Is it possible to save an edited stock Squad part as your own in a sperate directory?

[Kerbital]

Mind you, this is just for my own personal use. I'm not going to release any modded Squad parts

So I edited some engines and solar panels to be more powerful. Can I copy and save them as something else to appear in the Editor? For example, I have my own flag in Kerbal Space Program\GameData\Kerbital\. I'd like to copy these parts there. So I have access to both unmodified and modified parts in the game. I tried copying the parts to Kerbal Space Program\GameData\Kerbital\Parts\Engine and renaming the file and the name of the part inside the file but it didn't do the trick. Thanks!

 

Edited February 2, 2017 by Kerbital

[steuben]

Yes it is.

If you haven't you'll have to change the line

name =

in the part cfg file.

 

[Kerbital]

Thank you! How did I miss that? /embarrassed

It works.

Before, I changed title, manufacturer and description but totally missed the very first line of the file.

[Streetwind]

15 hours ago, Kerbital said:

Thank you! How did I miss that? /embarrassed

It works.

Before, I changed title, manufacturer and description but totally missed the very first line of the file.

Yeah, that first line is the unique internal part identifier. If it exists more than once, things break It's actually the one thing you must change. Literally all other things can be the same, the game doesn't care. Just that one line is critical.

I recommend using Module Manager, by the way. It lets you copy a part using just a config file patch. That means you don't actually have to copy around the whole part directory with all of the assets. Another bonus is that you don't have to keep an additional copy of the part around just to preserve the pristine stock part, even if you may never use it ingame. A MM patch will modify an existing part at runtime, so you can keep the stock part pristine and just write instructions that say "while the game is running, pretend that the thrust of this engine is 100 kN higher than normal" or even "pretend that there exists a copy of this part with the following differences". This allows you to keep a better overview and easily roll back changes that you don't like or which caused errors, even if you are operating in an install with hundreds upon hundreds of custom tweaks. Finally, if at some point in the future you are so pleased with your own part tweaks that you get tempted to release them, you can. Distributing your own patch files is explicitly allowed, even if they target stock parts for changes and/or copying.

Cloning yourself a copy of the LV-T45 with more thrust is as simple as putting the following into an empty textfile somewhere inside GameData and changing the file extension to .cfg:

+PART[liquidEngine2]
{
	@name = myOwnSwivelEngine
	@title = LV-T45-B "Swivel Mark Two" Liquid Fuel Engine
	@MODULE[ModuleEnginesFX]
	{
		@maxThrust = 300
	}
}

Short, sweet, simple, and broadly compatible. The + symbol says "clone this", the @ symbol says "change this", the square brackets say what exactly should be affected. Easy peasy Can target mod-added parts too!

 

Edited February 3, 2017 by Streetwind

[Kerbital]

Wow, thanks Streetwind! I already have MM installed for the various mods. I'll try it this weekend

[Overland]

ahh.. the beautiful initial stages of a modder most of us started here once upon a time

[KerikBalm]

yes

Its just a goliath with the rescale factor set to 0.5 in the .cfg file, and text editing to turn it into an electric fan. The .cfg file is in a different folder, but it points to the model and texture of the original part so that I didn't have to duplicate the model and texture files (saves memory usage)

Whereas this electric fan needs the model and texture files because it uses a model and texture that is no longer present in the stock game (its the old basic jet model)