(Help) Working with raw XML files

**Little Legionaire** · September 11, 2013, 07:04 AM

Salve fellow citizens,

Jack released the raw xml. files for modding purposes.

And i was working on them. However when i find the originals in DB directory (thanks to packmanager) theyre not xml format. Something else... i dont know which format but not xml.

So i decided to ask our veterans for their lead.

What should i do with them? If i edit XML files i can't export them as DB format. (for example unit_variant_colors)

Should i convert original file to something else and edit it and then convert the file again?

How?

Please help fellas, im pretty stucked there :/

**daniu** · September 11, 2013, 08:38 AM

You don't need the xml files at all; you work on pack files with the PFM by adding db/<table_name>_tables/your_modded_table files; this is what's read by the game.

The xmls are very helpful for decoding the pack's db structure, but there are no tools to convert them to pack files.
Yet, I should say; the Shogun 2 modding tools did exactly that: gave you an editor writing the xml and an exporter to write them into a pack.

**Little Legionaire** · September 11, 2013, 10:25 AM

Understood,

Thanks a lot for the reply Daniu!

Then if i understood correctly i'll use the PFM 2.4.1 to modify the original DB files? Because thats all i need.

It'd be such a great thing if we had a tool to convert XML files to DB files...

Cheers mate, i'll start to work on it asap!

**daniu** · September 11, 2013, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by Little Legionaire

Then if i understood correctly i'll use the PFM 2.4.1 to modify the original DB files? Because thats all i need.

No, 2.4.1 supports only up to Shogun 2; for Rome 2, you have to use 3.0.2.

It'd be such a great thing if we had a tool to convert XML files to DB files...

Not much point; the game data gets updated when the game is patched,
So with PFM, you're basically always working on the most current version of the files.
The XML files we got with the AssemblyKit for S2 never got updated so they froze with the patch level they were in at that time.

I do have code that can read the XML files, but I use it only for the pack structure decoding;
Really, there is so little use for an XML import/export I don't even bother to integrate it to PFM.