Issue:
There are various errors in the Compendium entries, some introduced in Retold and some have been around since the original game. I loved the history descriptions as a kid and I’m very glad you made some updates in Retold, but there’s still work that can be done. I have done a full copy-edit of the English language strings for a mod I’m making. Here are some errors I found in the English history strings (some of these may also exist in other languages):
Typos
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_CLASSICALAGELETO
The daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, Leto was known as the hidden one, and become associated with the moon.
- become → became
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_FUNERALRITES
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_AVENGER
I go round about thee to protect thee, O’ brother Osiris.
It is set in order upon thy brow, O’ Osiris Khenti-Amenti; it is set in the shrine and riseth on thy brow.
- These were incorrectly changed in Retold. “O” is the correct word and how it is written in the sources of the quotes. An apostrophe after it makes it a contraction of “of” like in “o’clock”.
- O’ → O
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_HUNTRESSAXE
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_RAMPAGE
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_RIME
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_RINGGIVER
\n\n\”Then came a maid from heaven,
\n\n\“Trembles Yggdrasil’s
\n\n\“From Elivagar sprang venom drops,
\n\n\“The ring too I will give thee,
- Strings contain a backslash before the quotation marks, but they’re curly quotation marks that don’t require a backslash in the code, so the slash shows up in the text. (Also the quotation mark in the first one is the wrong way around.)
- \n\n\” → \n\n“
- \n\n\“ → \n\n“
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_LEVYBARRACKSSOLDIERS
It improves Military Barracks unit train time.
- Military Barracks → Barracks (this is for Egyptians)
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_YDALIR
From his home in Ydalir (Yewdale), Ullr presided over all yew, the best wood used for bow making.
/n/n\"Yewdale it is called, the place where Ullr / has made a hall for himself.\"\n\n– The Poetic Edda, The Lay of Grimnir
- String uses forward slashes instead of backslashes for the first line break code.
- /n/n → \n\n
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_BABOON
In Saqqara, more than 100 olive baboon mummies have been found, but no Hamadryus baboons.
- Hamadryus → hamadryas (spelling mistake and doesn’t need a capital)
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_BEHEMOTH
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_CALADRIA
Oaths of the Oracles, The Lay of Ioleta
Voices of the Oracle, The Lay of Ioleta
- The three other quotes from this fictional Atlantean source have it as “Voices of the Oracles”.
- Oaths → Voices
- Oracle → Oracles
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_ELEPHANT
However, recent DNA studies suggest that there are actually two species of African elephant Loxodonta cyclotis, lives in forests.
- Misplaced and incorrect punctuation. Change to:
However, recent DNA studies suggest that there are actually two species of African elephant; Loxodonta cyclotis lives in forests.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_LION
While hunting in groups may be effective, it is not dramatically more effective then hunting alone, since more food must be gathered to feed the entire pride.
- then → than
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_MANOR
Atlanteans units may also garrison inside of their Manors for protection.
- Atlanteans units → Atlanteans OR Atlantean units
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_WALLOFTROYCONNECTOR
Troy VI and Troy VII are likely candidates for the Troy of Homer’s Illiad.
- Illiad → Iliad
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_GONGQI
The Chinese first experienced the power and mobility of Bow Cavalry while fighting normadic northern tribes.
- normadic → nomadic
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_PEACHBLOSSOMSPRING
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_PENGLAI
No tree of any other kind stood amongst them, but there were fragrant flowers, delicate and lovely to the eye, and the air was with drifting peach bloom.
- Missing the word “filled” from the quotation. Should be:
No tree of any other kind stood amongst them, but there were fragrant flowers, delicate and lovely to the eye, and the air was filled with drifting peach bloom.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_TREEMETASEQUOI
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_TREEMETASEQUOI → STR_HISTORY_UNITS_TREEMETASEQUOIA
STR_HISTORY_GODPOWER_GREATFLOOD
The Great Flood washes away enemy units, greatly damaging them and any building in its path.
- building → buildings
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_SHAKEROFHEAVEN
The goddess Nüwa was forced to repair to repair the heavens with five colorful rocks that she melted together.
