Forge the Mod

CrimeForge uses the term Forge for the final cook and packaging step.

Forging a mod cooks the mod-owned content and packages only the assets that the mod is supposed to include. You do not need to manually construct UnrealPak or IoStore commands.

Before forging

Save all modified assets.

Resolve Blueprint compile errors before starting a forge.

If CrimeForge provides validation for the selected mod type, run it first and resolve blocking errors.

Forge

Select the mod in CrimeForge and run the Forge action.

CrimeForge handles the PAYDAY-specific cook and package pipeline. The resulting output contains only the content selected for that mod rather than the entire project.

Depending on the mod and the current runtime format, forged output can contain Unreal package files such as .pak, .utoc, and .ucas.

CrimeForge mods are plugins

CrimeForge creates mods as Unreal plugins.

This gives each mod its own content root and keeps its authored assets separate from the base PAYDAY 3 project. PDML understands this plugin-based mod structure and handles the mod at runtime.

A simplified structure looks like this:

MyMod/
|-- MyMod.uplugin
`-- Content/
    `-- ...

The exact forged output can contain additional files depending on the mod type and CrimeForge version.

Watch the Output Log

A forge can fail because of:

  • Blueprint compiler errors.

  • Missing references.

  • Content excluded from cook.

  • Plugin or module load failures.

  • Invalid mod configuration.

  • Commandlet-incompatible editor plugins.

Do not treat the final error line as the entire diagnosis. Search upward for the first relevant cook, compile, validation, or forge error.

Verify the result

After CrimeForge reports a successful forge, inspect the output location shown by the tool.

The forged mod should contain your intended mod content, not copied PAYDAY 3 base-game content.

Do not manually add PAYDAY 3 cooked assets to the forged mod to fix a missing-reference problem.

That usually means the mod’s references, PAL selection, or forge configuration need to be corrected.

Next: Install and Test.