
Hey there! The mod does not change anything about individually edited wheels in the wheels folder or anything with mod trucks. It just changes the generic tires that are located in the _templates folder in the trucks.xml. That's the only file that gets overwritten, so you should be save to use it! Backups are never a bad idea, though. =)
1
Great mod and love the real fuel tank capacity as well.
3
Thanks you so much! I appreciate your feedback! =)
2
tried he mod on standard and test server game, both a big fail, trucks with chained tires started to hop around and destroying themselves
1
That definitely should not happen because of this mod. It literally changes nothing with truck physics itself that would cause such a behavior. Do you have any other mods installed as well?
1
apparantly it did, when i copied the backupped intial.pak back the problem was gone, except for the destroyed truck. as for mods i have the kamaz 4 and 6 wheel, and the tatra phoenix installed, but the truck hopping around was a stocktruck
1
Could you tell me what the vanilla truck was, where this occurred? All I changed was literally 4 or 5 lines of code and just slightly. That should not happen, at all. But I'd love to try the truck you used. Would be nice if you could tell me which tires you used and which surface you were driving on with which truck.
1
Tuz 16 Actaeon, active suspension, 43 inch chained tires
Happen on new map Imanda (public testserver)
In standard game I spawned back in the tatra Phoenix where the same happen
i upped some footage rreproducing the issue what happens when i replace the trucks.xml from your mod(link above}.looks like gravity on the sun, affects all trucks. If u need more info im glad to assist.
1
Hey there donkervoortjes just tested all the trucks I own for the game, and couldn't reproduce the issue. Then I downloaded the PTS version and also had no issues. My only guess is, that a mod/mod-truck you use also changes this file and possibly other files responsible for suspension or weight settings, and when installing my mod it comes to a conflict. I am really sorry, but I really cannot reproduce it. The only thing I can suggest is to test it without any other mod active, or test it with a completely new savegame, although this would eat some time. Another option is to delete the initial.pak and redownload it with the check data function in Epic launcher. Maybe something went wrong with your backed up file. I wish I could do more for the moment.
2
Oh wow, what? I am running the Tuz 16 as well, and it doesn't do anything weird. I will take a look into that later today - it's midnight here. Thanks for the video! It's strange nobody reported this yet after so many downloads... I'll report back =)
1
Can you made a OP chain tires? like excellent for everything? or way to give more grip
-2
If you really want cheese wheels like that, you can edit the trucks.xml inside the _templates folder, and change BodyFriction, BodyFrictionAsphalt, and SubstanceFriction values per category to whatever silly stuff you want. You can also change specific wheels by going to the initial.pak\[media]\classes\wheels folder and tweaking individual wheel files.
3
thanks man i'll try it
1
I think that the chained tires should be a little worse than the mud tires in the mud, just for game balance.
1
You're right, and it was a hard decision to do it like it is now. I mentioned in my description that mud and snow are treated as the same in SnowRunner - it is just another texture. There is no way to separate that. If I made chains worse for mud, it would also be worse for snow - so the best tires to choose were still mud tires for snow. If the game would allow me to make an actual difference between both surfaces, I would have done it exactly like you commented!
2
Well, if you look at the tread pattern of the wheels under the chain, they look like the ones from the AT wheels, so i would imagine would be better than the AT/Off-road but worse than the mud ones. And i think that for balance purpose (otherwise there is just no reason to use the mudtires, being better on aspalth isnt a big enough reason) would make sense amd be nice to have the chain be in between the off-road and the mud on the mud aspect, but maybe better on road and "solid" dirt than the mud.
1
Hey friend i think the chain tires still are a little to good on ice :)
1
Due to how the game is made, there are only two possibilities. Slippy like tires without chains or like it is now. It's just on or off - no other value sadly.
5
Oh got it, anyway thx for the mod
2
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