14 — Explodopedia

Index · Technologies · Tech modifiers · Other configuration files

The Explodopedia is the game's encyclopedia, opened from the main menu. Almost all of it is built from the data files when it opens: every unit, weapon, sensor, research and nuclear explosion of the game and of the loaded mods gets its page, with its values, upgrades and counters. A mod's units, weapons and research appear there without any extra work. Only the descriptions of the categories and the articles of the general information tab are written by hand, in Lang/<language>/explodopedia.lng.

Contents

1. The tabs and what appears in them
2. What a page shows, and where it comes from
3. explodopedia.lng
4. General information articles
5. Articles in HTML
6. Step by step: adding an HTML article
7. Mods and translations
8. Pitfalls

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1. The tabs and what appears in them

Tab	One page per	Categories (the icons above the list)	Left out
Units	unit technology (the modes of a unit, such as a surfaced submarine, share one page)	the unit classes, [UNIT_CLASS] in tech.txt (05), in their order, as on the production screen; units without a class get a category of their own	VirtualCity, special states, virtual missile units, cities, abstract positions
Weapons	missile ([MISSILE])	Nuclear weapons (nuclear, or carrying a nuclear warhead); Chemical and biological weapons (special); Air and missile defence (usable only against aircraft and missiles); Naval weapons (only against ships and submarines); Anti-satellite weapons (only against satellites); Conventional strike weapons (the rest)	Hidden missiles; MIRV warheads that no unit carries on their own
Radars	radar ([RADAR])	Underwater detection (detects submarines); Air and missile detection; Space detection (only satellites); Surface detection (the rest); the game's Explodopedia.txt adds Optical sensors and Satellite cameras and sorts the radars by rules (§3)	radars with DoNotShow (the plain vision)
Research	research technology	the research fields ([TYPE]); a field's overview draws its research tree as the research screen does	—
Explosions	nuclear explosion yield	one category	explosions that no listed weapon delivers; explosions with no Kilotons
General	article in explodopedia.lng	first Gameplay hints: the hints of the loading screens (loading.lng, 12 §5) as a numbered list; then the chapters of the articles	—

An object gets a page only when its technology has a name in tech_t.lng (or the mod's own language file). A unit, weapon or radar without a named technology does not appear.

Keeping an object out: DoNotShowInEncyclopedia (or its alias DoNotShowInExplodopedia) in a [UNIT], [MISSILE], [RADAR] or [EXPLOSION] keeps it out of the Explodopedia entirely: it has no page, and no other page mentions it: not as an icon (weapons, radars, platforms, the units with a trait, the weapons of an aura), not as a link (replaced by, delivered by), and not by its technology's name in the counters. A weapon's MIRV warheads go with it. Write it bare (= Yes) or with Yes/No; it is not inherited from a [TYPE], and a Type line after it does not clear it.

[UNIT] "Test_Dummy"
  Tech "U_Test_Dummy"
  DoNotShowInEncyclopedia

Several radars of the same technology share its name; the second and later ones get their ID added in brackets.

2. What a page shows, and where it comes from

Name and description: the technology's name and description from tech_t.lng. A technology whose description is missing (the text shown is its key) gets no description.

Picture: a unit's icon and 3D model; a weapon's picture (Image). Upgrades that change the look (ImprovedBy "Tech" Movie Image "…", a new model) give the page levels: the arrows under the picture step through them, and the values, upgrades and counters on the page follow the level shown.

Values: hit points, speed, ranges, yield, warheads, hit spread, interception chance, production cost and the others, read from the data with the upgrades of the level shown already applied. A value changed by the level is green.

Upgrades (ImprovedBy with a research, 06): each research, with what it changes, e.g. "Speed +10%, Hit points 1.2". A modifier with a helper technology (a _Buffer technology that only a research gives) is listed under that research. A unit's Size change of 2% or less is not shown: such changes are markers for other modifiers, not real size changes. When a research gives the unit a trait (a Modifier tag) that enemy weapons or radars react to (their AffectedBy Unit "Tag"), the research row also tells what that does: "Enemy weapons against it: Hit spread +7.5%, Damage −10%". When the weapons are affected differently, a row each lists the weapons as icons.

