Warfoundry XML creator tool

Or the lazy gamers guide to creating datafiles

This page gives a brief (very) description on how to use a spreadsheet tool to help creating XML tags for unit and equipment options.

So you want to make a datafile but you quickly realise there is going to be a lot ot copy-pasting. Enter the ”Warfoundry XML creator” (flashy name pending).

This is a spreadsheet (Excel or OpenOffice) that helps creating the XML tags for units and equipment. There are three sheets in the files, ”equipment” generates XML for equipment and ”units” for making unit XML. There's a third sheet to reverse-engineer existing equipment lists as well.

Looks a bit like this (equipment sheet):

Use Item	Id	Name	Cost	Required	exclusivityGroup	CostMultiplier	Equipment list code	Unit entry code
y	Slugga	Slugga	1				<equipmentItem id="Slugga" name="Slugga" cost="1" />	<unitEquipmentItem id="Slugga" />
	Shoota	Shoota	1				<equipmentItem id="Shoota" name="Shoota" cost="1" />
y	StiBom	Stikkbombz	1				<equipmentItem id="StiBom" name="Stikkbombz" cost="1" />	<unitEquipmentItem id="StiBom" />

There are five things to enter, the ”Id” that will be referred to in the code, the unit name you want to display, the point cost. These are ”mandatory” (ie the datafile won't work without them). Also you can include whether the item is required (enter ”true” or leave empty) and if it has any mutual exclusivity groups (see other explanations for that, I don't understand it myself). The "costMultiplier" is now added, "0" means the options free for a unit, if the cost is the same as the base cost no costMultiplier is required. These three are only of use for the ”unit entry” code. In the column ”Equipment list code” you will find the XML to put into the datafile's equipment section. The ”Unit entry” column is the code that is placed in a unit's equipment section. The astute reader will now ask about the first column ”Use item”. This is field controlling whether you want to the ”Unit entry”column to display or not. Place a ”y” to generate the code. This is so that when you want code for a unit you can just make the options available to a specific unit with a ”y” and copy the whole list into the datafile. Easy!

Now the unit sheet:

Unit Id	Unit Name	Category	points	minsize	maxsize	Statline:	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
StormB	Stormboyz	FA	12	5	20	4		2	3	4	1	2	2	7	6+
.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
_
<unit id="StormB" typeName="Stormboyz" cat="FA" points="12" minSize="5" maxSize="20">
<stats>
<stat name="WS">4</stat>
<stat name="BS">2</stat>
<stat name="S">3</stat>
<stat name="T">4</stat>
<stat name="W">1</stat>

The important parts are the first two rows. The bold row are headers, (column H:P is also ”data”). Row two is for data entry, there's the unit id for the code, the name you want to display the category it should belong to (has to be one existing for the game system), the minimum size and maximum size (if any, check other documents for what is required and how by Warfoundry). Finall there is the ”statline”. The headers in row 1 (columns H to P) can be changed to reflect the gamesystems names (and those used in the system- and datafiles!). The values underneath are the values you want to be displayed. The example file is adapted for Warhammer 40k.

The text enclosed in the bordered region is what you need to copy into the race datafile. Note that it comes with equipment entry tags, which have no equipment entered. You MUST give at least 1 equipment entry to the unit. This is where previous sheet comes in handy, just mark the options available to the unit and copy them into the unit entry you just placed in the datafile.