So modtools/add-syndrome, for lack of a better term, needs some work, I'm just not exactly sure what. First off most syndromes are added correctly, you can give a unit an interaction that it will use correctly, change display name/tile, change attributes, and basically anything that is considered a "Special Effect" on
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Syndrome. But any of the base effects will have do nothing. My brief bit of science that I did found the following.
When applying a syndrome via interaction (which is what I figure we should model add-syndrome after, instead of adding a syndrome via attack). There are several additional components that are not correctly set.
1. None of the target_ vectors are populated in the symptoms list.
2. This leads to no wound being generated.
3. If the target_vectors are artificially populated a wound is automatically created, but it's parts vector is empty
4. Filling in the parts vector seems to correctly "apply" the syndrome. Unfortunately using this method means that out of everything in;
[CE_NECROSIS:SEV:100:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:BP:BY_TYPE:THOUGHT:ALL:BP:BY_TYPE:NERVOUS:ALL:START:30:PEAK:60:END:1200]
the only thing we can really do is apply necrosis to the correct body parts for the correct times. As you have to populate all the values, and there is no easy way to handle SEV or RESISTABLE.
5. Unfortunatelyx2 in 3 of my 5 tests the game crashed. This may be because I was creating entries by copying another units. I am unsure
I am hoping that someone more knowledgeable about the workings of things can come up with a way to add damaging syndromes via add-syndrome. Otherwise I will move back to just adding wounds directly (this suffers from the same Unfortunately as number 4)