Editing the nation intros?

[Amob_m_s]

Hi,

I have recently started to experiment with modding HOI, and ran into a problem.

I am trying, just for fun, to make a mod, probably crappy, based on a WWI game in People's Tactics that I just finished. It resulted in rather territory-hungry Allies chopping up large parts of Europe, and in order to have Germany intact for WW2 I assume that, in exchange for huge amounts of Imperial German territory, they layed off the war compensation a bit, so Germany is smaller, but still strong. Serbia controls most of the A-H empire, with Russia expanding very far (no failure in war = no angry mobs to support Lenin) but then collapsing under the pressure of so many nationalities.

That's the story. Which would be great, if I could find the files which contain the nation intros in order to change them. That's my question: where are the intro text files? (in case I haven't been clear, I'm talking about the little story that displays next to the propaganda posters in the "Single Player" lobby when you select a nation to play.) I know that for nations without texts, it says that the intro is MINOR_DESC, but I cant find a MINOR_DESC file, or a USA_DESC file, or any XXX_DESC file.

 

[Dr Rare]

The file you are looking for is the Hearts of Iron/config/text.csv Its all in the text.csv.


Best link for hoi1 modding i know......
http://www.hearts-of-iron.com/
Havard's HoI Hacking Haven

If you ever cant find a file in hoi1 just use your computer to search hoi1 for the line you want eg search all folders for MINOR_DESC.It saves a lot of eyestrain and yes i have learnt the hard way!!

Dr

 

[Amob_m_s]

OK, so I found the descriptions, and decided to test it out by adding a description for Iceland, which has none normally.

I check the game, seeing that Iceland's "Historical Info" is "ICL_DESC"

So I go into the TEXT file, check to see if there is a ICL_DESC line. There is none.

I go to the end, and enter into a new space:

ICL_DESC;yada yada yada;;;;;;;;;;X (This is exactly how the other DESC lines are formatted, one ; between the label and the text and 10 ; followed by an x at the end.)

I go into HOI again, into the load game lobby, and select my game in which I have released Iceland as Denmark. I right click on the Danish flag and change it to Iceland. The historical info is...

ICL_DESC



thanks for the help finding the files, doc. If you know what I need to do to use the file that I'm not doing, that would be great.

 

[Dr Rare]

Not sure but.....

ok i am not sure for definate ,but i think that your new tag has to be entered into the text alphabetically ?!.
Also i seem to remember some problem with Iceland in one of the games versions that it had two tags?And in another version it didnt exist??.
With vanilla i think there are different descriptions for countries for each scenario and with Core.
It could also be that because Iceland isnt listed in the scenario that it dosent show up, but i am unsure i havnt added to the desc myself but some others i know have also had similar problems ?
Also you might have to start new game and not use old save game possibly?

Good luck!,maybe some one else can help??
If you do work it out tell me.

Dr

 

[Amob_m_s]

Okay, I've been trying to isolate the problem.

It's not alphabetical issues, none of the other countries are in alph. order.

Starting a new game didn't help either.

I'll try some more options tomorrow, it's 12:30 AM here so I'm done for tonight. If anyone else out there knows anything about this, please post what you know.

 

[Dr Rare]

Ok i am a bit tired myself 5.30am not asleep yet,but check your sheilds folder there are 2 iceland flags one is tagged ICL and the other is tagged ICE so try that? maybe that is what i am remembering?
Dr

 

[Amob_m_s]

Okay, good idea, but didn't work.

It also does not appear to be a local problem. I tried giving Siberia a background text, but it still reads "SIB_DESC"

I'll continue down the list of possible problems when I get a chance.

 

[Dr Rare]

Ok ,not so tired now so i had a look..

In the case of the core text.csv romania for instance is ROM_DESC;In the Peace of Paris,blah blah blah
but also there is a line below
ROM;Romania;;;;;;;;;;X
cos core is different from vanillia ,so i look a vanillia check here in the vanillia hoi1 text.csv......

###########################################;;;;;;;;;;;X
###### NAMES OF COUNTRIES & AREAS #####;;;;;;;;;;;X
###########################################;;;;;;;;;;;X
# IMPORTANT! COUNTRY NAMES MAY NOT BE TOO LONG;;;;;;;;;;;X
##;;;;;;;;;;;X
MIN;(Undefined Nation);;;;;;;;;;X
ENG;United Kingdom;;;;;;;;;;X
FRA;France;;;;;;;;;;X
GER;Germany;;;;;;;;;;X
HOL;Netherlands;;;;;;;;;;X...ETC ETC ETC

and you will find there is no ICL or ICE I suggest adding this and trying again.Edit.but siberia is there and it didnt work for you?

So maybe you have to name which scenario it is the descrip for?So also below that you may notice that there are different descrips for different scenarios in Hoi1 vanillia eg ROM_41_DESC;In the Peace of Paris...blah blah so there are also a 36,39 and 44 ones.

hope this helps

Dr

 

[Amob_m_s]

Okay, I'll take a look, but...

So maybe you have to name which scenario it is the descrip for?So also below that you may notice that there are different descrips for different scenarios in Hoi1 vanillia eg ROM_41_DESC;In the Peace of Paris...blah blah so there are also a 36,39 and 44 ones.

In the comments, it says that the plain XXX_DESC (ie not XXX_41_DESC, etc.) is a default intro for when there is no scenario-specific intro.

I'll try adding Iceland to the list you mentioned, and see what that does.

