Edutaining bios

[unmerged(29126)]

Sorry for starting yet another thread ... I just can't get no sleep
but I have a request to make ...
could leaders and ministers be linked to a text-file that includes a short biography ? I don't want it on screen per se but it should be available upon request (bio-button). The reason why I want this is because I'd like a bit of historic background, especially on the less-known leaders or the more obscure (shadow-)cabinet members. The official Paradox researchers wouldn't even have to do more than 2-3 dozen of the usual suspects (Eisenhower, FDR, Stalin, Rommel etc.) and the rest could be filled in by the community ...
that shouldn't be too hard to implement ... soo pleeeeaaaaaaase

 

[unmerged(10371)]

it would be a neat little addition....

 

[unmerged(31131)]

are you saying that Paradox should add bios for 1000 officers? And if you want a bio for the fameous generals read a book, less strain on the designers.

 

[unmerged(15623)]

are you saying that Paradox should add bios for 1000 officers?

Nah, that's a job for the betas.

We are just trying to increase the beta workload in revenge for them being so vague and cryptic regarding our questions.

 

[unmerged(29126)]

The official Paradox researchers wouldn't even have to do more than 2-3 dozen of the usual suspects (Eisenhower, FDR, Stalin, Rommel etc.) and the rest could be filled in by the community ...

There are enough people that know about Henry Ford's sympathy's for the nazis. I didn't until recently. Never knew why he was in the Fascist line-up for the US shadow-cabinet. Who are all the others ? I don't want info on ALL of them just a little here and a little there to have more than just a picture and a name. Someone from thailand will have heard of some of the leaders in that time probably in school. And books usually only cover the better-known individuals ...

Please just add the possibility, we already link to a bmp for every leader. And judging by some of the discussions in some of the sub-forums there's enough "obscure" knowledge floating around

 

[Tachikaze]

This could be a fun idea, though there wouldn't have to be more than the possibility so that all the different modders can start writing in facts at their leisure. However, how much space would such a thing take and how hard is it to implement? *Directed at mods and admins*

 

[Zwiback]

On one side it should be easy to put in a small txt file which is linked to the leaders/politicans ect. b

But the stirings allowed should be limited to about 500 chars or something- this way the memory load wouldnt be too high.

 

[unmerged(29126)]

You mean HDD space or RAM? A nuisance of the leader-portraits was, that once you wanted to replace a leader all the pictures needed to be loaded. For the majors that could take up to 10 seconds (what did people do in MP I wonder ?)
A reasonibly sized txt-file can be 3-4 kB, so lets say 8MB total HDD space for 2000 bios, 2 MB to download as zipped file. Doable, especially if it's optional.
And for memory, only one bio should be active at any given time, and only when one clicks on the biography-button (so no loading everytime you select a different leader) not a huge resource eater I presume.

 

[unmerged(10371)]

it would of course just be for the big guys right? I actually like this idea...and support it

 

[Tachikaze]

it would of course just be for the big guys right? I actually like this idea...and support it

Yes, at least as far as Paradox goes. After that, it's all up the mods to edit, add and remove as they please. Oh, the powers...

 

[unmerged(26876)]

Suggested before: Because it is a good idea

Would be nice to know about the famous people from history (and the not so famous). Particularly when playing a minor country.

 

[unmerged(10371)]

heres something though:

The game starts in 1936...would the Bios only go till 1936 or would they still give the info even if it happened after 1936?

 

[unmerged(29126)]

Should be full bios including post-war activities. If leaders are gonna be at post-36 skill and with post-36 traits like in HOI1 there'd be no point in hiding post-36 bios.

It's supposed to be educational. People that want to play with personality-Fof-of-War could delete or ignore at leisure.

 

[Grosshaus]

The costs of translating all that text would propably be too high to justify it.

 

[unmerged(23356)]

Well why should you translate it? Instead of taking one biografy in swedish or English and translating it into all the other languages, you can just take a biografy in german, french, spanish etc. for the other versions! Copy & paste, 20 seconds each leader

 

[Grosshaus]

Well why should you translate it? Instead of taking one biografy in swedish or English and translating it into all the other languages, you can just take a biografy in german, french, spanish etc. for the other versions! Copy & paste, 20 seconds each leader

Take a biography? As if copy/pasting from a site violating thier copyrights? No, all text must be unique and written by developers or betas. That text is translated.

 

[unmerged(31881)]

Ok, so DON'T put in any copyrighted information or translations.
Just a string of numbers of the birth dates for all the major leaders.
That ease your fears of lawsuits? Quick google search for a dozen birthdays, not too taxing.

It's not about Paradox adding the content.
Just provide the platform - others will dig up the information once they know it can be displayed.

 

[unmerged(29126)]

Err ... if it were to be a project that is mainly contributed to by the community then copy-right infringements wouldn't be much of a problem ... especially if you take a biography and paraphrase from it. The info itsself is not copyrighted only if you quote directly.
With a bit of googling I could probably do research on 20-30 leaders a week in my spare-time and have lots of time left to actually play the game. There are enough enthousiast out there that would love to contribute. Where did translation enter into this ?

 

[J.J.E.]

The idea about bios is great! And yes, it should cover the time after 1936 so people can read and say "Hey, this von Paulus fella surrendered at Stalingrad, I should probably use him to guard Caen instead", or something like that.

I always enjoyed the country descs of HoI and EUII and missed them in Vicky and CK. Country descs and bios made by the community would make this game a little bit better!

 

[unmerged(26876)]

The costs of translating all that text would propably be too high to justify it.

The idea about bios is great! And yes, it should cover the time after 1936 so people can read and say "Hey, this von Paulus fella surrendered at Stalingrad, I should probably use him to guard Caen instead", or something like that.

I always enjoyed the country descs of HoI and EUII and missed them in Vicky and CK. Country descs and bios made by the community would make this game a little bit better!

Last time this idea was discussed we suggested that the leader files simply have a space to include a bio and that the bios be done (or not) by the community and or the modders.
It was also suggested that space was made to include Unit insignia and bios.
Here's the thread (from page 22!)
http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?t=145268