Howdy - I've created the Better, Thicker Smoke mod. Want to expand it, but hit a snag.

I'm currently trying to modify the thickness (duh) and the how long the smoke lingers (not duh), manage to find the suspects: within vfx folder sit 3 XML files: rwh_main_lib_fire_smoke, rwh_main_lib_muzzle_flash & rwh_main_lib_cannon_muzzle_flash. When I edit them WITHIN the data.pack, it all works, like here. When I export them to a mod and use outside, sadly nothing happens. I suspect it might be due to dependencies, but have no clue what depends on what. Or maybe on the fact that CA doesn't let you edit xml files? All modding tutorials I've seen focus on editing tables and variant meshes. Plz halp.