[RaVen1357]

Is there a foul language filter available for Freespace 2? I don't appreciate the language in some of the mission chatter (I haven't seen any in the briefings) and I would like to eliminate or block it. I realize that this might not be a big deal to some of you, but it is important to me.

I figure that with all the mods available for this game, something like this should be possible, but I don't know where to find it or how to make it. Even if a filter isn't possible/available, could someone tell me how to edit the content to eliminate it myself?

Thanks for your help.

[Cobra]

So... "damn" and "hell" deserve word filters?

[Droid803]

Really's so bad about it?
You letting your (5-year-old) kids play it or something? No worries, they probably already know how to cuss, they just don't do it in front of adults.

[RaVen1357]

So... "damn" and "hell" deserve word filters?

That's what I'm looking for. Like I said, I realize that this may not be a big deal to you, but it is important to me. I'm not trying to discuss word choices, I just want to know if something like this is available/possible or if I can do some editing to this end myself.

[Droid803]

Well, you'd have to edit the mission files and get rid of the voice files.
Or deactivate Voice altogether.

Have fun. There's no feature like this, AFAIK, since most people don't consider them profanity.
I personally don't consider anything short of the f-bomb profanity, actually... but that's just me.

[Goober5000]

Different taboos exist in different cultures.  In stereotypical modern America, religious oaths are the least offensive, sexual epithets are the most offensive, and "bathroom humor" falls somewhere in the middle.  Other cultures have different orders of ranking, with different levels of severity. 

That's what I'm looking for. Like I said, I realize that this may not be a big deal to you, but it is important to me. I'm not trying to discuss word choices, I just want to know if something like this is available/possible or if I can do some editing to this end myself.

There is no automatic feature to do this.  However, you can certainly do it manually if you're willing to edit all the missions and voice files that contain such language.

[Akalabeth Angel]

    Note that I've played at least one campaign that included so-called "f-bombs", that I can remember. So "damn" and "hell" are certainly not the only thing being written into .fs2 files.

[Droid803]

Well, the default FS/FS2 campaigns doesn't have anything worse than 'Damn' or 'Hell'.

[Retsof]

He's talking about user-made campaigns.  Some of which do have some pretty foul language.  I don't apreciate it myself but there's not I can do about it.

[Droid803]

It's not really worth combing through the mission files and editing them out (then getting rid of any associated voice files) at any rate (besides you could probably get spoiled on the campaign too). Just plug ears and look away (as in, look at some shiny HTL ship) when it comes up.

[colecampbell666]

He's talking about user-made campaigns.  Some of which do have some pretty foul language.  I don't apreciate it myself but there's not I can do about it.

So... "damn" and "hell" deserve word filters?

That's what I'm looking for.

'Parently not.

[Warp Shadow]

Well for editing the text is easy, you just look in the mission for the correct voice entry and add in some stars. For the voice files themselves though, I'd recommend downloading audacity, and going to each word and turning the volume down to 0 in that specific section, or import a *bleep* and put it in a separate channel so that it happens at the same time.

Voila, easy blanking and bleeping. Although I kind of agree that "damn" and "hell" are far from the worst things you'd hear in an actual combat situation. Unfortunately, some mods like to be as realistic as possible in their language. I'd also recommend Beyond the Red Line as in the Battlestar universe, they have fictional swears like "frak".

[General Battuta]

Just think of the other pilots as real people delivering the obscenities.

Then, when they swear, yell at them. Or wince quietly.

See? It's a role-playing game!

[Warp Shadow]

Just think of the other pilots as real people delivering the obscenities.

Then, when they swear, yell at them. Or wince quietly.

See? It's a role-playing game!

I do that crap like every time I play a game. Especially starfox. Krystal's all like "It must have a weak point! Everything does!" and then I go "Well maybe it's the GIANT PULASATING GLOWING PURPLE SPOT you vapid brainless ornament?!" and then slippy goes "WHOA! I'm in trouble fox! Go away! Shoo shoo! What do I do?!" and I reply with "This is like the millionth time you've flown and you STILL think telling enemies to go away will work?! What the hell have you been doing this entire time?!?!" and falco goes "Gee I've been saved by fox, how swell..." and then I go "watch you mouth, nugget, or I may just have to Kentucky fry you" and when wolf says "Can't let you do that, STAR FOX!" I always say "Can't let you brew that, STAR BUCKS!" and when peppy says "DO A BARREL ROLL!" I...just burst out laughing...

Wow that was off topic

[Colonol Dekker]

Thinking back the Wing Commander games had a fair bit of rudeness in them.

[colecampbell666]

Just curious, why do you need the language filtered so badly? Is it your parents? Your kids?

Go through whatever campaign, and at the start of every mission, note the name. Check if it has language, and then extract the applicable missions using VPView (the "Tools" folder, if you used Turey's). Open them in FRED, and press  Shift-E. Find the applicable message, and change it accordingly. If the campaign is voice acted, on the message panel, find the applicable voice file, and use Audacity (Google it) to add a bleep. (easy to do). Put the edited mission file in \data\missions (or \<modfolder>\data\missions if it's a mod) and put the voice file where it was found inside the .VP. (if it was in \voice\special for example, put it in \FreeSpace2\data\voice\special)

[Polpolion]

I can guarantee you that you'll spend more time reading those words trying to make a word filter for them than if you just played the game without a filter.

Unfortunately, the most logical thing to do is to find some sap to make the filter for you. Given the crowd here at HLP, that's *cough cough* near impossible. Next thing down the logic line would be to just ignore the words and think nothing of them. Next would be to make the filter yourself, which is dumb for the afore mentioned reason. And lastly, the worst thing you could possibly do in this situation is stop playing FS2.

[Flaming_Sword]

1. Get the mission files
2. Grab a text editor that supports mass find/replace across multiple files
3. Find/replace relevant foul language (using options such as finding whole words etc. to prevent "classic" --> "clbuttic")
4. Save mission files

This is all I can think of, for now.

[RaVen1357]

 I am talking about the retail campaigns, but I would also like to do this to any user campaigns I get.

Thanks for the suggestions. Many of the problems brought up with this idea have occurred to me already.

I think editing the mission files is the most feasible solution. I do not have any FS2 modding experience, so I'm not sure what files are the mission files.  Could someone tell me which folder to look in and which files to look for? The other key question is what program do I use to open them? Are the audio and text and whatever else files all stored in one file, or are they individual files in Windows Explorer?

As for editing them, it sounds like I should use FRED. I haven't used that program before, but I'm fairly good with computers so if it's a good program I should be able to figure it out.

As for the audio files, I have Audacity, and I do know how to use it.

Again, thanks for your help.

[Jeff Vader]

At least with FS2, the mission files (.fs2) are in Root_fs2.vp and voice files (.wav) in stu_fs2.vp.

With mission files it's easy. Use a vp tool, such as VPView, to open a vp file. Then, extract the missions you want to edit. Open the extracted missions with Notepad, do your adjustments and save. Then, place the missions to \freespace2\data\missions, or \freespace2\modfolder\data\missions\. You can also pack them into a separate vp, but that really is not necessary.

With voice files... well, you could extract them all, pick the tolerable ones and place them to \freespace2\data\missions\ and move stu_fs2.vp away from \freespace2\. Or, you could use some other vp editor to delete the inappropriate voice files inside stu_fs2.vp. But if you use the latter method, remember to make a backup of stu_fs2.vp.