Any reason to limit the size of names.txt

**ronnie76** · January 01, 2012, 07:56 AM

I'm working on making RLC work with Meneth's Submod Compilation. I will also be adding some names of my own. Just wondering if there is a need to limit the amount of names listed in names.text or descr_names.txt.

From my personal testing it seems as though the more names available the less likely a blank name will come up for a Royal Lady. So instead of working through the campaign script and strat I was just going to combine the two name lists.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Ronnie

**AJStoner** · January 01, 2012, 07:59 AM

I've added quite a few without issue. If there is a hardcoded limit I've never heard of it so it would likely be very high.

**danny X** · January 01, 2012, 08:00 AM

I wouldn't of thought so, its quite a minor file compared to say descr_strat, which can be as large as you like.

**ronnie76** · January 01, 2012, 08:05 AM

Great. Thanks for the responses guys.

**AJStoner** · January 01, 2012, 08:09 AM

Hppy to help. Names can be tricky though as they need to appear in 3 files without error or inconsistency. There is a utility in the downloads section some place called "name verifier" that will be extremely useful if you intend to add a lot of names.

**ronnie76** · January 01, 2012, 08:15 AM

Actually only two files. I've been told that, descr_names_lookup.txt isn't actually needed. My personal testing seems to confirm this.

**Kiliç Alì** · January 01, 2012, 12:17 PM

indeed, descr_names_lookup.txt is pretty unuseful

**Ishan** · January 01, 2012, 05:02 PM

As far as i have tested it number of names doesn't seem to affect the bug.

Just keep 2 things in mind when you mod these files:
descr_names.txt must be saved in ANSI format and all there should be no spaces, special characters etc & only ASCII characters in it.
In names.txt you can use special characters outside the {} curly braces and it has to be saved in UNICODE format. And don't bother with lookup files, they are completely useless i have checked it thoroughly.

After Jan i will work on final version of it, it has a lot of things attached to it, which i haven't added due to lack of time & workload in other things.

**ronnie76** · January 05, 2012, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by Ishan

As far as i have tested it number of names doesn't seem to affect the bug.

Just keep 2 things in mind when you mod these files:
descr_names.txt must be saved in ANSI format and all there should be no spaces, special characters etc & only ASCII characters in it.
In names.txt you can use special characters outside the {} curly braces and it has to be saved in UNICODE format. And don't bother with lookup files, they are completely useless i have checked it thoroughly.

After Jan i will work on final version of it, it has a lot of things attached to it, which i haven't added due to lack of time & workload in other things.

Ishan, what else could you possibly be doing with your life other than modding MTW2?

Anyway great insight. I can definitely confirm after this morning that having more names does not help the problem.
Hope to do some more testing this afternoon with reduced names and playing with different characters. I'll also pour through the Meneth Submod Comp and see if there are any offending characters in there as well.

Let me know if there are any tests I can help out with, and as always many thanks for your continued efforts here.

Cheers,

Ronnie

**Taiji** · January 02, 2012, 03:09 AM

Interesting, Ishan. I was guessing that the blank name was what happens when random_name selects an existing character name - If it's not reduced by a greater number of names then I guess that isn't it.

**Ishan** · January 04, 2012, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by Taiji

Interesting, Ishan. I was guessing that the blank name was what happens when random_name selects an existing character name - If it's not reduced by a greater number of names then I guess that isn't it.

Yeah i'm having same exact problem, that random_name crap is very annoying lol, if i use a fixed name then the same character can't spawn unless the first one dies.

And when reducing the number of names and using the vanilla ones it did reduce the blank name occurrences but still there were cases in which i got blank names.

Originally Posted by jackenbu2

I have added hundreds of names to the files with no problems. Of course it took a while to get the formatting down but a few tricks in excel turned it into a no-brainer. Good luck!

Yes that's easy and not the problem here.

**jackenbu2** · January 04, 2012, 04:03 PM

I have added hundreds of names to the files with no problems. Of course it took a while to get the formatting down but a few tricks in excel turned it into a no-brainer. Good luck!

**jackenbu2** · January 05, 2012, 01:46 AM

Sorry, I was just trying to address the topic by saying that, based on my experience, there doesn't seem to be a limit. The part about it being easy was just an anecdote

**Ishan** · January 05, 2012, 10:25 AM

No problem and if you want to use a clean base of names files then use the ones i have given with RLC, i had eliminated many multiple repeated names and found a few errors in it. Earlier i thought that repeated name was the reason behind it.

Another thing you could do is make sure the filesize of the names.txt.strings.bin is under 380 KB (vanilla size), the one i use is 385 KB for SS. If excessive names are indeed causing it then reducing the size removing some names might work, probably.

Even though i think the that the woman's names are not that much so it should work because the game looks only from that pool as our character is female.

Btw if you wanna try it then i suggest you use retrofit mod and the names files from SS, faster turns will help save your time imo. If the problem is in names files then it should replicate the issue on retrofit mod also.

**ronnie76** · January 07, 2012, 03:48 PM

Ishan,

I ran some tests today with a fresh re-install fo SS6.3, 6.4 with Savage AI and Permanent Watchtowers, then RLC 6.4 Beta 09.

I used a spreadsheet to remove any names from names.txt that were not being used in the descr_name.txt, this got the names bin file down to 374 KB. The names I removed are below. I also changed the recruitment time for Royal Envoy to 1 turn to speed up the test.

I did get one random CTD on turn 8, but after re-loading the auto save it did not happen again. I successfully recruited 20 royal ladies without a blank name. I'm not sure if it is the file size of the names bin or that all of then names in the names.txt are being used in the descr_names.txt.

I will test this theory unless you have other info.

Names removed from names.txt

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Ishan** · January 07, 2012, 06:23 PM

Thats some great news ronnie, i will mention your name in the credit list for the efforts given in RLC, whether successful or not.

+rep, you saved me a lot of time.

You can PM me any further results if you find any.

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