PawnKindPatch_Core.xml error

[WiiTee]

There's an error in the PawnKindPatch_Core.xml in the 1.3 version.

You forgot to add the end tag on line 31, it throws to errors, a yellow warning and a red crash (should you try to load this version).

[jtgibson01]

There's actually a lot wrong with this file. It also assumes that the pawn kinds haven't been modified by other mods, so also simply adds the apparelTags with the shields without performing any additional checks. This creates a soft-incompatibility with several medieval faction mods, in particular.

Here's my rewrite (with banner-style indentation, which I vastly prefer for readability, since any modern editor shows the position of closing tags anyway):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Patch>
<!-- Allow some pawns to spawn with shields -->

<!-- Tribal -->

<Operation Class="PatchOperationSequence">
	<operations>
		<li Class="PatchOperationTest"> <!-- filters for PawnKinds_Tribal.xml -->
			<xpath>/Defs/PawnKindDef[@Name="TribalBase"]</xpath>
			</li>

		<li Class="PatchOperationConditional"> <!-- add apparelTags if not already found -->
			<success>Always</success>
			<xpath>/Defs/PawnKindDef[defName="Tribal_Warrior"]/apparelTags</xpath>
			<nomatch Class="PatchOperationAdd">
				<xpath>/Defs/PawnKindDef[defName="Tribal_Warrior"]</xpath>
				<value><apparelTags/></value>
				</nomatch>
		</li>
		<li Class="PatchOperationAdd"> <!-- add neolithic shield to pawnKind's allowed apparelTags -->
			<xpath>/Defs/PawnKindDef[defName="Tribal_Warrior"]/apparelTags</xpath>
			<value>
				<li>Shield_Neolithic</li>
				</value>
		</li>

		<li Class="PatchOperationConditional">
			<success>Always</success>
			<xpath>/Defs/PawnKindDef[defName="Tribal_Berserker"]/apparelTags</xpath>
			<nomatch Class="PatchOperationAdd">
				<xpath>/Defs/PawnKindDef[defName="Tribal_Berserker"]</xpath>
				<value><apparelTags/></value>
				</nomatch>
		</li>
		<li Class="PatchOperationAdd">
			<xpath>/Defs/PawnKindDef[defName="Tribal_Berserker"]/apparelTags</xpath>
			<value>
				<li>Shield_Neolithic</li>
				</value>
		</li>

		<li Class="PatchOperationConditional">
			<success>Always</success>
			<xpath>/Defs/PawnKindDef[defName="Tribal_ChiefMelee"]/apparelTags</xpath>
			<nomatch Class="PatchOperationAdd">
				<xpath>/Defs/PawnKindDef[defName="Tribal_ChiefMelee"]</xpath>
				<value><apparelTags/></value>
				</nomatch>
		</li>
		<li Class="PatchOperationAdd">
			<xpath>/Defs/PawnKindDef[defName="Tribal_ChiefMelee"]/apparelTags</xpath>
			<value>
				<li>Shield_Classical</li>
				</value>
		</li>
	</operations>
</Operation>

</Patch>

[ladystalkers]

Hey there, first of all I want to thanks you for your tremendous work on the fix for medieval factions, however after your fix was applied, some other problem occur. 1st I think your fix messed up with medieval factions which has it own set of equipment for example, the Ratkin after your fix all medieval ratkin will always be naked, I think the problem is due to their own set of equipment are always in place while your fix mayhap destroy their pawnkindthing.def and for that they are always naked. Another problem is the VFE Pirate, maybe due to the new system of casket armor they included in the mod, the faction will now failed to spawn on map when you create new run and will fail to add them in the game through faction discovery. Is my suspicion correct or something is at play here ? I would be very happy if you could help me.

[jtgibson01]

The likely avenue of failure is the other mods themselves. The only way to make mods that add apparelTags compatible with other mods is for them to do it the same way I've done above; to add in an "apparelTags" block conditionally only if the entity lacks one already, and then add the item to the list of apparel tags. If other mods do the same thing, they will always be fully compatible with this and with each other. If other mods don't -- and many don't, in my experience -- then the compatibility fails on their end, just like it failed here. Prior to applying this fix, what you were likely seeing is simply that this patch was failing and the other patches went through instead; when this fix is applied, what you would be likely to see is that because this fix now works, the other broken patches stop working instead.

If you keep this fix applied, you could try bumping Combat Shields later in your load order, which would most likely fix the issue, but it sounds like Ratkin is the problem here.

I noticed that Vanilla Armour Expanded has the same problem, for example: it replaces the apparelRequired with apparelTags without checking for the existence of an existing apparelTags first. I haven't bothered bringing my copies of the VFE mods up to date since October, so I'll take a look at VFE Pirates at the very least to see what's what, but I suspect that'll also be the issue.

[edit] Nothing in VFE Pirates to suggest it patches existing apparelTags in any way, on a cursory glance. I did a minor rewrite of the first paragraph for more detail and clarity, as well.

[edit2] Nothing in Ratkin adds new apparel tags by patch either. Curiouser and curiouser. If you could find any lines in your Player.log (located in "AppData\LocalLow\Ludeon Studios\RimWorld by Ludeon Studios\Player.log" in your user folder if using Windows) that mention "duplicate" or "XML error", that will tell you what's breaking the XML loading.

It's sounding more and more like some form of script mod is running into errors when it attempts to generate a pawn, rather than being related to this at all.