Dsgnname files

Purna · #1 August 29th, 2002, 05:54 AM

When I set up my empire originally, I didn't have a design name file constructed yet. Now, I have one, and I'd like to use it for a game in progress. Is it possible?

Fyron · #2 August 29th, 2002, 05:58 AM

Not in-game. You can always open the text file and copy names out of it, and use them to name your ships.

Atrocities · #3 August 29th, 2002, 10:12 AM

If you want, you can edit your emp file to use your new design names. However, the only way to change them while in game is as Fyron said.

Lemmy · #4 August 29th, 2002, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Atrocities:
If you want, you can edit your emp file to use your new design names. However, the only way to change them while in game is as Fyron said.

will the new EMP file be used with the savegame?

Perrin · #5 August 29th, 2002, 02:11 PM

Is this a single player game? I think that it is possible to do. I had recently downloaded the Babalon 5 ship sets (thanks Atrocities!

). Anyway I am still very new at this adding new races/mods thing. I didn't have the design name file in the proper place and started a SP game. The ship design box was blank. I later copied the text file to a place where the game could find it and loaded my saved game. Presto! Now the proper design names are display for selection.

Sorry for the rambling / vague post I am at work and as I said I am new to adding mods.

DirectorTsaarx · #6 August 29th, 2002, 05:54 PM

While you can't change which designname file your empire looks for once the game has started, you can certainly edit the file itself; the new information in the file will be read when you try to name a new ship design (and if you delete the file, or never create it in the first place, the game will just complain that it can't find the appropriate file).

In other words, say you use "composers.txt" for your design name file. If, after playing the first few turns (or few hundred turns

), you decide you need more names, just edit "composers.txt" to add more names. The new names will be available.

A more complicated scenario is when you would prefer to use a completely different set of names. Let's say you selected Romania.txt as your design name file at setup. Now, you want to use a custom file. You would copy the contents of the custom file, paste into the Romania.txt file, and probably delete all the old names in Romania.txt. NOTE: This will affect all empires that use that design name file! I would also recommend, as usual, that you save a copy of the original file (I usually use the "backup" folder so thoughtfully provided in the SE4 folder).

Purna · #7 August 29th, 2002, 06:47 PM

Hrmmm...Sounds like I am SOL. I guess I should have specified some design file name, any name, when I originally set up the empire. Oh, well. Live and learn.

capnq · #8 August 29th, 2002, 07:41 PM

Quote:

While you can't change which designname file your empire looks for once the game has started, you can certainly edit the file itself; the new information in the file will be read when you try to name a new ship design (and if you delete the file, or never create it in the first place, the game will just complain that it can't find the appropriate file).

This has never worked for me; if I edit a design name file, none of the changes affect games I started before the edit.

DirectorTsaarx · #9 August 30th, 2002, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by capnq:

quote:
While you can't change which designname file your empire looks for once the game has started, you can certainly edit the file itself; the new information in the file will be read when you try to name a new ship design (and if you delete the file, or never create it in the first place, the game will just complain that it can't find the appropriate file).

This has never worked for me; if I edit a design name file, none of the changes affect games I started before the edit.

I just tested it to verify that it works, and it did. I use composers.txt as my design name file, so I opened it in Notepad, added a line "Test Name" at the beginning of the file, and saved the file (obviously, still using "composers.txt" as the file name). Started a new game, and Voila! "Test Name" was the first ship name in the list. (Well, actually I had to edit the Version of composers.txt in the TDM-Mod folder before it worked, but that's kinda obvious). An easier way to test (which I've done more than once) is to delete your design name file. The game will complain about "cannot access design name file". If you create the correct file, the game is happy again.