Issues with flags

[Witty (OP)]

Hey everyone, first post here. 

I've got bit of a problem regarding flags.  I'm using a personally modified version of Mirage's flag image pack (mostly removing all the earth-centric ones) However, despite going through and renaming each flag appropriately and checking to insure that each flag is a JPEG, some races simply aren't spawning with a flag.  That is, the flag icon for that race is blank.  These are newly generated universes.  And since you cannot alter the race or flag image of a NPR, it has the potential to be a problem in the future. 

It's strange, since I also modified the race image file without any problems, so I'm not exactly sure what the issue could be.  So I guess my questions are

1.  Does anyone know how the game chooses flags exactly? Does there need to be a certain number flags at all times (currently at 239)?

2.  Any suggestions on how to fix this?

[rcj33]

That's what I think the problem is, anyway.  I used to get errors every turn in Galaxy Map with the flag pack by itself.  They went away when I pasted the flag pack on top of the old flag folder.  You'll need to reinstall after backing up your Stevefire. mdb (if you want to keep this campaign), or just paste the old flags in if you kept a copy.

[Witty (OP)]

Aww, that's a damn shame.  Guess I'll just have to live with the various extraterrestrials who also happen to come from Guam and South America 

[Arwyn]

Make sure the flags you are saving are in the proper format, thats the first thing to check. Make sure you don't have a double extension. Sometimes Windows can be stupid about that, and you wind up with a Flago0021.jpg.jpg

Also check that the .jpg is something like 490x300ish, if its too large, you may be having issues there.

As long as the flags follow the same format Flag0000.jpg you should be ok. You can have more than the basic number.

I have a huge number of flags now, and modify things in the directory all the time to get rid of state/national/organizational flags that break my sense of immersion. I added a ton of fictional, historical, and obscure flags for that purpose. I just renamed them, and dropped them right in, no issues.

[Witty (OP)]

Naw, the issue I had was not having enough flags.  I think the game has a hardcoded minimum number of flags that it uses.  So I think it was pulling up flag0300. jpg or something, except it of course didn't exist.  I've (hopefully) temporarily circumvented this by copying flags I already had and adding them to numerical format.  That seems to have done the trick, as the 20 empires I SM'd all had proper flags 

I don't plan on playing with more than one or two NPRs per game, so having copycat empires won't be a huge problem.  Eventually I'll have to replace them with proper flags 

Thanks for all your guys help!

[Arwyn]

If it helps, I am up to 409, so if there is a limit, its past that there!

[ZimRathbone]

from my understanding, the flag assignment routine looks at the largest number flag file, then randomly selects a number between 0001 and whatever that maximum is (race and ship work the same way).   It assumes that all numbers exist between these two limits.  The problem Witty had was that he(?) removed some of the flag files so when the program assigned a race one of the removed flags then Murphy raised his ugly head.  Soln will be to fill in the holes in the sequence with other flags (or dups of the ones you like).

Erk...sorry left this post sitting there last night and just posted it without checking for updates...I blame the six year old sleep deprivation generator at the end of the hall...(at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

[Witty (OP)]

See, that was I thought as well.  But like I said in the OP, I did rename my flags in proper numerical order from 1-239, yet the issue still persisted.