- to repair to repair → to repair
Missing close backets
For whatever reason, a load of close brackets in the Compendium entries went missing in Retold. Some have been fixed in past updates but many remain missing:
- STR_HISTORY_SHIPS
- STR_HISTORY_TECHS_ADZEOFWEPWAWET
- STR_HISTORY_TECHS_BURNINGPITCH
- STR_HISTORY_TECHS_HUSBANDRY
- STR_HISTORY_TECHS_OLYMPIANWEAPONS
- STR_HISTORY_TECHS_SALTAMPHORA
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_HERACLES
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_HYPASPIST
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_LEVIATHAN
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_MAHI
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_RAVEN
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_WOLFOFSET
Additionally, this string had a close bracket readded in a past update, but it was placed in the wrong spot:
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_ARCHAICAGETHOR
Thor’s weapon was a magic war hammer (associated with bolts of lightning with a huge head and short handle that never missed its target).
- Close bracket should be after “lightning”.
Missing quotation marks
The following strings are missing quotation marks or an inverted comma at the start of the string:
- STR_HISTORY_TECHS_HALOOFTHESUN
- STR_HISTORY_TECHS_HAMASK
- STR_HISTORY_TECHS_HEROICRENEWAL
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_SKRAELING
Additionally, this string is missing an inverted comma after a word:
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_ANUBITE
Although Anubis was often identified as 'sa, a jackal, rather than ‘iwiw’, a dog, there was still much confusion over which animal Anubis actually was.
- 'sa → ‘sa’
Missing info
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_KRIOS
- Krios’s current Compendium entry duplicates Theocrat’s (from Fall of the Trident) instead of using the one from The New Atlantis, which had extra info and showed his age as 10 years older, like all the other returning characters.
Factual inaccuracy
There is some dubious factual information in the Compendium. Some of it likely because the devs of the original game didn’t have access to a wealth of information online, and some of the information they included is now out of date. There is also information about the game that is incorrect.
STR_HISTORY_STANCES
There are three stances:\n\nAggressive: Your units will chase down and fight enemy units in their line of sight.\nDefensive: Your units will fight enemy units within their line of sight, but will not stray far from their last commanded location.\nPassive: Your units will neither fight nor flee.
- There are four stances. Stand Ground is not listed here.
- Passive → No Attack
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_SPIRITOFMAAT
I have myrrh of women, together with the shenu powder of living folk.
- The quote has been incorrectly transcribed the same way in a number of sources online, but the correct text from the original book is “gave” not “have”, which makes more sense because the story is written in past tense.
- have → gave
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_TEMPLEOFHEALING
Apollo was the father of Asclepius, the god of medicine, whose symbol, the caduseus, is still used as a symbol for medicine today (though is often portrayed as Hermes’ winged staff, not the serpent-entwined staff of Asclepius).
- This explanation is not quite right. Asclepius’s symbol (the symbol of medicine) is the Rod of Asclepius. The caduceus (which is also entwined by serpents) is the name of Hermes’s staff, which is often mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine in America.
- Also note the spelling mistake (caduseus → caduceus).
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_BABOON
Unlike true monkeys, baboons spend most of their time on the ground. Their tail is not prehensile.
- Baboons are monkeys. Living on the ground is irrelevant to their classification. This is possibly trying to make a distinction between Old World monkeys, without prehensile tails, and New World monkeys, with prehensile tails.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_ELK
- The entry and concept of the elk in the game is fairly wrong. The scientific name is given as Cervus elaphus, which is the red deer. The word ‘elk’ is the original, European name for the moose (Alces alces) and is now the American term the wapiti (Cervus canadensis). The wapiti was once thought to be the same species as the red deer but is now classified separately, and it only lives in North America and eastern Asia. The unit model is based on the wapiti, so that’s geographically inaccurate. The elk/wapiti could be used in Chinese maps, and a new unit and model for the red deer created to replace it in European maps. A moose unit would also be nice.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_GOAT
Domestic goats are descended from the bezoar goats found throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East, particularly on the island of Crete.