Improved by, in a situation: ImprovedBy Unit "Tag" (better when carried by or launched from units with the tag; the units shown as icons) and ImprovedBy InRange "Weapon" (inside the aura of a weapon).

Countered by (AffectedBy):

Group	From	Shown as
Enemy research	AffectedBy "Tech" (global), and AffectedBy Unit "Tag" when a research gives the tag	the research, a link
Enemy traits	AffectedBy Unit "Tag"	the tag's effect and the units that carry it, as icons with their names as tooltips; a tag that the cities carry (the DEFCON levels) keeps its name and shows the city
In range of	AffectedBy InRange "Weapon"	the aura's weapons, as icons
After an explosion of	AffectedBy Explosion "Explosion"	the weapon that delivers it
On terrain	AffectedBy Terrain "Terrain"	the terrain

A Complex modifier whose cases are all Case Self "Tech" (the effect depends on the weapon's own research, e.g. the accuracy penalties of ballistic missiles) is shown with the effect of the level shown.

Weapons only: the platforms (the units whose weapon configurations carry it, with the research a configuration needs), the explosion it delivers, Replaces / Replaced by (a weapon in the same category made obsolete by the research that unlocks the other one) and Made obsolete by (the research that ends its production: its DisablingTech, or an ImprovedBy "Tech" CanBeBuilt 0). A missile with CanBeIntercepted above 0 ends its page with Can be intercepted by (UI 2594, after the platforms): the weapons with a platform that can be fired at it (CanBeUsedAgainst its Missile / HighMissile type), as icons, without the interceptor classes its DisableCanBeIntercepted excludes (02).

Units only: weapons, radars, the units it carries and where it is based.

Research only: what it unlocks, improves and makes obsolete, what it needs and what it leads to.

Nuclear explosions: one page per yield, with its burst variants (ground, water, air, space; 03) and the weapons that deliver it. Each explosion fills its frame; the marks behind it tell its size, and their brightness legend is the same for every yield (a 1 kt burst has its marks almost alike, a 100 Mt one the whole range).

3. explodopedia.lng

Lang/<language>/explodopedia.lng holds the hand-written texts, in the form of unit.lng:

"KEY" LANG "text"

\n in a text is a new line, \" a quote. USE and IF work as in the other language files (12 §5). The English file is read first and the language's file over it: a key missing in a language shows the English text.

Key	Text
CATEGORY_<class ID>	a unit category's overview: the ID of its [UNIT_CLASS], e.g. CATEGORY_UC_Naval
CATEGORY_Classless	the category of the units without a class
CATEGORY_Nuclear, _ChemBio, _Defence, _Naval, _Conventional, _AntiSat	the weapon categories
CATEGORY_RadarAir, _RadarSurface, _RadarUnderwater, _RadarSpace	the radar categories
CATEGORY_Explosions	the explosions tab
CATEGORY_PLACEHOLDER	a category without its own text; %s is the category's name
FIELD_<[TYPE] ID>	a research field's overview, e.g. "FIELD_Weapons of Mass Destruction"
FIELD_PLACEHOLDER	a field without its own text
EXPLOSION_<[EXPLOSION] ID>	a nuclear explosion's page, by any explosion of its yield, e.g. EXPLOSION_nuke_1000 for 1 Mt
EXPLOSION_PLACEHOLDER	an explosion without its own text
HINTS_DESC	optional: a text above the gameplay hints
GENERAL_…	the general information tab (§4)

Explodopedia.txt: icons and the start page

The icons of the tabs and the categories, and the page the Explodopedia opens on, are not a language's: they are set in Explodopedia.txt in the game's folder. A mod changes it with its own Explodopedia.txt starting with USE PREVIOUS "Explodopedia.txt"; IF works as in the other files.

