So I've learned a lot in the past couple days about getting mod files to overwrite the core game files (thanks, everyone!), but it seems like the ElementalDefs file is an exception to the normal modding rules.

For example, a straight copy/paste to the mod directory and tweaking a single value seems to break the sovereign-respawn mechanic, among other things. Alternately, just copying a couple of tags into a totally new file in the mod directory seems to cause some bad behavior, too... such as mystery resource production, to name one.

Has anyone had any success with creating modding this file?