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translation

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May 09, 2011 total_gej link
Hi, I was wondering, if the Guild software is interested in translating the game to other languages. If they are, I volunteer myself for translating to czech language. I mean translating the mission objectives etc.
I am asking because of that most of the players are from USA and since I am from mid/east Europe, I actually meet most of the players only morning (9am here is about 1 or 2 am in USA) so if the game is translated to czech/german/polish I think there would be more people all the time.
May 09, 2011 Alloh link
Asked many many times before, with many offers to translate into many languages... I have offered to translate into portughese and spanish, but so far the game does not support multi-languages.

But since things change, I am re-posting something that I posted in PCC, about origin of users of WEBSITE, per TLD:

Top coutries, from december/2010:
(I compared oct/nov also, very similar)

1) US (com+net+org+edu)
2) Norway
3) Russia
4) Germany
5) Brazil
6) Australia
7) Canada
8) Italy
9) Czech Republic
then UK,NE,PO,FR,DE,RO,BE,SW,FI,CR,CH,MX,AT,ES,CL,AR,HU

So languages becomes (december visitors only):
English, Norge, russian, german, french (adding CA+FR), portughese, spanish (adding mx+es+cl+ar), italian, czech.
May 09, 2011 PaKettle link
I do believe spanish is the second most common language in overall usage.

If several well translated missions like a complete set of tutorials were posted into the pcc forum then guild software might take the time to include them.
May 09, 2011 ryan reign link
It would help get a larger player base. I mean, we are already one of the few cross platform MMOs out there... lets take it to the next logical step and be multi-lingual!

The mission area of the station interface needn't even get all cluttered up with other language missions. Just add a new station interface tab "Languages".

Anyway... +1
May 09, 2011 incarnate link
There was a PCC effort to create a simple "Introductory Guide to Vendetta Online" (a few pages with newbie help and highlights), with the idea of translating it into many languages. Unfortunately, this project kind of died out.
May 10, 2011 vskye link
Inc, unfortunately you didn't plan out VO to be multilanguage from the start an this is kinda biting you in the ass. (to a lesser degree, but still)

Offering a "Introductory Guild to Vendetta Online" is only the first step, being native across all languages (or most) would have been a better plan. Allowing native speakers to translate everything would have been awesome, missions even. Hell, I've seen new Linux distributions have more translations in 8 months than this game has had.
May 10, 2011 incarnate link
We didn't prioritize localization very highly, but even if we had (back in 1998) it would still most likely require a major re-write now, because the architecture of the game has changed considerably.

We're well aware of the benefits of localization, and have plans for how we intend to go about it. Localization is a priority, but no, it isn't as high as some other areas, and it comes with a set of challenging problems relating to ongoing development.

Localizing a Linux distribution with fixed versioning is a lot simpler than an ongoing game with fluid versioning, which may introduce new dialogues and missions on any given week (we've added a lot of new strings recently for Android alone). You have to keep up with the new strings, constantly, or have provisions to exclude un-localized content from the given language until the translation is released (or provide it in english). We're well aware of all these issues, and are working towards them.

But this doesn't change the fact that the game would greatly benefit from a localized "Introductory Guide", which would be a worthwhile project for anyone interested in contributing.
May 10, 2011 draugath link
Incarnate, since I saw this thread, I've been thinking about how this might be approached from a plugin perspective. I think it might be possible to write a framework that can handle swapping in localized mission text.

One potential drawback or problem is that this would require that either all of the mission text that's been translated be downloaded and available on each client machine, or possibly stored in an external database. I'm not sure if you would want to make all of the mission text available in this manner.

At the very least, assuming it's possible through a plugin, I think it would be beneficial to translate the training missions. This could probably also be extended to include a UI localization as well.
May 10, 2011 total_gej link
I am not sure, but "Introductory Guide" are the first training missions right? Or is it just "article" about vendetta on some gaming websites?
May 10, 2011 Tertior link
I don't speak well english , I don't speak english but,

Several years ago I started one help in french.
She has to do again after many changes, but I me still serves with muhahaha ...
Banzai.

http://homepage.mac.com/tertior/tertiornet/cyrilsite.htm

zarma..
May 10, 2011 Phaserlight link
I could help with a basic Norwegian and Japanese translation.

