Proofreading and Added Flavor Project

**Krazy Kook** · May 01, 2009, 05:50 AM

This is nothing too big or anything, I've just taken it upon myself to clean up and "proofread" all of the text files for Third Age Total War. I've noticed spelling or grammar mistakes here and there, and while it's not a huge deal, I feel that an amazing mod like this deserves to be sound in that area, so I thought I'd help out.

*And yeah, edited the thread title a bit, seeing as I'm adding a few things, renaming some items, nothing drastic though. Just trying to add more "spice" or variety while keeping the exact, awesome feel of Third Age!

Current Version - 1.1

Changes -
---Updated the export_units (2) file, the one for the Additional Units submod, it was missing some important corrections I had made to the normal file.
---Further updates to both export_units files. Searched for rogue commas, run-on sentences, typos, and more. Went all Grammar Nazi on that file.

Revised certain descriptions as well.
---Did a bit more renaming in export_ancillaries. It's not much, but it's a start.

Download latest file at bottom of post.

Again, all thoughts welcome!

Version 1.0
What I've done:
---Corrected as many grammar and/or spelling mistakes as I could find. I'll probably go back and proofread my own proofreading to find even more, cause I'm thinking I might have missed some.
---Moved some things around to make things read more clearly.
---Fixed unit descriptions that were coming up for the wrong units (i.e. troll description for spearmen or something, can't remember, very tired)
---Created new unit descriptions for the few units that still had boring old vanilla ones. Tell me what you think of them!
---Added to existing unit descriptions to give more flavor, variety, maybe a few chuckles

---Gone through the campaign description files, fixed things up there. Learned a bit from all that too...
---Gone through the ancillaries files, renamed some things, redone descriptions, tried to give as much variety as possible (instead of standard Rohan/Gondor/Silvan/whatever standard descriptions for ancillaries, tried to make them a bit different.) Will probably improve on this later, especially with the renaming.

And that's it for now! There's more to come, I like doing this sort of thing, or at least just participating to better the mod, so I'll keep at it! It is very exhausting though, I can only imagine what it must have been like for the team...and this is just proofreading!

Oh and so far, I've only gone through the campaign_descriptions, export_ancillaries, and export_units files. The building descriptions seem to be all vanilla with a few minor changes (Libraries spreading Numenor culture instead of English or something) so I don't think that's a priority, but I'm going to take a look at it to see if there's anything major to change. Well I guess there's the Orc buildings now, well I'll look at that next! Heh, I could even write up a bunch of NEW descriptions for buildings! Maybe, I dunno.

But anyway I will be moving on to the traits and building description files next, and then the events and missions and more minor stuff. So it's not complete yet. And I hope I haven't made any false promises, this is mostly just proofreading and corrections. I did make quite a few additions, but I'm going to focus more on that for a future release.

Oh and if anyone from the TA team reads this, I'd be happy to let you have the files for release in the next patch if you like them enough and approve of everything. I know you are aware of the simple errors, but I thought I'd save you some time if you want to just use these! Again, as long as you think they're up to the standards and everything.

Feedback is appreciated too, from everyone!

Installation:
Super simple!

---First back up your text folder, found in the MedievalII/mods/Third_Age/data folder.
---Download the attached compressed file and extract the contents directly into MedievalII/mods/Third_Age/data/text folder. So basically tell the computer to unzip it to where you were before but one level further, actually into the text folder.
---It will ask if you want overwrite the files, say yes to all.
---Oh my goodness it's done! What, really? Yeah! You didn't even have time to make some toast, I'm sorry....

---Everything is save game compatible by the way. If anyone has different results, let me know.

---Then play the game and let me know what you think of the ah....proofreading!

Give me feedback, let me know about errors, mistakes, etc. Thank you!

I'm uploading the .zip version, hopefully that's the universal one. If people want .7z I have that too.

UPDATE:
Incindentally, I also have updated the unit descriptions file for the Additional Units Submod by Agostinos, so if anyone is using that, then use that version of the file from this patch. This prevents some descriptions getting messed up or moved due to the renamed/added units.

