Xml editing

Introduction

In the xml files are all of the items and entitys of the game defined. How much damage they do, what you can do with them, how they are named, their behavior etc. Editing these is pretty simple, every texteditor is capable of that (although Notepad++ is recommended as it is a freeware and very handy too use).
However, doing this in an uncorrect manner can result in erros, ctd or simple wrong use of items in the game. To prevent that and to give a little help to everyone trying to alter their gameplay to their wishes, this section provides some explanations to the attributes in the xml files.
It is recommended to copy the xml and edit the copies, not the originals, in case something goes wrong. Alternatively one can usually download the latest xmls here.

xmls related to items

items.xml

Here are the properties of every item in the game defined. Damage, material, critical-strike chance and so on.

General

• item id="NUMBER"

The id is to differentiate each item. There is room for many items (over 4000), but normally only items up to a specific ID are shown in the creative-menu. The others are still in game though.

• name=”ITEMNAME”

The name of the item. If you create a custom item from scratch, this is the name that appears in game unless you also edit the localization.txt. It is not allowed to use space between two parts of a name.

• property name="Group" value="GROUPNAME"

Groupname can either be one of the standard-groups or you can create a custom group in groups.xml and use that. The standard groups are:
Basic,Ammo/Weapon, Tools/Traps, Building, Resources, Forging/Molds, Decor, Medicine, Chemicals, Food/Cooking, Clothing, Miscellaneous, Special Items

• property name="Meshfile" value="FILEPATH"

The look of an item in the game. The filepath is where the mesh is found inside the .dlls of the game. If you want your custom item to look like another item, just copy it from there.

• property name="DropMeshfile" value="FILEPATH"

The look of an item dropped on the ground.

• property name="HandMeshfile" value="FILEPATH"

The look of an item if held in hand. Needed if it normally would not be held in hand, such as crossbowbolts.

• property name="Material" value="MATERIALNAME"

Some items get a damage mulitplier against certain materials. Is also used to determine what the item is dismantled into. Which materials are possible is defined in materials.xml.

• property name="HoldType" value="NUMBER"

The way the item is held in hands, i.e. 36 is like a knife, 32 is like bolts. These are defined in misc.xml.

• property name="Stacknumber" value="NUMBER"

How much of this item can stack in one field of your belt/backpack.

• property name="SoundDestroy" value="NAMEOFSOUND"

In case the item is destroyed, which sound is played. There are other events like this:

Sound_start, Sound_repeat, Sound_end, SoundJammed, Sound_empty, Sound_reload, SoundIdle, Sound_warning, Sound_draw, Sound_cancel, Upgrade_action_sound, Repair_action_sound

• property name="Weight" value="NUMBER"

Effecting how much you get as output if you smelt it in your forge or how much you can scrape it for.

• property name="Degradation" value="NUMBER" param1="true"

If the item degrades with use.

• property name="DegradationBreaksAfter" value="false"

If the item breaks after reaching 0 durability.

Tools, Weapons

• property name="Candrop" value="false"

A property for "hand"-items. You can not throw these away.

• property class="Action0"

Means a left mouse click. "Action1" is a right mouse click.

• property name="Auto_fire" value="true"

If you can hold down the mouse to fire or not.

These following lines define what exatly is done if you click the button (see Action0/Action1 above).

• property name="Class" value="Melee"

Melee is an attack at meleerange.

• property name="Class" value="Ranged"
• property name="Class" value="Launcher"

Ranged and Launcher are both ranged attacks with ranged hitting the target instantly and launcher launching a projectile.

• property name="Magazine_size" value="NUMBER"

Magazine size.

• property name="Magazine_items" value="ITEMNAME"

Items to use as ammonition.

• property name="Reload_time" value="NUMBER"

Time in seconds needed to reload the weapon.

• property name="Bullet_icon" value="ICONNAME"

Bullet icon in the ui. But apparently it is not the real used icon, for example the bow uses the value "uzi" for this property.

• property name="Rays_per_shot" value="NUMBER"

How many rays are shot; to simulate for example a shotgun shot.

• property name="Rays_spread" value="NUMBER"

How widespread the rays are.

• property name="Class" value="MakeFertile"

MakeFertile is currently only used by the hoe.

• property name="Fertileblock" value="fertileFarmland"

Only for the hoe, it makes the target dirt block a fertile block.

