Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => The Theory of Everything => Topic started by: Guv’ner on October 31, 2012, 11:04:17 AM

Title: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on October 31, 2012, 11:04:17 AM

This project has now been subsumed into Scient’s forthcoming unofficial update. Due to changes in the files that reflect bugfixes Scient has made: the updated files are no longer compatible with SMAC 5.0 and SMACX 2.0. I have removed the download links.

Thanks for the input.



Hello all,

I thought I might as well have something of use before I crept from my lurking closet and made a post.

I recently went through the SMACx text files because as a recovering proof-reader the occasional spelling mistakes were impinging on my enjoyment of the game.

The files are from the last patch of the game except for helpx.txt and conceptsx.txt which are GooglyBoogly’s version 1.3 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=291246).

Apart from spelling corrections and quotation mark curling, I have made some other changes to maintain consistency in the text.

The point: I have an HTML document listing the changes file by file and I wondered whether other forum users would like to see it to check my changes with a view to releasing the files as an unofficial update for the text files only.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: sisko on October 31, 2012, 11:19:17 AM

Quote from: Guv’ner on October 31, 2012, 11:04:17 AM

I thought I might as well have something of use before I crept from my lurking closet and made a post.

making the first post is the hardest thing for a lurker. glad you did it!

this is a place made by SMACers, for SMACers and we appreciate contributors. so, let's see your work.. :D

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: t_ras on October 31, 2012, 11:32:06 AM

Thanks,Guv’ner.
I think it would be a grate idea to publish it here (and maybe also atach the files)

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 31, 2012, 01:04:43 PM

'ello, Guv!  How did you find us?

Have you seen this? http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2477.0 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2477.0)  A proofreader would be very useful.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on October 31, 2012, 02:34:39 PM

I have attempted to correct the spellings in USA English but since it’s not my native tongue I may have made some errors.

There are also some style changes with faction leader titles etc that I believe are corrections but others may disagree.

Anyway grateful for all comments. I’ll post the list of corrections for conceptsx.txt and helpx.txt to that other thread.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 31, 2012, 02:46:04 PM

Quote from: Guv’ner on October 31, 2012, 02:34:39 PM

I have attempted to correct the spellings in USA English but since it’s not my native tongue I may have made some errors.

US English or just English?

Words like flavor and color have no U and defence has a C instead of of an S.  (Or is it the other way around?  I have trouble with that word.)  Tire, not tyre.  Not an overwhelming list of differences, really.  I'm already commited to a proofing pass, so I'll include your stuff when I get to it.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on October 31, 2012, 02:52:02 PM

British English is my native interlocutor. There are a few more differences as well but I used a USA dictionary to double check, though some things may have crept through. Some of the contributors to the GooglyBoogly update were British so I’ve changed their spellings to USA English.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 31, 2012, 02:54:33 PM

Good man.  There's no real reason to prefer one spelling set over another, but it ought to be consistent.

For all of my constant typpoes and misspleings, I'm more than a bit of a grammar and spelling nazi myself, so I admire what you're doing.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on October 31, 2012, 04:20:26 PM

Quote from: BUncle on October 31, 2012, 02:54:33 PM

For all of my constant typpoes and misspleings, I'm more than a bit of a grammar and spelling nazi myself, so I admire what you're doing.

It’s a sidetrack I often get lost down

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: sisko on November 05, 2012, 02:34:58 PM

so, do we have a final product here? can we post it in the downloads section and make it available to everyone?

also, i think this thread should be moved in the general discussions board. are you ok woth that, Guv’ner?

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on November 05, 2012, 04:18:32 PM

Quote from: sisko on November 05, 2012, 02:34:58 PM

so, do we have a final product here? can we post it in the downloads section and make it available to everyone?

also, i think this thread should be moved in the general discussions board. are you ok woth that, Guv’ner?

I have a new version which corrects some of my own errors and the last few spelling errors that I can find in the game text files. I’ll post up the change log in this thread so that people can comment without having to download the file, nearly finished then will upload for a last check through.

The thread should be wherever you deem fit.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: sisko on November 05, 2012, 04:22:56 PM

thread moved to The Thoery of Everything.

waiting for your files. :)

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 05, 2012, 04:23:58 PM

 :)

...It's really a sort of Modding project, though here is fine, especially with ete's project already being here...

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on November 05, 2012, 05:56:38 PM

   General changes


   Since the original files are written in USA English, I have corrected the spelling on that basis.

