trying to install new skins and having problems.

[Panzer_M]

I got a few new skins downloaded, mainly for the StuG and Panzer III and I am having trouble getting them to take, what do I need to do?

is it like install mods for CloseCombat?

[Philippe]

How to install a mod in CM:

1) Download the zip file with the mod you want to install.

2) Create a folder to keep all mods for a particular game in.

3) Create a subfolder for the particular mod that interests you [e.g. Panzer III m].

4) Create two sub-subfolders: one called "BTS original", and the other called "name of modder who made the mod of the Panzer III m that I'm interested in". Or sumfink.

5) Unzip your downloaded mod to the sub-sub folder with the ridiculously long name. Open it up, switch to thumbnails, and take a look around.

6) On a piece of paper jot down the file numbers of the bmp files that you see in the sub-sub folder with the ridiculously long name. Be careful, because they look like they're sequential but often they are not.

7) Go into your virginal CMAK or CMBB or CMBO BMP folder and make copies of every file number that you jotted down on that piece of paper. Paste them into the sub-sub folder called BTS Original (the first sub-sub-folder that you made). Hint: it is sometime easier to just copy a large swath of files from the BMP folder, paste them into the BTS Original sub-sub-folder, and then weed out the ones that aren't listed on that piece of paper. Second Hint: Do yourself a big favor and make a back-up of your virginal BMP folder. This will save you from having to go nuts later on when you realize you screwed up somewhere when you were installing one of the last ten mods.

8) You now have two sub-sub-folders, one with the unzipped mod and one with the original textures. You can switch back and forth without using a mod manager simply by copying and pasting the contents of these sub-sub-folders to your BMP folder.

9) As to why your mods aren't working, the reason is that you probably unzipped them directly into your BMP folder without looking. Haste wastes time in the end. Learn to go slowly if you're in a hurry. You've probably got the beginnings of a nice buildup of unrelated crud in the bottom of your BMP folder. And you've also probably got zip files and folders with unzipped mods in them, the most common reason why mods don't appear.

10) And yes, if you were to ask me how to eat you'd probably starve to death before I finished the answer.

[Philippe]

And please note that the instructions in the previous post only work for regular, non-CMMOS mods. A non-CMMOS mod has a file number that will look like 12345. A CMMOS mod will have a file number that looks like 12345_yournamehere. CM can't look inside of folders that it doesn't expect to find, and it assumes that files with CMMOS extensions don't exist.