Tab "Research" Icon "Overlay_Science"
Category "FIELD_Weapons of Mass Destruction" Icon "Nuclear_Fission"
Category "FIELD_Radar Systems" Icon "Radar_Mk2"
Category "CATEGORY_UC_Naval" Icon "Images/Explodopedia/naval.png" Scale 1.2
StartPage "GENERAL_1"

Line	Meaning
Tab "<name>" [Icon "<icon>"] [Scale <f>] [Hide]	a tab's icon; the names: Units, Weapons, Radars, Research, Explosions, General
Category "<key>" [Icon "<icon>"] [Scale <f>] [Hide]	a category's icon above the list (without one: the picture of its first page). The key: FIELD_<[TYPE] ID> (a research field), CATEGORY_<[UNIT_CLASS] ID> (a unit class), CATEGORY_Nuclear … CATEGORY_AntiSat (the weapons), CATEGORY_RadarAir … CATEGORY_RadarSpace, CATEGORY_Explosions, GENERAL_<c> (an article chapter), HINTS (the gameplay hints)
NewCategory "<key>" Tab "<tab>" [After "<category key>"] [Icon …] [Scale …] [Hide]	a category of its own in a tab, after the category named (else last). Its name is <key>_NAME and its description <key> in explodopedia.lng, so it is translated with the other texts
Category "<key>" After "<category key>"	a category moved after another of its tab
Tab "<tab>" Auto No	none of the game's categories in that tab: its pages only where the rules put them (into NewCategory ones), the others left out
Put <kind> [Where <test> [And <test>]…] In "<category key>"	a rule: the pages of a kind (Units, Weapons, Radars, Research, Explosions) that pass all the tests into that category
Exclude <kind> [Where <test> [And <test>]…]	a rule: those pages left out of the Explodopedia
Put "<page>" In "<category key>"	one page (its ID or name, as an article's link) in that category, over all the rules
HideProperty <property>… Of <kind> [Where <test> [And <test>]…]	those properties (named as in the data files: Speed, Damage, Range, Precision, CanBeIntercepted…) not shown on the pages selected: no value row, no change in their upgrades and counters
HideModifier "<source>"… Of <kind> [Where <test> [And <test>]…]	every effect from those sources (the ID of a technology or trait, an explosion, an aura's weapon; * any characters) left out of the upgrades and counters of the pages selected
StartPage "<page or key>"	what it opens on: a page (its ID or name, as an article's link) or a category's overview (its key). Without it: the general tab's first category

An icon is, in this order: a UI element, by its name in UI/UI.txt ("Main_Button_Globe") or its number; a page of the Explodopedia, its picture (the ID or the name of a unit, weapon, radar, research or explosion); or a picture file, its path from the game's folder (a mod's own pictures from the mod's folder). Scale draws it that much larger, for an icon with wide empty margins. An icon that is not found leaves the default one and writes a warning to Fatal.txt.

Without these lines the categories are the game's: units by their [UNIT_CLASS], research by its field, weapons and radars by rules on what they hit or detect, explosions in one (§1). The rules go in the order of the lines, a later one over an earlier one; a page no rule matches stays where the game put it. A test, with Not before it for its opposite (* in a text: any characters):

Test	Pages	Passes when
ID "<pattern>", Name "<pattern>", Tech "<pattern>"	any	its ID, its name as shown, its technology's ID match
Level [Min <n>] [Max <n>]	any	the research level it needs (a research: its own) is in the range
UnitType <unit types>	units	its type is one of them (Ground, Naval, Subwater, Airborne, Missile, HighMissile, SubwaterMissile, Satellite)
Class "<[UNIT_CLASS] ID>"	units, weapons	its class (a weapon's: its Class line in Missile_defs.txt)
Geneva "<category>" (or GenevaCategory)	weapons	it is in a treaties' category the pattern matches (its GenevaCategory lines, e.g. "Salted Weapons", "EMP Weapons")
Against <unit types>, OnlyAgainst <unit types>, Nuclear, ChemBio, Kilotons [Min <n>] [Max <n>]	weapons	it can be used against one of them; only against them (and something); a nuclear yield (EMP ones too); chemical or biological; its total yield
ShowType <range layer>, Detects <unit types>, DetectsNothing	radars	its GlobalShowType (SW_RANGES, LW_RANGES, OVERHORIZONT_RANGES, SONAR_RANGES, SPACE_RANGES, SATELLITE_RANGES, OPTICAL_RANGES); what it detects
Field "<[TYPE] ID>"	research	its field
Kilotons [Min <n>] [Max <n>]	explosions	its yield

