FAQ

This is the most common one by far, and it is not your fault. A game update — and Steam's Verify integrity of game files — both restore the original game file, which removes the mod hook. Open the Hub and choose Enable mods again. Your mods and saves are untouched and it takes a few seconds.

Turn mods off in the Hub (Disable mods) to confirm the game starts clean, then re-enable and add mods back a few at a time to find the culprit. Then please report it and say which mods were on — a crash from a specific combination is a bug we want to see.

Mods have to be signed before the loader will run them. That is a safety feature: a mod is real code, so an unsigned one could do anything to your machine. If a mod from the mod library is rejected, please tell us — that shouldn't happen. If you are testing a mod you built yourself, see Can I run an unsigned mod? below.

SmartScreen and some antivirus tools flag any installer they have not seen many times before, and a mod loader by its nature modifies a game — that pattern draws attention. Our releases are code-signed. If you are unsure, download only from ashforge.dev/download.

It searches your Steam libraries, including ones on other drives. If your install still isn't found, use Locate game… on the mod-loader bar in Manage Mods and point it at the folder containing aoa.exe. Diagnostics next to it writes a report to your Desktop that tells us exactly what went wrong.

Hub → Disable mods restores the original game file from the backup. That is the whole uninstall — the game is exactly as Steam shipped it.

Yes. The Hub and the suite are free to download and use for modding Ascent of Ashes.

Windows 10 or 11, or Linux. Install the Hub (~100 MB) — on Windows it's an installer, on Linux a portable AppImage — and it pulls in everything else on demand.

The Hub installer is code-signed, so Windows installs it cleanly without SmartScreen warnings. Everything else is delivered and updated through the Hub from us.

No. The Hub only installs what you open. Grab Canvas for textures or Crucible for testing without pulling in the rest — and add more any time.

Automatically. The Hub keeps every installed tool and the mod loader current in the background — no reinstalls, ever.

Browse the mod library, download a mod, and the Mod Loader handles installing and load order in the game. Step by step: how to install mods.

Head to the contribute page — it links straight to our public issue tracker where you can file bugs and ideas.

Grab the Mod SDK. It has a working starter mod that builds in one command, and documentation for the loader API. If you would rather build content than write code, start from getting started and the Mod Kit.

Yes — that is how you test your own builds. In the Hub open Manage Mods → Advanced and turn off Require AshForge signatures. You will be asked to confirm, and a warning stays visible while it is off, because with it off any mod in your folder runs. Turn it back on when you are done.

Not always. A mod that only adds or changes content is XML in a folder — no code and no compiler. You need C# once you want to change how the game behaves.

Open an issue on the feedback tracker with a link to your source and a short description of what it does. We review every build before signing it — see the Mod SDK for what we look at.