XML2 Fix v1.3.2

Six additions for mods that carry X-Men Legends I's content (the community port), one of them an engine limit. Drop in the new dinput.dll. Every one is off, or absent, until a mod's xml2-fix.ini asks for it, so nothing changes for XML2 as it ships.

New, when you ask for it

• [Game] CharacterLadderPaths=1 (default 0): the port's ladder animations carry a descent path, and the game never ran it for characters, so a soldier that spawns at the top of a ladder stayed up there. With the key, characters follow those paths with the game's own movement timer and the soldier comes down to the floor. Only the two paths the port's builder names are affected; ordinary characters and every other path behave as before. Needs the builder's matching conversion. Tested on the port's two ladder spawners (sewers, Arbiter): with the original descent the soldiers stayed up, with the port's paths and the key they landed on the floor, including two overlapping spawns. Not tested: a save made mid-descent, co-op, other frame rates.
• [Game] ObjectiveDescriptions=1 (default 0): a mission objective may carry an updatedescription. While the objective is complete the journal shows that text instead of the original; if the objective is un-completed, the original returns. Titles, notifications, XP and order are unchanged, and nothing is stored in a save: the text follows the objective's saved completion. With the key off, or an objective without the attribute, the journal is as before. Tested in the primary journal: with the key the completion text shows, without it the original does, and un-completing the objective brings the original back. Not tested: a save loaded in a fresh process, act changes, the secondary objectives' display, co-op.
• addStatPoints(name, n), a script function registered with the forced-party ones ([Game] ForcedTeams present): one to twenty unspent attribute points to the hero named, through the game's own counter, which the stats screen spends from and the save keeps. The port's STAT pickup uses it; before, the pickup raised Body directly and left no point to spend. Tested with a pickup collected in game: the collector got one point, attributes, XP and level stayed, a save reloaded in a fresh process kept it, and spending it on Focus in the stats screen raised Focus by one. Not tested: co-op.
• [Game] BreakRule=xml1 (default xml2): an object breaks only to an attack that would have broken it in X-Men Legends I. XML2 caps a melee hit's level at 1, so a plain punch broke every breakable object; with the key, an object that carries the first game's xml1structure needs a hit of that level (a power, or a punch from a hero with the right Might or talent), so a punch no longer opens what the first game kept for powers. Objects without the attribute, and everything about characters, are as before; attacks do to enemies what they did; nothing is saved. Not tested online. Details: docs/break-rule.md.
• [Game] Xtract=0 (default 1): XML2's Xtraction Point menu always offers Xtract, the world map of its five town centres; X-Men Legends I's menu had no world map. With the key the menu offers the title, Change Team and Save only. The world map, the town centres' zone data and the menu's other choices are unchanged.
• [Limits] EffectCurves (901 to 16384; the game's own: 900): the pool of effect animation curves. When it fills, the game hands out an empty curve without a word, and the effects loaded last are drawn without particles: a fire is a faint glow, a hero's power loses its sparks. A four-hero party in the second area of the port's first level needs 943. EffectCurves=3600 (what the port uses) draws them. Tested with four heroes: with the key the fires are drawn, without it they are a glow; zone changes, a save and a load, and a normal quit were fine. Not tested: co-op, play sessions of hours.

Every patch checks the bytes it relies on against the retail XMen2.exe first; on any other build that feature stays off and xml2-fix.log says why. Every setting, with its default: README -> Settings.

Install: copy dinput.dll into the folder that contains XMen2.exe (replace the old one). See the README.

Unofficial fan fix, not affiliated with or endorsed by Activision, Marvel, Disney, Raven Software or Beenox. No game files included: you need your own copy of the game.