current game version: 1.5.0.0.3 (all mods confirmed working)
Unreal Mod Unlocker is a tool made by Illusory Software. It's basic version is free and can be used to make games created with the Unreal Engine load loose files - as is needed for some mods.
To use some of my mods, you will need to patch Rivershine with the Unreal Mod Unlocker. The free Basic version of the tool works perfectly for this!
Go to https://illusory.dev/ and download the basic version.
Install the Unreal Mod Unlocker. Once it's done installing and updating, you should see its main window.
It prompts you to choose a folder - you need to point it at [path to your steam games]\The Ranch of Rivershine\TheRanchOfRivershine\Binaries\Win64
The "Patch" button will become available. Click that and wait for the success message.
Now you can close the Unreal Mod Unlocker.
Start your game as normal, and you will see a popup that tells you the mod config is "missing or corrupted". This is normal and shows that the patch was applied. The game will not open right now because the config is being created, so just confirm the popup.
Start the game again - from now on it should start normally. The difference is that now you can put loose mod files into your game's folders to install modded content.
After you have finished patching the game, you don't need to use the Mod Unlocker anymore! If you are updating the game to a major new version, it may however be necessary to patch it again. If your mods suddenly stop working after updating the game to a new version, please repeat the above steps and check again if they still don't work.