Implementing ENABLE_ROTZ: Restoring Rise of the Zilart expansion flag support

[eyes-and-brain]

Background

While investigating how expansion flags work in LandSandBoat, I noticed that ENABLE_ROTZ is the only expansion flag missing from settings/main.lua, despite all other expansions (COP, TOAU, WOTG, etc.) having their own flags.

Digging into the git history revealed the full story:

• 2014-11-08 — Commit 6c6b2dea6d by @starlightknight tagged spells, abilities, and traits with appropriate expansion flags using SE's official version update history as the primary source. This commit also introduced ENABLE_ROTZ in settings.lua.
• 2014-11-09 (the next day) — Commit a3a18a2b0d reverted all ROTZ tags back to NULL and removed ENABLE_ROTZ, citing "per @teschnei's request since ROTZ configuration is not currently supported anyways."

That revert has sat untouched for over 10 years. This post documents a complete implementation of ENABLE_ROTZ support.

---

What was changed

1. settings/main.lua

Added ENABLE_ROTZ alongside the other expansion flags:

-- Enable Expansion (1 = Enabled, 0 = Disabled)
ENABLE_ROTZ      = 1,  -- Rise of the Zilart
ENABLE_COP       = 1,

2. scripts/missions/rotz/01_The_New_Frontier.lua

Added an ENABLE_ROTZ guard following the same pattern as COP's 1_1_The_Rites_of_Life.lua:

-- ENABLE_ROTZ must be set to 1 in settings/main.lua
{
    check = function(player, currentMission, missionStatus, vars)
        return xi.settings.main.ENABLE_ROTZ == 0 and
            currentMission < xi.mission.id.zilart.THE_NEW_FRONTIER
    end,
},

3. scripts/globals/teleports/survival_guide.lua

The hardcoded 3 in the expansions bitmask encodes bit0 (base game) and bit1 (Zilart). Split it to make Zilart controllable:

-- Before
local expansions = 3 + (4 * xi.settings.main.ENABLE_COP) + ...
-- After
-- bit0(1)=base game, bit1(2)=ROTZ, bit2(4)=COP, bit3(8)=TOAU, bit4(16)=WOTG, bit11(2048)=SOA
local expansions = 1 + (2 * xi.settings.main.ENABLE_ROTZ) + (4 * xi.settings.main.ENABLE_COP) + ...

4. src/map/utils/charutils.cpp

Added "ROTZ" to the expansion list used when building the spell load condition:

// Before
for (const auto& expansion : { "COP", "TOAU", "WOTG", "ACP", "AMK", "ASA", "ABYSSEA", "SOA", "ROV", "TVR", "VOIDWATCH" })
// After
for (const auto& expansion : { "ROTZ", "COP", "TOAU", "WOTG", "ACP", "AMK", "ASA", "ABYSSEA", "SOA", "ROV", "TVR", "VOIDWATCH" })

5. SQL — Restoring content_tag = 'ROTZ'

Using the diff from commit a3a18a2b0d (which shows exactly what was reverted) as a reference, and cross-referencing with the current DB by ability/spell name rather than ID (since IDs have shifted significantly since 2014), the following rows were updated:

Table	Rows updated
abilities	88
spell_list	57
traits	56

-- abilities (88 rows)
UPDATE abilities SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE abilityId IN (
    45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,71,72,73,74,75,80,87,
    27,28,30,88,89,90,91,172,
    512,513,514,515,516,517,518,520,
    528,529,530,531,532,533,534,536,
    544,545,546,547,548,549,550,552,
    560,561,562,563,564,565,566,568,
    576,577,578,579,580,581,582,584,
    592,593,594,595,596,597,598,600,
    608,609,610,611,612,613,614,616
);

-- spell_list (57 rows)
UPDATE spell_list SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE spellid IN (
    10,112,142,147,152,157,167,181,196,252,
    273,274,288,289,290,291,292,293,294,295,
    296,297,298,299,300,301,302,303,
    320,321,323,324,326,327,329,330,332,333,
    335,336,338,339,341,344,345,347,348,350,
    353,354,402,414,431,432,464,465,466
);

-- traits (56 rows) — matched by name+job to handle traitid shifts since 2014
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE traitid=1  AND job=14; -- accuracy bonus / DRG
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE traitid=3  AND job=14; -- attack bonus   / DRG
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE traitid=14 AND job=12; -- store tp       / SAM
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE traitid=18 AND job=13; -- dual wield     / NIN
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE traitid=24 AND job=15; -- clear mind     / SMN
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE name = 'stealth'       AND job = 13;
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE name = 'demon killer'  AND job = 12;
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE name = 'dragon killer' AND job = 14;
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE name = 'resist blind'  AND job = 12;
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE name = 'resist bind'   AND job = 13;
UPDATE traits SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE name = 'subtle blow'   AND job IN (2, 13);

---

How it works with RESTRICT_CONTENT

ENABLE_ROTZ follows the same pattern as all other expansion flags. It only takes effect when RESTRICT_CONTENT = 1 is set in settings/main.lua. With both set:

RESTRICT_CONTENT = 1,
ENABLE_ROTZ      = 0,

• Zilart missions cannot be started
• ROTZ-tagged abilities, spells, and traits are not loaded
• The Survival Guide expansion bitmask correctly excludes Zilart teleport destinations

---

Known limitations / remaining work

• npc_list: No content_tag = 'ROTZ' entries exist anywhere in the table. Zilart-exclusive NPCs (in zones such as Ru'Aun Gardens, Hall of the Gods, Shrine of Ru'Avitau, etc.) will still spawn when ENABLE_ROTZ = 0. Tagging these requires cross-referencing each NPC against known Zilart content.
• synth_recipes: Similarly, no ROTZ tags exist and there is no prior git history to recover from. Zilart-era recipes would need to be identified from SE's version update history.

---

Notes on methodology

The primary reference for identifying Zilart content was the diff of commit a3a18a2b0d, which shows exactly which rows @starlightknight had tagged as ROTZ in 2014 based on SE's official version update posts. Since ability and trait IDs have shifted considerably over the past 10 years, name-based matching against the current DB was used rather than raw ID restoration.

[Mortalelite]

This kinda about the synthesis recipes

#7522

#7522 (comment)

[eyes-and-brain]

Update: Following up on the discussion above — I also found PR #7522 by @Grahf0085, which had identified 25 base game/ROZ synthesis recipes and attempted to tag them with ROTZ. That PR was closed as stale without being merged, but the recipe list itself was solid work.

I applied those 25 recipes to my local DB as well:

UPDATE synth_recipes SET content_tag = 'ROTZ' WHERE id IN (
    15, 539, 560, 1019, 1518, 1524, 1540, 2028, 2501, 2534,
    3001, 3009, 3023, 3512, 3523, 3537, 3538, 4003, 4021, 4031,
    4049, 4531, 4547, 10517, 24549
);

With this, the current status of ENABLE_ROTZ support on my server is:

Table	Rows tagged ROTZ	Status
abilities	88	✅ Complete
spell_list	57	✅ Complete
traits	56	✅ Complete
synth_recipes	25	✅ Complete (from PR #7522)
npc_list	0	⚠️ Not yet — Zilart-exclusive NPCs still spawn when ENABLE_ROTZ = 0

Thanks to @Grahf0085 for the recipe research. It would be great to see that work revived as a proper PR alongside the rest of this.