tg626 wrote:Nothing nefarious, I just like to have a "Vanilla" install and a "Modded" install of games when I can do it.
So let's say I wanted to have two seperate installs of TS2017, one with USA routes and another with Euopean routes on the same computer and never wanting to run both at once. Is that possible? If so, how? Can TS2017 live outside the Steam file structure?
Yes to all of those questions.
You can only have one install on the steam folder, although some people have had multiple assets & content folders and renamed them.
I prefer to have my modded installs outside of the steam folder. I keep my steam install totally vanilla but have separate installs for US & UK with lots of 3rd party addons. Steam still has to be running for these installs to work, but they won't get updated so if you buy a new route through steam you will need to copy it over too your modded folder. The one exception to "not get updated" is the Workshop. All versions whether in or out of the steam folder will sync your workshop installs.
Also, in my experience it is impossible to have a pure US or pure UK install because many developers use assets from all countries. For example, the New York/New Jersey Bergen route uses assets from Munich-Augsburg.
But yes, up to a point it is possible to do what you want.