Could you elaborate on:
My next step was to add images for at least 12 new craft equipment I'd setup. Can the number of new sprites not exceed the original set and must instead overwrite them?
I'm creating a stand-alone mod for TFTD, is that a sub mod? Or is it a sub mod only when it is a mod for another mod?
Example:
Solarius Scorch's 'The X-Com Files' (Base Mod)
8mono's 'XCom Files Arsenal Additions' (Sub Mod)
Technically your mod is a submod to the master xcom2 (TFTD), so it's also a submod. But there is a difference if you make a mod like XCom Files Arsenal Additions for The X-Com Files. There is a
batch of IDs for xcom1 and xcom2 that always exist. That's also a reason why your bigobs start at index 100 or so, so you do not disturb the 0..65 range.
Your Barracuda is using the vanilla ID 3, so a reference for it works fine. If XCF had a craft STR_SOME_CRAFT using a sprite: 50 and a submod for XCF copied the entry for STR_SOME_CRAFT, the game wouldn't know where to look. If I recall correctly even
sprite: {mod: XCF, index: 50}
wouldn't work. If you want to modify the STR_SOME_CRAFT in a submod you are better off just leaving the sprite info completely out and only modify whatever you wanted (f. ex. damageMax). That's what the comment referred to.
Unfortunately the ruleset validator is for Visual Studio Code and I'm using Xed so I don't believe that is currently an option for me.
I couldn't find Pedro's ruleset validator on the IDT Modding Hub, could you provide a link? (Or do you mean Pedroterzero himself?)
VS Code works really good for Linux, I use it almost all the time. Sometimes I use mousepad and bash to do specific things.
And yes, I talk about the oxce-yaml-helper written by pedroterzero. The validator found a ton of issues and it is really a great tool. You can checkout the pins of the #vscode-ruleset-tools channel in the
IDT discord.