- Domestic goats are descended from the bezoar ibex, which is native to the Caucasus and the Middle East. Goats were domesticated in the Middle East. More recent DNA evidence shows that the wild goats found on Crete are actually descendants of feral domestic goats.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_LONGHOUSE
An 11th century Norse farm was discovered in Newfoundland at L’Anse aux Meadows and is being excavated and reconstructed.
- The site has already been excavated and reconstructed.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_ORNLU
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_WOLFOFSET
- These are the strings for the Wolf plus Wolf of Set and Ornlu, which is something else that could be improved. Wolf of Set doesn’t need a separate string to Wolf, and Ornlu could use a unique entry.
They are highly social animals that live and hunt in packs of up to thirty-six individuals led by an alpha male and female. Unrelated immigrants may be adopted into a pack. Packs are generally territorial and patrol their domains against intruders. Except for the red wolf, all living wolves are considered to be part of the C. lupus species.
- The pack size is inaccurate and misleading. Wolf packs of greater than 36 have been recorded (making ‘up to’ incorrect), but most packs on average are smaller than 10.
- The concept of alpha wolves is outdated. A pack is usually a family consisting of a mated pair and their offspring.
- There are other wolf species other than grey wolves and red wolves, such as the African wolf and the Ethiopian wolf.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_RHINOCEROS
The rhino dung beetle depends on rhino dung to lay its eggs.
- Rhinoceros beetles are named for their horns not because of a relationship with rhinos. I don’t know where this information came from, but I can’t find it anywhere else.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_SCARAB
Scarab beetles are a diverse group of insects that live in South America and Egypt.
- Scarab beetles live all over the world not just in South America and Egypt.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_SERPENT
There are 16 species in the cobra family, Elapidae.
- That number is way too low. The exact number would be too difficult to determine as taxonomy is constantly being updated. Just “many species” would suffice.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_SONOFOSIRIS
He cannot be healed, and you will regain a normal Pharaoh if he is killed.
- Outdated information left over from the legacy game. A Pharaoh now is spawned after the Son of Osiris is created. (The healing part is correct.)
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_VILLAGERATLANTEAN
Building and holding a Town Center will generate Favor.
- Outdated information left over from the legacy game.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_WATERBUFFALO
African water buffalo, also called cape buffalo, live in large herds sometimes numbering in the hundreds.
- The animal (Syncerus caffer) is called an African buffalo. It’s not a water buffalo. Water buffalo live in Asia. The name of the unit is simply wrong. As well as correcting the Compendium entry, the unit should be renamed just “Buffalo” (along with “Buffalo of Set”).
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_GE_HALBERDIER
Chinese halberds called ‘ge’ evolved from the dagger-axe, a weaponized version of a harvesting scythe.
- The ge is the dagger-axe. The Chinese halberd is the ‘ji’. The name of the unit seems to be wrong.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_TITANGATESPC
Task builders onto the gate to dig away the rocks and rubble. When all of the debris is clear, a Titan will emerge.
- The entry for the special Titan Gate in the Chinese campaign duplicates this info from the regular Titan Gate, but that’s not how it works in the mission.
Misc
- STR_HISTORY_TECHS_PETRIFICATION is missing an ellipsis at the start that was there in the original game. It doesn’t make sense without it:
"were made of a strange and very hard wood.
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_STATUELION contains the only remaining “BC” after the others were all changed to “BCE”:
The reign of the tenth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty (1539-1295 BC), the heretic king, Amenhotep IV, introduced a new artistic style and period - the Amarna period.
Atlantean lore changes
Obviously the Atlanteans’ lore in the game is mostly invented, but some of the changes made to it in Retold are questionable.
STR_HISTORY_TECHS_SECRETSOFTHETITANS
Nevertheless, the whisperings of Kronos and the other Titans, whose voices could still be heard in Atlantis, often tempted the Atlanteans towards impious actions.\n\nThe Titans’ first attempt at escape brought disaster to Atlantis as Zeus destroyed the island city and the passage to Tartarus that lay beneath. The Atlanteans became exiles, abandoned by all gods, but they remember the whispers of the Titans…
This was changed from the wording in the original game:
In time, Poseidon’s mind was poisoned against his brother Zeus as the whisperings of Kronos and the other Titans, whose voices could still be heard in Atlantis, promised him power and dominance over lesser gods.
