Modding the researches.xml: best way to remove some settings

for instance, we have the following field:

Researches.AdvancedHP(AND)Researches.CaesanVivisection(OR)Items.DeltaCorpse

I want to remove the colored part of it, what is the best way to do it using MODMERGE commands? The goal is to avoid collisions with other mods that might alter this field as well

You need to put a update command to that cell.. look to dreadnought mod, its researches.xml file got an example..

You can do it with the following commands: MODMERGEREPLACE and MODMERGEWITH.

The first is used to identify the text you want to replace, in this instance "(OR)Items.DeltaCorpse" while the second is used to indicate what you want to replace the text with: "" (i.e. nothing). So it will look like:

MODMERGEREPLACE: (Or)Items.DeltaCorpse MODMERGEWITH:

I'm actually not sure whether it will allow you to leave the last part blank but if it won't there's no reason you couldn't set up a null-entry which can never be called (e.g. replace with: (OR)Items.NULL and set up a meaningless item in items.xml which doesn't get used at all). This won't disrupt the actual entry (the null item can't appear in game and because it's an 'or' it won't interrupt the actual prerequisites you want) but will allow you to remove the old text. Hopefully that workaround isn't necessary but it should work if it is.

ok, I had similar thoughts but asked just in case I'm missing something

the workaround is probably not useful in all cases, eg if there will be the "AND" operator... hope this won't be necessary, have to do a test