Makai Kit

Collection of utilities for modifying Disgaea and other NIS games.

Mod Loader Installation

Either extract the contents of a distribution zip for the particular game into the installation directory of that game, or place a compiled dinput8.dll in the base game directory and makaikit-modloader-{GAME}.dll in a mkplugins subdirectory.

- Disgaea 7 Vows of the Virtueless/
  - Disgaea7.exe
  - dinput8.dll
  - mkplugins/
    - makaitkit-modloader-d7.dll
  - mods/

Mod installation

Place the mod's directory in the mods subdirectory, for example:

- Disgaea 7 Vows of the Virtueless/
  - Disgaea7.exe
  - dinput8.dll
  - mkplugins/
  - ...
  - mods/
    - downloaded-mod-v1/
      - ...

Mod Creation

Mods are loose-file directories placed under the mods subdirectory. All directory names prefixed by 1 or more underscores (_) are reserved for this purpose (e.g. don't name it _generated).

Example layout:

- mods/
  - my-mod-v1/
    - databases/
      - item/
        - 10000_ITEM_MYMOD_CUSTOM_01.json
    - files/
      - data/
        - sound/
          - CUSTOM_SOUND.nlsd
    - README.md

Mods are loaded in lexicographic order.

Flat file replacement

All files in the files subdirectory of a mod will be used to replace file requests in the virtual filesystem used by the game. For example, if the game requests data/sound/CUSTOM_SOUND.nlsd, the mod loader will attempt to find the file and substitute it by mod load order.

Database patching

Database entries for supported databases will be combined from all mods into a new generated database. These are placed in _generated/ on startup.

Database entries may come in 3 forms:

• Full JSON record. These are the output of the database unpacker. The file extension for these must be .json.
• RFC7368 JSON Merge-patch. These patches will be applied in mod load order to accumulate the final database record. The file extension of these must be .merge.json, and include either the record ID as a prefix, or the record's Lua enum name (ideally both).
• RFC6902 JSON Patch. These follow the same rules as merge patches but must have the extension .patch.json.

Script replacement

Only applies to Disgaea 6. Lua scripts in the scripts subdirectory of a mod will be patched into a new script.dat on startup in mod load order.

License

makaikit is made available under the terms of the GNU General Public License 3.0. Mods created for use with makaikit are not required to be made available under the same license unless code from makaikit itself is used.