Tweak Inline Records

What's Inline8, and how do I change it?

Summary

Created: 22 May 2024 by manavortex Last documented update: 22 May 2024 by manavortex

What are inline records?

TL;DR: The names are generated at compile-time with every patch, so the order may change. Don't use them, rather create a full copy.

Sometimes, you will come across records with names like Items.Preset_Overture_River_inline0. That tells us exactly nothing, so what are they?

As we have learned in How to YAML: Tweak modding basics -> Records, it is possible to nest records like Russian dolls. Inline records are exactly that: nested records, which are not defined anywhere but in the context that uses them.

Browsing the tweak databasecontains the full intel on how to find your way around.

Let's take a quick look. This is the tweak as read from the Tweak DB:

The record's properties in The Wolvenkit Tweak Browser. Screenshot kindly provided by Seberoth

You can use Wolvenkit's Tweak Browser to take a look at the properties:

If you want to use these effectors, you should define a copy in your yaml.

Safely modifying inline records

If you modify a record (e.g. VehicleStatPreset.BaseCar) or one of its properties, then all records inheriting from it will be affected.

To learn how to avoid that, just keep reading.

Let's assume that we want to tweak the Hellhound's vehicle health. Here is the record:

As you can see, its health is based on the shared record VehicleStatPreset.BaseCar_inline0.

If you modify it directly, it will change the health of all vehicles. Therefore, to make changes, a new record must be created. You can see VehicleStatPreset.BaseCar in the statmodifierGroups, and VehicleStatPreset.BaseCar_inline0 in its statModifiers:

Vehicle.v_standard3_militech_hellhound:
  statModifierGroups:
    - VehicleStatPreset.BaseCar

To make the change, create a new VehicleStatPreset.Octant to replace VehicleStatPreset.BaseCar:

Vehicle.av_zetatech_octant_dav_dummy:
  statModifierGroups:
    - VehicleStatPreset.Octant
    - VehicleStatPreset.Strong 

Next, define VehicleStatPreset.Octant. This record will have VehicleStatPreset.Octant_inline0 in its stat modifiers:

inherit from $base

When inheriting a new base, you only need to include the information that is actually different:

VehicleStatPreset.Octant:
  $base: VehicleStatPreset.BaseCar
  statModifiers:
    - !append-once VehicleStatPreset.Octant_inline0

define a $type

When defining a new type, you need to include all information:

VehicleStatPreset.Octant:
  $type: gamedataStatModifierGroup_Record
  drawBasedOnStatType: False
  optimiseCombinedModifiers: False
  saveBasedOnStatType: False
  statModsLimit: -1
  relatedModifierGroups: []
  statModifiers:
    - VehicleStatPreset.Octant_inline0         # this is the change
    - VehicleStatPreset.BaseCar_inline1
    - BaseStats.BaseAudioStimRangeMultiplier
    - BaseStats.BaseVisualStimRangeMultiplier 

Finally, modify the value itself:

VehicleStatPreset.Octant_inline0.value: 7600

This way, it won't affect other vehicles and you can still modify it.