In the world of video game mod managers, there are very few games that approach the quality and ease of use of Minecraft with the many mod managers that support it. Even fewer are the mod managers that support both server and client modification in one interface. The few that do support servers don’t come close in quality in all the other areas like modpack support, settings, mod customization, etc. That all changes with the new mod manager for Satisfactory.
Simply named “Satisfactory Mod Manager”, this application just released out of beta and now supports managing mods for Satisfactory 1.0. In my opinion, it’s one of the best mod managers for any game, and it was only just released. In this article, we’ll go into what it is, where it came from, and how good the Satisfactory Mod Manager really is.
The Community
Satisfactory has a relatively active modding scene, thanks in part to the Satisfactory Mod Loader, or SML. This mod loader makes it much easier to create mods and interact with other mods. With its help, modders started making progress early in Satisfactory’s development, and the modding scene has been growing rapidly ever since.
The community resources are another big reason for the modding scene’s success. The folks over at ficsit.app, who are behind the Satisfactory Mod Manager, have also created a wealth of guides, wiki pages, and other resources dealing with Satisfactory modding - both for the modders and the players. That site also hosts thousands of mods for the game and links to online tools like interactive maps and save editors.
In addition to all of that, they have a very active community with a Discord server, an AnswerOverflow page which mirrors discord support requests in an indexable and searchable format, and archived forums where many answers can be found. You can see all of that on their community page here. Despite its age, the community is one of the most active and well-documented of any modding community I’ve seen, and it’s worth checking out!
Now, let’s talk about the Satisfactory Mod Manager, the reason you’re reading this article in the first place! The main purpose of this application is to download and install mods on both your local game and, optionally, a server. With just a single click, the mod manager can download a mod from the list of mods on ficsit.app, install it to your game, and install it to a server - automating the entire mod installation process. It automatically installs the Satisfactory Mod Loader as well. It accomplishes all of this with a very intuitive UI, making for one of the smoothest modding experiences available. Let’s get into the details.
Installing Mods
To get started, simply download the mod manager at ficsit.app. It will automatically download the appropriate version for your operating system, whether that be Windows, Linux, or MacOS.
Once you launch, it will automatically detect your Satisfactory installation. To install a mod to your local game, all you need to do is find a mod in the list on the right, and click the download button! That’s it. You can now launch your game, whether you do it through the mod manager, Steam, or Epic, and it will be modded. To remove mods, just hover over the green icon next to the download button and it will turn into a red trash bin, which you can click.
But that’s just half of it - the mod manager can also install mods to servers, as long as you can access it via FTP, SFTP, or a local path. To add a server to manage, click the “Manage Servers” button. Here is where you add the required information such as hostname, username, password and port to connect to the server. After you do that, click the path that it shows near the bottom (called “satisfactory” in the screenshot below), then the “Add” button. (If you are using this with your Akliz server, check out these instructions on where to find that required information.)
Now, you can switch between your installations at the top left of the window. When you install a mod on one installation, it will install it on the other as well. This makes it easy to keep the installed mods in sync between your local game and your server.
Other Features
The Satisfactory Mod Manager comes with several other features that could be helpful as well. I won’t go into all of them in detail here, but I will list some of my favorites.
First, the import/export feature is fantastic. It lets you easily and quickly share your mod list with friends so they can connect to your server or local multiplayer session instantly, with no fuss. Just export your current profile to a file, then send it to a friend via Discord or any other means and they can import it. The file is very small, so you can share it quickly through practically any file sharing method. Once a profile is imported and switched to, the mod manager should start automatically installing mods.
Another great feature is the compatibility info. Mod authors can list the compatibility with different versions of the game, and whether the mods work on servers. Most mods work on the latest version of the game, and on servers, from my experience. If there is a compatibility issue, the mod title will turn red. You can see more compatibility info by clicking on the mod to expand the details panel.
Some other small features I enjoy are the ability to queue mods for installation so they all start at once, or immediately as you mark them, the ability to copy the mod list to your clipboard so you can share it easily with friends without them having to import a profile (I imagine this one is for conversation’s sake and for sharing with people you aren’t playing with), a default dark mode, different layouts, and the ability to change where the application’s temporary files are stored.
Conclusion
I am always looking for new and better ways to mod games. I have tried basically every Minecraft mod launcher out there, and I always love experimenting with new launchers for any other games I play as well. I knew Satisfactory had an updated mod manager in the works, but I wasn’t expecting something this good, this quickly after the release of Satisfactory 1.0.
This is a very polished application, especially for its age, and one of the best mod managers I’ve used for any video game. If you want to dive into Satisfactory modding, there is no better place to start than ficsit.app. And if you want to play modded multiplayer, there’s no better way than on a server with friends! You can get a server now (which is easily compatible with the mod manager) by clicking here!