Mission Editor not saving name changes

[Blinx 21]

Hello,
I have 2 questions here:

One is if I can open 2 instances at the same time, different versions with a different Saved Games folder (this is what seems to cause the "one instance per write dir" but I may be wrong), I have 2 different save folders for each version separate, I rename them depending on which one I use.
Having the 2 instances, it would be easier to replicate my mission, because it has more than 50 aircraft & triggers and I'd like it to be easier to "copy/paste" basically.

Two is if the above is impossible or unlikely, I'd like to know if there's anything I can do to save the missions I have, deleting files, renaming, etc, which can be read below.

For context, I am using 2.7 Steam Version and 2.5 Standalone and playing these missions on both (haven't seen issues with this before). However, most issues occur when editing names with 2.5.

The Problem: I open a mission, edit a group name, click save, I go check and it's back to the old name. I open "Dictionary" and it's all over the place.
I am aware it does not clean itself, but it is weird that it doesn't have entries shown on the mission editor.
I also noticed that in the F10 menu, the button I have to stop all the sounds (includes a message) does not work for stopping and not for displaying the message, but the other buttons I set to play sounds do work fine with the corresponding message.

What I Have Tried: For the missing entries in the "Dictionary", I have manually added the corresponding number, and it worked, but it's way too much to fix this way (50+ names).
I deleted the "Dictionary" and renamed everything from scratch in 2.7, the file was created but without entries after saving.
I have updated the names and used Save As..., same issue.
Changing the "MissionEditor" folder to another name.

This sounds far-fetched but I'm trying to consider everything: maybe the Config, NS430 & Scripts folders inside the .MIZ file exclusive to 2.7 conflict with 2.5, for whatever reason, and doesn't let it make editing changes, but allows new additions?
Then again, the mission I edited in 2.7 with the renaming from scratch, also didn't save anything and seems to do what 2.5 does. It displays DictKey_sortie_5 (for example) instead of the text I had there.

I saw someone explain here how to move triggers from file to file and I did that, worked for others but that might've messed up the dictionary names when I changed the trigger contents. I just can't understand why the editor does not create or update "DictKey...." entries unless I add something new instead of editing.

 

I really apologize if this is super confusing. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know, I'd be interested in trying out stuff.
I don't know if it's useful to attach anything (.MIZ file is above 100mb in songs but I can remove them if needed).

Spoiler

I am losing my mind 

 

[Rudel_chw]

11 hours ago, Blinx 21 said:

One is if I can open 2 instances at the same time, different versions with a different Saved Games folder (this is what seems to cause the "one instance per write dir" but I may be wrong), I have 2 different save folders for each version separate, I rename them depending on which one I use.

No, you can’t have two dcs.exe instances running simultaneously. But you can have each using their own save folder, this way:

 

Place a "dcs_variant.txt" file in the root directory of each installed 
Dcs. The file should contain only the name of the save folder, which is then preceded by DCS through a 
period, for example, if it contains:

test

The save folder will be as follows:

C :  \ Users \% USERNAME% \ Saved Games \ DCS.test

 

 

 

Edited September 4, 2022 by Rudel_chw

[Rudel_chw]

2 hours ago, Blinx 21 said:

I'd like to know if there's anything I can do to save the missions I have, deleting files, renaming, etc, which can be read below.

For context, I am using 2.7 Steam Version and 2.5 Standalone and playing these missions on both (haven't seen issues with this before). However, most issues occur when editing names with 2.5.

The mission file format MIZ, is different for both DCS versions. You can’t edit a 2.7 mission with the 2.5 editor, it should give an error message when loading the mission. Dcs 2.7 can edit a 2.5 mission, but it will update its format when you save it.

what you should do if you intend to fly the same mission on both dcs versions, is to exclusively edit them on 2.5. Place the missions on a common folder and then use Windows’ mklink /j command to have this folder appear as /saved games/dcs/missions on both save folders.

[Blinx 21]

 

8 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

Place a "dcs_variant.txt" file in the root directory of each installed 
Dcs. The file should contain only the name of the save folder, which is then preceded by DCS through a 
period, for example, if it contains:

test

The save folder will be as follows:

C : \ Users \% USERNAME% \ Saved Games \ DCS.test

This works like a charm 
 

8 hours ago, Rudel_chw said:

The mission file format MIZ, is different for both DCS versions. You can’t edit a 2.7 mission with the 2.5 editor, it should give an error message when loading the mission. Dcs 2.7 can edit a 2.5 mission, but it will update its format when you save it.

what you should do if you intend to fly the same mission on both dcs versions, is to exclusively edit them on 2.5. Place the missions on a common folder and then use Windows’ mklink /j command to have this folder appear as /saved games/dcs/missions on both save folders.

I've gotten the message that a mission was made for an earlier version of DCS and to proceed as I wish (not editing).

The one I updated recently in 2.7, had everything changed to DictKey despite manually renaming everything.
The mission I have was made in 2.5 originally, months ago, not using 2.7 at all and it also stopped saving name changes after a lot of saving, adding and removing.

I will resort to making them from scratch...which...will be painful considering I can't even copy Triggers from one mission to another at the risk of messing up the dictionary again, but at least I won't have to change folder names all the time now   Thank you very much!

[Rudel_chw]

Just now, Blinx 21 said:

The mission I have was made in 2.5 originally, months ago, not using 2.7 at all and it also stopped saving name changes after a lot of saving, adding and removing.

 

I have edited and re-edited the same missions an awful lot, but never have had the issue you describe. My hunch is that the hand-editing that you have done outside the mission editor is the actual cause of this issue.

 

Just now, Blinx 21 said:

...will be painful considering I can't even copy Triggers from one mission to another at the risk of messing up the dictionary again,

 

I'm not sure of understanding this .. why you need to copy from one mission to another?  You don't need to have separate mission versions for DCS 2.5 and 2.7  ..  just edit the mission always on DCS 2.5 and never on 2.7; this will allow both DCS versions to run the same mission. If by mistake you open a mission on the 2.7 Editor, just save it with another name, tough from there on you will only be able to run it on DCS 2.7.

[Blinx 21]

9 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

I'm not sure of understanding this .. why you need to copy from one mission to another?  You don't need to have separate mission versions for DCS 2.5 and 2.7  ..  just edit the mission always on DCS 2.5 and never on 2.7

Nothing to do with multiple editing, I'm talking about copying the mission triggers I had for this mission which are more than 50 & all customized.

Copying and pasting to the new mission would make things way easier for me. I was just stating that I'd need to manually redo that too so that it saves entries properly.