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Improved the generator some more, rebuilt the mod and re-merged it again. 

Now the cthulhu mod is crashing on entities without even giving an error.  Not sure if a good sign though really.
If anyone wants, could you assist me in figuring out what would cause the crash?

http://pastebin.com/D2wCw9yY

Is the cthulhu entity file after being tossed through the updater.  The entity portion was the first part I coded of it, so it probably is the weakest too so I may have missed some things perhaps.

I don't know why any of those errors would stop it from running, they're all fairly minor issues. I'm guessing the Mi-go issue is that their tissue layers aren't defined right.

I'm surprised how effective it's gotten, I mean earlier I was getting like a hundred+ errors.  Now it's just 3kb of minor issues.  Anywho I guess once I get it to auto-detect how to fix tissues it probably will be ready I imagine.  Although I guess this is a pretty specific issue.

What's the problem with throats and necks? On items, most are the same I think. You'll probably want to remove the old instruments and add the attack flags to weapons though.

Oh I see, was just not properly calculating how to add the necks to the creatures- I believe I got it now though, just upgrading humanoid to humanoid with necks I suppose, I wish they weren't all clumped together on the same line as that does complicate the way this program is currently running a bit..

Edit:  Found a way to more fluidly modify data, currently only being used on converting "BODY:HUMANOID" -->>  "BODY:HUMANOID_NECK"  though.  Sheesh I may actually rewrite all this code around this way actually at some point; it would save me soooo much clutter in the code.

If you don't add attack flags, the consequence is that the attack is very fast.

Hey Enemy, earlier you mentioned trees; what exactly has to be changed for trees to function properly?  I believe everything in the updater is functioning properly for it to work, just need to get tree updater implemented I believe then it'll be ready for testing.

Quote from: Teirdalin on August 08, 2016, 03:58:05 am

Very true.  An appearance tweaker for dwarves would also be a very cool thing.

Depends on what you want to tweak.  We already have this.

That's not nearly as hardcore automagic as would be preferred.  I'd probably have a visual interface of some sort which completely rewrites the files being modified to user specifications based on the original inputs; while translating gaits and sizes into something a normal person can read and understand.  I do have some ideas in mind but not going to work on a thing like that till the updater is done, this is a pretty heavy project, and that one is an even heavier project. lol;  I am enjoying having something to actually work on though; although programming all day isn't something my girlfriend likes all that much.

Also thanks for the tip.   That is most certainly likely the problem.

Edit:  Back ontopic of the actual mod, creatures seem like they'll be a bit more tricky, but not as much if these things are not necessary:
[ATTACK_PREPARE_AND_RECOVER:3:3]
[ATTACK_FLAG_BAD_MULTIATTACK]

Everything else seems easy enough, I'll attach sweat, and the ability to spit below pus.  Movement gaits are going to be a bit more tricky to add in,  may separate them out into three main sets of gaits:

One set of gaits for swims_learned creatures, one for [BIOME:ANY_OCEAN] creatures which are most likely fish primarily, and extra line or so for flying creatures; not entirely sure how well this logic would translate; but I believe it should work-  maybe with the occasional land shark..
Of course I also could leave out gaits although I really do like gaits; they do not seem to be a necessary addition though, are they?
I mean, worst case scenario we have everything standing on two legs running around if gaits can go that far in terms of changing movement.

Quote from: Teirdalin on August 07, 2016, 10:28:47 pm

Would anyone with adequate Dorf Modding mind helping me with knowing what terms from certain versions in what files need to be changed / removed in general?

My SW mod started out in 34.11, and then I updated to the current version. I thought someone might want to see how I did it, so I kept somewhat sloppy notes. The major steps were:Change the trees to the new version, switch the bodies to their NECK versions (BODY:HUMANOID to BODY:HUMANOID_NECK for example), remove all SPEED tokens and switch them to GAITS, add [LOCAL_POPS_CONTROLLABLE] tags to creatures you want to be able to play as adventurers, make the males geldable by adding [SET_BP_GROUP:BY_TYPE:LOWERBODY] [BP_ADD_TYPE:GELDABLE] to their caste files. I'm not entirely sure I did that right. Add the various philosophers, [MERCENARY], and [BEAST_HUNTER] to Entity files, along with the new art forms, generated instruments, and gardens. Add the ATTACK_PREPARE_AND_RECOVER to every weapon and natural attack. Add optional smell related tokens and specific vision angles. Finally, I added OUTSIDER_CONTROLLABLE to the sentient creatures, but that tag may be obsolete now.

Quote from: Teirdalin on August 07, 2016, 10:28:47 pm

Edit:Actually going to experiment on the Cthulhu Mythos Mod, as someone did suggest it above.  Suppose first release of the updater will be 0.31 -> 0.43; if I do allocate enough time to this project,  which I may as well seeing as I have no life anyways.

I knew 2016 was a strange aeon.

That note list is amazing.

Anyways; in that case entities is probably done, and it sounds easy enough actually, I'll reuse the script for the entities for making those changes and hopefully things should work just fine.  Thanks a ton. Took me two hours to fall asleep last night, and I dreamed entirely in code.. Not very great sleep. x_x  Do remember some of it though, and actually is kind of useful for maybe a later project.
Once this is all done the program should be functional although rather sloppily coded, and will probably take like, a few weeks to actually look great.

