Files to back up before you start:
titles.txt in Sierra\Half-Life\tfc. Make a copy of this file and put it in a backup folder.
Ever wished that the message flashed right in the center of your screen when enemies use your dispenser? Ever wished that you had a nice, colored message saying "OMG KILL KILL KILL" when enemies took your flag? All this, and more, can be yours with the help of titles.txt.
Start up Notepad and then open the file titles.txt in Sierra\Half-Life\tfc. The first thing you will see is a set of instructions at the beginning of the file. These instructions aren't too explicit, but they give you the basic rundown on what kinds of things you can change in titles.txt. The second thing that you'll probably notice is that the file is very long. There are many, many things you can change, however not all of them are interesting or helpful. Also, you can't change the type of a title. For instance, the message you get when someone uses your dispenser is a console-type title. You can change its position, but you can't change it into a colored, fade-out message like the flag status titles. Basically it just doesn't let you do that. In my titles.txt I made a few changes, including moving some messages to center-screen and color-coding some messages. Here are the relevant lines of instruction from titles.txt:
// effect -4 is print talk (normal text in lower middle of screen)
// Text color r g b command $color
So, how are these commands used to make changes? Let's take a look at the "effect" command first. Quite close to the beginning of titles.txt you'll find the following lines:
Dispenser_used
{
Enemies are using your dispenser!
}
The "effect" commands can be placed in the file right before the specific title you want to change. They also need to be deactivated with a countering command afterwards. If you don't cancel the center-print command, all the following titles will also center-print until a section change. Notice that you can also change the text of the titles. A line break in titles.txt will cause a line break for in-game titles as well. So, let's change the dispenser message as follows:
$effect -4
Dispenser_used
{
***ALERT***
ENEMIES are using your DISPENSER!
***ALERT***
}
$effect
Here's what it will look like in the game:
Click for larger image.
Now let's see how to change the color of some titles. Scroll about halfway through titles.txt and you'll find the map section. You'll see the standard flag messages in the 2fort section, which starts like this:
// 2fort
2fort_you_capped_flag
{
You captured the ENEMY flag!
}
2fort_your_team_capped
{
Your team captured the ENEMY flag!
}
Those are the standard messges, which print in whitish text in the center of the screen. Let's say you would prefer having specific colors indicate what kind of flag message is popping up. The $color command uses standard RGB colors to print the text. We'll keep it simple here with red (RGB 255 000 000) for lame things and green (RGB 000 255 000) for good things. As with other titles, you can make changes and additions to the text. The very first message is good, so we'll use the $color modifier to change it to green:
2fort_you_capped_flag
$color 000 255 000
{
You captured the ENEMY flag!
w00t!
}
Here's how it looks:
Click for larger image.
As with the $effect command, you need to cancel a color change when you no longer want that color to appear. This feature is helpful when you have a few messages in a row that you want to appear in the same color. Let's use some negative flag messages as an example:
2fort_enemy_takes_flag
$color 255 000 000
{
%s has TAKEN your flag!
}
2fort_your_flag_taken
{
Your FLAG was taken!
Kill! Kill! Kill!
}
Both of the messages above will print in red, even though the $color line only appears before the first one. To get back to the default whitish color, insert the following line wherever you want the default to resume: $color 200 200 200. Let's see how the bad flag message appears in a game:
Click for larger image.
That's more or less the basics of editing your titles.txt. It's an extremely long file and there are hundreds of things to change should you desire. Go ahead and poke around, changing whatever you want. After all, who would settle for FIRE IN THE HOLE when they can have OMG FIRE IN THE $#*%$ HOLE!!1?
If you make some unacceptable changes, simply delete titles.txt and return your backup file (I know you backed it up) to Sierra\Half-Life\tfc.
Click here to download the modified titles.txt from this tutorial (right click -> Save Target As). Place it in Sierra\Half-Life\tfc after backing up the original.
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