English Version Won't Work, Other Languages Fine

[ryanisflyboy]

When attempting to start the English version of the game, it crashes immediatly (installed via steam). When I play in any other language I have no problems and the game plays great. The English demo works great as well.

Keep in mind that just because the Demo plays, and any other language plays, you may not be able to get this game to work in English - even after reinstalling your ENTIRE system, updating to the latest drivers for your video card, getting the latest Direct x 9c, verifying your files, defragmenting, and ensuring that everything is in tip top shape. Of course, not to mention your rig probably plays every other game just fine (over 30 other games just fine), and this is the only one NOT playing. And after all this - English crashes immediatly, all other languages play with no problems.

Hopefully someone will find a bug and they will issue a patch. In the mean time, I'll just play the demo.

[ryanisflyboy]

I believe I am zeroing in on the exact issue. Installing the French version works just fine, and I am identifying which files change as you swich languages (mostly the Voice MP3s for various events). What I've learned so far is that the French version of the languagetext.txt works, but when you swap in the English version, it crashes. I am suspecting either:

- A font issue.
- Something about the format of the languagetext.txt between the two languages (UTF? Newlines?).
- A syntax error in the English version of languagetext.txt leading to crashes on some systems.
- Some other issue.

A good way to test this, for those of you with English versions of the Steam app installed:
- Back up your languagetext.txt file.
- Delete it.
- Veryify your game cache (steam will re-download the file).
- See if your game plays. If it crashes, copy your backed up languagetext.txt back in and see if the issue goes away.

I am suspecting something changed with the update in the languagetext.txt file. Older installations will work, but newer installations might have issues.

Can someone PLEASE post an older English version of languagetext.txt from a system that works? I will try that and report back if it solves my crash problem.

[ryanisflyboy]

I figured it out!!! Woot! I fixed it by modifying the languagetext.txt.

If you are having crash issues right on start, this may very well be your issue. Try switching to French. If it works, this IS your issue. The format of this file seems very sensitive to syntax issues, so be aware.

I did some trickery to get this to go, but it is for sure the languagetext.txt file, and I hope tilted mill releases a patch for it soon.

In a nutshell:
- Install the Demo, and copy languagetext.txt from it over to the 'full' version.

- Then use the French char set (there is probably a strange char in the English languagetext that the 32-126 charset can't handle):

Open the file and change this (SPACE MATTERS):

; 11 "32-126,140,156,161,186,191-255" ; French character set
11 "32-126"

To this:
11 "32-126,140,156,161,186,191-255" ; French character set
; 11 "32-126"

I have diffed the file and there are only three changes. I am not sure why the 32-126 charset won't work in either case, but that must be changed. Also, the main reason why the languagetext.txt that ships with the game won't work is these two lines:

10070 "Steam Error"
10071 "Steam must be running to play Children of the Nile"

If you take the "official" file that is downloaded with the game, remove those two lines, and switch to the french charset, the game starts just fine. Clearly this is some kind of bug.

[ryanisflyboy]

Well, a bit of an ongoing saga here. After playing the game for a while I tried to play it again. I got a crash right off the bat. So, I switched back to the original distribution file, and it plays again. Very odd behavior. You may have to try a few different versions of this languagetext.txt depending on which bug CotN decides to respond to.