05 Installation

Install the mods

With BepInEx in place, each mod is one file in one folder. There is no installer, no load order to manage, no dependency between them, and no reason you cannot install one now and the others next week.

Destination
BepInEx\plugins\

Files to copy
Three .dll

Load order
Irrelevant

Time
Two minutes

What is inside each archive#

All three are the same shape. Two files, no folders, nothing to preserve:

The DLL goes into BepInEx\plugins\. The README does not go into the game folder at all — put it wherever you keep things you might want to read later, or delete it. It is a Markdown file, so any text editor opens it, and it renders nicely in anything that understands Markdown.

The install#

1. Extract each archive to a real folder

   Do not drag out of the preview window

   Right-click a .rar → 7-Zip → Extract Here, or the WinRAR equivalent. Your Downloads folder is fine — this is a staging area, nothing stays here.

   Extract properly rather than dragging the DLL straight out of the archive preview window. The preview looks like a folder and mostly behaves like one, which is exactly why it is worth being careful about.

2. Open BepInEx\plugins in your game folder

   Steam → right-click Ravenfield → Manage → Browse local files, then into BepInEx, then plugins.

   It will be empty on a fresh install. That is correct.

3. Copy the DLLs in

   Any subset, in any order

   Copy UngodlyRavenfieldAI.dll, UngodlyRavenfieldEnhanced.dll and UngodlyRavenfieldGore.dll into that folder — or just the ones you want.

   Loose in plugins, not in subfolders. BepInEx does scan subfolders, so a subfolder would work, but flat means one glance tells you what is installed.

4. Launch Ravenfield

   Each mod writes its config file on this launch and applies its patches. The first launch after adding a plugin takes a couple of seconds longer than usual while BepInEx rebuilds its cache — that is normal and only happens once.

5. Open a panel

   F4 gore, F5 AI, F6 graphics

   F6 works anywhere, including the main menu, because Enhanced deals with rendering and the interface. F4 and F5 need a match in progress, because there is no AI and no blood to configure until there are soldiers on a map.

   A panel opening is your confirmation that the mod loaded, applied and is running.

Which file goes where#

And the same thing photographed. The plugins folder on a working install:

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The config files are written for you#

You do not create these, copy them or edit them before first launch. Each mod generates its own the first time it loads, already populated with every setting at its default value, its permitted range and a plain-English explanation of what it does.

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They are ordinary text files. Editing one by hand works and is the right approach if you want to copy a configuration between machines — but for normal tuning the in-game panels are far quicker, because every change applies live and you can see the result without reloading a map.

The hotkeys#

Three mods, three keys, deliberately chosen not to collide with each other or with the game.

Running all three together#

This was designed for, not hoped for. Each mod has its own plugin GUID, its own config file, its own hotkey and its own IMGUI window ID, and the sets of game methods they patch do not overlap at any point:

There is one deliberate interaction worth knowing about. Enhanced hooks Options.Apply, which is also where Ravenfield resets its own blood quality setting. Gore re-asserts full blood quality a couple of times a second, so it always ends up authoritative. That is intended behaviour rather than a conflict, and it is why blood settings survive you touching the game's video options.

Alongside other people's mods#

Nothing here assumes it is the only plugin installed. Two things are worth knowing if you run a larger mod list:

• The AI mod reports conflicts rather than resolving them. It patches around sixty methods inside Ravenfield's AI, and any other AI mod worth having will touch some of the same ones. After patching, it asks Harmony who else has hooked what and reports the answer in the log and in the panel footer. Nothing is unpatched on the basis of it — deciding which of two mods should win is your call, not the mod's. But it turns "the bots move oddly and I have four mods installed" into a specific place to look.
• Hotkeys are the likeliest real clash. If another plugin has claimed F4, F5 or F6, rebind on the General tab of the affected panel, or change ConfigMenuHotkey in its .cfg. All three mods use that same setting name.

Installing a newer version later#

Replace the DLL. That is the whole procedure.

1. Close the game

   Windows will not let you overwrite a DLL that is currently loaded, and a half-written plugin file is the one way to get a genuinely confusing failure.

2. Overwrite the DLL

   Copy the new .dll into BepInEx\plugins\ and confirm the replace prompt.

3. Leave the config file alone

   Do not delete the .cfg. Settings are matched by name, so anything that still exists keeps your value, anything new appears at its default, and anything removed is ignored. Your tuning carries over.

   Both recent updates here — Enhanced 1.0.2 and Gore 1.0.1 — changed no setting names, ranges or defaults at all, so existing config files carry straight across untouched.

Installed#

• The DLLs I want are in BepInEx\plugins\, loose, not in subfolders
• I launched the game once after copying them in
• A matching .cfg appeared in BepInEx\config\ for each one
• Pressing F6 at the main menu opens the Enhanced panel
• Pressing F4 or F5 in a match opens the Gore or AI panel

Verify the install → Go to first-run settings