The game's Explodopedia.txt writes the game's own placement out as rules (the units by class, the weapons by what they are used against, the radars by what they detect, the research by field, the explosions in one), so it can be edited in place; a page none of them matches still goes where the game puts it, unless its tab has Auto No.

Some values have a purpose in the game but look odd in an encyclopedia; the game's file hides two:

HideProperty Speed Of Weapons Where Name "Cyber Warfare"      // the cyber attacks are timed by a speed
HideModifier "Collateral_Damage_Modifier" Of Weapons          // x800000 damage against cities: collateral damage

The order of the categories in a tab is the game's (the unit classes', the fields' order), with a new category after the one in its After (else last) and a moved one after the one in its After: where a line stands in the file does not change it. A line the file does not understand stops reading it, with a warning naming the line (in Fatal.txt and on the screen).

A category of the game that is wrong is fixed by emptying it (rules putting its pages elsewhere: an empty category is left out), renaming it (<key>_NAME in explodopedia.lng), moving it (After) or, for a whole tab, Auto No and categories of its own. The game's file sorts the radars this way:

NewCategory "CATEGORY_RadarOptics" Tab "Radars" After "CATEGORY_RadarSurface"
NewCategory "CATEGORY_RadarSatellite" Tab "Radars" After "CATEGORY_RadarOptics"
Put Radars Where ShowType SPACE_RANGES In "CATEGORY_RadarSpace"
Put Radars Where ShowType OPTICAL_RANGES In "CATEGORY_RadarOptics"
Put Radars Where ShowType SATELLITE_RANGES In "CATEGORY_RadarSatellite"
Put Radars Where DetectsNothing And ID "Satellite Relay*" In "CATEGORY_RadarSpace"
Exclude Radars Where DetectsNothing And ID "Resupply*"

A tab of categories of one's own, e.g. the explosions by yield:

Tab "Explosions" Auto No
NewCategory "CATEGORY_SmallYield" Tab "Explosions"
NewCategory "CATEGORY_BigYield" Tab "Explosions"
Put Explosions Where Kilotons Max 999 In "CATEGORY_SmallYield"
Put Explosions Where Kilotons Min 1000 In "CATEGORY_BigYield"

A mod's new weapon or sensor goes where it belongs with a Put in the mod's Explodopedia.txt (Put "My_Railgun" In "CATEGORY_Naval").

Hide leaves a tab or a category out, with all its pages: no other page links to them or shows their icons (Tab "Explosions" Hide, Category "CATEGORY_AntiSat" Hide). Hide No brings one back, e.g. in a mod.

4. General information articles

The general tab starts with Gameplay hints: every hint of the language's loading.lng, numbered, in the order of the file (a mod's hints added with USE PREVIOUS in its loading.lng appear there too). The article chapters follow it.

Key	Meaning
GENERAL_<c>_TITLE	chapter c = 1, 2, 3… in this order; the first missing number ends the chapters
GENERAL_<c>_DESC	the chapter's overview page
GENERAL_<c>_<a>_TITLE	article a = 1, 2, 3… of the chapter, in this order; the first missing number ends them
GENERAL_<c>_<a>_FILE	the article's text in a file of its own: Lang/<language>/<file>, the English one when the language has none. For long articles
GENERAL_<c>_<a>_TEXT	or the text in the key itself; more paragraphs as _TEXT_2, _TEXT_3… (a key holds up to 64 KB)
GENERAL_<c>_<a>_IMAGE	a picture beside the text, a file of the game's data, e.g. "Images/VM/logo.png"

"GENERAL_1_TITLE" LANG "Lens On: Nuclear Weapons"
"GENERAL_1_DESC" LANG "How nuclear weapons shaped the second half of the twentieth century."
"GENERAL_1_1_TITLE" LANG "ICBMs and the Space Race"
"GENERAL_1_1_FILE" LANG "Explodopedia/General_1_1.txt"
"GENERAL_1_2_TITLE" LANG "A short one"
"GENERAL_1_2_TEXT" LANG "The text of the article, in the key itself."

