So for a small mod I am doing for Fallout: New Vegas, I made a custom sound effect. However when I get it to play in game it’s too quiet. On the assumption it’s not on the game end I used the amplify option for it to make it louder. However when I load up the overwritten file to test it, the wave form appears at it’s original size as if I didn’t amplify it.
Stepping on old filenames is very bad practice. You can get bad results or no results at all, further, you may damage the original in the process and have nothing at the end.
I would create the original work like you had it and change the filename. Do the Amplify and then export it as the original name because there is now no conflict.
How much amplification did Effect > Amplify say it was going to apply? If it’s a tiny number like 2dB or 3dB, that’s not enough boost for people to hear.
Effect > Amplify works on the extreme peaks of the blue waves both up and down. The highest they will go is 0dB unless you tell it that distortion is OK with [X] Allow Clipping.
If the original show sounds are loudness compressed, then you may never get there without producing the same effect the same way with the same tools. Contact the original artist or producer.
Koz
Doe to coding things I cannot change the file name as I would also have to change the code to look for it in game, but I made a copy of it and put it in a private folder then saved the new version to where it’s supposed to go and it works. Thanks! 
My understanding is that is what Audacity does when it overwrites the file. Then after the export it deletes the renamed original, unless it was a WAV or AIFF that you were reading directly from the file instead of copying it in to the project.
The most likely reason the export of the overwritten file is wrong is actually user error, notwithstanding that it may be better practice to retain originals and write to a new file.
Gale
actually user error,
Or computer error. “My computer crashed when I…”
That’s the one that scares me. Audacity goes insane when it has all instances of the work in the air.
Koz
Make a - 40 dB 1 KHz test tone, 2 sec in Audacity.
Amplify with +6 dB. Paste after original, amplify again, paste again. And so on till you reach -2 dB…
That way you get a staircase file. Put into game and check if something in the game’s code is affecting playback volume.
As far as I know game code (I’ll admit it’s not very far), there usually is an audio engine that controls at least volume. Sometimes a lot more. And it could be reacting to your change in sound.