paradox-reader

Python module to read Paradox .txt files used in Crusader Kings II, Europa Universalis IV, Stellaris, and Hearts of Iron IV

What it Does

This code will read a Paradox .txt file so that it can be used within a Python script. It can also save the read .txt as a JSON file.

Why

My originally goal was to create some kind of tool for creating random Stellaris empires given a specific government type or personality. Instead of manually writing a JSON or YAML file of the criteria of each government or personality, it made sense to find a way to read the criteria straight from the relevant .txt files.

How Does it do That

Given a file this script will use regular expression substitutions to translate the .txt file text into valid JSON. The Paradox .txt file format is fairly permissive so several choices had to be made to jerry-rig it into Python:

• Duplicate keys are turned into lists

allow = {
  is_country_type = default
  OR = {
    AND = {
      has_ethic = "ethic_fanatic_militarist"
      OR = {
        has_ethic = "ethic_spiritualist"
        has_ethic = "ethic_egalitarian"
        has_ethic = "ethic_xenophile"
      }
    }
    AND = {
      has_ethic = "ethic_fanatic_xenophile"
      has_ethic = "ethic_militarist"
    }
  }
}

Turns into:

"allow": {
  "is_country_type": "default",
  "OR": {
    "AND": [
      {
        "has_ethic": "ethic_fanatic_militarist",
        "OR": {
          "has_ethic": [
            "ethic_spiritualist",
            "ethic_egalitarian",
            "ethic_xenophile"
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "has_ethic": [
          "ethic_fanatic_xenophile",
          "ethic_militarist"
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

• Greater than and less than comparisions get turned into objects:

happened = {
  num_owned_planets > 1
}

Turns into

"num_owned_planets": {
  "value": 1,
  "operand": ">"
}

Disclaimers

I am in no way affiliated with Paradox, nor do I have any knowledge on how they use these .txt files. Therefore I make no guarantees that this will correctly translate any given file, this has only been tested on a few files from Stellaris.