Editing the game text

Alex 14 · August 3, 2001, 06:40

Does altering any part of the game text cause the game to crash?

fittstim · August 3, 2001, 06:50

Not that I've ever experienced. I changed all of the text to Polish (with eastern European symbols) once and didn't have any problems.

The problems can occur, I guess, when you edit the rules.txt file and change the numbers to something outrageous. I've changed them to fairly large number (up to 250 turns for some city improvements) but never experienced any problems. I wonder if the threat at the beginning of the file is based on reality...

Solver · August 3, 2001, 09:10

I believe it can crash if the game will have trouble diplaying some language specific characters you might have.

H Tower · August 3, 2001, 13:23

i'm sure that if you delete one of the @ symbols the game would crash when you try to use that part of the file. otherwise, what's the point in having them

Alex 14 · August 4, 2001, 02:49

Thanks.

Marquis de Sodaq · August 4, 2001, 10:53

Yes, the @ symbols should all be left intact. Adding extra items to a list can cause the game to do silly things (e.g. popup message "Sewer System attack near Valladolid!"), as the game identifies text by its location in the file. Even this doesn't cause it to crash, tho.

Mercator · August 5, 2001, 11:21

You can actually delete loads of stuff from the game textfile...
I got just the MGE mapeditor from Cedric Greene´s MGE patch. To get rid of all unnneeded things, I deleted everything from the game textfile except about a dozen or so @ lines (with their following text) the map editor needs. The mapeditor runs just fine.
But well, without those vital lines the civ2 executable won´t run, will crash, or display silly things or nothing at all.

Generally speaking, nothing should upset the game as long as you don´t start deleting lines. Adding lines can sometimes be even "beneficial". You can, for instance, create extra difficulty levels above Deity (which will be effectively more difficult), add extra "barbarian activity" levels or add extra "world customisation" temperature/age etc. options.

SandMonkey · August 5, 2001, 14:00

you can also add to the levels with which the AI is happy/unhappy with you. For Example:

For an extremely mad person: Totally Insane can be put below Enraged. For someone who absolutely loves you (and how often does that really happen??), one to put above Worshipful could be: "Sucking Your (appropriate body part here)"

Mercator · August 5, 2001, 15:03

Quote:

Originally posted by SandMonkey For someone who absolutely loves you (and how often does that really happen??), one to put above Worshipful could be: "Sucking Your (appropriate body part here)"

Not entirely. Adding a line at the bottom actually makes that line a more extreme version of the previous; adding a line at the top just shifts the others down, but doesn´t make a more lenient version above the others.

Jay Bee · August 5, 2001, 16:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Marquis de Sodaq
Yes, the @ symbols should all be left intact. Adding extra items to a list can cause the game to do silly things (e.g. popup message "Sewer System attack near Valladolid!"), as the game identifies text by its location in the file. Even this doesn't cause it to crash, tho.

I believe this is only caused by a MGE version bug. It doesn't happen with other versions and 'the name of the attacker' changes in a random pattern. Sometimes it's a city improvement, others a government form and yet others a leader's name.

Ecthy · August 7, 2001, 10:42

not only should you leave the @things there, but also the complete lines that start with @

oh, and you better not add any lines to a menu, especially not without changing the menu height

but hey, have you never played a scenario with "cheat mode disabled"? the bugger just removed the "yes" and "no" options and changed the box text from "do you really, really, blabla.." to "sorry pal, no cheat mode ;-)"

you can do a lot of things with the text files, you should just be careful of what you do. better make a backup of your files before

Allard Höfelt once posted some nice possibilities to alter the game text files, maybe you should search for that thread... can't remember the title though

Jay Bee · August 7, 2001, 12:53

Quote:

Originally posted by Ecthelion
but hey, have you never played a scenario with "cheat mode disabled"? the bugger just removed the "yes" and "no" options and changed the box text from "do you really, really, blabla.." to "sorry pal, no cheat mode ;-)"

Hmmm... no. What kind of twisted mind could have done that?

Ecthy · August 7, 2001, 12:57

heh, I suppose you're one of them then, if not THE creator

anyway, I liked the idea, though it was sometiems quite annoying to hack the game.txt in order to reveal.... secrets

of course, that game.txt was a qrite-protected file

Jay Bee · August 7, 2001, 13:04

Jay Bee · August 7, 2001, 13:14

dp

Ecthy · August 8, 2001, 15:14

huh? there's been 10 minutes between those posts? that's supposed to be a double post?

Ecthy · August 8, 2001, 16:01

double post

Ecthy · August 8, 2001, 16:04

triple post

getting silly and spammy now, I know...

anyway, I did major changes in my own game text files and unit graphics... there's a complete any modpack stored on my machine

and it's way more historically accurate than the original rules

Laszlo · August 8, 2001, 22:59

My favorite change was from:

Civil Disorder in %STRING0. Mayor
flees in panic!

to

Civil Disorder in %STRING0. Mayor
wets pants in panic!

Ecthy · August 9, 2001, 13:42

there rreally are people out there who have no life

fittstim · August 10, 2001, 06:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Ecthelion
there rreally are people out there who have no life

Straight from the horse's mouth

Have you ever offered anything of consequence to this forum, Herr Ecthelion???

Ecthy · August 10, 2001, 16:26

dp (+1

)

Ecthy · August 10, 2001, 16:27

fittstim... or whatever your name is:

mean? only to persons who deserve it... do tell, why are you giving people such crap hints?

Laszlo · August 11, 2001, 01:23

Ecthelion, I had actually never made that change to the text file and meant it as a joke. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

Blaupanzer · August 13, 2001, 15:07

Fittstim, why do you continually provoke him? It makes his contribution go from mildly amusing, if irritating, to nasty and negative.