XML diff-patching aiscripts from another mod

[azaghal]

Hello all,

Is it possible to apply an XML diff-patch against aiscripts which are shipped by another extension (mod)?

After implementing a couple of smaller custom mods (a bit of a learning process) with some aiscripts, I ended-up looking whether I could hook-up some of my orders with notifications from the Report Current Status mod.

I wanted to keep my aiscripts mods independent from the Report Current Status mod, so I started to look into creating a separate integration mod that would patch my custom aiscripts in a similar way that the Report Current Status mod does it (it simply uses XML diff patching).

However, I seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall going down this path, and I'm trying to understand the limitations of the game engine. Namely, no matter what I did, I was not able to get the game engine to apply my patches. Here is the diff tidbit that I wrote to try things out:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<diff>
  <add sel="/aiscript/order/params">
    <param name="mycrap" type="bool" infinitevalue="true" default="false" text="My crap2" comment="Write to logbook"/>
  </add>
</diff>

This snippet, when placed under aiscripts/order.move.wait.xml successfully patches the vanilla script. However, trying to apply the same technique against aiscript shipped by my own extension results in something similar to:

Code: Select all

[=ERROR=] 7312.57 AI::AIDirector::LoadAIScript(): Ignoring root node 'diff' in XML file 'extensions\azaghal_vro_fixes\aiscripts\order.move.wait2.xml'.

Interesting enough, this also results in the following error when trying to run the /refreshai command:

Code: Select all

[=ERROR=] 7365.88 Errors found; AI scripts not refreshed

I've done a bunch of double-checking, and made sure to have correct dependency definitions on my "integration" mod (correct dependencies listed in the extensions game menu). In the above sample, I've merely copied the vanilla aiscripts/order.move.wait.xml, and updated the name/id within. Mainly because I was starting to think there might be something wrong with my own script.

I've even tried to ship my original extension as cat/dat thinking that perhaps game only allows patching of cat/dat-based extensions, but that did not seem to help either.

So, has anyone been in the similar situation? I haven't tried patching the md scripts yet to see if this is a general limitation perhaps, mind you - just the aiscripts.

Best regards,
Branko

[Dj_FRedy]

At first look it seems that the filename could be the cause of the error:

Code: Select all

..\order.move.wait2.xml

change the file name to: 'order.move.wait.xml'

Also make sure that 'dependency' is correctly set in the 'content.xml' file of your extension, negating 'optional':

Code: Select all

<!-- optional="true": No error if dependency missing/disabled. This is only used to define the loading order of extensions (dependencies are loaded first). -->
<dependency id="extension id to diff" version="100" optional="false" name="bla bla"/>

Let's see if we are lucky ...

[azaghal]

Hey Dj_FRedy,

I was wondering if my example would cause some confusion

The order.move.wait2.xml is the correct name - in this particular case I described I was just experimenting by making a copy of an existing vanilla file (order.move.wait.xml) to see if maybe the issues was somehow related to my custom AI scripts (like maybe missing some utility/useful parameter/attribute etc).

Dependencies have been declared correctly, although I did not specify the particular version needed. Just as an example:

Code: Select all

  <dependency id="ReportCurrentStatus" optional="false" name="Mycu: Report current status"/>
  <dependency id="azaghal_deployment_orders" optional="false" name="azaghal: Deployment Orders"/>
  <dependency id="azaghal_faster_exploration" optional="false" name="azaghal: Faster Exploration"/>
  <dependency id="azaghal_redeploy_deployable" optional="false" name="azaghal: Redeploy Deployables"/>

And from what I can tell based on the extensions game menu - they got picked up correctly.

However... I just saw a post about the extensions/ subfolder mentioned in one of the threads (something about overriding other extensions), so maybe I just need to park my patches in correct directory... I'm about to give it a quick go to see if to works correctly.

[azaghal]

Ah, damn... That did it... I was not aware of this particular tidbit... That also explains the extensions sub-directory I saw in a couple of extensions as I unpacked/installed them - I was wondering what the heck they were at that point

So... Just to avoid some of the confusion, the path I had for (one of) my original mod aiscripts was (relative to game's own top-level extensions sub-directory):

Code: Select all

azaghal_redeploy_deployables/aiscripts/order.redeploy.xml

And I tried to create the diff for it by placing the file into location:

Code: Select all

azaghal_vro_fixes/aiscripts/order.redeploy.xml

And this did not work... What I should have done was to put the file into location:

Code: Select all

azaghal_vro_fixes/extensions/azaghal_redeploy_deployables/aiscripts/order.redeploy.xml