Hey Tychonoir,

Can someone point me to a primer regarding path values in PathPrerequisites?

What do you mean, path values? 

A PathPrerequisite is validated if its simulation path leads to a valid object when starting from where the prerequisite is checked.

In the ES2 Install folder/Public/Documentation, there are documentation files which should help you use them.

Whats the difference between ColonizedStarSystemStateColony and ClassColonizedSystem?

ClassColonizedSystem doesn't exist, I suppose you're talking about ClassColonizedStarSystem, which is a descriptor that's always present on a Colonized star system.

On the other hand, ClassColonizedStarSystemStateColony is present only when the system is in state "colony", which means it's not an Outpost and it isn't a Vodyani hunting grounds (you know, a Vodyani invades, then the system is lost and loses improvements/population every turn)

Most of the time there's no point in checking if the system is a colony, since the code prevents from queuing anything on an outpost: however, the AI can sometimes ignore rules, which is why we have to forbid the construction of StarSystemImprovements on outposts.

What does !FastForwardedImprovemnt do?

This tag is applied on a "fake" improvement created as a child of the system when a Riftborn player uses a Fold Singularity ("FastForwardTimeBubbleDefinition" in the XML).

In the constructibles' prerequisites, there's always one prerequisite which says "this improvement can be built only once", but because the improvement is considered as built since it's "fast forwarded", the prerequisite has to check "this improvement can be built only once, except if it's already built because of a Singularity" which is checked by adding ,!FastForwardedImprovement.

What does the flag "Discard" do?

If a prerequisite is failed and its Flags contains "Discard", the constructible will be hidden instead of greyed out.

The constructibles Flags are mostly used by:

- Gameplay to check for different conditions at different times (eg. a prerequisite with "Enqueue" is checked only when trying to queue the construction, except if it has other flags such as "Prerequisite" which is checked all the time).

- GUI to display a message (eg. "not enough population" or "Essence stock is full") or completely hide the constructible (Discard)

- AI to check for specific stuff

If trying to test for specific improvements or anomalies, shoul I be using a "/" or a "," ?

Improvements are children of the system: you should use a / (eg. ClassColonizedStarSystem/StarSystemImprovementTest1)

Anomalies are descriptors applied on the planets: you should use a / too, except if the prerequisite is checked from a planet (eg. system improvement: ClassColonizedStarSystem/Anomaly1 or planet improvement: ClassColonizedPlanet,Anomaly1)