Testing Mods in Sorcerer King

from SorcererKing Forums

For this game, does anyone know if there will there be some way to take a modded .xml file and shove it into an existing save for testing purposes?

I'm trying to test the effect of changing the <AIPriority> value for a late-game spell right now in LH, and there's just no way. Unless I'm missing something, it looks like I have to play an entire game from beginning to end each time I want to test a new value.

25,806 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

That's how it's been before, with other elemental games. The XML is included in its entirety in the save game. If you can decode the save game you may be able to make progress, but noone has so far.

Reply #2 from SorcererKing Forums Top

You can use cheat codes to get yourself into the late game very quickly.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting mqpiffle, reply 2

You can use cheat codes to get yourself into the late game very quickly.
End of mqpiffle's quote

Yes, but that doesn't mean you can test properly. Good testing relies on changing one variable at a time, and you can't do that if you're forced to restart the game after each change. You end up with some setup that works by accident, instead of working because it has to.

Here's a specific example. In LH 1.7 these are this vanilla AI priorities and tags for resource improvements:

Iron Mine: 5/Mining

Smelter: 100/Workshop

Foundry: 100/Crystal

Iron Works: 100/Merchant

---

Crystal Quarry: 100/Mining

Crystal Mine: 50/Mining

Crystal Trove: 100/Mining

There's no possible way that this sequence makes sense. But it's also impossible to tell how to optimize it unless you can start with a single save point and play the same 25-50 turns with different values. Starting a new game doesn't work here, because a luckily-placed AI will never be constrained by the values you put here, and an unlucky AI will be affected too much.

Reply #4 from SorcererKing Forums Top

I really wouldn't expect a whole heck of a lot in terms of modding tools or support from SD.

Reply #5 from SorcererKing Forums Top

You would have to edit the save files directly here as the save file holds all the data. But the save file needs to be decoded for you to make these edits and we have never had these tools.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, I wouldn't expect some new tool to be written by SD just for this purpose. But maybe if the save files were just straight-up zip archives then it would be easier to test mods. Or maybe a command line parameter could tell the game to use the .xml files on the disk in preference to the ones in the save file.

Or, maybe all these AI params are being cached elsewhere anyway, and it doesn't even matter what you do to the xml once the AI initializes. I'm not sure. But it's definitely an impediment to late-game balance when you have to move all of your mechanics into the early game in order to test them.