hello! i'm trying to make a mod that overwrites spanish gender-neutral dialogue (it keeps being gender-neutral, just different) and im becoming desperate. it just won't work, the game recognizes the mod but doesn't change any text
and the thing is, i don't exactly understand what should we do with this .loca files? i understand they're placed in Baldurs Gate 3/Data/Localization/Spanish (in my case) alongside Spanish.pak? i've tried it and nothing. i know and i've extracted the language myself, too, but it has more than one .loca file
i've been looking for examples here from other mods, and Show Approval Ratings seems to work perfectly well. it overwrites it all and uses the same file names and structure than the original Spanish.pak (↑), but i only want to overwrite the Neutral/X files
Oh gosh, I'm sorry it hasn't been working! I haven't done much experimenting with the gendered .loca files, but I'd love to help figure it out!! (And thank you for clarifying that everything's still staying gender neutral, I really appreciate it 🌟)
I'm currently wrapping up a huge project and won't be able to look at the files myself for a lil bit, but can you try extracting the neutral .loca files and putting them in the //Localization/Spanish/Gender/Netural/ file in your Data folder, and then putting your own .loca file with the edits you made in that folder? That might allow the game to recognize the files it needs to override!
Some other things to help troubleshoot: this method also doesn't always play nice when mixing loose files and .pak files, and I'm still trying to figure out why! But if you're mixing .pak files and loose files that might be why the changes aren't showing up? And your file name also needs to start with a letter that comes later in the English alphabet than S, because the override system for localization files is actually alphabetical!! Which feels a bit silly, but that is actually how the game is able to override localization files. And not having a .loca file name that comes after the language name alphabetically can also prevent the changes from showing up!
Let me know if any of those helps solve the issue you're having, and if not, I'm more than happy to keep troubleshooting. Good luck!!! 🍀🍀🍀
i will explain my problem for possible others who might need the solution
ok so apparently the problem was re-paking the .loca.xml files that the multitool created when unpaking the original Spanish.pak
instead, after changing some texts from the .xml, i used lslib to make them into .loca first (i put the xml ones away in another folder just to be careful, only leaving the .loca ones), and then i did paked it all again with the multitool. i'm not sure if that was something i should have known before, but no tutorial seemed to do it. i've even deleted the files i didn't need, only kept the modified ones, with the same names and structure as the original
``` (this is the structure of the mod) ├───SpanishTest │ ├───Localization │ │ └───Spanish │ │ │ spanish_M_to_X.loca │ │ │ │ │ └───Gender │ │ └───Neutral │ │ spanish_X_to_M.loca │ │ │ └───Mods │ └───SpanishTest │ meta.lsx ```
i'm only using .pak files, none loose ones, and i'm not putting nor changing anything directly into the Baldurs Gate 3\Data\Localization folder, it works perfectly just adding the mod
anyway, thank you for answering so fast. i'm playing with my nb tav but spanish is much more gendered than english and the way media does it always cringes me, it is so unnatural, i was hoping to make it better while playing and now i can. thank you for the help!
You don't need this file if you have OIO actually!!!!!!!! OIO functions as a base file for other mods that require one, making this one unnecessary. You can totally use OIO for any mod that requires this file instead! I think I need to make my explanation about that a bit clearer, actually, a lot of people have been confused about this 😭 Sorry about that!
I was having trouble getting my edits to show up at all without one, actually! I was initially testing with other mods that overrode the entire localization file, and the edits would show up just fine, but when I removed all other mods to see if it was still working, my overrides would disappear. After a ton of experimenting I realized the overrides would only show up if I had another mod editing the original localization files installed. This file helped them function again!
That's really fascinating about the Gauntlets of Shar, though!!! I wonder why your override works but mine didn't?? Did you leave the .loca file as an .xml file in the mod? And were you testing the mod with other mods, or did you remove them? I really recommend removing all other mods from your mods folder and data folders entirely when testing your mods. This guarantees there's no override files affecting your game that your mod might be dependent on, especially because BG3 Mod Manager doesn't seem to recognize localization overrides as overrides, even though they still affect your game when they're not in the load order.
tl;dr, my overrides didn't work without a file like this!! Or another mod that edits the original localization file, which acted as a base for my overrides. I'd really love to troubleshoot it and figure out why mine didn't, but yours do, if you have the time!
Oh OIO actually functioned as a base for my mod!!!!!!! I think I need to make my wording a bit clearer, mods like OIO actually function as base files, so this one isn't necessary if you're using OIO! But I don't think I made that clear enough in my explanation 😭 That might be why your overrides still show up, though!!! Would you be able to test it without any mods but yours (and the mod fixer, so the game loads), and see if it still works? I understand if not, but I'd really appreciate it if you have the time!!!
Hi! This is lovely and I so appreciate it! I have some experience modding localization files so I thought this would be a piece of cake. I edited all my strings onto your template, saved, used LSLib to export my .xml to a .loca, disabled Show Approval Ratings (removed from my mod folder entirely), My Data>Localization>English folder only contains the base English.loca that I downloaded and my modded file that begins with a V. As far as I'm aware, that should do it- but when I open my game, all the overwritten text remains the same. I have read and reread the guide trying to figure out where I went wrong, but everything looks just as it should. Any ideas?
Oh gosh, would you feel comfortable sending me a screenshot of your XML file? It really does sound like you've got everything set up correctly, but sometimes something really small like a missing quote can throw a wrench in things, and it can help to have another set of eyes on it!! Do my overrides like Be Nice To Wyll or the original template mod work? Or are none of the overrides showing up?
