Build: 1.4.5 3279 03-06:44 Mode: Any Reproducibility: Always Severity: Moderate Type: configuration Summary: Can't change items via Config.ecf Description: If you make changes to the ItemsConfig.ecf file, everything is fine. If you make changes to the Config.ecf file for items listed in ItemsConfig.ecf, nothing happens.
Not considered a bug, even though it is a nuisance for some people. See this thread: https://empyriononline.com/threads/config-ecf-no-longer-getting-loaded.97319/
Sadly - now, in order not to redo a large configuration file with each update, it is easier to write your own mod P.S. "Let's break what worked and call it an innovation."
Actually the change was a step towards completion. Once you start edit the other config files individually, you will understand that it is better to have many small files per type i.e. blocks than a single large file, in which you might get lost. Not to mention new stuff will be added in the future.
For a modder who changes a lot of values \ parameters in each patch, it is more convenient to work with separate files. For a player who selectively changes only some parameters and the size of the Config.ecf file is very small - it is more profitable to keep the changes in one place. A possible alternative is to support an additional parameter file for each file. For instance: ItemConfig.ecf - a file listing all items. ItemConfig_my.ecf - file with changes in item parameters, which is loaded after ItemConfig.ecf. When the game is updated, only ItemConfig.ecf will change and the player will not need to worry about losing their settings, since they will be moved to ItemConfig_my.ecf. In order not to clutter up the directory with configuration files, you can move the user settings to the my / subdirectory and keep the user edits there.
It is already possible - although a bit flaky - to put our modded files in the "Empyrion\Content\Mods" folder and they should take precedence on the ones in the main Config folder and these will not be overwritten with updates. For me it worked on an on/ off basis but @Taelyn checked it on his system and it seemed to work OK. An alternative to work with the original config files is to copy them somewhere safe, then delete everything not needed and just keep our modded items/ blocks in there. When an update comes up, simply use the "search" tool in Notepad/ Notepad++ to find the precise word (from the backed up file) in the main file to make changes. We can even make our life easier by pasting all modded items/ blocks in Word/ Wordpad and use colors and fancy formatting to separate categories/ parameters, and still use the search tools in the original files. Because the nature of the changes can conflict with an old set of edits, there can't really be a "duplicate" of items : one modded thing can have its parameters changed in some way, and the game will bug / ignore the faulty mods, so in the end they are pretty much useless. Only "garantee" to avoid problems is to keep up with the updated files, and track our changes with a backed-up version.
I need my config files to load after the main files in the Configuration directory and fix the things I need. Is this option possible? Overwriting / editing original files is a bad way. This is essentially extra work. It is easier to fix your small files for the current version of the game than to rewrite and reconcile large text files every time. To check the mod catalog, I use Meld - it automates all the work quite well, but with a large number of changes, you still have to do manual work.
@Mirosya : the "Mods" folder trick should work, but like I wrote it did and sometimes did not. This might be related to a recent problem that many players reported that when loading/ starting a new game without closing Empyrion completely, the configs from the previous session were not flushed and were used in the new session, causing problems. For the second point : I am not suggesting to overwrite, I'm just pointing at a trick to keep track of our changes in a backed up and "shaved" version of the originals. The only "bad way" is to forget backing up any kind of "originals" when working with files. Yes, Meld looks like a fine tool for this, I learned about it when @Myrmidon posted a link some time ago. I don't use it, I'm just sticking to window"s default tools (favorites/ libraries) and keep my system lean... it's an old rig... ^^ Even the Config.ecf had come to grow to an appreciable size over time, having many things from templates to blocks to items in one file. I'm not surprised they may want to get rid of it, because the game sorting and checking back and forth between big files can impact performance noticeably and cause problems. Just using simple parsing functions on a simple text file shows that it's not a trivial operation with thousands of lines to sort through.
Yeah the config.ecf file sounds like it's going to stop being supported. I wish it would stay, it's very useful for many people. It opens up light modding to everyday players. It's way easier to set up and maintain a small config.ecf file and it's something almost anyone can do with little previous knowledge.
Then an alternative could be to allow custom itemsconfig and blocksconfig in the "Mods" folder to be just partial files, and the game would fetch all remaining configs from the main folder (for default game modding). If it works fine then apply the same to scenarios : a main "Config" folder and a "mod" folder for partial ecf files with just what the lambda players want to customize. This was already working that way with the Config.ecf : if an object's modification was forbidden, the game would just ignore it and take the original from the default folder (when it did not crash of course).
