diff --git a/include/ent.h b/include/ent.h
index 4a8b8c5..2946875 100644
--- a/include/ent.h
+++ b/include/ent.h
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ struct MapEntities {
         // adds an entity to list (puts worldspawn at the beginning)
         void add_ent(Ent& addent);
         // finds all entities in list matching all stored replaceents and replaces with a withent
-        void replace_ents(EntList replace_entlist, Ent& withent);
+        void replace_ents(EntList& replace_entlist, Ent& withent);
         // replaces all applicable keyvals on an ent
         static void replace_ent(Ent& replaceent, Ent& withent);
 
diff --git a/include/version.h b/include/version.h
index bfd7be9..a218ce6 100644
--- a/include/version.h
+++ b/include/version.h
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ Created By:
 
 #define STRIPPER_QMM_VERSION_MAJOR	2
 #define STRIPPER_QMM_VERSION_MINOR	4
-#define STRIPPER_QMM_VERSION_REV	2
+#define STRIPPER_QMM_VERSION_REV	3
 
 #define STRIPPER_QMM_VERSION		STRINGIFY(STRIPPER_QMM_VERSION_MAJOR) "." STRINGIFY(STRIPPER_QMM_VERSION_MINOR) "." STRINGIFY(STRIPPER_QMM_VERSION_REV)
 
diff --git a/src/ent.cpp b/src/ent.cpp
index f8e10d8..906e546 100644
--- a/src/ent.cpp
+++ b/src/ent.cpp
@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ void MapEntities::apply_config(std::string file) {
 				// with mode, don't accept empty entity
 				else if (mode == mode_with && !ent.keyvals.empty()) {
 					replace_ents(replace_entlist, ent);
+					replace_entlist.clear();
 				}
 			}
 			// it's a key/val pair line or something else
@@ -339,7 +340,7 @@ void MapEntities::add_ent(Ent& addent) {
 
 
 // finds all entities in list matching all stored replaceents and replaces with a withent
-void MapEntities::replace_ents(EntList replace_entlist, Ent& withent) {
+void MapEntities::replace_ents(EntList& replace_entlist, Ent& withent) {
 	// go through all replaceents
 	for (auto& repent : replace_entlist) {
 		// find any matching ents in given list
@@ -378,11 +379,11 @@ TokenList MapEntities::tokenlist_from_entstring(EntString entstring) {
 		// skip whitespace outside strings
 		else if (std::isspace(c) && !buildstr)
 			continue;
-		// handle opening braces
-		else if (c == '{')
+		// handle opening braces outside strings
+		else if (c == '{' && !buildstr)
 			tokenlist.push_back("{");
-		// handle closing braces
-		else if (c == '}')
+		// handle closing braces outside strings
+		else if (c == '}' && !buildstr)
 			tokenlist.push_back("}");
 		// handle quote, start of a key or value
 		else if (c == '"' && !buildstr) {