Bodies Def questions

[rexx1888]

Hey all, can someone tell me what the connection is between the body tag in the races tag of the humanoid def is and the bodies def and the body parts def.

is there a connection at all, or are they all just not connected. i was curious to see if i can get pawns to just spawn with various parts(tentacles, bionics, mutations.. not fussed  ) on their bodies without needing to have them sown on or generated with random ones.

[skullywag]

Yeah they do link together. See my purple ivy mod (out of date now but still valid here) it has a centipede with a custom bodydef With lots of custom body parts.

[rexx1888]

So, continuing down this rabbit hole. Something very odd happens around trying to build a new custom body with bits an pieces. Rimworld will straight up not load. If the mod is even in the directory with the modified bodies def, it freaks and doesnt even load the main menu.

it just hangs on a black screen, and sticks this thing in the output log.

(Filename:  Line: -1)

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at Verse.Root.Update () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

(Filename:  Line: -1)

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at Verse.KeyBindingDef.get_JustPressed () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

  at Verse.TakeScreenshot.Update () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

(Filename:  Line: -1).

in addition, if the modifiend humanoid def is in the thing defs folder, it also hangs with the same error. its kinda hardcore lol.

any ideas about what may be causing this?

[rexx1888]

better yet, this stuff happens even if the mod hasnt been activated yet wut O.o

[skullywag]

erm if even with the mod not on you get errors something else somewhere else has been changed.

[rexx1888]

thats what i thought, but if the mod isnt in the folder(and other mods are) then the game runs fine. just seems like an odd quirk tbh

[rexx1888]

for future reference, the problem was a null reference exception of epic proportions.

i used a bunch of the mechanical finger defs without actually checking if they existed(and one of them didnt) an as a result it couldnt reference them in the body part defs. and because apparently the Bodies Def's is important(or fussy) it was causing the game to hang rather than just outputting an error. so, kinda hard to diagnose, but rather simple to fix