Not to be rude or anything, but ChatGPT has been a huge help for me with modding questions. When I’m confused, I can even ask it to break things down for me. I don’t fully rely on it, but it’s definitely a great tool to get started.

It took two days for someone like me to respond, and now I’ll probably get other players trying to put their 2 cent in and chewing my ear off about AI... and maybe even some annoying jester points (I really hate those things).

Tbh I'd find it super interesting to see how good of an answer AI gives for modding yose. Especially for a specific request like this. It's a fascinating use case for AI.

Anyway, I ain't no expert and I'm terrible at giving instructions, and I haven't done specifically what OP is asking so this is mostly my own experience combined a little guessing. Also this is gonna be long.. Oh and this is gonna be really rough directions..

So programs needed, a text editor (I use notepad++) and SoD Tools https://www.nexusmods.com/stateofdecay/mods/151.

Some other programs that aren't required, but that I use. WinMerge, as it allows me to merge xmls together for when I want to combine mods. Xml Notepad, this I only use because when I open up an xml in it, if there's an error in the code it tells me exactly where, and I have missed far too many < and > when tweaking files that I need it.

Step 1 will be to unpack the .pak files using SoD Tools, recommend to just do all of them and then keep them safe somewhere (away from the game directory) as a reference to what the vanilla state of the files are. When modifying one, make a copy of it 1st and mod that instead of the original. There's a tickbox in the settings menu that needs to be ticked for YOSE.

Okay, so, with the reminder that what is being asked is not something I've done. Now that you have everything unpacked, the files you care about for this are all xmls, and there's quite a few.

As a general sense, you'll be looking for the code that gives Gurubani, and then copy and pasting it below, then changing the name to that of Milo's and then again for Cho. Milo's name iirc is just Milo, I would assume Cho's is Cho, but it could be Vienna or even something else possibly. As to where to find what her name is.. idk, Anyway, the next step would then to probably add Cho's game data to the characters file because I'm 99% sure she's only in the Lifeline files. From there I'd then turn them into bmds and test it out to see if it works.

So, lets start with where I'd look to edit the radio call. There's 2 files I'd check first, radiooptions.xml (game/libs/class3/contentmanager) and rtsevents.xml (game/libs/class3/rts). So what you'd do is open up the xmls for these files, and then try and find the line that gives Gurubani. I know radiooptions is obviously about the radio, but my gut feeling says rtsevents is a better start point. If it's neither of these 2 then I have no idea where I'd look for it, but it should be somewhere within the class3 folder. I'd just control+F to search for gurubani in xmls that it could be in.

It'll look something like this
<action> gurubani
<blah>
<moreblah>
<output>
add gurubani to squad <-- It's this output section you're looking for
</output>
</action>

The aim will be to have it roughly look like this

<output>
add gurubani to squad
add milo to squad
add cho to squad
</output>

Once you've edited the call, the next step will be to save the xml, and then go looking for the characters.xml file (game/libs/class3/rts). Search it for gurubani, milo, and cho's character info. You should get results for Gurubani and Milo, but I doubt there's be Cho's. If she's in there, great, if not head over to the lifeline version of the same file (game/libs/CLASS3.2/rts/characters.xml) and find her in there.

It'll look like
<character> blah Cho blah
<blah>
<traits>
<inventory>
</character>

Just copy the whole block for her and then make a space in the class3 version, keeping the format/structure the same as the others, and just paste it in. IIRC Cho isn't playable, this is likely a character trait and will need to be deleted from the <trait> section if you want to play as her. Once done save the file.

At this point you'll have the xmls you're edited, and now need to turn them into bmd files. This is done with SoD Tools, under the tools menu is a really really bad xml editor, open the xml in that, then press export to make a bmd in the same location as the xml is. I found it doesn't like making bmd's in certain file locations but that it makes them fine within the SoD file location. If it still doesn't make a bmd, it's likely cos the code used is broken (the previously mentioned Xml Notepad will help id where). SoD Tools doesn't tell you what's wrong if it doesn't make a bmd, just as a heads up. Annoying, but it is what it is.

Once you have the bmds, they need to be placed within the correct file path within the game's directory, this is the same file locations as the xmls are in when you unpacked them (but now within the game's files). For the 3 files I mentioned already, thats SoD:YOSE/game/libs/class3/contentmanager for radiooptions.win.bmd, SoD:YOSE/game/libs/class3/rts for rtsevents.win.bmd and characters.win.bmd.

Once in there the next step will be to test it in game. If it crashes on loading, there's very likely an error in the files somewhere causing the crash. If the radio call works but it doesn't call in the characters then it's probably the wrong name for them or the command's format is correct but it doesn't recognise it or something. Also as a warning, once gurubani is radio'd in, the option to do so is removed. So if it works but fails to call the others in, welp you have to start a new game on top of figuring out why it didn't work. So maybe test it with a new game in a new profile if you want to keep your current save. It will probably be easier to make the mod for breakdown 1st (so make the changes to the class3.1 versions of the files instead) as with breakdown level 1 you can just instantly join an enclave and then radio them in to see if it works.

I know this is all super long, and super messy, but in my defence, I said I was bad at giving instructions. Plus there's quite a few steps when starting from scratch. The good news is, modding yose is 90%+ the same thing every time, so if you can figure how to make this mod, there really isn't much more to making 90%+ of other mods that are just xml edits.

I'm not really that active here, or anywhere, so if there's a section of this you get stuck on I'm sorry, it might be while before I check back. But there are others around now and then as well that might be able to help explain it better. It'll be easier to do so if focusing in a specific part (for example, you find the section you need to edit but are unsure what specific code you need to use to make it work).

Wow thanks for the quick responses guys.

I forgot to mention before but I am doing this on Steam Deck if that affects anything. I can still install and use mods from the Nexus so hopefully it shouldn’t be a problem.