Hey guys,



Im interested in creating a new faction trait based on the "Black Marketeer" skill so that from the start of the game you would have the "Right of Way" tech, and the ability to form trade routes with at war or cold war status cities.

I'd also like to take it a step further and make it so that the Dust and Science generated from these trade routes with enemy cities is actually deducted from their income, so that you are basically siphoning their resources.



The problem is that in the SimulationDescriptors[SkillsHero].xml file, the section has only the comment , and so im not sure how I can figure out how it works.

I saw there were some other simulation modifiers with that same comment such as the "Dust Care" ability for Broken Lords units, and it turned out that the ability was hard coded, which im not sure what that means but basically the information was not available to look at and play around with.



Any help would be greatly appreciated



Froutts

Hi Froutts,



I have looked into the Black Marketeer skill, and found two references to it in SimulationDescriptors[SkillsHero].xml and UnitSkills[Hero].xml.



From what I see in those files it seems that the properties and modifiers for it are indeed hard coded since no properties or modifiers present in XML.



As for the term "hard coded", it means that the logic for the game element is contained in compiled game files rather than read dynamically at run time. Hence it is impossible to change the skill effects using the XML files.



I am sorry but deducting the resources may not be possible at the moment, however I would look at SimulationDescriptors[TradeRouteStatus].xml and SimulationDescriptors[Class].xml Which contain general information about Trade Routes and their relationships with cities. Maybe you will find something there that will allow you to do something similar.