IMPORTANT: If using the Additional Units Submod, you have an additional step. After you've extracted the files, go into the text folder and find both the export_units and export_units (2) files. Delete export_units and rename export_units (2) to export_units.

For everyone else, you can delete the export_units (2) file if you want, but if you don't it won't do anything.

I haven't done any descriptions for the 1.5 version of his mod, the one with Heavy Wargs, but I'll get to it.

---Krazy Kook---

**Krazy Kook** · May 01, 2009, 11:39 AM

Bump!

Haha, not to blow my own horn or however it goes, just wondering if anyone has seen this and has any thoughts. I've also updated the "mod," and am uploading the new file.

**Deaken** · May 01, 2009, 11:44 AM

Thank you for efforts in polishing the mod up. It's much appreciated!

**Achilla** · May 01, 2009, 12:27 PM

The exact thing I was looking for, +Rep!

**Krazy Kook** · May 01, 2009, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by Achilla

The exact thing I was looking for, +Rep!

Many thanks to you for the feedback and interest! And the rep I suppose

....but seriously, thank you! Another round of thanks to Deaken as well! Now just play the game and give me some feedback if you have any issues or want to make suggestions!

Thanks again!

**saamohod** · May 02, 2009, 10:52 AM

I'm gonna try it. Thanks for your effort.
But I still don't understand the reason of doing both export_units and export_units (2) files. Especially when I'll have to delete the first one after the installation.

Rep after the explanation

**Esoteric_Monk** · May 02, 2009, 12:49 PM

Ha, that's one of the first things I noticed (besides the Epic Mod, of course!

). It's great that you're cleaning things up, text wise. Small details show off big love. Kudos.

**Krazy Kook** · May 03, 2009, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by saamohod

I'm gonna try it. Thanks for your effort.
But I still don't understand the reason of doing both export_units and export_units (2) files. Especially when I'll have to delete the first one after the installation.

Rep after the explanation

Haha okay, well I needs me rep so I suppose I can try to explain my odd reasoning.

Both export_units files are almost exactly the same, there's just a few minor yet important differences. I actually had downloaded the Additional Units Submod before I even started editing and correcting the files, and that submod renames a couple units as well as introducing a few new ones. This means that some unit descriptions are new, different, or are now describing different units. So then I was like CRAP and I had to go and edit the normal export_units file, which is what most people playing Third Age are using I imagine. So basically, I wanted to make sure that the original, unmodified export_units file was the one I was editing, because that's what most people would want! And I had already done the version that has the added/renamed units from that submod, so that was just a bonus for anyone that had downloaded that as well.

In the Proofreading Patch download, the regular export_units file is the original file that came with Third Age, but of course it's been edited by me, it's just the one that is compatible with Third Age by itself. The export_units (2) file is compatible with the Added Units submod, or at least up to version 1.4.2, I haven't gotten to the updated version yet.

So anyway, export_units is the main file that most people should want. Regarding the other version, I had already edited the particular export_units file that would work with a particular submod, so I threw that in there in case anyone wanted to use that one. Oh and you should only be deleting things if you have the Added Units submod, if you don't it's best to leave everything but if you know what you are doing, then you can delete export_units (2).

Hopefully this explanation is understandable!

In conclusion though, I was simply trying to be as user-friendly as possible and also offer some options for more experienced users who have multiple submods.

Mod Update: As far as the Project goes, I'll be going through some more files tomorrow, maybe adding some new descriptions and whatnot, hopefully just trying to inject even MORE flavor and make sure the grammar and spelling are perfect! Stay tuned! And many thanks to all that have tried my little submod, commented, repped, or simply noticed me! Thank you!

**trance** · May 03, 2009, 04:53 PM

Have you rewritten unit descriptions totally or just fixed minor grammatical mistakes? I do believe that some descriptions could need more length and depth.

**Krazy Kook** · May 03, 2009, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by trance

Have you rewritten unit descriptions totally or just fixed minor grammatical mistakes? I do believe that some descriptions could need more length and depth.

