Is there a way to mod a single focus without replacing the whole focustree?

[Rikai]

Title says all

 

[GSP Jr]

It is possible.
Depending on what focus, and what you want to modify, of course.

 

[Rikai]

I wanna modify Italy's Triumph in Africa and USA's The Giant Wakes.

But as far as I know, the focuses are entirely defined by the .txt file of their focustree. So, you claim to have a solution. Please state it.

 

[GSP Jr]

Obviously, you must override the games files C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Hearts of Iron IV\common\national_focus\italy.txt and C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Hearts of Iron IV\common\national_focus\usa.txt. with the modifications you want to make. The modified files would need to be in your mos folder in Documents, something like C:\Users\MPS\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\mod\gsp_pbu\common\national_focus\usa.txt.

Again, depending on exactly what you want, it may be very simple to add, might be a nightmare.

 

[Shaka of Carthage]

Obviously, you must override the games files C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Hearts of Iron IV\common\national_focus\italy.txt and C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Hearts of Iron IV\common\national_focus\usa.txt. with the modifications you want to make. The modified files would need to be in your mos folder in Documents, something like C:\Users\MPS\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\mod\gsp_pbu\common\national_focus\usa.txt.

So in effect, you are overlaying the focus tree box with your own?

 

[Anaraxes]

For mods, the game reads all of the original files, then the contents of files the mods folder, replacing the specific things (data structures, constants, etc) in the original files with the values in the mod files. The mods override whatever was in the original source, and leave everything not mentioned unchanged.

For the focus trees, I expect the name of a "specific thing" in question is the focus_id field of a focus structure.

    focus = {
        id = USA_the_giant_wakes
        icon = GFX_goal_generic_construct_civ_factory
        prerequisite = { focus = USA_arsenal_of_democracy }
        available = {
            OR = {
                has_war = yes
                has_war_support > 0.3
            }
            democratic > 0.95
        }
        continue_if_invalid = yes
...

So, you should be able to put just one focus structure in your USA focus mod file with this ID, and whatever contents make the focus do what you want to do. You'll have to replace all of the values needed in that record (maybe just copy the original into your mod file to start), not just one line of the whole record. (Possibly you can overwrite individual fields of the record, but be prepared to copy the whole structure.)

If you want to insert entirely new focuses into the tree, I expect you're going to have to track down the other focus records for the items before and after and change their "prerequisite" fields to link the new focus into the tree where you want it.

(Caveat: I'm not a modder, so have no practical experience trying to rebuild parts of focus trees. The mods forum is probably the best place to get into the details of how to implement your mods.)

 

[GSP Jr]

So in effect, you are overlaying the focus tree box with your own?

That's about right. But doing it the simple way could cause issues with other mods that also do it that way.
You could try having JUST the Giant Wakes focus in a file named differently, like my_usa.txt to replace just that focus, not sure, have to try it out.

 

[bitmode]

Title says all

No, you need to copy the entire focus tree file. The definition of a focus tree and its NFs is completely contained within one file.

For mods, the game reads all of the original files, then the contents of files the mods folder, replacing the specific things (data structures, constants, etc) in the original files with the values in the mod files.

The files in a mod shadow the ones of the same name in the game directory (they effectively form a union file system). The original file does not get read in this case. Even with files of different names, the Clausewitz txt format is usually not able to modify data after the fact, only add data. Lua files don't have this restriction, which is why mods can change individual defines.

 

[Rikai]

Thank you bitmode. That answers every question I had

 

[Anaraxes]

Thanks for the corrections.