Illiterate in GCA template

[Henchman99942]

Howdy.

I made a template for a race that was illiterate. I added the Advantage:

language (Spoken; Native; Native Speaker) 0
language (Written; Illiterate; Native Writer) -3

Using what appeared to be the right way of doing it. If I save that as a character file, I have no problem. It loads fine. But when I save it as a racial template, I run into an issue. It saves OK, but when I add that template to a new character, it resets the level of Written Native Language to -2 and now reads:

language (Written; Semi-literate; Native Writer) -2

And it will not allow me to modify it. I can delete it and re-add it at Illiterate, but then it is no longer part of the template.

Any thoughts?

[Armin]

I think you're probably being hit with GCA's normal reluctance to add traits at level 0.

You can edit your saved data to fix this. You'll need to open your data file in a text file that supports UTF-8 encoding. (Notepad will generally suffice if you have Windows 7 or later.)

Your template probably has a section that looks something like this:

creates(_
          {AD:English (Written), 1/2,displaycost(-3/-2/+),page(B24),upto(3),mods(Language, Native Language),levelnames([Illiterate], Semi-Literate, Literate, Native),taboo(Native Languages > 1),ndl(@if(ST:Tech Level::basescore <=4 THEN 1 ELSE 0)),description(At TL 3 and below Illiteracy doesn't count against the Disadvantage Limit. This can be changed by checking (or unchecking) the 'Do Not Count Against Disadvantage Limit' box in the Edit window.), cat(Mundane, Social, Language, Language Written, Social Background, Mundane Social)}=0 _
                   with {"Native Writer", -3,gives(=+0.5 to ST:Native Languages, =-"AD:Language Talent::level" to owner::level),group(Native Language),page(B23),level(1),valuenum(-3)}_
       )

Probably with a bunch more stuff in it. However, you just want to look at the line for your language that is supposed to be illiterate, and see that at the end of that line, it has an =0 and an _, like this:

}=0 _

You want to carefully change the =0 to ==0, but be sure you do not delete that _ character, as that keeps the stuff on the next line associated with the trait.

}==0 _

That tells GCA that yes, you really do mean that it should be added at 0, not just any level at 0 or higher.

Save the file after you make the change, and the next time you add that template, it should work as you expect.

Armin