An article's file is plain UTF-8 text (with or without a byte order mark):

• paragraphs are apart by an empty line;
• a line starting with ## starts a part of the article (a large heading);
• a line starting with ### is a heading inside a part.

A text that starts with a tag is HTML instead (§5).

5. Articles in HTML

An article's text (its file or its _TEXT keys) that starts with a tag, such as <p> or <h2>, is read as basic HTML. Of styles, only bold and italic are used (font-weight, font-style in a style attribute or in the class rules of a <style> block, as Google Docs writes them); everything else of HTML is ignored, with its text kept: there are no colours, fonts, tables or scripts, and the text of <head>, <title>, <style> and <script> is not shown. A whole page (<!DOCTYPE html><html><head>…</head><body>…) is read as well.

Tags	Meaning
<p>, <div>	a paragraph
<h1>, <h2>	a part of the article (a large heading)
<h3> … <h6>	a heading inside a part
<br>	a new line
<hr>	a line across the column
<b>, <strong>	bold
<i>, <em>	italic (bold and italic together: bold)
<ul>, <ol>, <li>	lists, with bullets or numbers; lists inside lists are indented
<a href="…">	a link to another page of the Explodopedia
<img src="…" width="…" align="…" alt="…">	a picture
<figure>, <figcaption>	a picture with its caption under it
<!-- … -->	a comment

Entities: & < > "   — – … « », the quotes, ° × − and the like, and numbered ones (—, —).

Line breaks and spaces in the file do not matter: the text wraps to the column, between words, and between the characters of Chinese text.

Links: href is the ID of a page or its name, case aside:

• a unit's ID or its technology's ID: <a href="Fighter">, <a href="U_Fighter">;
• a weapon's or radar's ID or its technology's ID: <a href="M_ICBM_10M_Heavy">;
• a research's ID; an explosion's ID (the page of its yield);
• another article: GENERAL_<c>_<a>, e.g. <a href="GENERAL_1_3">;
• or the page's name as shown in the list: <a href="10 Megaton ICBM">.

A link whose page does not exist is plain text. Back (the button, the mouse's back button, Backspace) returns from a followed link.

Pictures: src is looked for in this order:

1. as written, from the game's folder (like the other pictures of the data: Units/Images/…);
2. beside the article's file;
3. in Lang/<language>/Explodopedia/, then Lang/Eng/Explodopedia/.

width is in percent of the column (width="40%") or in pixels at 1920×1080 (width="300", scaled with the screen); without it, the picture's own size. A picture never gets wider than the column. align="left" or align="right" puts it on that side, at most 60% of the column wide, with the text going on beside it; without align it stands on its own line, centred, below any pictures on the sides. alt is shown as a tooltip over the picture. A picture that is not found is left out.

<h2>The Space Race</h2>
<p>In October 1957 the <b>Soviet Union</b> launched <i>Sputnik</i>, the first satellite.
If a rocket could put a satellite into orbit, it could also deliver a warhead: see the
<a href="M_ICBM_10M_Heavy">10 Megaton ICBM</a>.</p>
<img src="sputnik.png" width="35%" align="right" alt="Sputnik 1">
<ul>
  <li>4 October 1957: Sputnik 1</li>
  <li>3 November 1957: Sputnik 2, with the dog Laika</li>
</ul>
<figure>
  <img src="launch.jpg" width="80%">
  <figcaption>A launch of an R-7 rocket</figcaption>
</figure>

