Basic XML modding

XML (Extensible Markup Language) used to create ships, structures, tweak AI difficulty and more.

XML syntax requires all tags to be closed (unlike HTML) all tags look something like this <tagName: stuff here if need be>. with every single tag you create or 'open' it must then be closed. tags can be closed in one of two ways. either like this: <tag1 /> or like this .<tag1> </tag1>. this allows tags to be nested with tags like so:

<tag1>
    <tag2/>
<tag1>

.

There is one tag that is required in XML modding at the start yet does not follow this rule and is one of two exceptions to this rule (the other being commenting). that tag is <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> that tag is used to tell the XML reader (parser) that this xml version is version 1.0 and the character set used (utf-8)

The most common mistake when XML modding will probably be forgetting to close a tag somewhere in your mod and there is very little to tell you where the offending tag is. (if you are XML modding and a big error message shows up it's probably due to forgetting to close a tag). (also please note there are some weird things with mod loader currently and partial records (overwriting) through XML mods so take care when using partial records).

for creating a new starting fleet create an XML file. the name doesn't matter just make sure it's an XML file. and put it in: AI War 2\GameData\Configuration\FleetDesignTemplate or put it in a new XML mod folder and then FleetDesignTampate like: AI War 2\XMLMods\anyNameYouWant\FleetDesignTemplate

now in your new XML file for creating a new starting fleet you need to put in these tags in this fashion

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<root>
</root>