• property name="Adjacentblock" value="dirt"

Again, only for the hoe. Makes any adjacent block to the target block a dirt block.

• property name="Class" value="Repair"

Repair repairs and upgrades the block under your crosshair.

• property name="Repair_amount" value="NUMBER"

If the class is "Repair", then here is defined how much the targeted block gets repaired with each tick.

• property name="Allowed_upgrade_items" value="MATERIAL"

If the class is "Repair", here is defined which material can be used to upgrade the block under your crosshair. If a material is need which is not allowed (see below),
you can not upgrade the block with your currently held item. The possible materials are (unless you define another block:

woodPlank, scrapIron, forgedIron, ingotSteel, concreteMix, cobblestones

• property name="Restricted_upgrade_items" value="MATERIAL"

Restricts the item from using these materials as upgrade items.

• property name="Class" value="PlaceAsBlock"

PlaceAsBlock places the item as a block.

• property name="Blockname" value="ITEMNAME"

This is need if a block should be placed. This defines which block exactly is placed.

• property name="RepairTools" value="ITEMNAME"

If the item can be repaired by other items, here is defined by which ones.

• property name="RepairAmount" value="NAME"

If you can use the item to repair other items (for example sticks), here is defined by how much the other item will be repaired.

• property name="FuelValue" value="NUMBER"

By how many seconds this item fires your campfire or forge if used as fuel.

• property name="CritChance" value="NUMBER"

A property solely for weapons. The number can be anything between 0 and 1.

• property name="Buff" value="BUFFNAME"

If the item applies a buff to the entity hit. The buff must be defined in buffs.xml.

• property name="Buff_chance" value="NUMBER"

The chance of applying said buff. The number can range from 0 to 1.

• property name="DamageBonus.MATERIAL"

If the item gets a damage multiplicator when hitting a specific material. These are defined in materials.xml. A multiplicator used when the item is used against defined material.

• property name="Delay" value="NUMBER"

The time between two uses of your item. The lower this number is, the faster it can be used.

• property name="Range" value="NUMBER"

The range at which your item hits its target.

• property name="Block_range" value="NUMBER"

This can be used if the item hits blocks at a different range than entitys. Useful for supporting a building tool (or restricting it).

• property name="Sphere" value="NUMBER"

This is (sadly) NOT an "Area of effect", but more like an offset to your aim. A bit confusing. The higher the number the greater the offset.

• property name="DamageEntity" value="NUMBER"

Obsolete if there is a class="Attributes" (see below) with this property. Else it defines the damage done to your enemies.

• property name="DamageBlock" value="NUMBER"

Same as DamageEntity.

• property name="Stamina_usage" value="NUMBER"

The amount of stamina needed to use the item.

• property name="Gain_ATTRIBUTE" value="NUMBER"

If you gain health or something like that from using the item. A negative value means a loss. Possible attributes are:

health, stamina, food, water, wellness, gas, sickness

• property name="Horde_meter_rate" value="NUMBER"

Related to "heat" generation (aka luring scouts to you).

• property name="Horde_meter_distance" value="NUMBER"

Same as above.

• property name="Attachments" value="flashlight02"
• property name="LightSource" value="lightSource"
• property name="ActivateObject" value="Attachments/flashlight/lightSource"
• property name="AttachmentFlashlight" value="flashlight02"

These four lines are needed if a flashlight should be attachable.

Quality System

• property class="Attributes"

If the item is subject to the quality system, it has this class.

• property name="EntityDamage" value="NUMBER,NUMBER"

See DamageEntity above. This replaces any DamageEntity from above.

• property name="BlockDamage" value="NUMBER,NUMBER"

Same as EntityDamage.

• property name="DegradationMax" value=""NUMBER,NUMBER"

Here is a range defined from which to which number the durability of the item depending on its quality can range. Again, any durability-related properties from above are overwritten.

• property name="DegradationRate" value="NUMBER,NUMBER"

And again, depending on the quality different variables for the DegradationRate. The lower it is the longer does the item last.

recipes.xml

Yet to be explained

materials.xml

Yet to be explained

groups.xml

Defines the possible item groups. A custom group does not show up in the crafting ui while playing, however you can still edit the background color and alpha to distinguish custom-items better from standard-items.

• group name="GROUPNAME"

The name of the group.

• color="COLORCODE"

The colorcode; you can go to colorpicker to get the code of a color you want.

• alpha="NUMBER”

Can be anything between 0 and 1.