Writing an article in Google Docs

An article can be written in Google Docs and used as it is downloaded:

1. Write it with the paragraph styles of Docs: Title and Heading 1/Heading 2 become large headings, Subtitle and Heading 3–6 smaller ones (text merely typed in capitals stays text). Bold, italic, bulleted and numbered lists (also nested ones) come through.
2. Links to other pages of the Explodopedia: Docs accepts only web addresses, so write the page's ID as one: link the text to http://M_ICBM_10M_Heavy or http://GENERAL_1_3. The game drops the http:// and Docs' own redirect (https://www.google.com/url?q=…). A link to a real website is plain text in the game.
3. Pictures: insert them in line with the text (Docs' In line); each stands on its own line, centred, as wide a share of the column as of the Docs page (half the page: half the column). alt text (Docs: Image options → Alt text) is the tooltip.
4. File → Download → Web page (.html, zipped). Unzip it into Lang/<language>/Explodopedia/: the .html (rename it, e.g. General_1_11.html) and its images/ folder (its src are images/image1.png…, found beside the file). With several articles in one folder, give each its own pictures folder and change the src in its file accordingly, or the images/ of one replaces another's.
5. Register it with _TITLE and _FILE keys (§4).

Colours, fonts, sizes and tables are not carried over (a table's text stays). Resolve the document's comments before downloading: they are written into the file. Footnotes come out as plain text at the end. A picture placed with text wrapping may not stand where it did in Docs: place pictures In line.

6. Step by step: adding an HTML article

This example adds a chapter "Cold War Notes" with one article, "Sputnik", with a picture and a link, as a mod. To change the base game instead, put the same files straight into the game's Lang/Eng/ folder and add the keys to the game's Lang/Eng/explodopedia.lng (then without the USE PREVIOUS line of step 5).

1. Make the mod. Create the folder Documents/My Games/ICBM-Escalation/MODS/ColdWarNotes/ with an info.txt (12 §2):

ICBM MOD "Cold War Notes"
Version "1.0"
Description "Articles about the Cold War for the Explodopedia"

Everything below goes into this folder; its paths mirror the game folder.

2. Pick the numbers. Open the game's Lang/Eng/explodopedia.lng and find the last chapter: the highest GENERAL_<c>_TITLE. The game has chapter 1, so the new chapter is 2 and its first article 1: the keys will be GENERAL_2_TITLE, GENERAL_2_1_TITLE... (To add an article to an existing chapter instead, take that chapter's next free article number, e.g. GENERAL_1_11_… after the game's ten.) Numbers must follow each other without gaps.

3. Write the article. Create Lang/Eng/Explodopedia/Sputnik.html in the mod, saved as UTF-8. Its very first character must be <, or the file is read as plain text:

<h2>The first satellite</h2>
<p>On <b>4 October 1957</b> the Soviet Union launched <i>Sputnik 1</i>, a polished sphere 58 cm
across that did nothing but beep. It circled the Earth every 96 minutes.</p>
<img src="sputnik.png" width="35%" align="right" alt="Sputnik 1">
<p>The rocket that lifted it, the R-7, had been built to carry a nuclear warhead across the ocean.
If it could reach orbit, it could reach any city: the beginning of the age of the
<a href="M_ICBM_10M_Heavy">intercontinental ballistic missile</a>.</p>
<h3>What followed</h3>
<ol>
  <li>3 November 1957: Sputnik 2, with the dog Laika on board.</li>
  <li>31 January 1958: Explorer 1, the first American satellite.</li>
  <li>29 July 1958: NASA is founded.</li>
</ol>
<p>Read on: <a href="GENERAL_1_1">ICBMs and the Space Race</a>.</p>

• <a href="M_ICBM_10M_Heavy"> opens the page of the weapon with that ID; href can also be a unit's, radar's, research's or explosion's ID, another article's GENERAL_<c>_<a>, or a page's name as shown in the list (§5).
• The picture floats on the right with the text beside it; width="35%" is of the text column.