Hey trance!

I've done both actually, but I'd have to say that I've been sticking to mostly fixing up the grammar and spelling so far. I've also done a little rewriting, basically just keeping most of the original description but adding a sentence or two, or maybe replacing a few words to make it all sound better and yes, to add some needed depth. I've also written some completely new descriptions for the few units that had old vanilla ones or the wrong ones. Although, some factions have really good descriptions that are almost flawless, so I didn't have to change much with them! I will agree with you though, there are a couple factions that definitely need some work....the descriptions aren't awful by any means, they just aren't of the same quality of the other factions. I've let them be for now, but I'll be reworking them as soon as I can.

And I saw your thread by the way. You don't have to stop working on improving Third Age in this area by any means. This doesn't really have to be only "my" project, I'd love to have it become a team effort if there are any who'd want to help! I only take credit for starting it, but again, I'd be happy to turn this into a team or community project, as it's not TOO hard to do (only time-consuming

), and I'm sure that there are many people with great ideas and imaginations that could add a lot to this mod! This could be especially helpful if we decide to work on building descriptions or something, which would be creating lots of new material as opposed to just making corrections.

Let me know what you think!

**Theseus1234** · May 04, 2009, 12:36 AM

*cough*

*cough*

jk
anyways, good job on the proofreading! there were a lot of mistakes that irked me

**trance** · May 04, 2009, 03:11 AM

Sounds like a good idea actually

, we should contact Jean=a=luc as well since he writes excellent descriptions too.

I actually think he has some unit descriptions that are currently unused, could spare us all some hard (and then, unnecessary) work.

**Krazy Kook** · May 04, 2009, 03:40 AM

Originally Posted by trance

Sounds like a good idea actually

, we should contact Jean=a=luc as well since he writes excellent descriptions too.

I actually think he has some unit descriptions that are currently unused, could spare us all some hard (and then, unnecessary) work.

Oh awesome! Yeah I saw Mith refer to him, didn't know that he had such gifts!

Seriously though I didn't, and yeah that would be great if he had descriptions written up already! He's gotta get those in here, don't let them be wasted!

Oh and I also just PM'ed you I think, haha didn't see that you were posting in here! So reply to that if you want, unless this was it and I'm just dense like that. Agh, tired, gotta sleep. Anyway, I'll get in contact with him soon and see what he thinks! Thank you for YOUR interest too! This modding thing is really great actually, tiring yes but also a great thing.

**trance** · May 05, 2009, 06:05 PM

Have you managed to get in contact with jean=a=luc yet? I'd love to see additional progress being made

. Some descriptions are simply unacceptable haha. I did actually make a Fountain Guard description from scratch, but I'm afraid I've had a lot of things at my hands lately. And I'm not sure where to begin if I do not know which ones you've revamped and/or if mr jean has a completed one ready for use.

**Krazy Kook** · May 05, 2009, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by trance

Have you managed to get in contact with jean=a=luc yet? I'd love to see additional progress being made

. Some descriptions are simply unacceptable haha. I did actually make a Fountain Guard description from scratch, but I'm afraid I've had a lot of things at my hands lately. And I'm not sure where to begin if I do not know which ones you've revamped and/or if mr jean has a completed one ready for use.

I actually just PM'ed him, sorry for not getting back to you sooner. As far as descriptions go, I didn't really rework any of the Gondor ones, maybe just rewriting a little bit, as I thought they were pretty good, but if you have any go for it! I'd love to see your Fountain Guard description! The factions that DON'T need work are probably the elves (both) and the Dwarves, those are all very good. I'll let you know about which other descriptions DO need the work though.

I'll try to look into this more and get back to you! Like you, I have too much to do....

UPDATE: I haven't done too much work with the mod so far, but Hross has agreed to add his Edited Quotes to the Project, so I'll be adding that shortly along with the next update. And as of now, this Project is no longer only mine, but rather a shared effort between all those who contribute any work! So if anyone out there has anything or wants to be a part of this Project, just let us know!