Need help modding XML files

[Spatch]

How can I modify the game for the following:

 

1.  Remove stamina/food drain while driving a vehicle or make it the same as just walking around the map

2.  Remove vultures dive-bombing vehicles during horde-night

3.  Up % of non-stone tools and weapons in early game without upping experience gain

4.  Remove engineer-zombies that all go to the weakest point in a base, i.e. "Make Zombies Random Again"

5.  Remove digging zombies and allow underground (at least x blocks down) being able to hide from zombies

 

Any help with which XML files to modify, and which modifications to make, would be most appreciated.

[AuroraGiggleFairy]

Hello, interesting ideas.  These are major elements of A19 to ensure particular challenges. But I do understand we all have different preferences and play styles. I can help with some of these, but not all"

 

1. I believe, if you go under vehicle.xml,  look at each vehicles "ENGINE" and change the <property name="foodDrain"  values to 0.

2. not sure, but I am impressed they removed the "just drive all night" to escape blood moon.

3. What do you mean by % up? how much it harvests? damage to blocks? durability?

4.not sure.

5. There is a mod for this already HERE.

 

Hope this helps at least some? Let me know.

[Gouki]

On 7/19/2020 at 8:21 AM, Spatch said:

How can I modify the game for the following:

 

1.  Remove stamina/food drain while driving a vehicle or make it the same as just walking around the map

2.  Remove vultures dive-bombing vehicles during horde-night

3.  Up % of non-stone tools and weapons in early game without upping experience gain

4.  Remove engineer-zombies that all go to the weakest point in a base, i.e. "Make Zombies Random Again"

5.  Remove digging zombies and allow underground (at least x blocks down) being able to hide from zombies

 

Any help with which XML files to modify, and which modifications to make, would be most appreciated.

 

Hi Spatch

1-If you edit vehicles.xml, change it to 0 in foodDrain, the only one that does not mark that is the bicycle, the bicycle has staminaDrain but it is in 0 (I made a mod in which you do not consume much resistance when running and you do not spend too much food and water).

2-The intention of changing the blood moon is to live it, not to run away in vehicles.

3-You can edit it in loot.xml, now the item or group is based on t0, t1, t2, just change it for a higher tier.

4-I am not sure how it is done, but I have an idea.

5-Riles already commented that there is a mod.

[Spatch]

Thanks all.

 

BTW, I don't just run away during horde nights but some of us aren't as good at click and twitch as others so when my design goes south (due to engineer zombies all going to one point I never saw as a weakness) and I bail, I don't want to be dive bombed by vultures.  I honestly have not experienced this yet, just read about it and don't agree with it.

 

I enjoyed the stealthy style of digging a base underground back in 13/14 alpha and being someone who avoids crowd and confrontations.  Yes, I know this is 7 days to die  but I still miss the earlier alphas on which I started where I felt I could play this game any way I wanted to, and I did.

 

The loot question above is just making it where in early game stages there is a small chance to receive something worth keeping for a while.  I got so disillusioned after looting and finding nothing but stone axes, shovels, clubs, and blunderbi and, while I don't want easy mode, I do want to have a more "random" occurrence of loot.

[FileMachete]

@Spatch, no idea how you plan to edit the XMLs but I'd recommend using small "modlets" rather than direct edits.

 

Xpath "modlets" are just a few files/folders. Nothing fancy. While they're a bit more work you can simply Copy a modlet from a folder outside the Steam 7dtd tree, Paste it in to a Mods folder inside the tree and it'll be read in on game start. Can then just Delete it out of the Mods folder if you don't want it anymore, or need to troubleshoot another modded bit; all without having to backup & edit the games XMLs directly. One big plus for me is that within the modlets working part, it's just the changes parts, no more constantly searching in multi 10,000 line files.

 

Tutorial is here: https://community.7daystodie.com/topic/7653-xpath-modding-explanation-thread/

 

"XPath is a way of adding, changing, or removing XML lines and nodes, without directly editing the XML files. It allows you to apply patches to the XML files without manually editing the vanilla XML files."

 

On 7/19/2020 at 6:21 AM, Spatch said:

3.  Up % of non-stone tools and weapons in early game without upping experience gain

Just a thought on this one; an alternative/addition could be adding in useful things that aren't usual loot. Iron Bars, Gun Safe, Bulletproof Glass, Beds (Springs), etc.

 

Good luck, and if it gets too frustrating you might consider running a game in A16. Early to mid-game Hordes in 16 were more fun, for me at least.

[Spatch]

I'll edit the files using vi   I'm and old-school coder who still likes and uses vi daily.

 

Might try the modlets thing though so I don't have to reedit all the time.  Thanks for the tip!

 

I loved A16 hordes!  I remember not knowing which direction they were going to come from and knowing I had a weak-side I hadn't been able to fully build out and hoping they wouldn't randomly come from that direction!  That was intense.  Now, just make something that looks weak to the zombies and funnel them down a tunnel whacking them with sledges and killing them as they all pile up in one place.  Blech!