Alamo Engine Tools - Empire at War Edit

Editor support for Star Wars: Empire at War and Forces of Corruption mod development.

This extension gives VS Code a full understanding of the game's XML data format and Lua scripting layer: completions drawn from the live object graph, hover documentation for every tag and enum value, cross-file diagnostics, go-to-definition, find-all-references, rename, and more.

Preview release - This is early-access software. Not all planned features are complete, and behavior may change between versions. Please report anything unexpected on the issue tracker.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code 1.107 or later
• Windows 11 (x64)
• The PG.StarWarsGame.LSP server binary (see Getting started below)

No .NET runtime installation is required. The server ships as a self-contained Windows executable.

Windows 10 is not supported. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 10 in October 2025. The extension may work on Windows 10 but no issues specific to it will be investigated or fixed.

Getting started

1. Download the server

Go to the Releases page and download both:

• aet-eaw-edit-x.x.x.vsix - the VS Code extension (if installing manually instead of through the marketplace)
• PG.StarWarsGame.LSP.Server-x.x.x-win-x64.zip - the language server

Extract the server archive to a permanent folder, for example C:\tools\aet-lsp\.

2. Configure the extension

Open VS Code settings (Ctrl+,) and set:

The extension activates when you open an XML or Lua file, or when the workspace contains a .pgproj file. If the server binary is missing or its version does not match what this extension expects, a notification appears with a link to the correct release.

3. Create a mod project file

Place a .pgproj file at the root of your mod workspace so the extension knows which directories to index:

{
  "name": "My Mod",
  "directories": {
    "xml":     ["data/xml"],
    "scripts": ["data/scripts"],
    "art":     ["data/art"],
    "audio":   ["data/audio"],
    "text":    ["data/text"]
  },
  "projectReferences": []
}

All paths are relative to the .pgproj file. The projectReferences field can list other .pgproj files whose symbols your mod inherits - for example, a base game .pgproj placed alongside your mod.

XML features

The extension indexes the full EaW/FoC object graph across your workspace and uses it to drive every editor feature.

• Completions - tag values auto-complete from enum definitions and named objects declared anywhere in the workspace
• Hover - hover over any tag name, enum value, or object reference to see its type, description, and valid values
• Diagnostics - errors and warnings for unknown references, type mismatches, duplicate declarations, malformed values, and deprecated fields
• Go to definition - F12 or Ctrl+Click on any object reference jumps to its declaration, even across files
• Find all references - Shift+F12 on a symbol lists every file and line where it is used
• Rename - F2 on a symbol renames it consistently across every XML file in the workspace
• Code actions - quick-fix lightbulbs for common problems, including creating a missing localisation key from within the editor
• Code lens - inline reference counts shown above every named object
• Variant inheritance - the Show Effective Object command opens a read-only view of the fully merged XML for any Variant_Of_Existing_Type object

Lua features

Lua script files inside the declared scripts directories are indexed and checked for diagnostics.

Localisation editor

An activity bar panel provides a key-by-language table editor for .csv, .xml, and .properties localisation files.

• Project picker - switch between localisation files declared in the .pgproj
• Inline editing - edit translation values directly in the grid; changes are saved to disk immediately
• Add Language - adds a language column drawn from the game's official language list
• Inherited baseline - the Inherited toggle overlays all base-game EaW and FoC keys as read-only rows for reference
• Search - filter visible rows by key name or any translation value
• Sortable columns - click a column header to sort ascending, click again for descending, click a third time to restore the original order
• Initialise from baseline - creates a fresh localisation file pre-populated with all EaW and FoC keys, in CSV, XML, or Properties format

Commands

Available from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P):

Settings reference

Language server

Schema

The schema describes the complete EaW/FoC XML format. It is fetched from GitHub when the server starts and cached between restarts using HTTP ETags, so only changed files are re-downloaded. You can switch to a local copy via the settings below if you prefer to work offline or pin a specific version.

Baseline

The baseline is a pre-built snapshot of all vanilla EaW and FoC game objects and localisation keys. It is downloaded once and stored in %USERPROFILE%\.pg-swg-lsp\baselines\. The cached file is only re-downloaded when a new version is available. The baseline powers cross-file reference validation and the Inherited toggle in the localisation editor.

Localisation editor

What this extension downloads

This extension contacts external servers only for the two data sources described above. Nothing else is sent or received.

No usage data, telemetry, or crash reports are sent.

Troubleshooting

No diagnostics appear Confirm aet-eaw-edit.lsp.enabled is true and aet-eaw-edit.lsp.executable points to PG.StarWarsGame.LSP.Server.exe. Run EaWEdit: Restart LSP Server after changing settings.

"LSP server failed to start" or status bar shows an error Windows may have blocked the server executable because it was downloaded from the internet. Right-click PG.StarWarsGame.LSP.Server.exe in Explorer, choose Properties, tick Unblock at the bottom of the General tab, then click OK. After unblocking, restart the server with EaWEdit: Restart LSP Server. If it still fails, click Show Output in the error notification to see the full error in the EaWEdit output channel.

Version mismatch warning The server binary and extension must be the same version. Download the matching server from the releases page.

Features only work in some files Only files inside directories listed in your .pgproj are indexed. Add the relevant paths to directories.xml or directories.scripts.

The localisation panel is not visible Set aet-eaw-edit.localisation.editorEnabled to true, then reload the window (Ctrl+Shift+P > Developer: Reload Window).

Viewing raw server output Set aet-eaw-edit.lsp.debug.traceServer to messages and open the EaWEdit output channel in the Output panel.

Issues

Report bugs and feature requests at AlamoEngine-Tools/pg-starwarsgame-lsp/issues.