Let's Talk About the Names.XML File

[joefromchicago]

With the release of version 23, a profound change has occurred in the way that OOTP handles names. Gone are the csv (comma-separated values) text files that have been a part of the game for decades. In their place is the names.xml file. This file contains all of the names and nicknames that the game uses when it creates players and personnel.

Because the names.xml file is in a different format, all of the previous names.txt files are now obsolete. They cannot be used in version 23 or, presumably, any subsequent version of OOTP. Which also means that all of the mods in the csv format are likewise obsolete.

I have posted a step-by-step tutorial for converting the csv files into the new xml format. You can find it here (scroll down to the fifth post). Even though the tutorial is in that thread, I'd like to keep conversations about the new format - and about the challenges it poses - in this thread (the thread with the names lists should be reserved for posts regarding the lists themselves). Also, if you have any questions about the tutorials, or if you have suggestions for making them better, please post those thoughts in this thread.

So, what does everybody think about the big change?

[Thundercrack]

Yes, let’s make things more difficult for the users of the game. Sometimes the devs common sense seems to be severely lacking. And it was never even brought up.

[SilentFox]

How do we go about converting the namesets that are simply text files (not .CSVs) to the new format?

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by SilentFox

How do we go about converting the namesets that are simply text files (not .CSVs) to the new format?

I'm not sure I know what you're referring to. Do you have an example?

[SilentFox]

There are some namesets that used just a first, last and nicknames text file. I am unsure what the conversion process is for files that were in the previous format.

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=328435

[joefromchicago]

Dogzilla created both names files and a world default xml file. The world file should be fine - that hasn't been changed in version 23. The names files, however, are csv files and so need to be converted to xml format in order to work in version 23. Take a look at this post to see how you can convert those csv files to the new xml format.

[pilight]

Originally Posted by Thundercrack

Yes, let’s make things more difficult for the users of the game. Sometimes the devs common sense seems to be severely lacking. And it was never even brought up.

It's the nature of devs to make things easier for themselves rather than for their customers

[SilentFox]

Yeah I'm getting a legitimate headache, its not pasting, its just giving me a #REF error when I'm going through the steps, its been two hours now. Such fun!

I have to be doing something wrong, sure, but really wish it didn't have to be this way



Not sure how copying the column as defined in the tutorial is returning me a #REF error. What's getting pasted over? I don't understand.

[khucke]

Joe from Chicago, has any of Your Name mods become Part of the Vanilla name Files in 23?

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Thundercrack

Yes, let’s make things more difficult for the users of the game. Sometimes the devs common sense seems to be severely lacking. And it was never even brought up.

I'm sorry, man, but XML files are roughly the same level of difficulty - either way, you're going into Excel or Google Sheets and converting to that particular format - and there are a number of things that XML has going for it from an ease of work standpoint. Comma-separated files are notorious for getting line items messed up by missing a comma or not enclosing text that's supposed to have a comma in the right kind of quotes or whatever. And for all this talk of "ease of use", XML is *far* easier to look at and tell what the heck it's doing from an end user standpoint; you may not notice this because you're opening the file in Excel but this remains the case.

The true mark of the devs taking over is if they changed all these files to use JSON instead.

One thing I would love is something to edit the english.xml file. I have half a mind of working on one myself...

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by khucke

Joe from Chicago, has any of Your Name mods become Part of the Vanilla name Files in 23?

That's a good question. I have no idea. I'll have to check that out.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by SilentFox

Yeah I'm getting a legitimate headache, its not pasting, its just giving me a #REF error when I'm going through the steps, its been two hours now. Such fun!

I have to be doing something wrong, sure, but really wish it didn't have to be this way



Not sure how copying the column as defined in the tutorial is returning me a #REF error. What's getting pasted over? I don't understand.

I'm sorry you're getting an error. Can you give a few more details? What column is that happening in? Have you entered data in all of the other columns?

[Thundercrack]

Joe from Chicago, do you know if creating a league in 22 with the old files then importing the league into 23 work-

[SilentFox]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

I'm sorry you're getting an error. Can you give a few more details? What column is that happening in? Have you entered data in all of the other columns?

I'm unsure if this is how its supposed to look in the template, but this is what I have

Even pasting the results of Cell J the way the tutorial states in a blank spreadsheet just to see what it does, it ends up giving me a #REF error. Doesn't matter what column, its just giving me that. Either one of these parameters are wrong or something else is.

However, to answer your question, at first I put it just right under the very last name in what I could assume was the first names place, I just opened the names XML and tried to paste the output under the last entry

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Thundercrack

Joe from Chicago, do you know if creating a league in 22 with the old files then importing the league into 23 work-

I believe the league will import correctly, but that any names generated in 23 would come from the names.xml file. Can anyone confirm that?

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by SilentFox

I'm unsure if this is how its supposed to look in the template, but this is what I have

Even pasting the results of Cell J the way the tutorial states in a blank spreadsheet just to see what it does, it ends up giving me a #REF error. Doesn't matter what column, its just giving me that. Either one of these parameters are wrong or something else is.

OK, I think I might have identified the problem. Your spreadsheet looks good, but you shouldn't copy and paste column J into another spreadsheet - that will give you the #REF error that you're getting. Instead, you need to copy and paste that column into the names.xml file.

Originally Posted by SilentFox

However, to answer your question, at first I put it just right under the very last name in what I could assume was the first names place, I just opened the names XML and tried to paste the output under the last entry

That one I don't understand. What program are you using to open xml files? Is it Notepad or Notepad++?

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by SilentFox

I'm unsure if this is how its supposed to look in the template, but this is what I have

Even pasting the results of Cell J the way the tutorial states in a blank spreadsheet just to see what it does, it ends up giving me a #REF error. Doesn't matter what column, its just giving me that. Either one of these parameters are wrong or something else is.

However, to answer your question, at first I put it just right under the very last name in what I could assume was the first names place, I just opened the names XML and tried to paste the output under the last entry

This looks a lot to me like Excel (or Sheets if you're using Sheets) is taking in your XML and trying to parse it as a .csv, or else parsing the XML very, very badly. Those angle brackets denote individual records or properties and shouldn't be displayed like that.

Have you tried dropping that data into an XML editor, for instance this one that's available online?

https://jsonformatter.org/xml-editor

[SilentFox]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

OK, I think I might have identified the problem. Your spreadsheet looks good, but you shouldn't copy and paste column J into another spreadsheet - that will give you the #REF error that you're getting. Instead, you need to copy and paste that column into the names.xml file.



That one I don't understand. What program are you using to open xml files? Is it Notepad or Notepad++?

I did copy and paste that into the Names.xml but it didn't work. Why I mentioned putting it in a blank sheet, was that I wanted to see if it happened everywhere, it didn't work in the xml file or the blank sheet where I tested it afterwards to see what was wrong. I'm using Excel

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by SilentFox

No, no no no, I did what you said to do first. Why I mentioned putting it in a blank sheet, was that I wanted to see if it happened everywhere, it didn't work in the xml file or the blank sheet where I tested it to see what was wrong. I'm using Excel

You're using Excel to open xml files? I didn't know that was possible. Like Syd Thrift mentioned, you might want to download a dedicated xml editor. If you're on Windows, you should have Notepad++ already installed. Try opening the names.xml file using Notepad++ and see if that works.

[SilentFox]

Thanks for all the help everyone, I'm so embarrassed, that worked. I never worked with...excel or XML before not going to lie to anyone.