Quote from: Teirdalin on August 07, 2016, 10:28:47 pm

After some testing, I think I got the basic principle down on how this will work, and even a proof of concept program made which I'll basically make a ton of copies of, all of which performing different modifications probably, with a master program that will run each one individually-  or maybe I'll just fit them all into one.  Would anyone with adequate Dorf Modding mind helping me with knowing what terms from certain versions in what files need to be changed / removed in general?   I suppose I can just experiment,  but if so anyone mind suggesting a mod to use as a guinea-pig for my experimentation that is not compatible with the latest version of DF?  (And optionally why it does not work.)

The It's The Small Things mod from 0.28.xx.39d might be a good one. It could stand to be updated, and it modifies a good number of raws.

A less outdated but more popular mod that could use an update is the Deeper Dwarven Domestication for Dwarf Fortress v0.34.11. DF v0.34.11 was the latest version for a very long time, so there's probably lots of dead content at this version. This mod only modifies two vanilla objects files.

Quote from: Teirdalin on August 07, 2016, 10:28:47 pm

Edit: Maybe I'll slowly work on the program going by one 0.0x version at a time, or maybe by one 0.x version at a time; depending how well a 0.42 mod can work in 0.43; think the most effective way would probably be either by major modifications or 0.x patch differences though.  Hmm..

EditEdit:  Actually going to experiment on the Cthulhu Mythos Mod, as someone did suggest it above.  Suppose first release of the updater will be 0.31 -> 0.43; if I do allocate enough time to this project,  which I may as well seeing as I have no life anyways.

The Cthulhu mod looks like a good choice. It looks like it modifies 36 vanilla files (3 objects files, 2 ogg files, and I think 31 speech files). The Cthulhu mod I'm looking at is a DF v0.34.11 mod, though.

Oh silly me i was looking at the old version of it,  alright I'll use Deeper Dwarven Domestication, the 0.34 version of Cthulhu, and the actual 0.34.11 DF game for my testing files and v0.34->0.43 for the first updater file I suppose. (decided to separate each updater into different files managed by one main file)    The actual program is running quite beautifully so far by the way, I was right that python is a wonderful language for this;  writing it in Eclipse using PyDev.

On a semi-unrelated note, thinking of a name for the program, what do you think of Urist Beard Updater?  Just Mod Updater sounds boring, and Urist Beard Updater simplifies down to UBU which sounds great.

The structure I'm thinking will be along the lines of

With the numbers being for each different updater.

And the text inside will be giving you some vague information of what's being done, just for the sake of seeming more magical with things like


Either way I'm pretty happy that it's grabbing the proper number of files starting with whatever type I input into it and editing each one individually exactly how I want it to.  Now is just the challenge of knowing WHAT to change and the rest should all fall into place.

Even made a screen for improper file placement, with scrolling text before it violently crashes trying to read a ton of data that does not exist, could put a break instead but I think it does a pretty effective way of stopping itself really.

Anyways, main things can probably be seen pretty easy with sites like https://www.diffchecker.com/y6pu8ffw I guess, so I'll likely be using this a lot.  Like the [START_BIOME:MOUNTAIN]   >>>>   [EXCLUSIVE_START_BIOME:MOUNTAIN] is something I would have totally missed.  Guess I'll have input for setting up settlement biomes.  Sheesh it's almost 2am; I should probably consider sleep.

EditEditEditEdit
For things like instrument there,  should I remove instruments from the entities list?  (Would look nice in the console with like "Breaking drums" 'breaking flute" etc etc )  Don't really understand why they're not in the default entities anymore.  Anyways, upgraded my program to auto-detect 'bad' terms that I pre-define, and then to either remove them, their lines, or replace them with more proper terminology.   Still working on actually figuring out what needs to be removed and not though.
EditEditEditEditEdit:  Oh I see, instruments are replaced with the generation of instruments now I suppose.  Easy fix.  Also added more flavor text to the MACHIIINNNNEEE!
Edit.  I think this is my last update for the night, wrote well over 200 lines of code tonight, and everything is working even better than I had imagined.
It may not look like much but is accomplishing quite a lot.  Not entirely sure if this is an acceptable place to leave entities for now.  https://www.diffchecker.com/uajjdfzg  is how it converts to at the moment.  I guess there are still some necessary tweaks, such as the fact kobolds are being given settlements currently in the dorf mountain biome upgrade.  I suppose the only way to know for sure if stable is to try to make a world in modern DF with the modified old file..

It works! I think at least, no errors, I seem to be able to play just fine.  The entity file works just fine it would seem!  I guess I'll leave the tweaks for that to a later version, and work on upgrading either body or creature files tomorrow,  that's sure to be !FUN!.   I'll work out any bugs in the entity modification file after people have tested the program out a bit and have actual feedback.
Also for file structure, I guess I'll have each function of the upgrading version with it's own file: or else when I start reaching the thousands of lines of code,  I'm going to be experiencing utter hell in searching these things.

How would a mod updater program deal with an old mod that depends on vanilla features that have been removed from the game?

Probably by simply butchering the elements from the individual txt files, or changing them to match up with new systems that serve that purpose.  Same way a person would.

I don't know why, but I feel python would be the best language to make this thing in.  So I'm going to start learning some more python coding in anticipation of this project concept.