• Quotation marks—curled
• “--” changed to “—”
• “. . .” and “...” converted to “…”
• Letter “x” replaced, where appropriate, with the multiplication symbol “×”
• “(c)” to “©”
• Removed any whitespace or carriage returns following “# ; This line must remain at end of file”

   File by file changelog

alienIscript.txt

• 59 “inadvertantly” to “inadvertently”
• 1154 “UN” to “U.N.” to maintain consistency throughout game text

alienuscript.txt

• 446 “accomodate” to “accommodate”
• 506 “miniscule” to “minuscule”
• 1288 “surpise” to “surprise”
• 1563 “snivelling” to “sniveling”
• 2014 “enducement” to “inducement”
• 2192 “withdrawl” to “withdrawal”
• 2248 “annhilations” to “annihilations”
• 2324 “valuble” to “valuable”

alpha.txt

• 367 “'Copter” to “Copter” to match alphax.txt from the later Alien Crossfire
• 556 “Reconnaisance” to “Reconnaissance”
• 586 “'Copter” to “Copter”

alphax.txt

• 574 “Reconnaisance” to “Reconnaissance”

blurbs.txt

• 177 “Col.” to “Colonel” not abbreviated in literature or the credits
• 194 〃
• 263 〃
• 379 〃
• 488 “degrees Celsius” to “°C”, this measurement is seldom written out in full
• 531 “-we-” to “we”, quite possibly a typesetting instruction to use square or curly brackets which the notes at the beginning of script.txt indicate are markup for italic and bold text respectively. As far as I can determine this markup does not work
• 763 “travelling” to “traveling”
• 827 “Col.” to “Colonel”
• 1045 〃
• 1169 〃
• 1189 〃
• 1329 〃

blurbsx.txt

   Same as blurbs.txt.

caretake.txt

• 20 Changed “Guardian” to “Caretaker”, the title for the faction leader used everywhere else in the game and the literature
• 26 “preseve” to “preserve”

concepts.txt

• 534 “avaiable” to “available”
• 604 “planetwide” to “planet wide”
• 612 “annoint” to “elect”
• 706 “Subract” to “subtract”

conceptsx.txt

   As amended by Civfanatics forum (http://forums.civfanatics.com/) user GooglyBoogly version 1.3 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=291246 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=291246))

• 20 “engnieering” to “engineering”
• 47 “Condensors” to “Condensers”
• 47 “lifiting” to “lifting”
• 63 “addded” to “added”
• 248 “commiting” to “committing”
• 388 “resouces” to “resources”
• 416 “behaviour” to “behavior”
• 682 “avaiable” to “available”
• 766 “planetwide” to “planet wide”
• 782 “annoint” to “elect”
• 802 “Condensors” to “Condensers”
• 899 “Noncommital” to “Noncommittal”
• 907 “hoplessly” to “hopelessly”
• 957 “Agricultiral” to “Agricultural”
• 963 “independant” to “independent”
• 1005 “raduis” to “radius”
• 1008 “Geonome” to “Genome”
• 1058 “commited” to “committed”
• 1120 “Subract” to “Subtract”
• 1342 “millenia” to “millennia”
• 1363 〃
• 1418 “Condensors” to “Condensers”
• 1422 〃
• 1436 “UN” to “U.N.” to maintain consistency throughout game text
• 1494 “defence” to “defense”
• 1600 “adjecent” to “adjacent”
• 1608 “improvments” to “improvements”
• 1635 “unnocupied” to “unoccupied”
• 1637 〃
• 1642 “succesful” to “successful”
• 1643 “recieved” to “received”
• 1644 “kils” to “kills”
• 1645 “seperately” to “separately”
• 1647 “catured” to “captured”
• 1647 “posseses” to “possesses”
• 1648 “accquired” to “acquired”

credits.txt

• 299 “JosÈ” to “Josè”
• 259 “agression” to “aggression”

facedit.txt

• 247 “distastful” to “distasteful”
• 259 “agression” to “aggression”

help.txt

• 43 “commited” to “committed”
• 436 “Condensors” to “Condensers”
• 458 “Theatres” to “Theaters”

helpx.txt

   As amended by http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=291246 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/">Civfanatics forum user GooglyBoogly version 1.3 ([url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=291246))

