Now that we’re actually pushing interesting things out to data files, I figure we should have a place for people to ask how modding is done (and/or give the devs feedback about format we’re using, and such). May as well start one, then, along with some starting advice. Also, feel free to copy this stuff onto the wiki - that would be a good long-term place for collected knowledge.
Q: Where is the list of items that the game has?
A: For this one, you’ll need to look at the source (items aren’t moved out to data files yet). Open itypedef.cpp, and there’s a bunch of lines like “TOOL(…”, “BOOK(…”, and so on. All of those start with two strings. The first string is the item’s identifier, which is for use in data files, code, etc… The second string is the name that gets presented to the user.
e.g., the identifier for “Guns n Ammo” is “mag_guns”. So, if you wanted to give a custom profession a copy of “Guns n Ammo”, you’d put “mag_guns” in the profession’s item list.
Q: What do you mean by a “string”?
A: In tech-speak, a “string” generally means “bit of text”. e.g., names.