Separate Layout Plan Libraries for MODs

A MOD can have a completely different set of products from the standard game, so the game keeps a separate Layout Plan Library for every MOD you have played. Finding and managing plans in a MOD-enabled game is much easier as a result.

Using a MOD’s library

Load a MOD from the main menu. Open the Layout Plan Library and you will see the current MOD’s name at the top; plans you add there belong to that MOD alone.

The Standard Layout Plan Library keeps its own plans, and they are never shared with MOD-enabled games.

The Layout Plan Library showing the name of the currently loaded MOD

The three categories of plan

Pre-defined plans
User-defined plans
Wildcard Factory Plans

A MOD may have no pre-defined plans at all — that depends entirely on whether its author supplied a library. If there are none, you add your own.

How the game finds a library file

This section is for transferring library files between computers, or for understanding the internals. You do not need it to play.

The library file is named after the MOD:

<Name of the MOD>.PLO        (example: RealWorld.PLO)

With a MOD loaded, the game works through three steps in order.

Look in the User Game Folder

C:\Users\<Your Windows username>\Documents\My Games\Capitalism Lab

Found there, it is loaded and the search ends.

Look in the MOD folder

The MOD subfolder under your Capitalism Lab program folder, normally:

C:\Users\<Your Windows username>\AppData\Local\Capitalism Lab\MOD

To find the program folder: right-click the Capitalism Lab icon, choose Properties, then Open File Location.

Found there, it is loaded — and if you change the library during the game, the result is saved to the User Game Folder from step 1.

Create an empty library

With nothing found, the game builds a mostly empty library containing Wildcard Factory Plans only, and saves it to the User Game Folder as soon as you add a plan.

For modders: shipping a layout plan library

Start a new game with your MOD

The game creates the mostly empty library of wildcard plans.

Add your plans

Build layout plans for your MOD’s products, then quit the game.

Copy the file into the MOD folder

Copy <Name of the MOD>.PLO from the User Game Folder:

C:\Users\<Your Windows username>\Documents\My Games\Capitalism Lab

to the MOD folder:

C:\Users\<Your Windows username>\AppData\Local\Capitalism Lab\MOD

Include it in your distribution

Ship the .PLO file with your MOD. When users copy the distribution files into their MOD folder, the library comes with it and is available while they play.