I made a guide for tweaking mudrunner and playing all the games in multiplayer:

INTRODUCTION

This is a guide for making mudrunner better and run all the mods in multiplayer.
I'll try to be as detailed as possible.
Let's start from scratch.

  1. MEDIA FOLDER
    You'll need to extract your media.zip into media folder inside your game directory. Media.zip and MEDIA folder must be in same folder. Make media folder in all caps so it stands out cause you'll be dealing with it a lot 😉

  2. EDIT CONFIG.XML
    In the same folder there's a file Config.xml. Right click on it and chose edit. (If it opens with some stupid program and not notepad - right click, open with, and chose notepad). Nothing much is written in this file so just use your eyes and find <MediaPath Path="Media.zip" />
    Copy the line and paste it bellow. Now you'll edit the first (top one). Just delete .zip at the end. End result should be:
    -Other stuff -
    />
    <MediaPath Path="Media" />
    <MediaPath Path="Media.zip"
    -Other stuff -
    Make sure to save prior to exiting the notepad. If this was an endeavor for you I suggest making a backup copy of Config.xml because any game update will repair the file.

  3. IMPORTING A MAP
    Download a map of your choosing. I download from these 2 sites: http://www.mudrunnermods.com/ (beware when you click download button it will open popup a few times before the button changes to a real download button. Smart move would be using addblocker)
    https://www.worldofmods.com/spintires-mudrunner/maps/ (Don't click the big download from server. Click download the zip-file without installer and wait for timer to let's you download the map)
    If the map is just 2 files *.stg and *.dds (there might be some info files. just Ignore them) you can just import them into MEDIA/levels folder
    That's it!
    If there's more files in the zip (textures, meshes, etc) then make a copy of MEDIA folder and put the whole thing inside. Be careful to put everything to the right place. If there's a media folder in the zip, open it and drag folders from there to your copied media folder. You need to merge textures with textures, meshes with meshes,...
    [i]-----Ignore this if you never downloaded complicated (more than 2 files) map------[/i]
    To keep things clean I suggest every complicated map needs to be put in separate dedicated media folder. Because sometimes files will get overwritten and 2 maps can clash each other
    Just have named folders for every complicated map and one for all other maps(including original). I know. It's pain in the ass. But until the developers offer workshop map support we're stuck with this.
    Now simply rename the folder that you'll like to use to MEDIA folder when you are need to play a specific map.

  4. MANAGING MEDIA FOLDERS
    I explained a lot about media folder in previous point so I'll just ad some tips here. Again, MEDIA folder in caps so it stand out.
    If you have a lot of new maps you'll find it's hard to chose them since we can't scroll the maps menu. If that is the case copy your media folder and start putting new maps there. So next time you want to play newer maps you use that one (rename it media and rename older one media2) and if you crave for that old map you played last week (yeah you are a maniac and play so many maps every day. I don't judge 😛 ) you rename media2 to media and media to media3. Ok, maybe chose better system then numbers. Just know that maps you'll want to play must be in the folder named MEDIA and other media folders should be named in a way that you can figure out what maps are in them 😉

  5. 4GB PATCH
    Game apparently uses only 2GB or something like that. But luckily some fine people out there (I don't know who and I don't feel like researching this cause it's not the point of this guide to give credit to the moders. Just know I love you all) made fix for that.
    This is the link to the patch: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwPE_FnagWg6VXMtRjFRZXZkWUk/view
    And this is the link to a thread I found it:
    https://steamcommunity.com/app/675010/discussions/0/1620599015877111780/
    It's a *.dll file. Not a virus. Feel free to scan it
    Just put the file into your game folder. Start the game. It will say something and create some additional files(MudRunner.exe.ORG and MudRunner.exe.LAA ) . Now you can exit the game. That's it.
    I had some problems with one of the files missing after a while. I think it was *.LAA file. Since I made backup of both of them I have no problems. So make a backup 😉 Just create a folder in game, name it 4gb backup (or get creative with the name) and copy the files inside. Just to be sure copy d3dx9_43.dll (4gb patch) too. You never know when the game will be updated and everything purged.

  6. START MUDRUNNER WITH MODS.BAT
    Since multiplayer won't work if there are some files changed we'll need to trick a game that all is a-ok. Lucky for us the check for integrity happens only once at the beginning of the game. If you imported only simple maps (I call them that cause there's no additional textures or meshes. Not in derogatory sense) then game will not bother you at all. In case of additional files that comes with the map and (usually some rewritings also happens) the game will lock you out of multiplayer.
    Now comes Start MudRunner with Mods.bat. Link: http://www.mudrunnermods.com/mudrunner-mp-mod-loader-v0-1/
    It moves the media folder to a temp place so game reads media.zip which is clean of all mods. Then after a period of time it moves all back. Sometimes the game loads too long and check is preformed when files are back. Just start it again.
    I know there are better solutions to this now days but that one works for me and I'm sticking by it until I test something new.
    There's another guide made by Huntsman-Cammando58
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1247133673 if you prefer another approach.
    Hmm. maybe I should just paste his link and don't bother to write all this 😃
    Anyway this is my way of dealing with mods and multiplayer in mudrunner and hopefully it will help somebody. If you read all this + his guide you'll be packed with knowledge.

7.SAVEGAME BACKUP
A lot of time when game crashes the save file gets corrupted. When you invest 10+ hours in to a map and you loose savegame you can start a murder spree OR just go to your backup folder with history of all saves and chose previous one. Copy it on desktop. Remove the date so name becomes identical to a corrupted save and move it and replace into mudrunner savegame folder.
I use GoodSync for making my backups. If you are interested I can make detailed guide how to set it up.

  1. THAT'S IT
    Go play a game and add me as a friend if you are up for some logging or trailing.
    Just a final hint to make game look nicer: If you are depressed by the washed out colors in the game use RESHADE to correct the graphics. So much better. I can elaborate on reshade if somebody is interested or you can read all about it in this guide by Primal Fear: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1204423858
    Thnx you for reading!