Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) Technical Problems Get Back Traits in French Version

I have 2 versions of the game, in english and in french. I started in english then get savegames and continue in French.

Everything seems ok appart :
- Previous random items still in english, it's not a problem.
- The Learning skills descriptions in english despite book or rewards are now in french but the game manage so I'll survive to this problem (but if you have a trick to solve this that would be cool).
- I don't have any character traits now. That's not cool, that was very funny plus it was giving some helpful information. Can I get them back in the french version by using some files of the english version?

EDIT : All those problems seems to be related to the savegame coming from the english version. I have the traits if I create a new game in the french version when they are empty for a savegame coming from the english version and played with the french version. That's strange because they change and have changed since I use the french version.

[color:"orange"]- Previous random items still in english, it's not a problem.[/color]

Random item stats are saved in the items.000 file in the saved game folder. This file can not be replaced without corrupting all equipment with random stats.


[color:"orange"]- The Learning skills descriptions in english[/color]

The skill section of the data.000 file in the save folder contains descriptions. It may be possible to replace that whole section of the file with the corresponding section from a French save.


[color:"orange"]- I don't have any character traits now.[/color]
...
[color:"orange"]That's strange because they change and have changed since I use the french version.[/color]

Do you mean there were no traits originally listed, but they did get start to be updated? It is possible there are format differences between the French and English versions of the game, and the French game didn't understand the English listing, so displayed nothing until it overwrote that data when updating the trait descriptions.

About Traits, I have the list but beside each section there's no description. Each section title is well translated in French.



Do you mean it's possible to do text edit of this file??

About data.000, I tried it and yes it's related to traits but if I replace it it seems that most of my game is reset, I keep inventory and other stuff but not character attribute for example, perhaps I haven't done well the test.

I suspect it's something related to male/female. Something that doesn't exist in english version but in french version. My character coming from english, in french this character is neutral and traits aren't found. But you could be right it's possible that for some obscure reason indexes are used for traits and are different for the french version. It's funny that the game manage that

There's probably no solution appart a binary editing (that nobody can do). From time to time, I quit the game, put the save in english version and launch the english version to see the traits. Not very cool but better than nothing.

If I have the courage I'll try to create a new game in both versions with same character, do nothing, save and compare files. But well I doubt this can lead anywhere.

EDIT : I gave a try to binary compare data.000 files of a new savegame in both versions.... Well too many differences and tool not very powerful, giving up, just cross my fingers that I won't be stuck because of this savegame migration. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

[color:"orange"]Do you mean it's possible to do text edit of this file??[/color]

No, but it may be possible to replace the skill section (in whole or in part) of the file using a hex editor. The data.000 file keeps track of all character and NPC data, as well as some quest information, so (as you already found) it can not be swapped between saves without causing problems.

Even if the skill section can be replaced (it can between English saves, IIRC) you would have to re-learn all your skills again (ie taking the skill section from a new French save would reset them in the current English save) after giving yourself the corresponding number of unused skill points.
The easiest method would probably be to use iZakaroN's SaveEditor (or from Kiya's site, with description) to unlearn all skills first, assuming it works on a French save, then do the hex editing, then re-learn everything.


[color:"orange"]I suspect it's something related to male/female. Something that doesn't exist in english version but in french version.[/color]

If unicode support was added to the French version of the game to be able to handle accented characters (that do not appear in basic English character sets) that might cause problems. Even different length descriptions after translation could be an issue.


[color:"orange"]EDIT : I gave a try to binary compare data.000 files[/color]

Even with saves from the same game, if I want to do a binary comparison to figure out how to edit a particular value or attribute I try to pause the game as much as possible to limit the number of things which can change between the 'before' and 'after' saves. Even then the file size can change, which makes it much harder to compare the files (ie it is easier to redo the saves).


Check your PM (click 'My Home' in the top menu bar, then 'Received Private Messages').

Ha well about the traits, I haven't well analysed the problem, oops! About Skills well now their description are in english in the french game not cool but that's ok.

For traits, I realized the problem is a specific french version problem not at all a problem coming frem a mix of savegame from different language version.

