Localization, Icons, and Colors

UpdateText, text tags, inline icons, and updating icon/color databases.

Modifying the Localization Database

Changing the Localization database is a lot like changing the gameplay database. You just use the UpdateText action instead.

Because the Localization database is separate from the gameplay database, we must make a new file to store the changes we want to make.

1. Create a folder in the the same place as the .modinfo file. Name it text.
2. Depending on whether you want to use SQL or XML, create a file named antiquity-text.xml or antiquity-text.sql in the data folder.

We also need to modify our .modinfo file, so the game knows to load this new file. In this instance, since we already have everything set-up from the previous section, we can actually go ahead and edit the ActionGroup we previously made in the .modinfo, adding a new UpdateText block! So whenever the Action Group is triggered and the game goes to load our gameplay changes, it will also load our text changes.

Here’s the excerpt of the modified ActionGroups section in the .modinfo.

    <ActionGroups>
        <ActionGroup id="antiquity-game" scope="game" criteria="antiquity-age-current">
            <Actions>
                <UpdateDatabase>
                    <Item>data/antiquity-traditions.xml</Item>
                    <Item>data/antiquity-game-effects.xml</Item>
                </UpdateDatabase>
                <UpdateText>
                    <Item>text/antiquity-text.sql</Item>
                </UpdateText>
            </Actions>
        </ActionGroup>
    </ActionGroups>

---

Now for the actual database changes.

The way text works, is most text entries in the game are assigned a Tag: we did this for our Policies in the Traditions table, where we gave a Name, and a Description to each new TraditionType.

The game will look up the Tag in the Localization database, and retrieve the text in the appropriate language. In this case American English (en_US).

If working with XML

Here’s the XML we’ll be using to add new text. There is a Row for each new tag we want to add. We set the Tag and Language attributes as needed. Then add a Text child element with the new text we want to assign to the tag.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Database>
    <LocalizedText>
        <Row Tag="LOC_TRADITION_FXS_CYLINDER_SEALS_NAME" Language="en_US">
            <Text>Cylinder Seals</Text>
        </Row>
        <Row Tag="LOC_TRADITION_FXS_CYLINDER_SEALS_DESCRIPTION" Language="en_US">
            <Text>+2[icon:YIELD_FOOD] Food, +3[icon:YIELD_GOLD] Gold on the Palace.</Text>
        </Row>
        <Row Tag="LOC_TRADITION_FXS_ORACLE_BONES_NAME" Language="en_US">
            <Text>Oracle Bones</Text>
        </Row>
        <Row Tag="LOC_TRADITION_FXS_ORACLE_BONES_DESCRIPTION" Language="en_US">
            <Text>+3[icon:YIELD_HAPPINESS] Happiness, +1[icon:YIELD_CULTURE] Culture on the Palace.</Text>
        </Row>
    </LocalizedText>
 </Database>

If working with SQL

And the equivalent in SQL. We define our Tag, Language, and Text as columns, and provide our rows as a set of values surrounded by parentheses in the same order we initially listed the columns.

INSERT OR REPLACE INTO LocalizedText
    (Tag,    Language,    Text)
VALUES
    (
        'LOC_TRADITION_FXS_CYLINDER_SEALS_NAME',
        'en_US',
        'Cylinder Seals'
    ),
    (
        'LOC_TRADITION_FXS_CYLINDER_SEALS_DESCRIPTION',
        'en_US',
        '+2[icon:YIELD_FOOD] Food, +3[icon:YIELD_GOLD] Gold on the Palace.'
    ),
    (
        'LOC_TRADITION_FXS_ORACLE_BONES_NAME',
        'en_US',
        'Oracle Bones'
    ),
    (
        'LOC_TRADITION_FXS_ORACLE_BONES_DESCRIPTION',
        'en_US',
        '+3[icon:YIELD_HAPPINESS] Happiness, +1[icon:YIELD_CULTURE] Culture on the Palace.'
    );

Restart the game to see our new changes.

Note: What are those funny [icon:YIELD_FOOD] things? Those are the inline icons: the yield symbols interspersed in the game’s text! The yield icons are simple, just change from YIELD_FOOD to YIELD_INFLUENCE or YIELD_SCIENCE for example.

There are other icons if you look around in the game files as well.

Note: LocalizedText? But the game files use EnglishText! Good eye! The EnglishText table is a shorthand for adding an entry into the LocalizedText table with en_US in the Language column.

You can use either table if you’re working with English, they’re basically the same, with the EnglishText table omitting the Language.

But you’ll need to used LocalizedText with the appropriate language tag (eg. es_ES or zh_Hans_CN) if you want to provide translations. You do not need a new file to provide translations.

And that’s it! That’s our social policy mod done! A completed version of it is be available as a sample mod, with both .xml and .sql so you can take a examine how things are done in either language.

Modifying the Icons and Color Databases

Here are examples of Color and Icon database files respectively, both in .xml. You still use both .xml and .sql here though!

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Database>
    <PlayerColors>
        <Row>
            <Type>LEADER_SAPPHO</Type>
            <Usage>Unique</Usage>
            <PrimaryColor>COLOR_STANDARD_RED_DK</PrimaryColor>
            <SecondaryColor>COLOR_STANDARD_WHITE_LT</SecondaryColor>
            <Alt1PrimaryColor>COLOR_STANDARD_WHITE_LT</Alt1PrimaryColor>
            <Alt1SecondaryColor>COLOR_STANDARD_RED_DK</Alt1SecondaryColor>
            <Alt2PrimaryColor>COLOR_STANDARD_BLUE_DK</Alt2PrimaryColor>
            <Alt2SecondaryColor>COLOR_STANDARD_WHITE_LT</Alt2SecondaryColor>
            <Alt3PrimaryColor>COLOR_STANDARD_WHITE_LT</Alt3PrimaryColor>
            <Alt3SecondaryColor>COLOR_STANDARD_BLUE_DK</Alt3SecondaryColor>
        </Row>
    </PlayerColors>
    <Colors>
        <Row>
            <Type>COLOR_MY_NEW_COLOR</Type>
            <Color>229,117,116,255</Color>
            <Color3D>229,117,116,255</Color3D>
        </Row>
    </Colors>
 </Database>

Note: Existing player colors can be found in playerstandardcolors.xml

When defining new Colors, the Color entries are used for UI controls, whereas Color3D entries are used for the team color on 3D models in game.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Database>
    <IconDefinitions>
        <Row>
            <ID>BUILDING_STAVE_CHURCH</ID>
            <Path>fs://game/denmark/icons/building_stave_church.png</Path>
        </Row>
    </IconDefinitions>
 </Database>

Note: New .png files for icons will need to be imported via the ImportFiles in the .modinfo file.

The Path to the file will be fs://game/ + the mod Id + the path to the file in that mod. So in the example above, the mod’s Id would be denmark, and the .png file is in the icons folder of that mod.

Use the UpdateColors and UpdateIcons actions to update Colors and Icons respectively.

    <Actions>
        <UpdateIcons>
            <Item>data/modded-icons.sql</Item>
        </UpdateIcons>
        <UpdateColors>
            <Item>data/modded-colors.sql</Item>
        </UpdateColors>
    </Actions>