Where are the Elephants in BB?

**Live2sculpt** · December 30, 2010, 03:34 PM

That is to say, the elephants are not listed in the mounts.txt.
Why? Where are they? Surely they are still in the game, so how does this work?

It has become an issue for me as I wanted to add Xenophonia to DLV6.2+BB, but needed the elephant info in place to make the sound files re-cache as required.

Now that I replaced the old elephant script where it belongs everything appears to be working just fine.
But I'm not fooled. Surely my replacing the elephant mount script is going to conflict with something from BB...

Does anyone have any insight on this?

**TaronQuinn** · December 30, 2010, 06:08 PM

Well, there are no elephant units in game. No merc elephants, no javelin elephants, no cannon elephants; none in DLV at all. Now, there are some random files here and there, but I do not believe there are any mount files, no models or anything about elephants anymore. So they've been 98% removed.

TQ

**Live2sculpt** · December 30, 2010, 08:17 PM

OH?
*Humph* I did not KNOW that.
I've never noticed that before.

So what do people think will happen when elephants are reinserted to the mounts.txt script?
After all, that script is present in DLV6.2 and no conflicts occur then.
Why Taiji removed it is unclear. Being tidy?

**Taiji** · December 30, 2010, 09:14 PM

There were no elephants when I arrived. I don't miss them much but I wonder where they went...

**Live2sculpt** · December 30, 2010, 09:51 PM

Originally Posted by Taiji

There were no elephants when I arrived. I don't miss them much but I wonder where they went...

Trippy... I copied out that old elephant script from my DLV6.2 backup. I don't know how it got there if not when I first installed it.
Weirder & weirder....

What's your guess Taiji? Think the script will be innocous or maybe cause a conflict?
I like to imagine if the game isn't going to call on elephant data in any case, the script will just sit there as neutral as any RTW detrius.

**Taiji** · January 02, 2011, 09:40 AM

There aren't any elephants in DLV but you have a campaign_script.txt which spawns elephants? That won't work.

**Live2sculpt** · January 02, 2011, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by Taiji

There aren't any elephants in DLV but you have a campaign_script.txt which spawns elephants? That won't work.

No, no, no..... The mounts.txt file that summarizes elephants with the horses and camels; it was in my copy of DLV6.2 with elephants, but in your BB they aren't there anymore.

When re-building a cache of sound files to include new custom languages, music, or sounds, this elephant information is called upon, and if not present the cache re-build stops short.

Do you mean nobody has noticed this before? What usually happens when people add custom sound files to a BB mod?

**Taiji** · January 02, 2011, 02:03 PM

So you solved the sound problem with BB, and I just have to add elephants back into descr_mounts.txt?

Awesome news if so

**Live2sculpt** · January 02, 2011, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by Taiji

So you solved the sound problem with BB, and I just have to add elephants back into descr_mounts.txt?

Awesome news if so

I'm incredulous at the idea that I happened to solve it while others have not. After all, the error came up in my log.

And the results haven't been tested. All that I know is that the new sounds are working fine for the first turn in strat.

What I have right now is DLV6.2+BB+Aragon mod with Xenophonia2 added including 2 additional languages and a new selection of music.

I also erased all of the Americas and am currently busy finishing up the rest of the ancillaries associated with new replacement regions like Cornwall and Norwich.
So, so far all that I've seen is what everything looks and sounds like when I open the map up each time I test it..

**AstroCat** · January 03, 2011, 11:18 AM

This would be a nice discovery. Adding new sounds and music directly into BB would be a nice fix.

**Live2sculpt** · January 03, 2011, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by AstroCat

This would be a nice discovery. Adding new sounds and music directly into BB would be a nice fix.

Even if this were so, it'd take a little bit of re-scripting. The principle Biess has revealed with Xenophonia is that any new voices must have unique names, even if the vanilla voices aren't to be used at all. And that means that ALL of the sound.txt files etc. that M2TW accesses when recompiling the sound cache must also be custom edited to direct to those new names.

