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Doc's Unit Chatter

This mod adds a huge number of new "barks" to the game:

• May 2024 - Added Orks, Necrons, Astra Militarum, Adeptus Mechanicus.
  
  
• The Drukhari now speak! (I realize the developers may eventually update this, but for now, the silence is broken!)
  
  
• Units with no chatter (many DLC units, for example), now talk.
  
  
• Units whose chatter was identical to others (some of which were a little unintuitive) now have their own speech.
  
  
• Existing units have expanded speech, with more options and more "reactions" to allied units.

First, the good news: the Drukhari works fully (as far as I can tell).

This is "only" a text mod, but what a text file! It will be about 5,000 lines of xml code when done, and while I'm over 50% there, I need to add in each faction separately to see if there are errors, and then painstakingly find them. I can't adjust the frequency of barks, so I have to build units and see if they use the lines, which happens randomly and infrequently for a given unit.

Another issue is that for text files, the new data adds to the existing data rather than overwriting it. This can be a good thing, but it might prevent my mod from doing its job. For example, there's a line of code which says that Stormtalon "barks" are the same as Stormraven barks. If this remains, it may override any new barks I write for the Stormtalon. We'll see!

I would love any feedback, including small stuff like spelling, grammar, and lore errors.


Normally, you should *not* overwrite files in the actual core game, as the mods slot those in for you. However, this may be an exception...here's why:

• Overwritten text files (found in Data/Core/.../English should pose no risk of crashes, as they contain no actual code.
  
  
• For most files, if I upload a version of that file it will replace the game's version (for example, if I change a unit's mesh and keep the name the same, it will write over the game's version when the game loads). However, these language files are additive, so it's supposed to add new information to the existing stuff. For example, when I build a new unit in another mod, I just upload a "Barks.xml" file with the new dialogue, and it works fine without eliminating the existing units' lines.
  
  
• If that's what's happening, then the speech text in the .xml contains lines of code which limit the number of responses, and may stop my lines from working.
  
  
• This can be fixed by directly and manually overwriting the file with the one from the mod; however, it will revert every time Gladius does a big update (i.e. a new DLC) and have to be fixed again.

So, weirdly, I'm not completely sure this mod works as intended. If you can find evidence that, say, an Ork Boy is using one of my lines rather than one from the original file, I would be very grateful.