well thats not exactly true, as i remember it functioning years and years ago when i last played this game. i was aware of what you are telling me, though it doesnt help resolve the situation. i would have thought after all this time someone would have backported this functionality, considering there are mods that are only configurable through the ingame menu (ex, mocreatures)
i suppose i could just go into the mods and modify the options that would normally be accessible ingame from within the mods themselves, but i have no idea what file i would be looking for, much less what i would need to modify it.