My current BB is Frankenmodded, so will not be sufficient as a patch for anyone else at this point.

As I said, I haven't tested this. So if I should turn up a segment in the game where things go silent, like advisors or something, then I will know that there is STILL some piece of BB script that the sound re-cache has not found where it 'should' be, and the sound re-caching stopped short at that point, and failed to pack in any further sounds on its list.

Of course Beiss has know about such things all along. I just don't think anyone asked him for his input re BB before.

**Beiss** · January 04, 2011, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by Live2sculpt

Even if this were so, it'd take a little bit of re-scripting. The principle Biess has revealed with Xenophonia is that any new voices must have unique names, even if the vanilla voices aren't to be used at all. And that means that ALL of the sound.txt files etc. that M2TW accesses when recompiling the sound cache must also be custom edited to direct to those new names.

There is plenty of free software for renaming large numbers of files automatically after a set pattern, and for editing the scripts accordingly as well, so don't let some fear of carrying out that seemingly (but not really) arduous task hold you back. Now that I know how to, I could probably recreate Xenophonia from scratch in an hour or so (not counting the installer).

**Live2sculpt** · January 04, 2011, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by Beiss

There is plenty of free software for renaming large numbers of files automatically after a set pattern, and for editing the scripts accordingly as well, so don't let some fear of carrying out that seemingly (but not really) arduous task hold you back. Now that I know how to, I could probably recreate Xenophonia from scratch in an hour or so (not counting the installer).

hehe..
Beiss can DO it. And now, so can YOU!

**Live2sculpt** · January 05, 2011, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by Beiss

There is plenty of free software for renaming large numbers of files automatically after a set pattern, and for editing the scripts accordingly as well, so don't let some fear of carrying out that seemingly (but not really) arduous task hold you back. Now that I know how to, I could probably recreate Xenophonia from scratch in an hour or so (not counting the installer).

I think the most exhausting task is simply the audio review and assessment of the files themselves. If you are simply trading over sets of files that have already been organized it's not so bad.

**Taiji** · January 03, 2011, 04:40 PM

Live2sculpt, you solved the problem I caused. It might seem a simple thing to work out but I deal with many files, and many changes occured between removing elephants from descr_mounts.txt and then finding out that sounds were missing after a rebuild.

Plus there was a workaround, to do whatever you like to sounds before installing BB. So I could easily afford to work on other things, live my life, etc.

So it's not so surprising I missed something so 'simple', but well done nonetheless, your discovery is great news. Especially for people that like Xenophonia, or for those that want to get rid of the ridiculous horn sounds from LotR - Me for one!

My thanks, Live2sculpt, I will credit you for the fix, well done!

**Live2sculpt** · January 03, 2011, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by Taiji

So it's not so surprising I missed something so 'simple', but well done nonetheless, your discovery is great news. Especially for people that like Xenophonia, or for those that want to get rid of the ridiculous horn sounds from LotR - Me for one!

My thanks, Live2sculpt, I will credit you for the fix, well done!

Forð Eorlingaaaaaaaaas!!!!!!!!!

**Live2sculpt** · January 03, 2011, 08:45 PM

Sweet! Hats off to Beiss as well. It was his PM input on my X2 ambitions that helped to isolate the elephant script/sound cache relationship.

**Beiss** · January 04, 2011, 03:11 PM

No, really, you can. You have no idea how right you are. I hadn't a clue about anything when I set out, and all of a sudden I was the go-to guy for sound modding. The funniest part is it looks like I still am, and I've played the game maybe 3 times in the past 2 years. You'd think someone else would have taken my place by now, considering how easy it all is, and considering how little I care about it.

EDIT: Wait, are you making fun of me?

**Beiss** · January 06, 2011, 05:45 AM

Oh. Yeah, true story. Still, the problem isn't with scripting, but with organizing your files. I didn't know the ones you had weren't already organized. Good luck and everything.