I can make a new planet, and add it thru using a scenario, but if I'm currently in a coop game, where you start a new game, drop the dropdown and pick coop, and a server starts in the background, and your friend joins. How can I add a new planet to this game without starting over, or making a new scenario? I've googled this and found nothing except how to add planets. The whole coop thing is new and a black box. I'm thinking if I edit my game files, then next update the edits will be gone and it'll mess up the game. Any help would be great.
You can add new planets to an "ongoing" coop game in a custom scenario. Add your new planet to your scenario\Sectors\sectors.yaml, add your custom playfield to your scenario's playfield folder, and test it in singleplayer first. If everything is ok, just copy your new playfield into your coop savegame, in the "templates" folder, and also copy (overwrite) your sectors.yaml in your coop savegame with your new sectors.yaml with the added planet, and it should work. Of course your friend will also need to add these files to his scenario folder. All files in the scenario (and savegames) are "safe" in case of updates, but if you have custom maps in the Empyrion - Galactic Survival\Content\Terrains these may be zapped... best to make a backup somewhere. I usually put them in my scenario, where I make a "terrains" folder just to hold my templates & various files. The game will always go fetch the terrains files in the default Empyrion - Galactic Survival\Content\Terrains folder, so you need to make sure you and your coop buddies have all the same files in there.
Thank you very much for the lengthy description. If I'm playing Coop my friend should not have a save game it should be on my computer correct? And I could always publish my scenario and have him download it so he has the correct Planet files, yes? I'm not necessarily new to the game or it's files but creating planets it's a little daunting at first.
Correct. Yes, as long as you provide him with any custom maps\xml that should be put in the default Empyrion\Content\Terrains folder.
Cool. Trying to get my friend to copy files into places (he's not computer savy) is a long process. If he can just subscribe to my scenario then it's all good. I don't think I'll be changing the maps at least not yet. What I'm after is a duplicate Ningus with oxygen and a few more POI's and trading options. If I change the scenario then his version should change too I assume. Also, I'll need to delete the saved playfield before the game will see it. BTW, thanks for all the info.
I wanted to write back and huge thank you. This worked perfectly. I assume if I update the custom scenario, he gets an auto update.