still can not change files...

cool. i'm going to be gone until about 7pm Pacific Standard Time (California time, just in case). i'll check up when i get back.

ok,ok i did the --io.file_first thing for the short cut. i did everything except what to do right after making the backup folder. you want me to copy the vanilla EDB and EDU files from the backup folder into the data folder to mod? what do i do with the EDB and EDU files already in the data folder?

hello, you said you would be back by 7?

i'm sorry, i thought you re-installed. in that case there would be no EDS or EDB files in the data directory.

but yes, you want your modified files in the data directory. file_first tells the game engine to run the individual files before running the packs. thus anything you have altered in the data folder should show up in game.

so will i need to reinstall or can i delete the old files, put in the clean new ones and edit them?

no, you don't need to reinstall. i thought you did because you said everything was back to vanilla. to me that meant nothing was unpacked. so long as you have clean files backed up, and the files in your data folder are COMPLETELY unmodded, then you can just edit the files currently in your data folder and everything should work as i said.

k, thanks i'll tell you tomorrow if it works out!

It works perfectly right now, thank you. I'll be playing around with the files for months now that i can actually mod.

awesome.