Modding

So i've been trying to get some info on GalCiv modding, which i presume is based strongly if not entirely on galciv3's modding, as the instructions there work, but I wanted to know if you do an XML merge as there's no mention of it.  Copying an entire file to change one value means constantly having to replace the changed values on a new copy of the XML on every update, when a simple XML merge should work, even if you have to do it with a manual iteration of the XML data because you're not embedding ID attributes.

So if i create a file, like say ShipHullStatDefs.xml in my user / mods directory and only enter the XML object i want to modify will that work ok?  I understand it'd need to be a full XML object from a first level child object like <ShipComponent>.  is the InternalName your soft ID? 

If it doesn't currently work like this are you able to do that merge?  that'd be heaps good to avoid constant deprecation of mods that continue to retain the XML values from the static mod file.

Thanks!