Re: Extended Greek Mod
I just checked, and discovered that I'm running XGM version 3.6.13 with RTW without BI patched to version 1.5.
Before installing the latest version, I've backed up my old XGM 3.6.13 to mt second hard drive, hoping to save my little unit mods and other tweaks for future reference.
With that in mind, DBHo, I was wondering if you would recommend installing BI when I reinstall my RTW Gold. In short, do you think the XGM in its current form will work best with RTW 1.5 or RTW-BI 1.6?
As a further consideration, do you think that having XGM with BI 1.6 would be more of a help or a hindrance to the kind of continuing modification that I have undertaken in the past?
As to my pedantic little rant about standardizing names files:
You say Alexander. I say Alexandros.
You say Ptolemeus, and I say Ptolemaios.
Alexander - Alexandros -
Ptolemeus - Ptolemaios -
Let's call the whole thing off.
As for editing the names lists, I may have neglected to mention that I have already tried. In fact, I've attacked this thing about three different times, perhaps more than that, if one considers that I was first attracted to the task by the unusually large number of pre-hellenic coptic names attached to the Ptolemaic faction characters. So I began by editing the names of the royal family as found in desc.strat., and, after a whole Saturday's work and a few CD's, I actually was able to get a working version to load with Ptanthotep (or whatever) renamed to Ptolemaios and his heir to Dionysios.
I was able with the Ptolemies to rename all the people in desc.strat from the wives and royal princesses down to the lowliest garrison captains, the Ptolemaic admiral, the diplomat and the spy. However, when I went on to replace Egyptian names *not* used in desc.strat with Greek names, I started to experience CD's again. So my repsonse was to review, overhaul and edit all the names for all the greek factions, and what began as a "day" project, I soon realised, could consume whole weeks with explorer and as many as six or more windows opened on my desktop at a time (not counting the search and replace windows attached to each opened file.)
My approach to the task from the "editing" standpoint was this:
[1] To spell consistantly existing faction names in accordance with modern phonetic and orthographic standards currently employed in the translation of ancient Greek texts. For example:
faction: greek_cities
characters
Acaeus Akaios
Acamus Akamos
Acestes Akestes
Aclepiades Aklepiades
Acrisias Akrisias
Acroneos Akroneos
Adeimanthos Adeimanthos (unchanged)
Admetos Admetos (unchanged)
Adrastos Adrastos (unchanged)
Adymos Adymos (unchanged)
Aegicoros Aigikoros
So far, the only things that have changed, are that c's have become k's and that the Latin dipthong ae has been hellenized to ai. The significant change to the RTW list is that latinized greek names like Acaeus are no longer present in the revision standing alongside non-latinized names like Admetos.
[2] To replace names duplicated and triplicated in the lists with different (and I might just as well add improbable) spellings with new names whenever and wherever duplicates deviated most from the actual Greek. For example:
Philip Philippias
Philipos Philippides
Philippos Philippos (unchanged)
It's worth noting from the example that RTW's "Philip" is the Modern English form of the Greek "Philippos," and that it is very improbable that RTW's rendering "Philipos" could have been derived from the Greek "Hippos" (horse). In editing, I merely chose to replace what I reasoned to be inconsistant duplicate names with actual alternate derivative forms of Philippos that one could encounter in Greek Literature. (For Philippides of Athens, see Herodotus vi. 105, 106.)
[3] To eradicate silly or baseless names from the lists. If an example is needed, try:
faction: thrace
characters
Mukaboris
Mukos
Mukazeis
Mukakenthos
Mukapaibes
Mukaporis
Mukazenis
It's the entire "M" section for Thrace, a group of frequently recurring names that I privately call the "Mukos-Membrane brothers." My index for Thukydides' History of the Peloponnesian War covers this same ground alphabetically with "Motya, Munichia, and Mykale." The index for Herodotos' Inquiries shows "Mossynoikians, Munychia, Musaios, and Mykale" for the same sequence in the alphabet. Aside from the alternate spellings for the name of a one-goat-town in Attika, the only significant thing to take from these index citings is the apparent absence of "Mukos" derived names. Etymologically, "Mykos" derived names would have proved themselves a more probable option. Take for example Thukydides' statement at 1. 10: "Mykenai certainly was a small place ..." Mycenaean Greek civilization is not quite the same as Mucousaean Membrane civilization, is it?
...
These were the three things about the names (as they are) that I most wanted to change. On the whole, I think it is important to stress that I was not and am not interested in replacing the old names with new ones of my own choosing. Rather, I would like most to simply standardize and, in so doing, hellenize the existing names.
Bearing in mind objectively that standardization and hellenization of the greek names is primarilly in its results a subjective and ascetic pursuit that remains, as it were, in the eyes of the beholder, it remains my opinion that a uniquely "Greek" mod designed for the enhancement of play for those who enjoy playing with "Greek" factions should use standardized hellenic names for the characters in those factions.
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Re: Extended Greek Mod
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