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Custom Defaults (Advanced)

Fresh's in-game Settings let you tune every product's shelf life - but those choices are saved inside that one savegame. Start a new game and you would set everything up again. Custom Defaults is an optional file that keeps your preferred setup in one reusable place: it applies to all your savegames and survives mod updates.

This is an advanced, optional feature. You only need it if you want a reusable per-install configuration - for example, to give custom-crop or map-mod products a shelf life everywhere, or to carry your own basegame tweaks across all your saves. Setting it up means editing a small XML file in a text editor. Everyday tuning is easier in the Settings menu.

Note: This documentation was generated with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies. If you spot an error, please open an issue.

Why use it

The in-game Settings are per savegame. To reuse the same setup across all your games, players used to edit the mod's bundled defaults file directly - but a mod update overwrites that file and wipes the changes. Custom Defaults replaces that workaround with a file that lives outside the mod, so it survives updates and applies to every save.

It is useful when you want to:

  • Keep a personal baseline for basegame products that you reuse in every new game
  • Give products from custom-crop, map, or other mods a shelf life in one central place
  • Share or back up your preferred setup as a single file

The file is portable: you can list products from mods that are not even in your current game. Those entries stay dormant until a save actually contains that product, so one file works across all your saves.

How it fits in

Custom Defaults is a layer that sits between the mod's built-in values and your in-game settings. When Fresh needs a product's shelf life, it checks these layers in order:

Priority Layer Set where Notes
1 (highest) In-game settings Fresh Menu, per savegame A value you deliberately change here always wins
2 Custom Defaults modSettings/FS25_Fresh/customDefaults.xml, per install Your reusable baseline
3 (lowest) Bundled mod defaults Ships inside the mod Fresh's built-in values

So anything you set in Custom Defaults overrides Fresh's built-in value for that product, but a change you make in the in-game Settings menu still takes priority. The difficulty preset multiplier (Easy, Hard, and so on) scales your custom periods exactly as it scales the bundled ones.

Setting it up

  1. Find the template data/customDefaults.example.xml inside the mod - open FS25_Fresh.zip in any archive viewer, or view it on GitHub.
  2. Create the folder modSettings/FS25_Fresh/ (the modSettings folder sits next to your mods folder; create the FS25_Fresh subfolder if it does not exist).
  3. Save your edited copy as modSettings/FS25_Fresh/customDefaults.xml.
  4. Restart the game.

The file is re-read on every launch and applies to all your saves. It is never copied into a savegame and Fresh never writes to it.

Multiplayer: On a dedicated or host server, place the file on the server only. Clients receive the values automatically through the normal settings sync, so the display matches everywhere. Clients do not need their own copy.

What you can configure

The file uses the same format as Fresh's bundled defaults. A minimal example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<freshSettings version="2">
    <fillTypes>
        <!-- Make wheat last 6 months instead of the bundled 12 -->
        <fillType name="WHEAT" period="6.0"/>

        <!-- Give a custom-crop mod's product a shelf life -->
        <fillType name="CUSTOMCROP" period="3.0" maxBenefitClass="cooled"/>

        <!-- Mark a product as never expiring -->
        <fillType name="POTATO" expires="false"/>
    </fillTypes>
</freshSettings>

Per-product shelf life

Each <fillType> entry sets the default for one product:

Attribute Values Meaning
name Internal fill type name, e.g. WHEAT Which product this applies to. Use the internal name (the same names used in the bundled defaults and in a crop mod's own files), not the in-game display name.
period Months: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 9.0, 12.0, 18.0, 24.0, 36.0, 60.0 Shelf life in months, at Normal difficulty in Sheltered storage. These are the values the in-game UI uses.
expires false Marks the product as non-expiring. Use this instead of period.
maxBenefitClass exposed, sheltered, indoor, cooled, frozen Optional. The best storage class that still improves this product (see the Storage Classes Guide).

Global defaults

Seed a global default such as the info-box warning time:

<global>
    <setting name="warningHours" value="48"/>
</global>

A change made in the in-game Settings menu still overrides this.

Storage class multipliers

Override the aging multiplier for specific storage classes:

<storageClasses enabled="true">
    <class name="frozen" multiplier="0.05"/>
</storageClasses>

Only the classes you list change; the rest keep their bundled values. Valid class names are exposed, sheltered, indoor, cooled, frozen, and disabled. The enabled attribute toggles storage-class aging on or off. See the Storage Classes Guide for what each class means.

Hidden categories

Hide entire fill-type categories from tracking and the Fresh Menu:

<categories>
    <category name="FUEL" hidden="true"/>
</categories>

This adds to the mod's built-in hidden categories (ANIMAL and HORSE stay hidden) - it does not replace them.

Good to know

  • Re-read every launch. Edit the file, restart the game, done. There is no need to touch each save.
  • In-game changes win. Anything you deliberately set in the Fresh Menu for a save still overrides this file for that save. Editing the file later updates the baseline for products you have not overridden in that save.
  • Dormant entries are fine. You can list products from mods that are not in your current game. They are ignored until a save actually contains them, so the same file works across all your saves.
  • Read-only. Fresh never writes to this file and never copies it into a savegame.

Further Reading