Just a small update on the issue and a fix for anyone with the same issue!

It can be bypassed by editing name in mod.cpp for every mod.
Steam seems to have a packet which will fail if it gets filled. By renamining
name = "Advanced Combat Environment 3.9.1";
into
name = "ace3";
etc. we were able to successfully run 30 mods and have the launcher display them correctly http://i.imgur.com/0uEC4YA.jpg

I wonder if it would be possible for the devs to allow for a custom mod list to be added in the server config somewhere, which the launcher would be able to read and translate into mod lists? Possibly a link to a mod preset with steamIDs for the mods together with required / optional values.

For ex, you could name a server setting called launcherMods-"http://myserver.com/mod-list.html"

renaming mods in "mod.cpp" worked for us just in some cases... we still got some missing or unkown addons in A3 launcher.

the SteamID is already listed in "meta.cpp". why the launcher doesnt catch this? and when the launcher cant find the ID, he can try to search the name then. would work much better i think.

Please BIS, dont give up so fast.

@RueLight:
When the meta.cpp file is present in the mod on the server, the steam id is broadcasted together with the mod name and it is the primary method to match the mods in Launcher (actually we've created meta.cpp mechanism only because of Launcher), heuristic matching over mod name is one of the fallback solutions.
As I said before the real issue is the limitation of the amount of data that can be transferred from the server. Renaming the mod to a shorter name reduces the amount of data that has to be transferred from the server and that increases the chance that it will fit in the packet and get through the network from server to client.

Yes, my recommendation is an option to attach an xml link to your server which will allow the launcher to grab the list of mods from the .xml (website)

So I could save a preset with the launcher and have it grabbed from the server browser. http://www.myarmaserver.com/preset.xml is a lot less data than a list of mods. Then the browser would grab the link and convert it into understandable format for the launcher.

Good luck on the issue :)

Will the name in the mod.cpp ord the meta.cpp be used ?

mod.cpp

just edit the names of all mods on the server to <5 letters and it will show them on server browser, but there's still a limit.

@BISWizard, is there no way to develop an in-house solution or nag at Valve to fix the issue?

I would suggest the launcher query the server mod list on its own rather than the steam APIs, querying only once the "mods" button is pressed.

Great to see dedmen!

Blesseth thy be!

@dedmen You can close this duplicate as well: https://feedback.bistudio.com/T127303