I've been trying to incorporate modified Obelisk POIs into my personal scenario, and am hitting a brick wall. Everything I've tried still results in the game quietly falling back on the vanilla POI blueprints, with no console errors or warnings. I'm flummoxed. I started by making minor exterior alterations to an Obelisk in godmode-invisible. Having done that, I wondered if I could persuade the game to load my altered blueprints in place of the vanilla ones when using my personal scenario. I decided to attempt it. First, I separately made the same changes to all four of the vanilla Obelisks in godmode-invisible. I did this assuming that, in spite of their superficial similarity, each of them is unique. While still in that mode, I saved each of them as blueprints. Using the POI double-click dialog, I added the necessary GroupNames, spawn name, offset, and flatten-terrain setting. The names I gave the blueprints were: Obelisk<Alpha|Beta|Delta|Gamma>Modified Those were of course saved beneath .\Saves\Blueprints\ in folders of the same names. What I thought I needed to do next was substitute my .EPB files in place of the vanilla ones, .\Content\Prefabs\BA_TOTObelisk<Alpha|Beta|Delta|Gamma>.epb. Since I'm already using my own scenario, I added .\Content\Prefabs\ underneath the scenario's root. I then copied my four altered blueprints into that folder, and renamed each of them to match the vanilla blueprint names. I was hopeful that I was done. I thought the game would notice the files in my scenario's Prefabs folder and use those in place of the same-named vanilla files. I started a new game, and waited to see if my altered Obelisks were being used in place of the originals. They weren't. At this point I am stumped what I have missed. I have failed to comprehend some of the relationships involved and made a mistake. Does anyone recognize what mistake I've made?
You can't overwrite the vanilla prefabs in a scenario. Either change the groupname used in the playfield files so it spawns yours, or you'll need to overwrite the vanilla prefabs in the root prefabs folder for the game.
Well that explains why it didn't work... it was prohibited for some reason. I gather that the name of the blueprint file is unimportant when it's a POI, and instead it's the GroupName that identifies them? Do I still need to have them in the Prefabs folder, and if so do I rename them to what I originally named them and just make sure they're using a different GroupName, both within the blueprint and in the playfield files? Or... do I remove the Prefabs folder entirely from my scenario and instead rely on them being found in .\Saves\Blueprints\?
I gave all four of my blueprints unique GroupNames and changed all references to the original GroupNames in the playfield_static files to my GroupNames (I was already modding those playfields), but upon starting a new game with my scenario the game now fails to place the Obelisk POIs at all. The log contains no error or warning about that failure, though there's a domino effect: 10-17:29:08.231 10_29 -LOG- [SSGUIPoi] RandomPlacer PlacePois: 1 of 37 POIs could not be placed: BA_CrashedCockpit (TOTCampObeliskAlien), Because it failed to place the Obelisk, it also couldn't place the Scientist Camp. What the heck?
If you subscribe to this it gives you the full folder layout of a custom scenario and where to place each type of file: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122687972
There is also a good FAQ in the link below explaining how to setup a scenario and how to setup custom POIs within. A scenario is much better compared to tweaking the game files directly, every update will overwrite them, and with a scenario *you* will be the one deciding when to update these files. But download ravien's scenario template first. https://empyriononline.com/threads/read-first-faq-for-customization-scenario.11204/#post-127120
I was already subscribed, but didn't think I needed to refer to it. The only new information from this is that you've relocated the Prefabs folder from its vanilla location in the hierarchy, one node/level higher than normal, the same with Extras. That turned out to be the cause of the problem (and another that I had been ignoring). Why did Eleon think it was wise or necessary to shuffle around in scenarios the relative locations of some, but not even all (Configuration is left in place), subdirectories from vanilla? There is no functional reason that would force them to do it.
