Looking over hundreds of incompatible mods, for very different version of the same game. I am curious if the different versions will adversely effect each installation?

Such as settings. As settings are usually dumped into the user/temp or local section of windows. Also, yes in Windows, not using a mod manager. I hate mod managers, I prefer manually screwing things up >_>

This isnt a "What mods are you...." kind of thread, just curious about installing different versions of the game with offline installers, if they melt the world and eat my pets.

Easiest solution: try it yourself.
Then report back to us.

Instead of being just another questioner - become the answer! ;)

make another user account and switch to it. Not sure could you do it on cmd to change access permissions like on linux.

While linux flavors are familiar to me, I really want it on Windows. Hence my curiosity, if anyone actually owns it.

Some mods only work for certain versions of the game. The more I read about the official game changes, the less likely mods I would use, will function across different version.

But its not worth $130 bucks to test and find out it wont. Hence the question.

I never tried it but when Rimworld got the 1.5 version it said you can install older version since they are drm-free incase i want to play the old save game and have both versions installed. The message was inside the game from rimworld.
Unless gog changes somehow the registry i think it maybe could work but haven't tried it.
But Rimworld has it's own store to buy games that are also drm-free so maybe they referenced that version?

On Linux it would be almost trivial, by exporting XDG_CONFIG_HOME (and maybe XDG_DATA_HOME) from the launchers.

On Windows on the other hand I do not know how easily it could be done.

Thanks for the info Fonz, Ill keep that in mind if nothing else more substantial is posted.

The thing that bothers me, is when v1.4 released. I vaguely remember something got changed and broke a bunch of mods. But Not playing it, I didnt care. But the latest DLC has me looking at the game. Problem is I like some stuff old and new.

Hate to have to make concessions before buying a product. Seems pointless then.

I use a sandboxing solution for similar purposes (different Minecraft versions and mod packages). If you put each game version into their own sandbox, then the user files are kept cleanly separated.

I use "Sandboxie" for that, running on Windows 7. That tool is a godsend for all testing purposes.

Here's the catch: I just don't know whether this solution will still work on newer Windows versions or not. The project transitioned into Open Source a few years ago. No idea which of the different fork projects is the "best" or the most current one. (Keeping a sandboxing solution up-to-date is a lot of work and requires expert knowledge. It digs deep into the OS's core and is very likely to get tripped by the next Windows Update.)