Also, someone on my Be Nice To Wyll mod found that the mod Stronger Bosses also overrides changes using this method, and it's possible there's others that do too. I'm really not sure why yet, I'll need to look more into that. But it might be worth moving all mods out of your mod folder completely to see if that helps as well!!
I literally drafted up a whole message to show you my files and that it's not working- but somehow it has randomly decided to work! Shadowheart>Shart replacer mod coming soon!!! lmao thank you
Oh I love that hdfgjkf And I'm so glad it's working now!!!! I wonder why it wasn't?? But in any case, congratulations!!! That sounds like Such a fun mod and I'm looking forward to seeing it 😊🎶!!!
I THINK what happened is I didn't realize that the NAMES of the characters only get overridden on a new game. When I spoke to Shadowheart in an existing save, her name was still Shadowheart, but the dialogue said "I want to get to know you more, Shart." Only I was a big dummy and was only testing by hovering over her and seeing her name, which was unaffected. When I started a new save to test your Nautiloid Nonsense mod, I noticed that her name was changed, I just hadn't been testing correctly. It was user error, now I know!
So for assets like character names, they only take effect on new saves :)
Oh that's really good to know!!!!! I think I might do some more testing to see if that affects anything else, and then make a note of it in the modder's guide. Thank you so much for testing that out!!!
22 comments
This mod has been updated for Patch 8!
and the thing is, i don't exactly understand what should we do with this .loca files? i understand they're placed in Baldurs Gate 3/Data/Localization/Spanish (in my case) alongside Spanish.pak? i've tried it and nothing. i know and i've extracted the language myself, too, but it has more than one .loca file
D:.
└───Localization
└───Spanish
│ spanish.loca
│ spanish_M_to_X.loca
│ spanish_to_F.loca
│
└───Gender
├───Female
│ spanish.loca
│ spanish_F_to_X.loca
│ spanish_to_F.loca
│
└───Neutral
spanish_X_to_F.loca
spanish_X_to_M.loca
spanish_X_to_X.loca
i've been looking for examples here from other mods, and Show Approval Ratings seems to work perfectly well. it overwrites it all and uses the same file names and structure than the original Spanish.pak (↑), but i only want to overwrite the Neutral/X files
I'm currently wrapping up a huge project and won't be able to look at the files myself for a lil bit, but can you try extracting the neutral .loca files and putting them in the //Localization/Spanish/Gender/Netural/ file in your Data folder, and then putting your own .loca file with the edits you made in that folder? That might allow the game to recognize the files it needs to override!
Some other things to help troubleshoot: this method also doesn't always play nice when mixing loose files and .pak files, and I'm still trying to figure out why! But if you're mixing .pak files and loose files that might be why the changes aren't showing up? And your file name also needs to start with a letter that comes later in the English alphabet than S, because the override system for localization files is actually alphabetical!! Which feels a bit silly, but that is actually how the game is able to override localization files. And not having a .loca file name that comes after the language name alphabetically can also prevent the changes from showing up!
Let me know if any of those helps solve the issue you're having, and if not, I'm more than happy to keep troubleshooting. Good luck!!! 🍀🍀🍀
edit: sorry i was writing the reply as i tried new things and forgot to delete the unnecesary before submitting XD
ok so apparently the problem was re-paking the .loca.xml files that the multitool created when unpaking the original Spanish.pak
instead, after changing some texts from the .xml, i used lslib to make them into .loca first (i put the xml ones away in another folder just to be careful, only leaving the .loca ones), and then i did paked it all again with the multitool. i'm not sure if that was something i should have known before, but no tutorial seemed to do it. i've even deleted the files i didn't need, only kept the modified ones, with the same names and structure as the original
``` (this is the structure of the mod)
├───SpanishTest
│ ├───Localization
│ │ └───Spanish
│ │ │ spanish_M_to_X.loca
│ │ │
│ │ └───Gender
│ │ └───Neutral
│ │ spanish_X_to_M.loca
│ │
│ └───Mods
│ └───SpanishTest
│ meta.lsx
```
i'm only using .pak files, none loose ones, and i'm not putting nor changing anything directly into the Baldurs Gate 3\Data\Localization folder, it works perfectly just adding the mod
anyway, thank you for answering so fast. i'm playing with my nb tav but spanish is much more gendered than english and the way media does it always cringes me, it is so unnatural, i was hoping to make it better while playing and now i can. thank you for the help!
Like, if you want to override certain localizations, you can just do that. No extra files needed.
That's really fascinating about the Gauntlets of Shar, though!!! I wonder why your override works but mine didn't?? Did you leave the .loca file as an .xml file in the mod? And were you testing the mod with other mods, or did you remove them? I really recommend removing all other mods from your mods folder and data folders entirely when testing your mods. This guarantees there's no override files affecting your game that your mod might be dependent on, especially because BG3 Mod Manager doesn't seem to recognize localization overrides as overrides, even though they still affect your game when they're not in the load order.
tl;dr, my overrides didn't work without a file like this!! Or another mod that edits the original localization file, which acted as a base for my overrides. I'd really love to troubleshoot it and figure out why mine didn't, but yours do, if you have the time!
On the other hand, I haven’t had any complaints over on that mod that stuff doesn’t show up.
Without a localization file (OIO moved out), none of them work!
WIth a localization file (OIO moved back in), they all do (the name edits only on a new game, though oO).
TIL.
Also, someone on my Be Nice To Wyll mod found that the mod Stronger Bosses also overrides changes using this method, and it's possible there's others that do too. I'm really not sure why yet, I'll need to look more into that. But it might be worth moving all mods out of your mod folder completely to see if that helps as well!!
So for assets like character names, they only take effect on new saves :)