How to change names?

**Faenaris** · 12-26-2006, 13:18

I was fooling around a bit in the data files of M2TW and I tried changing the name of a starting general.

His name was Otto von Kassel, a HRE. I wanted to name him "Daan von Swabia". I went to the descr_strat file and changed his name. I also added the names "Daan" to the descr_names folder and the descr_names_lookup.

The general had no name when I started M2TW.

Is there a file I forgot to change?

**alpaca** · 12-26-2006, 13:23

Yep, text/export_names.txt

**Faenaris** · 12-26-2006, 13:48

Please delete this. Double post.

**Faenaris** · 12-26-2006, 13:50

Aha, thanks alpaca.

Oh, and thanks again for your work on the PTPV mod. It is a work of art.

**Faenaris** · 12-26-2006, 13:58

Just took a look at the text folder and there wasn't an export_names.txt
There was a names.txt.string.bin file, other than that, nothing.

Should I unpack again?

EDIT: After some searching, I downloaded the "names.txt" file from ER, added my name and then placed the file in my "text" folder. Works like a charm.

Thanks again for the help, alpaca.

**alpaca** · 12-26-2006, 14:54

Ah right, it's names.txt not export_names.txt lol
No, you don't have to unpack again, that won't change anything.
You'll have to convert the .strings.bin files using my .strings.bin converter tool. You can find it in the tutorials section.

**Dave1984** · 12-26-2006, 15:05

Hi, I've changed all the names in the descr_names and names.txt and descr_names_lookup and finally I come to descr_strat.

Now I want to change the names of the living characters at the start of the game.
So I change all instances of them and the game boots but bumps me back to the menu when I try to start the campaign. The error message I get simply says

13:59:36.311 [script.err] [error] Script Error in data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/descr_strat.txt, at line 2216, column 47
could not find next child. Children list must be terminated with an end

Looking at the relevant section in strat, it is a point about halfway through the first line of the relatives section, and is actually in the middle of a name. There is definitely an , end bit, and the format is all exactly the same as other trees.

So how can I get this to work?

Not changing the names and leaving them as their defaults causes the game to load fine, but the characters are all named ; and only the faction leader appears on the family tree, meaning of course that there is no heir and you have to wait for him to adopt a child or marry a new woman in order to start generating characters on the family tree. However all characters that are recruited or adopted or born or appear or whatever after the start of the game are given the new names I have added perfectly and correctly.

Obviously having to wait for an adoption to kickstart your family tree at the start of a campaign is not a great idea, so can anyone tell me how to fix this?

Help is much appreciated, thanks.

**Dearmad** · 01-07-2007, 08:27

bump

**FactionHeir** · 01-11-2007, 14:56

I've done a few tests on this changing the descr names and the lookup file and had the same results as the OP.

After reading this topic and especially alpaca's reply, I wonder whether I need to change 3 files now for the names to fix or only the names.txt (after bin string it)

D Wilson:
I tried the same and got the same result as you (I tried changing HRE names etc)
I think thats because the family is referenced in another file which determines your family tree to begin with or the spaces between the children names may be significant (note the spacing varies). I think that the info being in another file is more likely. You also can't change the spouse names at the start or it will mess up as well btw.

**alpaca** · 01-11-2007, 22:17

Originally Posted by FactionHeir

I've done a few tests on this changing the descr names and the lookup file and had the same results as the OP.

After reading this topic and especially alpaca's reply, I wonder whether I need to change 3 files now for the names to fix or only the names.txt (after bin string it)

D Wilson:
I tried the same and got the same result as you (I tried changing HRE names etc)
I think thats because the family is referenced in another file which determines your family tree to begin with or the spaces between the children names may be significant (note the spacing varies). I think that the info being in another file is more likely. You also can't change the spouse names at the start or it will mess up as well btw.

Did you try to make sure to exactly keep the format? The children have to be in age order iirc, and the tabs may have some bearing, not sure.

**Dave1984** · 01-11-2007, 23:02

Originally Posted by alpaca

Did you try to make sure to exactly keep the format? The children have to be in age order iirc, and the tabs may have some bearing, not sure.

I ensured that everything was in exactly the correct order, agewise and "tabwise", I scrapped the whole file and rewrote it from scratch and I've still got the same problem and I just can't see what it is. I've even tried putting the names in for a different faction on the off chance that the one I was working with (Milan) had something preventing it working properly.

Have you or anyone you know succeeded in this?

Because the names not working from the off removes all family members from the tree the only thing I'm doing now until it can be fixed is to keep in the names from descr strat on the names lookup and so on and those names only, alongside the newones I've put in, and it keeps the first generation with Milanese names but pretty much every character, recruited adopted or born after that has a (in this case) Welsh name as I intended, but it's still a frustrating dirty little fix just to make sure everything else is working.

**FactionHeir** · 01-11-2007, 23:35

Originally Posted by alpaca

Did you try to make sure to exactly keep the format? The children have to be in age order iirc, and the tabs may have some bearing, not sure.

Yup. Just changed the name itself.
I.e. for HRE i named the kid "Heinrich" instead of "Henry"
Tried a few other names too but to no avail. Same for the wife of the king.

**Niccolo Machiavelli** · 01-21-2007, 18:22

One quick question: I want to correct some of the names for the HRE (most of them aren't even names and lots of them are misspelled) - so to fix e.g. "Gottfied", (which lacks an r), I plan to just go into names.txt and change the line {Gottfied}Gottfied to {Gottfied}Gottfried - would that work or do I have to mess around with the other files as well?

Also, would changing names that way cause conflicts with characters existing in the beginning of the game (like I change {Henry}Henry to {Henry}Heinrich)?