I'm new to modding, and my xml tuning has gone pretty well, it's a pretty intuitive process, but what edits do I need to make to my SimData files to make them work together as a pair? Just a shared reference or are we talking complicated edits here? I'm doing a trait, so it's mainly buffs and commodities I'm working with here. They have basic tuning changes to the speed at which Sims can build relationships, and some mood tweaks. Are we looking at heavy Simdata work to support these buff and trait files?

Thanks

The only XML/DATA combo I've looked at so far was venue tuning, and that was very straightforward. I basically just needed to replicate the changes I had made in XML in the DATA. I used s4pe to export and then velocitygrass' data tool, it's available in the Tools forum here.

As far as I know the basic principle with XML+DATA is always the same: the XML defines what actually happens, and the DATA takes care of reflecting that in the interface of the game. So they must be in sync or the result will be very confusing in game (with the venue stuff it didn't even work since it kept putting up the "Not Finished!" dialogue until I added the DATA, so the venue never got the proper type set).

With the same DATA files in the post-patch package I had issues at first being unable to read them, same thing happened later with CWAL .. but the DATA suddenly decided to play nice at some point; I have no idea what the problem was with that. Just saying in case you run into similar issues .. try banging on it =P


Edit: also, you should check out the Maxian CC documentation if you haven't already. Link is up there in the sticky.

Cheers, I'll start sifting through the DATA files now then

Ok, so this makes me feel stupid, but I can't find the DATA files to go with the XMLs I'm editing, they should be somewhere in the FullBuild0 package, right? But I've extracted that package, and nothing seems to be there which matches the Instance ID of the original files. What am I doing wrong please?

I think @Zerbu is the resident expert on this at the moment. Sorry to be annoying, but if you're around, do you know what I'm doing wrong please? It's really frustrating because if I search DATA files for too long, my PC freezes. I have the XML tool and DATA tool by @Velocitygrass, and I have @Zerbu's Workshop tool, but I can't get the search function to work, so I must be going wrong somewhere.

The DATA files are also found in the SimulationDeltaBuild0 file which is a smaller file, so I generally use this file instead of the ClientDeltaBuild0 file.

I open this deltabuild file with s4pe and at the top with the names for the columns, one of them is "Instance". Click on this word Instance and everything is sorted by ID number; just scroll down until you find the ID number and Export To File this individual DATA file to save it somewhere on your harddrive. This is really easy-peasy, it's impossible not to be able to find it.

I don't use the Zerbu tool so don't know anything about searching with it; if that tool is what you are using to find stuff, I suggest you use the procedure I describe and find stuff manually using s4pe.

Also, some XML files do not have a DATA file to go with them, because they don't need it. There are approximately 20,500 XML files, whereas there are a bit more than 5000 DATA files. So it's possible that your XML files do not have corresponding DATA files.

Sorry if there was confusion, but TS4MW doesn't search through packages, it searches through the folders containing files you've already extracted. To be able to search through data files using it, just extract every data file to one folder. You'll also need to set the XML directory as well, since the program works by searching through XML files and then looking for an associated DATA file after it has found the XML one.

As for freezing, searching through so many files does tend to be performance intensive, though this is the first case I've heard of it actually freezing a computer. If the problem is being searching too long, then the only thing I can think of is to wait in between searches.