usepackage{opcit}: language and commenting

Question

I am writing in German, and we need some kind of "see" before some references in the footnote. (I'm new to footnote-citing). Also, I use overleaf, so maybe this is also a problem.
documentclass{article}
usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
usepackage[ngerman]{babel}

usepackage{opcit}

renewcommand idemtext {Ebenda.}
The usual solutions in square brackets do not work with this package. There is also an error when I try this, I'm not sure what does it mean:

And this is what it looks like (I used vspace to bring it together for the screenshot):

Also, for example "and" or "eds." is not translated automatically. Do you have any idea? Thank you very much.

moewe · Answer

As Marijn says in the comments, the opcit documentation only ever uses cite with a single optional argument (one for page numbers etc. after the citation, a postnote argument).
A look at the source code of the package indeed shows that it does not support two optional arguments to cite. So with your current setup, it won't be easy to get the "See" in front of a citation.
As also mentioned in Marijn's comment, the opcit package was last updated in 2006 and does not appear to be actively maintained any more. It might be a good idea to move to a more modern package. For complex citation styles like this, I'd say biblatex is probably the best choice.
A switch to biblatex requires a few changes to your code and a change to your workflow, but should be fairly painless nowadays. See What to do to switch to biblatex?, Biblatex with Biber: Configuring my editor to avoid undefined citations as well as bibtex vs. biber and biblatex vs. natbib for some background.
You may want to have a look at the verbose style family

style=verbose,
style=verbose-ibid,
style=verbose-note,
style=verbose-inote,
style=verbose-trad1,
style=verbose-trad2,
style=verbose-trad3,

Once you've found the style that comes closest to what you want, it can be tweaked quite extensively. See Guidelines for customizing biblatex styles for a first overview.
biblatex's citation commands accept up to two optional arguments. One for a prenote and one for a postnote.
documentclass[ngerman]{article}
usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
usepackage{babel}
usepackage{csquotes}

usepackage[backend=biber, style=verbose-trad1]{biblatex}

addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

begin{document}
Lorem autocite[Siehe][180]{sigfridsson}
ipsum autocite[Vgl.][12]{worman}
dolor autocite[181]{sigfridsson}
sit autocite[182]{sigfridsson}
amet autocite[20]{nussbaum}
consectur autocite[45]{geer}

printbibliography
end{document}

usepackage{opcit}: language and commenting

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