My family roots lie in Norway, and I happened to be born in Tokyo. I have some contacts who are fluent in both respective native languages who might be willing to help. First we need to know what we're translating.

Are there any links to the old "Introductory Guide" or are we starting from scratch?
May 11, 2011 EddyHolland link
+1.
I would be happy to help localization by translation into French (or review / editing).
French is my father-tongue and English is my mother-tongue.

You'd have to start with the Training Missions (all of them); the Introductory guide, and the most commonly used mission set (like for trading, mining, hive hunting, border skirmish, etc).

PCC Missions should be considered optional (nice to have) unfortunately. Changing the UI is a lot of work.
You have to start somewhere, and that is the narrative in the Training missions etc.

Which languages apart from Spanish, French, German ? well, it doesn't really matter the relative playerbase sizes. What really matters is Volunteers - guild is resource limited. If someone translate into Czech or Norwegian first, more power to them (the volunteer).

So Inc. is it worth our while to do this volunteer work for you, or will it fall unused due to too high hurdles?

amitités,
-- F.F.
May 11, 2011 space999999 link
I could probably be able to translate into russian. +1
May 11, 2011 Alloh link
So far, I guess that a very nice and efficient way to do this would be to use a WIKI tool... maybe VO-wiki.com ot GS installs a dedicated wiki integrated with PCC authentication for editors, in order to have fine control.

From a provided english "tree" any PCC member (?or not?) can 'fork' any language, simply copying the tree into a new branch, and go translating each paragraph.

Then again, IF vo client had an integrated HTML or WAP browser, that integration would be complete... Anyway, any non-english speaking person could benefit from the "Localization Wiki"

Once a language tree is developed and reviewed enough, GS can integrate it as a localized VO manual for download...

C'mon, let's try again... it is WEB2.0 time, crowdsourcing, participation... and using a wiki we are not restricted to requiring only one person per language to complete package before displaying it to public... indeed, most likely most languages will be incomplete but quite usable for long time, if we use a wiki tool...

Inc, what you say? Willing to try one more time? Can you provide us a sample manual / reference guide and a wiki tool?
Despite not so efficient, even the forums could be used for translations, once the original english posts are provided...
May 11, 2011 draugath link
Well, I'm going to look into writing a plugin framework for translating missions. In the meantime I found this thread from February 2011 regarding translating the manual over on the wiki.

I would also like to point out that simply translating most of the UI really isn't that hard. The harder part is that some of the components of the UI can't be reached from the plugin world.
May 11, 2011 slime73 link
Non-ASCII characters aren't supported by the game right now.
May 11, 2011 Alloh link
Great tip, draugath, I missed that one... I will start there. Anyone else wanna join?

From Mr.Spuck's post: ( http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/16/24532 )

Wikified manual is here:
http://vo-wiki.com/wiki/Manual

To add another translation add /<language> to the url, create the page and add the tag {{languages|Manual}}. Example: http://vo-wiki.com/wiki/Manual/de
The language codes are in http://vo-wiki.com/w/index.php?title=Template:Languages&action=edit
May 12, 2011 Alloh link
Incarnate, will you effectivelly use those translated manuals somehow, once they reach a good quality?

Like, for each completed and reviewed translation on VO-WIKI, you "adopt" it and host in main Vendetta site, inside a "International Manual" entry, or something similar?

Or, even better, add those translated manuals to main game package... and some way to read them from game...

Of course you set the quality standard, and have the final word for each localization...

As many have said that it was better to translate whole game UI, but a translation reference is quite enough for almost everybody!
(It works even for GTS, so it will work from english into *any* other language)
May 12, 2011 genka link
Alloh, I know you struggle with English, but let me assure you, you're doing quite well!

However, let me correct you. The word you are looking for is "if," not "once."
May 13, 2011 incarnate link
The manual needs a lot of updating, to bring it up to a current standard, regardless of language.

If that were done, and it were then translated and placed in some sort of reasonable HTML format (not on vo-wiki and definitely not all as one page), I would consider using it.

The manual is a lot of data though, and it would need to be updated as things change (like user interfaces). This was why I originally suggested a simpler "New User Guide" that could perhaps only be a few pages, as a starting project for localization. Something that hits the high points, the common challenges facing newbies, and provides a good introduction to the game universe.