Question to the forum:
Is there any way to package a collection of modded weapons and items that doesn't involve other users having to either overwrite previously modded raws or hand-insert the item data and corresponding entity tags.
I'm working on a general content mod at the moment. Most of what I hope to add are items that aren't necessarily out of balance, but give the player a few more options to spice up overall gameplay. Examples would be a chain-swinging trap component to do several bouts of gore damage to lighter opponents (like using whips or scourges in weapon traps), and weaker pieces of outer armor (made from, say, wood and bone) to take the place of plate mail when a fortress just can't spare the metal resources.
I expect that the finished product would be scattered all across the board as far as the item files modified, and I want to make installation as painless as I possibly can.
I suppose if I came up with a truly epic item mod, then I could throw together a cheap one-shot script in Perl. It wouldn't be too hard to append each of the item files and either let the user add the entity portion to their civilization of choice, or work some regex magic and stick the needed tags under the dwarf header.
Still, that might be a bit much if there's a more reasonable way.