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Author Topic: DF translations?  (Read 1134 times)

nihilocrat

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DF translations?
« on: November 15, 2006, 11:31:00 am »
I've searched the forums and noticed that there doesn't seem to have been any discussion at all about translating DF into other languages. I don't have any particular reason to, but I think it might be neat to implement them and widen the audience of the game. I'm wondering if there are any present technical limitations (i.e. stuff being in static strings in the code) which would make this particularly difficult.

I haven't actually played Adventure mode yet (which is where I assume the various languages of the DF world come into play), but I assume that the way they work is just by replacing word x with word y from the proper language_*.txt dictionary. This might make things really difficult, because grammar would need to be re-implemented and I figure with inflected languages it would be a complete pain in the ass, if even possible without a humongous amount of effort.

I'm willing to offer a decent, but non-native German translation for the game in my spare time.

So please, give me feedback in some sort of way whether you know the technical details or want to tell me that it's a horrible idea or whatever.

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dav

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Re: DF translations?
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2006, 12:34:00 pm »
It's a good idea.  I think this should wait until the game's more solidly out of alpha.  It's easier to do this sort of thing in a big chunk.  Also, it'll give time for communities to build up.  There's such a steep learning curve that it might be better to start with a wiki/foreign language community and work toward a language release.
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qalnor

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Re: DF translations?
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2006, 02:20:00 pm »
Have to agree with Dav here. The reality is, a lot of work may end up being wasted if significant changes are made that would require retranslation.

As far as the technical end of the question, it's a good question.

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lumin

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Re: DF translations?
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2006, 06:38:00 pm »
This might be better to wait a while until at least ADVANCED HELP ARC is done.  Also, the interface might get some more tweaking.  Once these are done, translations should begin.

I could help eventually.  I speak/write English and Spanish fluently from spending two years in Peru.

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nihilocrat

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Re: DF translations?
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2006, 11:54:00 am »
All that sounds like a good idea. Since the game wasn't built ground-up with internationalization support, it would be best to try to implement it in one chunk when things aren't so chaotic. Foreign language wikis sound like a good intermediate step, but I wonder how it could get popularized in foreign language communities... that's a PR question and thus not really my cup of tea.
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