XPath Modding Explanation Thread

SandyBeaches · November 27, 2018

Just did a quick bit of digging through the code to see what is implemented.

In XmlPatcher, the following functions (and their inputs) are called:

case "set":

return _targetFile.SetByXPath(attribute, _patchElement, _patchName) > 0;

case "setattribute":

return _targetFile.SetAttributeByXPath(attribute, _patchElement, _patchName) > 0;

case "append":

return _targetFile.AppendByXPath(attribute, _patchElement, _patchName) > 0;

case "prepend":

return _targetFile.PrependByXPath(attribute, _patchElement, _patchName) > 0;

case "insertBefore":

return _targetFile.InsertBeforeByXPath(attribute, _patchElement, _patchName) > 0;

case "insertAfter":

return _targetFile.InsertAfterByXPath(attribute, _patchElement, _patchName) > 0;

case "remove":

return _targetFile.RemoveByXPath(attribute, _patchName) > 0;

hope that clears things up!

**Jugginator** · November 27, 2018

So I am diving into this, I'm not all that familiar with XML, but I have been learning Python for a bit. Figured this was way cooler and easier than writing a script to edit stuff. Took my first stab at removing the radiated vultures until the Null Exception is fixed, how did I do? Won't have a chance to test it for a bit.

</config>

Buggi · November 27, 2018

Use this @Jugginator:

**Jugginator** · November 27, 2018

Use this @Jugginator:

<set xpath="/entitygroups/entitygroup/entity[@name=animalZombieVultureRadiated]/@prob">0.00</set>

Thank you! I was close anyway haha. I see how that goes. Good thing too, going to do horde nigth tomorrow.

Deceptive Pastry · November 27, 2018

Do node specifiers have any sort of conditions such as greater/less than, or greater/less than or equal to? Eg.

[@value=>=60]

sphereii · November 27, 2018

Do node specifiers have any sort of conditions such as greater/less than, or greater/less than or equal to? Eg.

[@value=>=60]

Yes you can, but you'll need to escape them

See below: the change willonly happen if the stage is greater than 23 and less than 153.

<append xpath='/gamestages/spawner[@name="BloodMoonHorde"]/gamestage[ @stage > 23 and @stage < 153]' >
	<spawn group="ZombiesNight" num="10" maxAlive="8"/>
</append>

The-Walking-Dad · November 27, 2018

I forgot what a... joy... modding could be.

What's wrong with this? The game tells me something starts with an illegal character.

<7DTDmod>

</7DTDmod>

I am trying to work my way through this thread, full of helpful stuff but there's so much more advanced than the level I'm at... any help appreciated, and I'll keep hammering away at my round hole with my square peg

SurvivalUK · November 27, 2018

Can anyone help, i'm trying to reduce the number of opened lootable items but it is not liking the ends-with?

Thanks

2018-11-27T21:21:34 12.869 ERR XML loader: Patching 'blockplaceholders.xml' from mod 'Better Balance Mod' failed

2018-11-27T21:21:34 12.869 EXC function ends-with not found

<!-- Reduce 'opened' lootable items -->
<set xpath="/blockplaceholders/*/block[ends-with(@name, 'Open')]/@prob">.8</set>
<set xpath="/blockplaceholders/*/block[ends-with(@name, 'Closed')]/@prob">.2</set>

SurvivalUK · November 27, 2018

I forgot what a... joy... modding could be.

What's wrong with this? The game tells me something starts with an illegal character.

<7DTDmod>
<set xpath="/recipes/recipe[@name=foodMeatStew]/ingredient[@name=foodRawMeat]/@count">5</set>
</7DTDmod>

I am trying to work my way through this thread, full of helpful stuff but there's so much more advanced than the level I'm at... any help appreciated, and I'll keep hammering away at my round hole with my square peg

Looked fine and a quick test it worked for me chaning the count to "1". You are adding it to recipes.xml?

\mods\modname\config\recipes.xml

The-Walking-Dad · November 27, 2018

Looked fine and a quick test it worked for me chaning the count to "1". You are adding it to recipes.xml?

\mods\modname\config\recipes.xml

I am.

I'll have another look tomorrow in case I've done something stupid, but that text there was copy/pasted directly from the recipes.xml file in Mods/7DTDmod/config

Ricowan · November 28, 2018

What's wrong with this? The game tells me something starts with an illegal character.