If I create a women character with the french version then I have no traits at all. I mean I have the list but not their funny comments. If I create a man character still the french version I have the traits and using this savegame in the english version and save the game then get it back in french, traits work fine.

So the problem is only for women characters in the french version. I understand that French are very respectful for women and that traits comments are a bit aggressive but well at this point it's cocoon! Damit I want traits for female characters!!

The french version is the dvd version so in theory no update to do for it, should I try it anyway to solve this women traits problem? In Baldur's Gate your character could change sex that's perhaps possible in DD to solve the problem?

[color:"orange"]The french version is the dvd version so in theory no update to do for it, should I try it anyway to solve this women traits problem?[/color]

If the publisher has a patch on their site designed for the DVD version it would be safe to install. However, if you install the CD version patch over the DVD install of the game it will replace the executable (among other files) which will have the game looking for the play CD on startup (which you do not have), rather than the DVD.


[color:"orange"]In Baldur's Gate your character could change sex that's perhaps possible in DD to solve the problem?[/color]

Appearance (gender and class) can be changed (see Some more hex offsets...), but I don't know if that is the only place gender information is stored. You could try it and see if it helps.

Thanks a lot for your support. I haven't found any special patch for the dvd version. And yes applying the patch to 1.34 broke the cd check but as my english version was a CD version I could use the english cd to overcome the copy protection of the dvd french version. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> But that solve nothing still the same bug.

Well I uninstalled anyway and did a fresh install from DVD, still the same Traits problem with female characters.

So I pick my courage and try decrypt the hexa post you linked. My big worry is that what he describes isn't exactly what I saw. He mentions somewhere in the file :
00000004000000000000000000000000000000A032000008000000 - wizard female

I had that but some values wasn't 0 plus I hadn't the A032. I gave a try anyway and replace as he suggest with a male version :
00000002000000000000000000000008000000 - survivor male
Then save the file start the game and load it... It worked, I get a male, probably the survivor and I had traits back and in french.

Cool cool the only think that worry me is that the initial value wasn't what he mentions. Yes I did all of that on a copy of the savegame.

That said this traits problem in french version is related to this small part of the file. I'll try dig it a bit more to see if I can continue look at a nice [nocando] and have Traits instead of having to support an ugly one just to have Traits. Also if I can modify only a bit of this string and keep other and have Traits I will prefer.

All of that is so weird it's like if no french player tried a female character or quote the problem. Perhaps French prefer male asses! Weird! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Again thanks a lot for our great help.

[color:"orange"]My big worry is that what he describes isn't exactly what I saw.[/color]

If I have time tomorrow I'll start a couple games and see if I get the same values listed in that post.


[color:"orange"]It worked, I get a male, probably the survivor[/color]

Check your special move; if it changed from the mage's 'swap places' to 'sneak', then the character is now a survivor.


[color:"orange"]All of that is so weird it's like if no french player tried a female character or quote the problem.[/color]

The French localization may not have been tested very rigorously. Alternately, it may be a know bug, but the fix would require more work than the publisher was willing to support, or a fix could involved making so many changes that there would be a serious risk of causing additional problems.

I'm not sure why there was different values but finally I aplied the best bet for safer solution, I change to Wizard Male so changed only one byte, in fact only one bit. That change a lot of thing from voices to character and fix the Traits problem.

But there's one thing unchaged it's the character portrait in shops. I still have the old girl one and it doesn't seems linked to the different bytes values I mentionned.

Overall it's a great fix that seesm work quite well. That bug is very strange because I made many manipulations between english and french versions (in instaled copies), mixing files, dll, exchanging exe and all is very solid. What's not cool is that all localizations aren't in the localizations folder. They are in other files that seem to have both english and french version, this includes Traits and quests logs. The language used is defined in config.lcl and some folder name should be there French or Engish in dat folder or in localizations folder. No idea in what files are stored the texts for traits and quests log, obviously there are compressed files and doing a text search is unsuccessful.

Ha well, I must say that I am quite happy to have the traits back and I'll survive to play with a male character. ;-)

There's few bugs in this version and localizations works quite well and this bug is a bit big, so it's quite possible that it's one of the last fix that broke this.

Or they forget to make the women version for traits and was worry about some vindicative WLM so didn't use the male Traits for female characters. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />