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Author Topic: Random characters instead of letters  (Read 1474 times)

trintim

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Random characters instead of letters
« on: September 16, 2020, 01:21:18 am »

I've been using the newbpack for ages and as long as I have some names will use random characters instead of letters so instead of something like "Obok" you get "¶bok", not sure if this is in the standard version but I just wanted to ask on here if anyone knows how to fix this.
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Urist mcbayblade

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Re: Random characters instead of letters
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2020, 02:24:15 am »

The tile packs just change the tiles so it looks better in game, however when the tiles are used for text this can result in some mess ups. You can't really do anything unless you change to the default ASCII.
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Starver

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Re: Random characters instead of letters
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2020, 02:50:44 am »

If you open something like .../raw/objects/language_DWARF.txt from the game directory in one or other text editor, you'll see some of the DF Codepage characters (accented chars, mostly) to be things like 99-quotemarks because they're different in the (more) ASCIIish character set.

Depending on what reference the 'dictionary' is applied to (straight text, reference the vanilla raw art, any modded art with possible modded tile->art position reference) it can go all weird like this, like modded graphics for bags in fortress view can make the "male" symbol substitute the same in text, without further fiddling. (And I've just been ninjaed on this point, but I was busy double-checking most of the rest of this reply, so... ;) )

The reverse filled/maybe-double-risered "P" character (exact appearance depends on font used) tends to be that given by the 0xB6 position in the extended-ASCII set (that's a little-used ╢'margins and tables' character in the vanilla art) though it's 1 down, 4 across in the vanilla art (which is within the 'non-printable characters' area, technically,[1]). What you're seeing is therefore a mis-setted representation.

0xB6 is decimal 182, and in notepad (or equivalent), Alt-182 (on the numpad keys) may give you an Å (which looks like it might be the accented char looked for[2], but is maybe 0xC5[3] in other contexts), but Alt-0182 references a 'parallel' number 182 that is the ¶ (or similar) that you're seeing.

I don't know what the newbpack does... Could be TextWillBeText thing, or similar... but you've got something confused as to which character and/or graphic it needs to display. Assuming it's not corrupted raws, it might be a third-party change (mod, maybe) that isn't working properly with another (TWBT won't be the only thing, I'm sure).


[1] Though decimal-20 seemingly works to give this interchangably (mutually searchable-for under notepad) with decimal-0182 in the Alt-Numpad, probably because both become 0xB6 in the raw file when saved in default text format, so it's already 'deunprintabled'.

[2] A quick whiz through the dictionary files don't reveal "Åbok" as anything, or any other "?bok" that has a funny "?". "Obok" is dwarven for "Pillar", and I don't think there's word-start mutations, like in Welsh... ;) There are a couple of words starting with "bok" but I can't find anything that looks like it ends with "Å", "¶" or any other viable replacer. Which means I've either got by ASCII/ANSI/Extended-ASCII/Unicode/UTF-8/etc all mixed up or you've got some augmentation (via choices in the LNP?) that I haven't in this version (and the Wiki listing) that I checked.

[3] Alt-0182 saves as 0xC2, which should be  in all the Windows fonts I checked, where Šis 0xC5, i.e. mutually switcherooed. I with each other. Might be my personal UK-localisation, though, which I'm far too happy with to try to overturn, even temporarily. Hmmm... ...I don't suppose your localisation isn't screwing up this in your case, maybe?
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trintim

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Re: Random characters instead of letters
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2020, 05:25:23 am »

I don't know what the newbpack does... Could be TextWillBeText thing, or similar... but you've got something confused as to which character and/or graphic it needs to display. Assuming it's not corrupted raws, it might be a third-party change (mod, maybe) that isn't working properly with another (TWBT won't be the only thing, I'm sure).

[2] A quick whiz through the dictionary files don't reveal "Åbok" as anything, or any other "?bok" that has a funny "?". "Obok" is dwarven for "Pillar", and I don't think there's word-start mutations, like in Welsh... ;) There are a couple of words starting with "bok" but I can't find anything that looks like it ends with "Å", "¶" or any other viable replacer. Which means I've either got by ASCII/ANSI/Extended-ASCII/Unicode/UTF-8/etc all mixed up or you've got some augmentation (via choices in the LNP?) that I haven't in this version (and the Wiki listing) that I checked.

[3] Alt-0182 saves as 0xC2, which should be  in all the Windows fonts I checked, where Šis 0xC5, i.e. mutually switcherooed. I with each other. Might be my personal UK-localisation, though, which I'm far too happy with to try to overturn, even temporarily. Hmmm... ...I don't suppose your localisation isn't screwing up this in your case, maybe?

The "¶" was just a random character I found as an example, a lot of the things I'm seeing in game I've never seen anywhere else...some of them look like floor tiles (like a square with diagonal lines) or a blue orb. The thing is it only happens with names (like Dwarf/pet names or instruments) while the normal tiles and graphics work just fine.

Maybe its just the newb pack -_-
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Starver

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Re: Random characters instead of letters
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2020, 07:25:50 am »

"...maybe it's Maybelline."

No it's then likely the thing that typically switches all ♂ symbols with hand-crafted bag graphics, but this applies to wherever the ♂ character appears in normal text scenarios.  The "O" in "Obok", which means "pillar", might therefore be substituted for the image drawn to be a pillar (or any other item in "Text, various creatures#, trade depot post, glass portal, Tile in Farm Workshop, column$, wall construction, full moon on travel map and dwarf mode, trunk$, staring eyeball*, bubble bulb*, windmill hub", that has not been specifically refactored maybe, depending on other substitions behind a graphical mod you chose).

The ones that look like floor tiles maybe are floor tiles (should be "+", maybe, i.e. also encountered in +quality level+ brackettings, could also be stockpile or zone graphics with a similar dual-use in text), not sure what the blue orbs could be off the top of my head.

And the reason it happens in text is then because it works just fine in the graphical bits.


Or so I'd guess, sight-unseen. Screenshots of phenomena (and giving us an ide of what tileset you've applied) could confirm this, but otherwise it's just a 'thing'. I'm fairly sure. But I did enjoy researching the initial wrong character, so don't mind me. ;)
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Salmeuk

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Re: Random characters instead of letters
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2020, 09:14:41 am »

If this bothers you a whole bunch (it certainly bothered me, it's why I don't use tileset graphics), then you can try installing Text Will Be Text, a plugin / modification that was designed almost exclusively to fix this occurrence of odd characters. TWBT will also give you neat multi-level view options, which, I think ar goign to revolutionize the game's appearance once they are added to the base game in the new graphical update.
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