# General question about .json

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/general-question-about-json/6924>\
**Category:** The Lab\
**Created:** [July 29, 2014, 9:46am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/general-question-about-json/6924 "2014-07-29T09:46:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Snaaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@Snaaty](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Snaaty)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 9:46am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/general-question-about-json/6924/1 "2014-07-29T09:46:53Z")

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Hello Forum,

I have just one question about jsons:

If I, say, add new skills, mutations, professions, Buildings, or fighting styles are there any upstream-dependencies I have to take into account?  
Also, what are the most common dependencies within the jsons an aspiring modder has to take into account?  
Some things like recipes for items and item\_groups for those come into mind.

I am still amazed at what apparently is possible with those jsons, for someone coming from DF it’s just surreal.

EDIT: WHen only adding/changing .jsons, I probably can’t create new effects? I looked at the effects.json, so that one is just for reference and death\_effect and the like?

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**Author:** ![i2amroy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/i2amroy/32/909_2.png) [@i2amroy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/i2amroy)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/general-question-about-json/6924/2 "2014-07-29T21:53:52Z")

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New skills and mutations can be added through the json files, but they won’t actually have any effects without code editing (though I think you could make a water resistance/ugly mutation without needing to code anything). Professions buildings, and fighting styles work just fine if you add them to the json file.

You could make an item without any item\_groups or recipes and it would work just fine (it’s just it would only show up through the debug menu). However if you want an item merged into the mainline it will need to have some way or another to spawn for the player to find it.

The effects.json is really more of a placeholder right now. There is a planned rewrite for it that should allow a lot more json-based effects, but it’s waiting on another rewrite to clear code review and be merged into the mainline before being worked on/finished.

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**Author:** ![Snaaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@Snaaty](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Snaaty)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/general-question-about-json/6924/3 "2014-07-30T22:24:21Z")

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Okay, thank you for your thorough answer.

I assume, adding new uses to items is also impssible within .json.

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**Author:** ![KA101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/278dde/32.png) [@KA101](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/KA101)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/general-question-about-json/6924/4 "2014-07-31T00:06:01Z")

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[quote=“Snaaty, post:3, topic:6924”]Okay, thank you for your thorough answer.

I assume, adding new uses to items is also impssible within .json.[/quote]

If by “new” you mean “something that no other item currently does”, correct. If you wanna make an item which does something another item already does–but is Different, somehow–that can be handled in JSON.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![i2amroy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/i2amroy/32/909_2.png) [@i2amroy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/i2amroy)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 2:12am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/general-question-about-json/6924/5 "2014-07-31T02:12:47Z")

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Though I believe we’ve already moved drugs out to JSON, so you can make new drugs that give various effects (though you can’t make new effects yet without coding, but it’s coming soon! :P).