Sure, you could download them manually from mod.io - it's part of the troubleshooting steps of the guide, which is also linked by the game:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rAeuk7qFinUyPRJGk4x6Dim3rmQN2zoLaR3PNR0roU4/edit#heading=h.oiodgecqy5jg

(the link above leads to the section about the templates)

i can't download templates directly from mod.io

Originally posted by Commander Robe tope:

i can't download templates directly from mod.io

mod.io seems to be working for me right now, I just tried accessing it and downloading a template manually and it didn't cause any problem.

If you can't access mod.io at all you may need to contact your Internet Service Provider to see if they're blocking it (be it on purpose or for some malfunction on their systems) - if you can access mod.io but you are experiencing problems with the website you could try and contact the mod.io support.

If you are positive you can't access mod.io at all you could consider asking a friend to download them for you and send you the files somehow (even if it's just the flat grass template, which is just a few KB, but there you'd be forced to play in Creative Mode) - there's also the alternative of playing in someone else's world, but that comes with its own risks (not for anything else, not being your world, the world itself could go offline or get deleted or you could get banned or the alike, it's up to you to evaluate the risk of investing time on someone else's world).

i can access mod.io and subscribe to templates just fine but i cant download them directly

Originally posted by Commander Robe tope:

i can access mod.io and subscribe to templates just fine but i cant download them directly

There's no need to subscribe to the items on mod.io, you just have to download them from this button: https://i.imgur.com/RU5xdOS.png

(the position of the button may change depending on your browser size / type, but it should be there somewhere, beware that at some widths of the browser window the button may get hidden, it's a layout problem on the mod.io website, in such a case just resize the window making it wider or narrower to force the reflow to give you a different layout)

Is it that you didn't find/click the button or clicking it it gives you an error or the alike?

turns out the download button was completely hidden next to the name of the zip as zooming out revealed it

Understood - hope you've been able to download the templates and get the world running!