• 14 “discrepency” to “discrepancy”
• 15 “doesnt” to “doesn’t”
• 18 “repurcussions” to “repercussions”
• 38 “pressume” to “pressure”
• 50 “Cantauri” to “Centauri”
• 52 “Centauro” to “Centauri”
• 57 “dont” to “don’t”
• 137 “commited” to “committed”
• 453 “maximim” to “maximum”
• 538 “Vulenrable” to “Vulnerable”
• 538 “Asteriod” to “Asteroid”
• 548 “Vulenrable” to “Vulnerable”
• 558 “sattelite” to “satellite”
• 559 〃
• 561 “Vulenrable” to “Vulnerable”
• 613 “Theatres” to “Theaters”
• 1346 “nurtient” to “nutrient”
• 1497 “enginnered” to “engineered”
• 1706 “UN” to “U.N.”
• 1710 “acquistion” to “acquisition”
• 1735 〃
• 1760 〃
• 1772 〃
• 1810 〃
• 1835 〃
• 1855 “Patterened” to “Patterned”
• 1876 “Explosve” to “Explosive”
• 1877 “acquistion” to “acquisition”
• 1897 “Applique” to “Appliqué”
• 1905 〃
• 1927 〃
• 1948 〃
• 1977 〃
• 2043 “atack” to “attack”
• 2043 〃
• 2048 “baseor” to “base or”
• 2269 “nullifys” to “nullifies”

interlude.txt

• 491 “millenia” to “millennia”

interludex.txt

   Same as interlude.txt.

monument.txt

• 129 “succesful” to “successful”

movlist.txt

• 161 “Theatres” to “Theaters”

peace.txt

• 20 “Brother” to “Commissioner”, the title for the faction leader used everywhere else in the game and the literature
• 59 “Aquisition” to “Acquisition”

script.txt

• 406 “UN” to “U.N.”
• 2676 “generousity” to “generosity”
• 3246 “unforgiveable” to “unforgivable”
• 3402 “eroneous” to “erroneous”
• 4152 “snivelling” to “sniveling”
• 4355 “UN” to “U.N.”
• 4359 〃
• 4842 “cess pool” to cesspool
• 4858 “millenium” to “millennium”
• 4866 〃
• 4936 “unforgiveable” to “unforgivable”
• 6286 “targetted” to “targeted”
• 6323 〃
• 6834 “compact” to “U.N. Charter”, this is the only
• 7797 “abstension” to “abstention”
• 7804 〃
• 7811 〃
• 8864 “commited” to “committed”
• 9757 “transfered” to “transferred”
• 9901 〃
• 9908 〃
• 10356 “signalling” to “signaling”

spartans.txt

• 77 “Col.” to “Colonel”
• 81 〃

techlongs.txt

• 283 “occurence” to “occurrence”
• 343 “utlilized” to “utilized”
• 390 “Doctine” to “Doctrine”
• 505 “nonskilled” to “non-skilled”

xscript.txt

   Same as script.txt above.

Univ.txt

• 20 “Provost” to “Academician”, the title for the faction leader used everywhere else in the game and the literature

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: ete on November 06, 2012, 05:18:45 PM

I worked on very similar changes previously (though limited to helpx and conceptsx), my versions can be found in the topic BU linked (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2477.0) (they also have a number of accuracy fixes). I think it makes sense to merge our versions and work together, if you're willing to.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on November 06, 2012, 08:54:22 PM

Quote from: ete on November 06, 2012, 05:18:45 PM

I worked on very similar changes previously (though limited to helpx and conceptsx), my versions can be found in the topic BU linked (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2477.0) (they also have a number of accuracy fixes). I think it makes sense to merge our versions and work together, if you're willing to.

I posted the spelling mistakes I identified in that thread as well. I see no problem in working together on changes, my alterations have been only spelling, continuity, and typography.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on March 04, 2013, 08:52:53 PM

Apparently some encoding problems crept into my last update so I’ve fixed those and added in a couple more changes. No serious updates for the time being as I’m working on the datalinks.

Sometime in the future I will include additional base names, alphax units for the AI, and new Worldbuilder settings.

Now with four bug fixes! Not that you’d ever notice. And a datalinks themed readme file! The fun literally never stops.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: ete on March 04, 2013, 09:19:25 PM

Is this based off/including my changes?

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on March 04, 2013, 09:25:06 PM

Quote from: ete on March 04, 2013, 09:19:25 PM

Is this based off/including my changes?

It includes no new changes to the datalinks files. It’s just a tweak of the last update to correct some ut-f encoding issues and include a few changes to scripts.txt. I’ve got a LAN game this week and needed to update them anyway.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: ete on March 04, 2013, 09:26:45 PM

Okay, before next release it'd be good to sync in the changes from the wiki versions of various files.

