[Solved] Cannot start game if ANYTHING is in the Mods folder.

[Shockwave_S08]

On the Android build of OXCE+, it is literally impossible to start the game if even so much as a single bit or byte is detected in the Mods folder. If detected, the game will instead jump directly to the "Import Game Data/Save Directory" screen.

The specified error in the log, if mods are present, is: Need correct RelativePath

The only solution to get the game working again is to render the whole Mods folder empty and barren until this is fixed.

OXCE+ Version: v7.8 (v2022-10-29)

[Meridian]

I cannot reproduce such issue on my phone (see attached picture with FMP running from mods folder on OXCE 7.8 ).

I also haven't received any such report from anyone else... yet.

And, to my best knowledge, we haven't touched any code that could cause this between oxce 7.7 and oxce 7.8.

[yergnoor]

There is one possible reason for this behavior of OXCE for Android.

It is very convenient to put mods in the folder directly in the zip-archive without unpacking it. But it is very easy to make a mistake and download such an archive with a mod that will cause exactly the described error when launching the application. Often inside the archive is not a folder with the mod, and directly in the files mod, including metadata.yml. In this case, to avoid the error, you must first unpack the mod (in the folder designed for it), and then re-archive it in the zip file. And then the application will consider that it is a properly formed mod, and will not bring up the data import screen.
So you have to be careful not to put unchecked archives in the mods folder.

As an example I can show you one of the last times I had to repack a mod downloaded from this forum - from the thread https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,10849.0.html

But if the same mod packaged in the archive correctly, then no problems at startup will not be.

[Meridian]

Yes, incorrectly packaged mods will cause the same issue also on the PC or any other platform.

Closing as solved.