Matrix Games Forums

Is there a file where I could basically change every occurrence of the word "race" in the game to the word "species?"

Not to be a douche, but calling these different species "races" is not only inaccurate but a sort of misuse of the term 'race.'

There are real valid definitions in biological sciences for the term 'race.' It basically means a geographically and phenotypically distinctive population of the same species.

While the green-skin females, or the Kiadians _might_ count as races, the rest of them are CLEARLY distinct species. It just slightly grinds my gears to read race when it is so egregiously wrong.

GameText.txt in the root folder is where you'll find things like that.

You're seeing this from the wrong angle.
They are all different ALIEN races. They're all alien. The "species" here is "Alien".
I know, it's rather dull to just call all of them aliens, when you are in fact alien to them and stuff like that.
So I agree with you, "species" would be a better term. The word "race" is also a word with two meanings.

Mmmm, yeah I kinda see what you are saying.

But given the amount of pejorative, erroneous, and polarizingly socially-charged meaning that the term "race" carries with it, I think there is no reason to make any use of it in a situation like this, where the word "species" is so much more valid.

I mentioned this to the devs early after the game as released but they evidently didn't see my suggestion or discounted it.

Calling different alien species "races" is not as inaccurate or offensive as calling them alien "monsters" or "demons" [:D] so in that sense it is not a laughably bad term.

But species is just better in every way. I can see no good reason to refer to them as races that exceeds the reasons to refer to them as species.

ORIGINAL: mSterian

You're seeing this from the wrong angle.
They are all different ALIEN races. They're all alien. The "species" here is "Alien".
I know, it's rather dull to just call all of them aliens, when you are in fact alien to them and stuff like that.
So I agree with you, "species" would be a better term. The word "race" is also a word with two meanings.

Well changing all ~500 instances of " races" " race" "Races" and "Race" was not a big deal. But I noticed there is a "races" folder in the root directory. Changed that to "species" too.

Game wouldn't boot. Probably more trouble than it is worth for me [:(]

duh,is it that important ??it's a solo game,and the only thing it does,is...nothing ?

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

Well changing all ~500 instances of " races" " race" "Races" and "Race" was not a big deal. But I noticed there is a "races" folder in the root directory. Changed that to "species" too.

Game wouldn't boot. Probably more trouble than it is worth for me [:(]

I wouldn't change the name of any folders in the root directory, that will certainly prevent the game from loading and it won't make any difference to the ingame text. Changing the gametext.txt is the only way to achieve your goal.

The galactopedia probably contains the word 'race'. You can edit it with MS Word. Might be alot of hassle going through every file though.

You might also look at the race dialog folder. The text files in that might contain some mention of the word 'race'.

Apart from that, it sounds like you've done all you can.

ORIGINAL: Mad Igor

duh,is it that important ??it's a solo game,and the only thing it does,is...nothing ?

Shall we keep it civil please, Igor. Your idea of what's important might be very different from mine, and mine from Anthropoid's. No need to post if you have no interest in the thread and have nothing to contribute.

ORIGINAL: Mad Igor

duh,is it that important ??it's a solo game,and the only thing it does,is...nothing ?

Not the least bit "important" so no need to worry [:D]

Seriously though, like I said, its not a big deal. But it _is_ quite simply inaccurate to refer to distinct species as being "races." You wouldn't refer to your dog as a "Canine race" distinctive from the "Human race" would you? No; dogs are a species, humans are a species.

Of course, there are valid uses for the term "race" (though sub-species is preferred and means the same thing). For example Canis lupus, the "Wolf" has 39 recognized sub-species.

Incidentally, while racial categorization schemes are deeply entrenched in many societies through both custom and law, there is a consensus among biological anthropologists that most widely used schemes (e.g., the common "White-Black-Asian-Native American-Other" used throughout much of U.S. history) are purely socially-constructed concepts that have zero scientific biological or population genetic validity.

To meaningfully divide humanity into valid categories based on real population biological variability would probably involve hundreds or perhaps a thousand or more distinct categories.

Not trying to raise a fuss about it; its not something I wish to protest more broadly. But if I can manage to change the term in my own version of the game I'll be happier.

I forgot to mention, if you change the gametext.txt file, the file will most likely be replaced each time you patch. They add new lines to the file often. So you have to make a backup, copy any new lines over from the new file to your altered one, and replace every time you update the game.

@Igard I recommend winmerge for merging text files, it is much easier than manually copying over changed lines from one file to another.

Looks great! I've been using UltraEdit which does the same thing with it's compare feature, but it's not free, nor is it cheap for that matter!