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Various actions in the game result in messages appearing on the screen. You can customise these messages simply by creating new versions of simple text files. The following files will determine all the on-screen messages in your custom game:
These two files are in the second PAK file (Htic2-1.PAK). Extract them, alter them as you like, and put them in your own 'Newgame' folder. If you have downloaded any updates for Heretic II, then use the version in the /Base/ directory on your hard drive. Try not to introduce any new carriage returns, or the message numbers won't correspond to the right message anymore (resulting in chaotic on-screen messages during the game). If you want a message to be on more than one line when it is displayed during the game, use an @ sign in the text file. For example, the message:
Gamemsg.txt determines the messages caused by visiting shrines, aquiring weapons and spells, picking up mana and health, and finding (or needing) puzzle pieces. Levelmsg.txt contains messages and associated sound files ("It's out of power", "It's locked" etc), as well as objectives and the tutorial level.
See the game message reference page for the line number of each message in Levelmsg.txt.
Each message is linked via a line number from the BSP file. For instance, message 45 corresponds to "I'll have to open this elsewhere.#corvus\open_elsewhere.wav" in Levelmsg.txt (line 45 in the text file). When the player tries to get through a locked door, this message will display on the screen, and the sound file 'Open_elsewhere.wav' under the \Sound\Corvus\ directory in the second PAK (Htic2-1.PAK) gets played. You can create your own version of the text file with your own messages. If you want to play a sound file at the same time, simply add '#Newdirectory\Soundfile.WAV' to the end of each line, where Soundfile.wav is your custom sound file (which you would put under \Newgame\Sound\NewDirectory\). If you just want the WAV file simply under the \sound\ directory (with no other sub-directories), then just put '#Soundfile.WAV' after the message. Look at how the original text files are formatted and follow the same conventions.
The objectives start at line 97 of Levelmsg.txt ("The Harbormaster has informed me of a mind-altering plague..."). When the message "A new objective has been written" appears, the player hits the 'O' key to read what they have to do next. You can design your level to give and cancel objectives at certain times and places. A $ sign signifies the start of a red word or sentence (for emphasis), with a % sign returning the rest of the text to plain black. Lines 97 to 110 are available for writing objectives (a maximum of 14). Of course, you can place an objective anywhere in the file, as long as you reference the correct line number. It is important not to have any carriage returns breaking up the objective - it has to be all in one line (and an @ symbol won't have any effect on how the objective is displayed).
If you have changed the colour of a spell's effects (by altering SP2 files), you may want to give it a new name. Gamemsg.txt contains the names of spells that appear as you aquire them ("The LIGHTNING SHIELD defensive spell" etc). By giving the spell a new skin, the model that represents that spell or weapon in the game will also be different. Gamemsg.txt also contains the names of puzzle pieces, so you can change the name of keys for instance (just make sure you change the "You need the..." message to the same key name).