All modded files are being replaced by minor patches

[Foxxhound]

Some games have loose files that can be modded with a text editor. Oftentimes these individual files are rarely touched by patches so they're safe and easier to modify directly. However, sometime in the last couple of months I noticed Steam began automatically replacing modified files that the patches don't even touch, as if Steam is re-validating the files without notifying me.

I see a lot of posts about "validation loops" and complaints about how long it takes to basically re-download a largely compressed game after every patch. I want to clarify that that is not the issue I have. My problem is that until now I could safely mod a few loose files in games like RimWorld or Europa Universalis IV without having to worry that a patch would affect the file anytime soon, if ever. Now I have to hunt each one down every few days and manually analyze them in case the devs actually changed something this time, which would mean I can't just replace it with my modded backup. It's a pain now, even when I write my own changelogs and compare them to their complete patchlog, assuming the devs provide one.

When patching, Steam says nothing about validating files. It doesn't tell me any files need to be replaced. I start the game and realize something isn't working and go to the directory and notice that all the files I've modified (and only those files) have just been replaced with a vanilla version.

Is it a glitch on my end, or is Steam doing this for everyone? Again, this only started in the last couple of months, not years.

[Castyles]

Try to set the files to read only. Might help.

[Foxxhound]

Yeah, good idea. That was the first thing I planned to try when I revisit this issue in a few hours.

[Foxxhound]

@Castyles have you been experiencing this issue as well? If so, I hope this is a temporary mistake on Steam's end and the impact on player activity will be great enough that they'll revert it. I just thought I'd have seen recent complaints by now in discussions or Reddit forums.

I haven't tested the Read-Only trick yet, but even if it does prevent the modded files from being overwritten, it only helps. Specifically, if Steam glitches out and tries to update a random game the moment I log on (ignoring my setting to only update on launch), then setting all modified files to Read-Only could theoretically prevent me from losing files before I've backed them up. Which is great, but there are long-term stability concerns if I don't periodically run a validation myself.

An unfortunate side effect is that if a modified Read-Only file does have changes in the latest update, there would be no indicator of this. No timestamps or anything. I know I said in my original post that the odds of one of my modified files actually needing to be patched are very slim, but it does happen eventually. It's like temporarily muting an annoying chat group on your phone because they probably won't have anything important to say while you're ignoring them. But if there is something, not receiving it for several days or weeks could create complications.

[Castyles]

No, I haven't experienced anything of the sort. At least afaik.

There's also an option to block Steam from updating your games, though. Works even if you set everything to update on launch, previously and Steam decided to update the game, anyway.

Go to Steamapps > common then find the folder of the game that you want to block all updates and look for a file called "appmanifest_ [bunch of numbers here i.e the game's ID]" and set it to read only.

You can also open this very file with Notepad, look for the keyword "stateflag", replace the number that comes after it with a 4, then save and set it to read only, as well.

Hope it helps.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Escrito originalmente por Foxxhound:

However, sometime in the last couple of months I noticed Steam began automatically replacing modified files that the patches don't even touch, as if Steam is re-validating the files without notifying me.

Steam verifies all the files after every patch.

[Foxxhound]

I like that second idea, Castyles. But either approach is better than having to inspect all of them every time there's a patch.

@Spawn of Totoro: Thanks for confirming. I found threads about automatic validations from various sources from three years ago, but I am 100% positive something else changed relatively recently. Otherwise the solution would already be standard procedure for me.