Their whispers told Poseidon how to breach the prison of Tartarus. His attempt brought disaster to Atlantis as Zeus struck down his brother and the passage to Tartarus that lay beneath Atlantis. The Atlanteans were exiles and renounced allegiance to any god, but they remember the whispers of the Titans…
- The original was a recount of the plot of Fall of the Trident. The new version isn’t accurate - it implies that the Atlanteans were responsible for the Titans’ first attempt at escape, but that was Poseidon and Gargarensis’s doing.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_MANOR
At its height, Atlantis was home to tens of thousands.
- The original game said “millions”. My assumption is someone on the dev team thought millions was too far-fetched, but tens of thousands is nowhere near enough for an empire that spanned continents. Even if you take Atlantis to mean just the island not the whole empire, it’s a massive island on the game map. “Hundreds of thousands” would be a better compromise.
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_MIRRORTOWER
Archimedes of Syracuse is credited with the invention of large, hexagonal mirrors mounted in towers to focus sunlight to set invading Roman ships aflame. The Atlanteans claim that these designs were copied from similar towers that defended the harbors of Atlantis.
This was changed from the wording in the original game:
Archimedes of Syracuse is credited in legend with the invention of large, hexagonal mirrors mounted in towers to burn invading Roman ships to ash. There is some evidence that these towers were copied from similar towers that defended the harbors of Atlantis.
-
While I understand the removal of “evidence”, it doesn’t make sense to say that the Atlanteans claim their designs were copied - the Atlanteans wouldn’t have still been around in the time of Achimedes. It’s also odd to remove “in legend”, since Achimedes’ heat ray is very much a legend and quite possibly did not exist.
A better wording would be:
Archimedes of Syracuse is credited in legend with the invention of large, hexagonal mirrors mounted in towers to focus sunlight to set invading Roman ships aflame. These designs may have been copied from similar towers that defended the harbors of Atlantis.
(The whole thing contains made-up Atlantean information so it wouldn’t be any more misleading.)
Scientific names
The scientific names are a fun feature. There are some errors in the scientific names of real animals, plus there are some improvements that can be made to the fictional ones for myth units:
- Anubite: Pholax cynopolis → Phylax cynopolis – ‘Pholax’ is probably a misspelling of the Greek ‘phylax’, meaning guardian.
- Avenger: Archifalco pharoanicus → Archifalco pharaonicus – misspelling
- Carcinos: Callinectes colossus → Carcinus colossus – Callinectes is a genus of crabs mostly native to the Americas and western Africa. Carcinus is a genus native to Europe and the Mediterranean, and it matches the name of the unit.
- Carnivora: Aldrovanda ampela subsp. xira → Aldrovanda ampelos subsp. xera – The Greek and Latin ‘ampelos’ (meaning ‘vine’) was used in the original game and was incorrectly changed in Retold; it’s already a feminine word in agreement with the genus name. The Greek ‘xira’ is the modern spelling; in Ancient Greek it is ‘xera’, as used in some real scientific names.
- Chicken: Gallus gallus → Gallus gallus domesticus – The former is the red junglefowl, the wild ancestor of the chicken from Asia; the latter is the chicken.
- Gazelle: Eudorcus thomsonii → Eudorcas thomsonii – misspelling
- Goat: Capra aegagrus → Capra hircus – The former is the wild goat; the latter is the domestic goat depicted in the game.
- Hippocampus: Hippocampus spp. → Hippocampus poseidoni – Hippocampus is the actual genus of seahorses. It strange to say that Poseidon’s Hippocampus can be any of multiple species of seahorse – adding a species name is clearer and more interesting.
- Hydra: Hydra lernae → Hydra lernaea – The latter was changed to the former in Retold, but the name of the monster in Latin is ‘hydra Lernaea’.
