Any way to keep a 2nd Starbound directory updated?

I'm wanting to have both unmodded and modded versions of Starbound just in case I want to do some multiplayer, using the vanilla version to be able to not cause any conflicts. I recently learned that copying the entire Starbound directory will allow it to run on its own, but also learned that this version will not be updated...

Anyways, any way to keep the 2nd Starbound directory up to date without something going screwy with the files? Maybe force Steam to update the 2nd one somehow? I'm kinda nervous about this all TBH, though honestly I might not be entirely against starting over if my files go wonky on me and become unsalvageable. (Endgame can get boring sometimes)

Also, this brings to mind another thing... If I were to start back from scratch, would it be best to have the original directory as vanilla, and have the 2nd directory have all the mods? If so, how would I work it where I can install mods from the Steam workshop to the 2nd directory instead of the 1st?

 

Dealing with mods is simple. You would have to go to the directory it is stored in. It will be labeled the app number... I've not done that way before, as I download mods from here instead. You might find most of them here, or at least the most common ones.

With the ones from here, just stuff it into the mod directory. As to the steam ones, All I know is the directory is an app number as well the various mods. You could simply copy them from that directory over to the mods directory; far as i know.

To keep up to date, you would just have to copy files over like you did the first time. I don't really know anything about setting steam for outside games...

You could see to the unstable version... which I believe at the moment is the same as the regular version. That one gets the update first usually, as a tester version before going to the stable one. Maybe use that one for modding... wonder if that would work... Have not done that in a while...

 

Would that involve simply subscribing to the mod on Steam, copying it to the other directory, then unsubscribing from it back on Steam?

This is the part I'm worried about... Whenever Steam pushes an update for Starbound, are the character files ever changed along with it sometimes as well to make it work? Trying to update the other directory by simply overwriting everything that's not related to character and world stuff could possibly result in those files and the player/world files to not communicate properly...

Personally not an expert in this field of stuff, but I've seen/tampered with stuff enough to know stuff can go funky pretty quick when one makes an incorrect change to file stuffs.

I have considered that, but still, I might wanna hear from a Chuchklefish dev just to make sure...

 

yes to the first one, assuming you know where steam puts the mods...

As far as version updates, it was mentioned that there are not to be any character wipes. As in it should be safe. My characters have been safe ever since I transfered them from the unstable branch right before release. It was a version prior to 1.0 that works with it. So the only reason a character or ship would get messed up would be to do loading that character with mods then trying to load it without mods, or crashing game causing them to go corrupt. Character & ship files have backup files; easily noted with the bak1... extensions. upto I think 4-5. It does this everytime you bootup the game. Then rotates them. So to save a corrupt character you would simply have to change the bak part to ship or character, depending on what it was. Or what ever the other extension you would see corresponding to each. As long as you don't try to reload characters several times before doing that for the obvious reason, each time loaded does replace the bak ones; one by one.

So yes if you want to keep the characters separate in each. Just make sure the mods are updated as well. You also might consider to backup the character files from time to time, just in case. Both the world and character directories. There are a few mods that might need updating each time depending on what is touched in the base game, and better to know from the mod authors than one whom barely uses mods... I don't use mods mostly, but keep the ones I like archived just in case I want to play with certain ones.

The last bit makes sense for your caution, and is understandable.

 

Thanks for the advice! Will try to get this all in order then.

And yeah, I keep a lot of unused mods favorited in the Steam workshop too just in case. With a separate directory, I'll be able to go a bit more willy nilly, especially with the mods that change planet generation, so my first directory will still have vanilla planet generation.

Though if anything goes wrong, I guess I'd better post again to get it worked out... Hopefully that won't be necessary!

Edit: Oh, and one more thing... Where would be the best place to put the 2nd directory?

 

Hate to double post, but already am getting some obnoxiously large Access violation error message... Figured this was going to happen, but I can't make heads nor tails of all of the stuff it threw at me. Disappointing it wouldn't allow me to copy/paste it all either...

Edit: What if I wiped all the character files and the world files of the 2nd directory, along with al the mods? Will that do it? Also noticed that the Workshop mods and non-workshop mods are set up drastically different, if that could be a problem of any sorts...

Edit Edit: Nvm, figured out where and how the mods are actually stored... Yeesh, Steam is cryptic... Still dunno how to proceed with getting this to actually work...

Third edit: Yeah... Seems it only actually works when I link it as a non-steam game being ran through steam, but the good news is that it actually works? Also all the Workshop mods are not present on the 2nd directory too, which means I've actually achieved a vanilla version! I guess I can call it a day now.