Name and flag layers¶

A name a player or a mod gives a country is its own layer, kept in ordinary country variables. It is not a cosmetic tag, so the country keeps its flag and colour. CAPIE draws the layer when the game asks for the country's name.

Nothing is released yet. The full text is in sections 14 and 15 of plugin/capie/CONTRACT.md in the repository.

What the player sees¶

For a country, the game shows the first of these that exists:

1. the name layer, when it is set and valid;
2. the country's current cosmetic tag;
3. the base name of the tag.

Removing the layer shows the current cosmetic tag again, not the base name. When the game or another mod changes the cosmetic tag later, the layer keeps showing.

Country name layer (API level 4)¶

Four variables on the country that has the name:

They are written only by script, saved with the game, and synchronised in multiplayer like any other variable.

clear_array = capie_cn_n
clear_array = capie_cn_a
add_to_array = { capie_cn_n = 40 }   # one per character of the name
add_to_array = { capie_cn_a = 14 }   # one per character of the adjective
set_variable = { capie_cn_ver = 1 }
set_variable = { capie_cn_rev = 1 }  # last: CAPIE refreshes the names now

# Remove it:
clear_array = capie_cn_n
clear_array = capie_cn_a
clear_variable = capie_cn_ver
set_variable = { capie_cn_rev = 1 }

You rarely write these by hand. The SDK's capie_v1_set_country_name writes the layer from text slots 1 and 2 of ROOT, and capie_v1_clear_country_name removes it (Text tools). Use set_variable, not add_to_variable, for capie_cn_rev, without a scope prefix, in the scope of the country.

What CAPIE does with it¶

While the game rebuilds a country's cached name, adjective and definite name, capie_core.dll puts a valid layer in place of the tag the names are built from. After every set_variable of capie_cn_rev it rebuilds the names of every country whose layer changed. The game also rebuilds names on load and whenever the cosmetic tag, the ideology, the popularities or a subject relation change, and the layer applies there too. CAPIE writes no variable, no cosmetic tag and no country field.

A layer is treated as absent when capie_cn_ver is not exactly 1, a count is outside 1 to 32, an element is missing, not whole or outside 1 to 264, or the text fails CAPIE's input checks.

If the game code CAPIE hooks for the layer does not match after a patch, the layer switches off on its own while the rest of CAPIE keeps working, and capie_core.log says so.

Not covered: GetNonIdeologyName*, the non-ideology parameters of subject name formats, the tooltip of set_cosmetic_tag, and localisation that names a tag key directly, such as $CAN$. These show the game's name.

Older saves¶

Countries renamed with CAPIE 1.0 or 1.1 carry their name as an RN1|Name|Adjective| cosmetic tag. CAPIE still draws it. Rename Anything drops that cosmetic tag once, on the first Apply or reset of the country. The cosmetic tag that RN1| replaced was never stored, so it cannot come back.

Faction name layer (API level 5)¶

The same idea for factions, stored on the faction leader:

When the leader of a faction has a valid layer, the faction views, diplomacy and [GetFactionName] show it. The name the game stores in the faction never changes, so removing the layer shows it again. When the faction gets another leader, the layer stays with the old leader and the faction shows the game's name.

The SDK has no faction setter yet; write the variables as shown for countries, with one array.

Country flag layer (API level 6)¶

A flag chosen for a country is a layer too. The cosmetic tag is not touched, so the name and the map colour stay the game's. The layer names one flag file of the game by its stem (the file name without .tga, for example POL_KINGDOM_neutrality); the game loads that file for all three flag sizes. A missing file shows the game's flag.

Unlike the name, the flag ends when the cosmetic tag changes: CAPIE stops showing it at once, and the mod's daily check removes the variables. A subject that takes its overlord's flag stores a copy of the overlord's flag at that moment; it does not follow later changes. The packing of the stem, the reset rules and the exact effect blocks are in section 17 of plugin/capie/CONTRACT.md.

Without CAPIE and in multiplayer¶

The variables stay in the save. Without CAPIE the game shows the cosmetic tag or base name, with the right flag, and the faction shows its stored name. Because the layer is game state written by effects, every client holds the same variables; CAPIE only changes what is drawn. A client without CAPIE simply sees the game's names. Multiplayer has not been tested; see Multiplayer.