4. Add the picture. Put sputnik.png (PNG or JPG) next to the article: Lang/Eng/Explodopedia/sputnik.png in the mod. src is found beside the article's file, so the article and its pictures stay together.

5. Register the article. Create Lang/Eng/explodopedia.lng in the mod. Its first line keeps the game's texts, and the keys after it add the chapter:

USE PREVIOUS "Lang/Eng/explodopedia.lng"

"GENERAL_2_TITLE" LANG "Cold War Notes"
"GENERAL_2_DESC" LANG "Short articles about the events behind the game."
"GENERAL_2_1_TITLE" LANG "Sputnik"
"GENERAL_2_1_FILE" LANG "Explodopedia/Sputnik.html"

_FILE is relative to Lang/<language>/. Without USE PREVIOUS, the mod's file would replace the game's and the game's own articles and category descriptions would be gone.

The mod now holds:

MODS/ColdWarNotes/
  info.txt
  Lang/Eng/explodopedia.lng
  Lang/Eng/Explodopedia/Sputnik.html
  Lang/Eng/Explodopedia/sputnik.png

6. Check it in the game. Enable the mod in the mod list, open the Explodopedia from the main menu and go to the general tab (the globe): after Gameplay hints and the game's chapter there is an icon for "Cold War Notes"; its overview lists "Sputnik". Check that:

• the headings, bold and italic words and the numbered list look right;
• the picture is on the right (missing: the src name or the file's place, §8);
• the links are green and open their pages, and Back (the button, the mouse's back button or Backspace) returns to the article. A link shown in white found no page: check its href.

The Explodopedia reads its texts and articles each time it opens: after editing the .lng or the .html file, close it and open it again. A picture stays loaded once shown: to see a changed picture, restart the game (or give the new version another file name).

7. Translate it (optional). For Russian, add Lang/Rus/Explodopedia/Sputnik.html (the translated article) and Lang/Rus/explodopedia.lng with USE PREVIOUS "Lang/Rus/explodopedia.lng" and the translated GENERAL_2_TITLE, GENERAL_2_DESC and GENERAL_2_1_TITLE. The _FILE key can stay in English only: the game looks for the file in the language's folder first. The picture need not be copied: it is found in Lang/Eng/Explodopedia/ too. Anything the language lacks is shown in English.

7. Mods and translations

A mod adds its texts with its own Lang/Eng/explodopedia.lng that starts with a USE PREVIOUS of the game's file (00 §3), then adds or replaces keys:

USE PREVIOUS "Lang/Eng/explodopedia.lng"

"CATEGORY_UC_Orbital" LANG "Orbital platforms of the mod: ..."
"GENERAL_2_TITLE" LANG "My mod's history"
"GENERAL_2_1_TITLE" LANG "How it began"
"GENERAL_2_1_FILE" LANG "Explodopedia/MyMod_2_1.html"

A later key replaces an earlier one with the same name, so a mod can also rewrite the game's texts. Adding the next free chapter number (GENERAL_2_… after the game's chapter 1) adds a chapter; keep the numbers without gaps, since the first missing number ends the list.

A translation is Lang/<language>/explodopedia.lng with the same keys; article files go to Lang/<language>/… under the same names. Keys and files the language lacks show in English.

8. Pitfalls

• No page: the object's technology has no name in the language files, the missile is Hidden, the radar has DoNotShow, or the object has DoNotShowInEncyclopedia.
• A gap in the numbers ends the chapters or articles: GENERAL_1_3 is never read when GENERAL_1_2_TITLE is missing.
• An HTML article shown as plain text with its tags: the text does not start with a tag (look for text or a stray character before the first <).
• Chinese, Japanese or Korean in an article shows only in a language whose fonts have those characters (codepage.table, 12 §5); the Latin fonts leave them blank. A language's fonts may have no bold or italic version of them.
• A picture is missing: the src path is not found in any of the places of §5; paths are relative, with /.
• A long text in a key is cut at 64 KB: use _TEXT_2, _TEXT_3… or a file.