Extension file question.

[Warmonger]

Time for the question of the day. Hey, I'm maintaining the BFG datafiles and am considering taking over the 40k space marine files, which is what I'm working on currently. Anyway, on to the question.

What I need to do, is to use one file, like say an extension file, to add a statement to the member script of a unit in another file. Which I wonder about the possibility of, considering that appending a piece of script could affect any pre-existing code that is there... I might just have to say that I will take over the files and integrate them fully on my own...




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[rob]

At 10:07 AM 1/31/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>Time for the question of the day. Hey, I'm maintaining the BFG datafiles
>and am considering taking over the 40k space marine files, which is what
>I'm working on currently. Anyway, on to the question.
>
>What I need to do, is to use one file, like say an extension file, to add
>a statement to the member script of a unit in another file. Which I
>wonder about the possibility of, considering that appending a piece of
>script could affect any pre-existing code that is there... I might just
>have to say that I will take over the files and integrate them fully on my
>own...

You cannot modify a tag expression or script externally. They are
self-contained components. For scripts, one option would be to use
procedures that could be maintained separately, but that's not an option
for tag expressions (like the member tagexpr).

If I'm accurately extrapolating your brief description to the 40K files, I
already provided a good solution awhile back on our Beta list for the team
working on the 40K files. Instead of trying to re-create things, I have
simply copied the original Beta post and my reply below. If this isn't the
info you're seeking, please let me know and I'll do my best to provide a
better answer. :-)

-Rob

Original Post from Beta forum, followed by my response.....

At 10:54 PM 12/11/2004 +0000, you wrote:
>On a different note I have a problem with the ig files that Brian is
>writing, or more precisely my inability to modify them using the
>extension commands. I can add the relevant units into the daemonhunters
>file using extunit, as in the omExt file. I can add in tags as well to
>test for them, as in:
>
><extunit unit="ig_InfPla" group="race" tag="omd" />
><extunit unit="ig_InfPla" group="omTagA" tag="omInductT" />
>
>The problem I have is that they display in any roster that can take them
>as allies. Since I've only necrons and eldar besides ig to play with
>I've allowed necrons to take daemonhunters as allies. The only way I can
>stop the inducted guard units displaying in the necron roster is by
>adding:
>
><member>roster.omd|roster.ig</member>
>
>to the relevant ig units. This also means they display when the
>daemonhunters are taken as allies in the ig roster but that is probably
>liveable with since they still validate as ig and not dh inducted units.
>They just have the [OM] against them in the display.
>
>Is there a way of sorting this without having to alter Brian's ig file
>directly? Otherwise keeping the files totally separate isn't going to be
>possible. This will be compounded once I add in marines and a similar
>problem will exist for the witch hunter files which also use marines and
>ig units.

I believe you can solve this without too much effort. :-) The trick is to
utilize your own global tag(s) and the "autotag" mechanism of rulesets.
Start by creating your own tag group and designating it as global. Call it
"allow". Then define tags for the various general conditions under which
units can be made available within other races. Let's call the tag "show".

Within the "member" tagexpr for units that can be leveraged within the
rosters of other races, simply define the expr as "roster.race|allow.show".
The "race" here should be the NATIVE race for the unit (e.g. an IG unit
would specify "roster.ig"). You will also need to assign the "race" tag via
the extension file, per your example below.

The final trick is to assign the "allow.show" tag as an "autotag" within
the appropriate rulesets for the race that "shares" the units. For example,
following your example below, ruleset(s) for the Necrons would assign
"allow.show", while rulesets for the other races where the units should NOT
be visible would not assign the tag. The net result is that the units are
defined once with the proper "member" tagexpr and the appropriate tags can
be assigned externally to the files (the "race" tags in the extension files
and the "allow" tag(s) with the rulesets).

You might only need one "allow" tag for 40K, or you might need separate
tags for every race. You might just need a small number of different tags
for different circumstances. I don't know enough about 40K to know for
sure. However, you can easily setup separate tags for a small number of
conditions and then re-use those tags in different situations for different
races. And you can use wildcards in tags (just like for types in AB2) to
perform subset and superset filtering.

I hope this explanation makes sense. If not, please provide me with more
specific details about how IG units can/can't be used within rosters for
another race. I'll then provide a more specific example of how this
approach could be leveraged. :-)


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Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 588-8252
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com