<7DTDmod>
<set xpath="/recipes/recipe[@name=foodMeatStew]/ingredient[@name=foodRawMeat]/@count">5</set>
</7DTDmod>

I don't know if the game engine is using a standard XML document model, but normally element names can't start with a number. The have to start with a letter or an underscore. So, "7DTDmod" isn't a legal element name.

SurvivalUK · November 28, 2018

I don't know if the game engine is using a standard XML document model, but normally element names can't start with a number. The have to start with a letter or an underscore. So, "7DTDmod" isn't a legal element name.

That would explain why when I pasted the <set path...> line into my existing modded files which have a <Better...> element name it worked.

sphereii · November 28, 2018

I don't know if the game engine is using a standard XML document model, but normally element names can't start with a number. The have to start with a letter or an underscore. So, "7DTDmod" isn't a legal element name.

Good eye. I think that's the issue here.

The root node can really nearly anything, other than numbers.

yosomith · November 28, 2018

Looking to change up the progression of the game, basically what I want to do is change when certain levels of perks become available.

Example from:

Perception
1 level requirement - 1
2 level requirement - 1
3 level requirement - 1
4 level requirement - 20
5 level requirement - 30
6 level requirement - 40
7 level requirement - 50
etc.

Example to:

Perception
1 level requirement - 1
2 level requirement - 5
3 level requirement - 10
4 level requirement - 15
5 level requirement - 20
etc.

I did similar things to this with a16 but since a17 has moved to xpath I don't really know how to do a whole lot.

sphereii · November 28, 2018

Can anyone help, i'm trying to reduce the number of opened lootable items but it is not liking the ends-with?

Thanks

2018-11-27T21:21:34 12.869 ERR XML loader: Patching 'blockplaceholders.xml' from mod 'Better Balance Mod' failed
2018-11-27T21:21:34 12.869 EXC function ends-with not found

<set xpath="/blockplaceholders/*/block[ends-with(@name, 'Open')]/@prob">.8</set>
<set xpath="/blockplaceholders/*/block[ends-with(@name, 'Closed')]/@prob">.2</set>

This sounds like a bug in the implementation.

I'll report it.

Until then, would contains() give you enough uniqueness to make your changes?

- - - Updated - - -

Looking to change up the progression of the game, basically what I want to do is change when certain levels of perks become available.

Example from:
Perception
1 level requirement - 1
2 level requirement - 1
3 level requirement - 1
4 level requirement - 20
5 level requirement - 30
6 level requirement - 40
7 level requirement - 50
etc.
Example to:
Perception
1 level requirement - 1
2 level requirement - 5
3 level requirement - 10
4 level requirement - 15
5 level requirement - 20
etc.
I did similar things to this with a16 but since a17 has moved to xpath I don't really know how to do a whole lot.

If you show us the XML you want to change, then we can show you how to reference it.

yosomith · November 28, 2018

Sorry, didn't think the actual xml was required. I want to change this:

<attribute name="attPerception" name_key="attPerceptionName" desc_key="attPerceptionDesc" icon="ui_game_symbol_stealth">
<level_requirements level="1"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="1" desc_key="reqGenericLevel01"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="2"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="1" desc_key="reqGenericLevel02"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="3"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="1" desc_key="reqGenericLevel03"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="4"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="20" desc_key="reqGenericLevel04"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="5"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="30" desc_key="reqGenericLevel05"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="6"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="40" desc_key="reqGenericLevel06"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="7"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="50" desc_key="reqGenericLevel07"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="8"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="60" desc_key="reqGenericLevel08"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="9"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="80" desc_key="reqGenericLevel09"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="10"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="100" desc_key="reqGenericLevel10"/></level_requirements>

To this:

<attribute name="attPerception" name_key="attPerceptionName" desc_key="attPerceptionDesc" icon="ui_game_symbol_stealth">
<level_requirements level="1"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="1" desc_key="reqGenericLevel01"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="2"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="5" desc_key="reqGenericLevel02"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="3"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="10" desc_key="reqGenericLevel03"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="4"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="15" desc_key="reqGenericLevel04"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="5"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="20" desc_key="reqGenericLevel05"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="6"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="25" desc_key="reqGenericLevel06"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="7"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="30" desc_key="reqGenericLevel07"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="8"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="35" desc_key="reqGenericLevel08"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="9"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="40" desc_key="reqGenericLevel09"/></level_requirements>
<level_requirements level="10"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="45" desc_key="reqGenericLevel10"/></level_requirements>

I suppose while I'm on this I take it adding additional levels to it would be easy as well? So what I mean is adding this to the end of the code:

<level_requirements level="11"><requirement name="PlayerLevel" target="self" operation="GTE" value="50" desc_key="reqGenericLevel10"/></level_requirements>

SurvivalUK · November 28, 2018

Sorry, didn't think the actual xml was required. I want to change this:

<snip>

Here's the code from my level changes you could tweak;

	<!-- lower level requirements on progression -->
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='4']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">8</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='5']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">16</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='6']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">24</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='7']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">32</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='8']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">40</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='9']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">50</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='10']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">60</set>

Edited November 28, 2018 by SurvivalUK (see edit history)

SurvivalUK · November 28, 2018

This sounds like a bug in the implementation.

