It seems there is much confusion recently about ecf file locations, and I too am having some issues. I have seen many suggestions that placing a copy of any altered ecf files (Eg: BlocksConfig.ecf) into ../scenarios/scenario_name/Configuration should work, but it does not appear to - at least not for existing games at this point. I have seen a couple other posts that people are having similar issues with this recently, but no replies to any of those comments. I have also seen that config.ecf should now be avoided.... this is somewhat problematic as those two factors seem to force updating the base ecf files, which are liable to get overwritten on update - I really don't want to have to manually check all files on every update before applying it to avoid potentially breaking a MP server setup. Is this something that's being worked on/fixed soon-ish?
Main configs go in Empyrion/Content/Configuration, though isn't recommended to edit those directly since they'll be overwritten with every update. For configs that don't get overwritten, they need to be part of their own scenario, which needs to be a valid, functioning scenario. Which of course will never apply their changes to any existing game because whatever savegame you were running was not the scenario with the custom config and you cannot change that. Just sticking the configs into "scenarios/scenario_name/Configuration" will not work. You need a complete and functioning scenario with all the correct files all the spawn settings. You can copy an existing scenario, rename it and switch out/add new configs and start a game with that scenario (New Game > Scenario > Your scenario) and the savegame using that scenario will run the configs from the scenario folder without interfering with regular savegames. The other way is to use @ravien_ff 's example scenario that has a full explanation and working example. Found here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122687972
I certainly appreciate the reply. I'm well aware you can't just create a scenario folder and call it good, but I do have a functioning "Custom scenario" based on teh default MP that I have been using to create templates etc and test them out without worry of overwrite. However changes to the ecf files in this folder do not seem to be picked up, only the global location. I've been using config.ecf as a result, even though that's apparently something we're being told not to do, as I don't want the potential for an otherwise minor update to bork everything. As I mentioned, when trawling through the forums to try and figure out what the current accepted methodology for config management is, I have noticed several posts from people having the same experience when they were previously successfully using a scenario based ecf management solution.
You can also add the configs to the mods folder under the main Empyrion game location though I have not personally tested that.
I was hoping that would be a wonderful AHA moment, but while I have no reason to believe you are anything other than correct with that correction, it did not make any change for me.
It's working for the rest of us. So something must be different on your side is the only thing I can think of. Perhaps errors in your config edits? We would need to see the correct log files to see. It might be beneficial for you to link your entire scenario along with log files so we can take a look directly and see what's going on. In other words, we can't help more without more info from you. You are going to have to do this anyways. Every update you will still need to compare the default files to your custom ones and make edits, otherwise you can still (potentially) break your save file, depending on what the update changed of course. The game won't overwrite custom configs in a custom scenario, yes, but you still need to do a compare every single update no matter what. Or risk potentially game breaking errors. If things were changed in the default files and you don't include those changes into your custom files things can break real quick (depending on the changes).
