Modding Tutorials/GrammarResolver

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The grammar resolver is a RimWorld utility that customizes text strings based on in-game objects, such as pawns. This is used for backstory descriptions, trait tooltips, and many types of incidents and player messages.

For instance, the letter when a wanderer joins starts:

 A {PAWN_kind} named {PAWN_nameDef} has arrived and is joining the colony. {PAWN_pronoun} is a {PAWN_title}.

When resolved, details of a specific pawn are filled in:

 A wanderer named Bob has arrived and is joining the colony. He is a chef.

Symbols

To allow text you write to be personalized, you need to add symbols to it. Symbols are set off by curly braces {} and consist of two parts with an underscore between. The first part of the symbol is the key. This identifies which object the symbol belongs to. PAWN is the most common key for traits, backstories, and many incidents. If there are multiple objects being referenced, each one receives a separate key.

The second, optional, part of a symbol is the subsymbol, which determines what information the resolver fetches and how it's formatted. The available subsymbols depend on the type of object. Subsymbols that add an article (a, an, the) to the output will try to obey normal rules of grammar, such as not printing articles in front of proper names in English. Because the resolver is designed to support multiple languages, not all of its features (such as PluralIndef symbols or genders of inanimate objects) will apply to English-language mods.

Thing Subsymbols

These subsymbols are defined for Things (including Pawns), World Objects, and Defs.

Subsymbol	Meaning	Examples
(none)	identical to indefinite	Alice	an alpaca	a chair
label	the label field of the thing's def	human	alpaca	chair
labelShort		Alice	alpaca	chair
definite	label plus "the"	Alice	the alpaca	the chair
indefinite	label plus "a"	Alice	an alpaca	a chair
labelPlural		humans	alpacas	chairs
labelPluralDef		the humans	the alpacas	the chairs
labelPluralIndef		humans	alpacas	chairs
pronoun		he	she	it
possessive		his	her	its
objective		him	her	it
factionName	the faction the thing belongs to; invalid for Defs	Alicetopia
gender	prints the symbol for the object's gender

Pawn Subsymbols

These subsymbols are defined specifically for Pawns. Note that these definitions for labelShort, definite, and indefinite override the general Thing definitions.

Subsymbol	Meaning	Examples
labelShort	a pawn's short name or label	Alice	alpaca
nameFull	defaults to kindIndef	Alison 'Alice' Abbey	an alpaca
nameFullDef	defaults to kindDef	Alison 'Alice' Abbey	the alpaca
nameDef	identical to definite	Alice	the alpaca
nameIndef	identical to indefinite	Alice	an alpaca
kind	based on the pawn's pawnkind, gender, and lifestage	colonist	calf	bull
kindDef		the colonist	the calf	the bull
kindIndef		a colonist	a calf	a bull
kindPlural		colonists	calves	bulls
kindPluralDef		the colonists	the calves	the bulls
kindPluralIndef		colonists	calves	bulls
kindBase	the pawn's PawnKindDef's label	colonist	cow	cow
kindBaseDef		the colonist	the cow	the cow
kindBaseIndef		a colonist	a cow	a cow
kindBasePlural		colonists	cows	cows
kindBasePluralDef		the colonists	the cows	the cows
kindBasePluralIndef		colonists	cows	cows
factionPawnSingular	The title of a member of the pawn's faction	colonist
factionPawnSingularDef		the colonist
factionPawnSingularIndef		a colonist
factionPawnsPlural		colonists
factionPawnsPluralDef		the colonists
factionPawnsPluralIndef		colonists
lifestage	The noun form of the pawn's lifestage	adult	teenager
lifestageDef		the adult	the teenager
lifestageIndef		an adult	a teenager
lifestageAdjective	The adjective form of the pawn's lifestage	adult	teenage
title	The pawn's backstory title	chef	medic
titleDef		the chef	the medic
titleIndef		a chef	a medic
humanlike	prints a symbol denoting whether the pawn is human or animal

Faction Subsymbols

These subsymbols are defined for Factions.

Subsymbol	Meaning	Examples
(none)	identical to name	Alicetopia
name	The faction's name	Alicetopia
pawnSingular	label for one pawn of this faction	colonist
pawnSingularDef		the colonist
pawnSingularIndef		a colonist
pawnsPlural	label for several pawns of this faction	colonists
pawnsPluralDef		the colonists
pawnsPluralIndef		colonists

Misc

A string with no subsymbol will be printed as-is. The resolver will give its best guess for any of the following subsymbols, treating the string as a singular noun.

plural	pluralDef	pluralIndef
definite	indefinite	pronoun
possessive	objective	gender

An integer with the subsymbol "ordinal" will be turned into an ordinal ("1st", "2nd", "3rd", etc.). One with no subsymbol is printed as-is.

Any other object without a subsymbol will attempt to invoke that object's ToString() method and print the result.

Invoking the Resolver

If you're writing your own events or other code, you may want to print a string customized with objects you provide it. To do so, use the .Formatted() method:

string.Formatted(object.Named("KEY"))

where string is the string to be formatted, object is the object to customize for, and KEY is the key associated with that object. If you have multiple objects, you will need multiple keys and a separate call to Formatted for each one. Keys may be any arbitrary string, so long as the method and text use the same key.

AdjustedFor

Certain methods (especially the battle log) use a separate resolver instead of or in addition to the above. This is invoked like so:

string.AdjustedFor(pawn, "KEY")

This method supports a small number of keywords, all of which work the same way as described above.

nameFull	nameShort	nameShortDef	definite
nameShortIndef	indefinite	pronoun	possessive
objective	factionName	kind	title