I'll report it.

Until then, would contains() give you enough uniqueness to make your changes?

Thanks sphereii, in the end i extracted the names i wanted and added them line by line. I'll revisit if it turns out the end-with is bugged once fixed.

yosomith · November 28, 2018

Here's the code from my level changes you could tweak;

	<!-- lower level requirements on progression -->
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='4']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">8</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='5']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">16</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='6']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">24</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='7']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">32</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='8']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">40</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='9']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">50</set>
	<set xpath="/progression/attributes/attribute[starts-with(@name, 'att')]/level_requirements[@level='10']/requirement[@name='PlayerLevel' and @operation='GTE']/@value">60</set>

That sets me in the right direction, thanks

GG2015 · November 28, 2018

So I keep getting warnings and apply not set, could someone tell me what is wrong with this code?

<configs>
<set xpath="/entityclasses/entity_class[@name='DroppedLootContainer']/property[@name='TimeStayAfterDeath']/@value">1800</set>
</configs>

Trying to change from

<entity_class name="DroppedLootContainer"> <!-- used after a container block is destroyed -->
<property name="Mesh" value="LootContainers/backpack_droppedPrefab"/>
<property name="ModelType" value="Custom"/>
<property name="Prefab" value="Backpack"/>
<property name="Class" value="EntityLootContainer"/>
<property name="Parent" value="Backpack"/>
<property name="TimeStayAfterDeath" value="60"/>
<property name="IsEnemyEntity" value="false"/>
<property name="LootListOnDeath" value="4"/> <!-- used to determine container X/Y size -->
<property name="Faction" value="none"/>
</entity_class>

To this.

<entity_class name="DroppedLootContainer"> <!-- used after a container block is destroyed -->
<property name="Mesh" value="LootContainers/backpack_droppedPrefab"/>
<property name="ModelType" value="Custom"/>
<property name="Prefab" value="Backpack"/>
<property name="Class" value="EntityLootContainer"/>
<property name="Parent" value="Backpack"/>
<property name="TimeStayAfterDeath" value="1800"/>
<property name="IsEnemyEntity" value="false"/>
<property name="LootListOnDeath" value="4"/> <!-- used to determine container X/Y size -->
<property name="Faction" value="none"/>
</entity_class>

SurvivalUK · November 28, 2018

So I keep getting warnings and apply not set, could someone tell me what is wrong with this code?
<configs>
<set xpath="/entityclasses/entity_class[@name='DroppedLootContainer']/property[@name='TimeStayAfterDeath']/@value">1800</set>
</configs>

You missed the underscore from the entity_classes.

From my mod;

<!-- Loot and player bag remain for longer -->
	<set xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='Backpack']/property[@name='TimeStayAfterDeath']/@value">3600</set>
	<set xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='DroppedLootContainer']/property[@name='TimeStayAfterDeath']/@value">240</set>
	<set xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='EntityLootContainerRegular']/property[@name='TimeStayAfterDeath']/@value">1200</set>
	<set xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='EntityLootContainerStrong']/property[@name='TimeStayAfterDeath']/@value">1200</set>
	<set xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='EntityLootContainerBoss']/property[@name='TimeStayAfterDeath']/@value">1200</set>
	<set xpath="/entity_classes/entity_class[@name='EntityLootContainerBandit']/property[@name='TimeStayAfterDeath']/@value">1200</set>

GG2015 · November 28, 2018

ah ok, thanks!

dcsobral · November 28, 2018

What's the XPath version supported?

The-Walking-Dad · November 28, 2018

I don't know if the game engine is using a standard XML document model, but normally element names can't start with a number. The have to start with a letter or an underscore. So, "7DTDmod" isn't a legal element name.

Ha ha! How typical of me. Thank you for that.

ragnarock77 · November 28, 2018

What's the XPath version supported?

1.0. Apparently Microsoft did not implement newer versions into the .net framework.

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