Let's Talk About the Names.XML File

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by Mister_G

I'm having all kinds of difficulties with this. Google sheets keeps telling me, "This action would increase the number of cells in the workbook above the limit of 10000000 cells." when I try to add rows so I can fit all the names. I haven't even gotten to how to actually do all of it.

Yeah same problem. This message just reminded me of an idea I'm going to try, which is splitting the names into two files then consolidating the xml files into one when the spreadsheet is done. Hopefully that'll work.

Stay tuned.

[erik.ootp]

I actually didn't try it with Google Sheets. I only tried it with Excel, but I uploaded it as .ods so it could also be used with Open Office.

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by erik.ootp

I actually didn't try it with Google Sheets. I only tried it with Excel, but I uploaded it as .ods so it could also be used with Open Office.

Excel or Open Office both have the limit, Google Sheets for sure can't handle it.

[Mister_G]

Last year there were files for both first names and last names separately. I'm confused, is this new XML file for both? How do we separate them?

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by Mister_G

Last year there were files for both first names and last names separately. I'm confused, is this new XML file for both? How do we separate them?

Correct, it's diffeent now. The XML has first names, last names and nicknames all in one file with localisations for different languages too.

It won't change the way your imported OOTP22 files generate names, but it will for new saves in OOTP23.

[Mister_G]

Thanks! Now I'm having a different issue though. When a type in =sum(B1+1); and fill-down to create the name IDs I'm getting Err:509 throughout the entire B column.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Mister_G

Thanks! Now I'm having a different issue though. When a type in =sum(B1+1); and fill-down to create the name IDs I'm getting Err:509 throughout the entire B column.

EDIT: Ignore, bad advice. See below

[Mister_G]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

I'm so sorry. That's entirely my fault. The correct equation to insert in cell B1 is:

=sum(A1+1)

I changed that in the instructions. My bad!

Hmm, thanks for the help, but...now I'm getting only the number 1 in every cell.

And if I put the ; after it (am I supposed to do this? I'm bad with open office, excel, sheets, etc.) I get the same error.

EDIT: And this goes in B1? With nothing in column A?

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Mister_G

Hmm, thanks for the help, but...now I'm getting only the number 1 in every cell.

And if I put the ; after it (am I supposed to do this? I'm bad with open office, excel, sheets, etc.) I get the same error.

EDIT: And this goes in B1? With nothing in column A?

Wow, I'm batting 0-for-2

Clearly, your problem is that you're following what I said, not what I meant to say

What I meant to say is that, in cell B2, you insert the following equation:

=sum(B1+1)

In cell B1, you put the unique ID number that you want to start the range of ID numbers you'll be assigning to your names. So, for instance, if you want to start with ID number 400000, then you'll insert that number into cell B1. With the equation in cell B2, the cell will be filled with 400001. Then fill down from cell B2 to the end of your list.

Sorry for all of the confusion

[pilight]

Why wouldn't you just fill a series with a step of one?

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by pilight

Why wouldn't you just fill a series with a step of one?

I don't think I understand your question.

Of course, that might be the answer to your question.

[pilight]

I'll demonstrate graphically:

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by pilight

I'll demonstrate graphically:

Sure, you could do that too

[piggypotpie]

I am so CONFUSED. I don't have much experience with any of those programs. Should I just not consider putting new names/country specific names in the game?

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by piggypotpie

I am so CONFUSED. I don't have much experience with any of those programs. Should I just not consider putting new names/country specific names in the game?

What are you trying to do? Add names to the existing names file or add new namesets or replace the current names file with a different one? If you're not comfortable doing the work yourself, you can wait for the modder community to help out. That's already happening, and I'm sure more mods are on the way.

[darkcloud4579]

it's clear that when they changed this file this time, they underestimated how much people edit these things. It was very easy to edit the old file and make changes and add countries or whatever. In the new file, if you make any adjustments whatsoever and screw up even a linebreak or spacing issue, it will crash the game.

I've resorted to replacing territories in this existing places as a way to get around this, but it means you can't move countries to other continents because the file gets very picky about doing anything with the spacing and it's really hard because all it tells you is there's an xml parsing error.

I have no illusions this will be fixed ever, but...just letting the OOTP overlords know that in the future when you make these kinds of changes, you're impacting a significant number of people who play the game for its customizability and changes like this that don't get tested (were I only beta like I used to be, I'd have flagged this early on) mean that the users suffer.

</endrant>

[BRyMcBourbon]

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

it's clear that when they changed this file this time, they underestimated how much people edit these things. It was very easy to edit the old file and make changes and add countries or whatever. In the new file, if you make any adjustments whatsoever and screw up even a linebreak or spacing issue, it will crash the game.

I've resorted to replacing territories in this existing places as a way to get around this, but it means you can't move countries to other continents because the file gets very picky about doing anything with the spacing and it's really hard because all it tells you is there's an xml parsing error.

I have no illusions this will be fixed ever, but...just letting the OOTP overlords know that in the future when you make these kinds of changes, you're impacting a significant number of people who play the game for its customizability and changes like this that don't get tested (were I only beta like I used to be, I'd have flagged this early on) mean that the users suffer.

</endrant>

I absolutely get that it’s a pain. I run a completely custom world and got hit when schools changed to .xml last year and the names this year.

But from their standpoint, it lets them build translations into the file rather than calling a different file based on language setup.

If they wanted to add a new language, they can just plug that tag into the .xml rather than creating entirely new files they now have to account for.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

it's clear that when they changed this file this time, they underestimated how much people edit these things. It was very easy to edit the old file and make changes and add countries or whatever. In the new file, if you make any adjustments whatsoever and screw up even a linebreak or spacing issue, it will crash the game.

I've resorted to replacing territories in this existing places as a way to get around this, but it means you can't move countries to other continents because the file gets very picky about doing anything with the spacing and it's really hard because all it tells you is there's an xml parsing error.

I have no illusions this will be fixed ever, but...just letting the OOTP overlords know that in the future when you make these kinds of changes, you're impacting a significant number of people who play the game for its customizability and changes like this that don't get tested (were I only beta like I used to be, I'd have flagged this early on) mean that the users suffer.

</endrant>

I can't argue with any of this.

The XML format is definitely not very modder-friendly. As you point out, it used to be very easy to make changes to the CSV files. For example, if I wanted to swap out one nameset with my own modded set but keep all the other default namesets in place, that would be no problem at all. Now, however, it's actually easier to replace the entire names file rather than replacing only one nameset. That's because many names now belong to multiple namesets, so modding one existing nameset means editing each name in that set individually. And there are over a quarter-million names! As a result, I expect that modders will be offering more "all-in-one" names files (as, for instance, Dogzilla has done) rather than individual namesets, because editing the XML names file is now so difficult, if not practically impossible.

[darkcloud4579]

.

[erik.ootp]

I can see, that no easy way for everyone to work on the names.xml file has been found.
What I took away from the discussions:

• filesize to big
• a lot of new/extra steps to mod the file
• uncertainty about correct structure

I can maybe work on the filesize a bit, so hopefully everyone can open this file without crashing their PC.
Other than that it's just a whole lot getting used to XML. You can check the structure of XML files by opening them in your browser. Things like replacing a whole nameset shouldn't take to long. Maybe we can get some tutorial, that looks at some of the standard modifications a user would do.
Please let me know if I missed some problems with this file.