 

[Amob_m_s]

Anyone know anything abot editing the text.csv file? I've tried nation intros and now event adding, but can't get anything.

Also, I noticed in the introduction to the file it says the last cell in the "A" column must contain: #EOF" I tried deleting the #EOF cells (there are 2) from the original last line and adding them at the end of my additions, but all that has accomplished is making the game not run at all, I get an error when I click the icon.

I tried putting "#" in the empty spaces, and I made sure there were "x"s in the "L" column for every single space affected, but this didn't work. I've got the text.csv file backed up, but I would really like to get my mod working, with actual text instead of events named "EVT_20470_NAME"

 

[Amob_m_s]

Okay, I might have found my problem.

I made the stupid mistake of reading the directions at the beginning of the document.

This introduction tells you to convert the file to a typical excel spreadsheet (still csv format, but displayed without the semicolons.)

This is much easier to read, but...

in the conversion, it seems some of the "x"s that should have ended up in the "L" column were lost. I'm talking several hundred, maybe a thousand, that need to be replaced.

There are no instructions on how to "undo" the conversion, either.

so........... it looks like I have some work to do. After about 30 mins of work, I am a quarter of the way through the document, patching up the "L" column.

... :wacko: ... :wacko: ... :wacko: ... :wacko: ... :wacko:

 

[Dr Rare]

I think you are like me and always learn the hard way,it sounds like a lot of work.
I am sure though you can add events to the game as long as the numbers arnt used already without adding to the text.csv file ,we never had to add any events to the TGW text.csv file for the mini-mod we just dropped them into the existing mod events to bypass that. for example just take your event and add it to the swedish.txt and it should run.Maybe i have misunderstood your question?

DR

 

[Amob_m_s]

OK, that makes it simpler.

I learned just about everything from looking at vanilla HOI events, and ALL of those refer to the text.csv file.

I will use my backup, and fix my events to use direct text, not text.csv references. Thanks, doc. (And i hope i never see another x in my life, typing 7000 of them got juuuuuuuuuuust a bit tedious)

 

[Dr Rare]

Test event!!!

A Silly test event you can add ,i just tested it myself it works!Core or vanillia!!Just cut and paste it and add it to any countrys .txt.You can just change countrys and its text to make it your own.
Edit.The best way to extract this text and add it to your game so it retains the original format as the forum squashes the post txt is to go to 'reply with quote' to this post and extract it from there then copy and paste it.(save it as a .txt document)
muwahhhaaaa!

Dr Rare


#########################################################################
# Refugees into Switzerland
#########################################################################

event = {
country = SCH
id = 5700056
random = no

trigger = {
war = { country = ENG country = GER }
exists = SCH
}
name = "Refugees from Central Europe"
desc = "Along with the masses of displaced people,The evil genius Dr Rare has retreated to his mysterious swiss castle."
style = 0

date = { day = 30 month = September year = 1939 }
offset = 15
deathdate = { day = 30 month = december year = 1948 }

action_a = {
name = "More mouths to feed, and more manpower"
command = { type = add_division which = militia }
command = { type = dissent value = 10 }
command = { type = manpowerpool value = 50 }
}
}

 

[Amob_m_s]

AHA!

I think I just found out how the nation intros work. When I figured out that only Paradox events refer to the text.csv file, it got me thinking- maybe that applies to the intros, too. So I looked at a scenario I had created using the editor, and right there, at the top, is,

GER = {
desc = ""
picture = "scenarios\data\propaganda_GER.bmp"
countrytactics = ""
missioncountry = ""
missiontactics = ""
countrydifficulty = 0
countryeconomy = 0
countrymilitary = 0
countrydiplomacy = 0
missiontype = -3
}
SER = {
desc = ""
picture = "scenarios\data\propaganda_min.bmp"
countrytactics = ""
missioncountry = ""
missiontactics = ""
countrydifficulty = 0
countryeconomy = 0
countrymilitary = 0
countrydiplomacy = 0
missiontype = -3
}

... and so on, for every country. I haven't tested it yet, but it looks like this is the way to create nation intros. Still no idea on how to add intros to default HOI scenarios, i.e. for Iceland or Siberia, but if a new scenario is created, this way should work. I'll post again once I have tested this.

 

[Dr Rare]

you shouldnt have to alter the scenario unless you want to add a new country to be available from when you start the game scenario.
In which case you just add your countrys three letter code to this in the scenario.....
header = {
name = "Grand Campaign"
startyear = 1941
endyear = 1947

selectable = {
ENG FRA GER POR ITA SOV SPA SWE TUR JAP CHI SCH CUB BUL HUN ROM IRE FIN AFG BRA ARG
MEX COL VEN PRU ECU URU PAR BOL CHL NZL CAN AST VIC MAN USA CHC HOL CRO SLO SIA SAU MON
GUA COS NIC DOM PHI BHU SAL HAI HON LIB NEP OMN PAN SIK SAF TIB YEM

If its a country you liberate you should just save game then reload as the new country from your save game then you should see the DESC you added.

I found a link in the modding sub forum that might help you check it out......
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=171992
Paradox Interactive Forums - Country DESC

Any way i hope i am being of some help to you.

Good luck at the front!!!

Dr Rare

 

[Amob_m_s]

Okay, the link helps, but not much.

I still can't get descriptions n the text.csv file (yes, they are before the EOF line) to show up. I can get descriptions in by editing the scenario file, as I said above, but I just rechecked, and there are only sections like that in the scen. file for the preselected nations. I'll keep trying though.