- Lampades: Nympha hekates → Nympha hecates – Latinised per the norm in scientific names
- Lazer Bear: Ursus magnificus → Ursus magnificus cotnami – joke from the original game inexplicably removed in Retold
- Leviathan: Leviathanos megas → Leviathan megas – The former is possibly made up. ‘Leviathan’ is the same in Greek and Latin as in English.
- Manticore: Androphagos occisor → Androphagus occisor – Latinised
- Perch: Family Percidae → Perca fluviatilis – The relevant species of perch is the European perch. The other species mentioned in the Compendium entry is the Nile perch, which is unrelated and not in the Percidae family.
- Petsuchos: Crocodylus tyranosuchos → Crocodylus tyrannosuchus – misspelling + Latinised
- Phoenix: Aquila inferna → Aquila ignita – The Latin ‘inferna’ is the origin of ‘inferno’ but it specifically refers the underworld and so doesn’t make sense as a name for the Phoenix. Latin ‘ignita’ meaning ‘ignited’ would be more appropriate.
- Pig: Sus scrofa → Sus domesticus – The former is the wild boar; the latter is the pig.
- Satyr: Homo silenos → Homo silenus – Latinised
- Serpent: Naja spp. → Family: Elapidae – While most cobras are in the genus Naja, there are a few that are not, including the king cobra, which is likely the inspiration for the unit. They are all part of the same family.
- Walrus: Odobenus rosmarus → Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus – The walrus in the game is specifically the Atlantic walrus.
- War Turtle: Sternotherus megas → Caretta megas – Sternotherus is a genus of small musk turtles native to the United States. Caretta is the genus of the loggerhead sea turtle, which lives worldwide, including in the Mediterranean and Red Sea, and has a similar shell to the unit. (There is a species of musk turtle called the loggerhead musk turtle, so perhaps one of the original developers got the genera mixed up.)
- Water Carnivora: Aldrovanda ampela → Aldrovanda ampelos subsp. thalassa – The Greek and Latin ‘ampelos’ (meaning ‘vine’) was used in the original game and was incorrectly changed in Retold; it’s already a feminine word in agreement with the genus name. A subspecies could be added to match the land Carnivora.
- Chiwen: Draco sinensis → Draco sinensis piscis – The current name just means ‘Chinese dragon’, which isn’t very specific or inspired. The Chiwen is also not a typical Chinese dragon. Adding the subspecies ‘piscis’ references its fish features.
Missing history files
The following units have Compendium strings that can be used but do not have history files, so the information does not show up:
- ChickenEvil
- ChickenExploding
- MinionReincarnated
- TreeBamboo
- TreeBambooSingle
- TreeChinesePine
- TreeChinesePineDead
- TreeGinkgo
- TreeGinkgoAutumn
- TreeMetasequoia
- TreeMetasequoiaAutumn
- TreeOakRound
- TreePeach
- TreePear
- TreeWillow
- WalkingBerryBush
- WalkingWoodsBamboo
- WalkingWoodsChinesePine
- WalkingWoodsChinesePineDead
- WalkingWoodsGinkgo
- WalkingWoodsGinkgoAutumn
- WalkingWoodsMetasequoia
- WalkingWoodsMetasequoiaAutumn
- WalkingWoodsPeach
- WalkingWoodsPear
- WalkingWoodsSingleBamboo
- WalkingWoodsWillow
Additionally, the following concepts have history strings but are not listed in the Compendium (some of them are out of date):
- Buildings
- Cavalry
- Infantry
- Ranged Soldiers
- Siege Weapons
- God Powers
- Mythical Battles
Missing history string
- The Editor unit Qing Rider has a history file linking to a string that does not exist:
STR_HISTORY_UNITS_QINGQI
Unused strings
The following history strings are not used and are not needed because they’re essentially duplicates:
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_HARPY_SPC
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_BERSERKSTARTING
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_GREAT_WALL
- STR_HISTORY_UNITS_FIRE_ARCHER
Those are the main errors I’ve found just in the history entries. There are many more improvements that can be made to them and to many other strings. If you hit me up, I’d be more than happy to help.
