So this managed to work itself out, made no changes to the file. I suspect it had something to do with the files in the User>Zomboid>Workshop folder not matching with what was uploaded to steam, and installed to the game.
Assumed the workshop folder in the user folder was a place for actual workshop type edits to then be uploaded to steam and installed through steam, but they seem to directly affect the game as well.
Cheers to those who took the time to look anyway.