Edit: this will help: http://www.diffchecker.com/ (http://www.diffchecker.com/)

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on March 04, 2013, 09:31:00 PM

I’ll fold them into the wiki but as I’m playing with them I notice the odd glitch and the existing file on this thread had game crash issues.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: ete on March 04, 2013, 09:45:12 PM

I mean, check the wiki version and put changes from the wiki into your version. The wiki has my changes, which your version may not have. Once everything's synced things get easier (can just make a change on the wiki, then copy everything to your text file).

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on March 04, 2013, 10:12:08 PM

Quote from: ete on March 04, 2013, 09:45:12 PM

I mean, check the wiki version and put changes from the wiki into your version. The wiki has my changes, which your version may not have. Once everything's synced things get easier (can just make a change on the wiki, then copy everything to your text file).

Ah I see. Unfortunately i started this labyrinthine change log on my update which really impedes making lots of alterations. Hopefully this will be the last update before I can wikify it and spend no more time logging my actions.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: ete on March 05, 2013, 12:56:22 AM

Okay. Merging your changes onto wiki then just updating from that would work just as well.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Yitzi on March 05, 2013, 05:00:00 AM

I've just added your alphax change to mine; it will be there in the next version of my patch.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on March 05, 2013, 10:01:55 AM

There's also two bugixes in script.txt. Hopefully, once it’s backwards compatible, we can roll the text files, sound files and your .exe together into a one stop patch.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Yitzi on March 05, 2013, 12:15:57 PM

Quote from: Guv’ner on March 05, 2013, 10:01:55 AM

There's also two bugixes in script.txt.

Starting with 2.0, I'll be using the original script.txt again.  Although I probably will be including it, so I might as well change that too, thanks for pointing it out.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Lord Avalon on March 05, 2013, 07:10:16 PM

Re: concepts(x).txt - I disagree with splitting "planetwide."  Nationwide is one word; why shouldn't planetwide follow?

Re: credits.txt - "José" (acute accent, not grave) [also the read me should not have line 259, which is a part of facedit.txt]

Re: techlongs.txt - minor quibble, IMO there's nothing wrong with "nonskilled."  While "non-skilled" is also correct, I think modern usage drops the hyphen.  In fact I think most other uses of "non-" could be changed, like "noncombat" and "nonzero."

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on March 05, 2013, 08:39:25 PM

Quote from: Lord Avalon on March 05, 2013, 07:10:16 PM

Re: concepts(x).txt - I disagree with splitting "planetwide."  Nationwide is one word; why shouldn't planetwide follow?

Re: credits.txt - "José" (acute accent, not grave) [also the read me should not have line 259, which is a part of facedit.txt]

Re: techlongs.txt - minor quibble, IMO there's nothing wrong with "nonskilled."  While "non-skilled" is also correct, I think modern usage drops the hyphen.  In fact I think most other uses of "non-" could be changed, like "noncombat" and "nonzero."

Thanks for the correction on the accent and the errant inclusion in the readme file.

I see what you mean by planetwide but it only occurs once in the text files or manuals. It makes a plausible word but I think it extreme to coin it just for this instance.

When it comes to “non-”, the preference in the files and the Alpha Centauri Manual is towards hyphenated which follows formal spelling. It did, though, give me an opportunity to dust off my grep skills to look up all the instances.

Apart from the bug fixes and obvious spelling howlers, I’m just trying to get the files consistent internally. Where they are arguably correct, I tend to leave them. Nice to see, though, that at least one vicious eye has burnt its way through them.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Lord Avalon on March 06, 2013, 06:49:16 PM

Quote from: Guv’ner on March 05, 2013, 08:39:25 PM

I see what you mean by planetwide but it only occurs once in the text files or manuals. It makes a plausible word but I think it extreme to coin it just for this instance.

Planetwide is an actual word, at least according to Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/planetwide).  What is extreme is to separate a suffix from its word.

Title: Re: Update to SMACx text files
Post by: Guv’ner on March 06, 2013, 08:36:31 PM

Quote from: Lord Avalon on March 06, 2013, 06:49:16 PM

Planetwide is an actual word, at least according to Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/planetwide).  What is extreme is to separate a suffix from its word.

Still not crept into the Oxford English, but that’s neither here nor there. A hyphen’s is enough to clasp word and suffix in contented compromise.

It is very benficial having someone else’s opinion on the changes. Most of the corrections were done almost on autopilot. I’m still turning up the occasional vanila script message devoid of sense.