Ich finde es eine sehr gute Idee das Game in verschiedene Sprachen zu übersetzen.

Es freud mich besonders, dass Deutsch die erste Sprache ist mit der ihr beginnt. Danke. Falls ihr Hilfe benötigt schreibt mich an. 😛

Aber natürlich!

Bitte! (-: Es freut mich es zu tun.

I think Gernot will be pleased at this. 🙂 Will anyone be doing a Glaswegian version? 😛

Pieyonear's na no bad gain in natno but! 😆

Seriously though, great work guys! 😎

I don't think a Scots version should be excluded. If the Scottish government sees fit to release information in Scots, there's no reason why we shouldn't. (-:

Believe me Brianetta, if I knew how to do it, I'd do a conversion myself, just for a giggle 😆

Cool. You do it by editing a text file. We'll be in touch. (-:

How does the system currently work?

When I've done it before I use an excel document as the master list with the first column being the strings used in code eg: STR_GUI_WARP_OVERLAY followed by as many column worth of translated text you need, with duplicated English entries for the translations you don't yet have so:

STR_GUI_WARP_OVERLAY, "Press to warp", "Press to warp", "Press to warp", "Press to warp", "Press to warp"

Then you export it as csv and run it through a program to generate the code table, the STR_GUI_WARP_OVERLAY becomes an enum in a header and the string table is in UTF8/16 that you access by passing in the enum to a getter function. When the game starts it loads the language into the string table, switching languages then just means overwriting that table with another language for example.

How does this system work?

Alternate lines of token, string. Blank lines and lines beginning with # are ignored. Leading and trailing unquoted whitespace is ignored, quotes are removed, \n replaced with a newline. The file is named after the language, and all language files are loaded from the directory.

Current examples are English and German:

https://github.com/Brianetta/pioneer/tr ... /data/lang

Do have a look. Running the files as-is through Google Translate gives valid, if slightly hopeless, output (you'll need to un-translate any tokens it had a crack at, as well as correcting the real work).

Actually, Google Translate is hopeless. Don't be tempted.

Mmmmm, I seem to be having problems copying this english file into Notepad2. I tried hitting the copy to clipboard button but nothing is happening. HELP!

I don't know what you're trying to copy, but it's probably a web page from GitHub that you're getting.

There are two ways to get the file. Either check out the source code to your computer (which is the most righteous method) or use the raw link to that file (which I have reproduced here for you).

Thank you Brianetta 😉

This might take some time as in, deciding on how "colourful" to make the translation, I have to balance that colourfulness with keeping it within (just about) interpretive limits! 😆

Scots is a recognised language. It's mutually intelligible with English, but that's just an incidental detail. If Scots speakers can understand it, you've done your job.

The Scots language can be humorous at times and I have tried to keep it tongue in cheek, it's Scots but still usable by other folks too as the important things like ships, weapons, equipment and goods (mostly) I have left alone for playability. If I could wish for something it would be that there would be more interaction options in coms, then I could really do a job! 😛 Anyways here is an update to work with Alpha 15. Let know what you think and I would be happy to amend it if anyone has other suggestions 😉

We'll be coming up with a translation system for mission modules soon. Then, your humour can be unleashed.

Geraldine, if you haven't seen it:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/l ... /index.htm

😆

There is (or should I say iz) a lot of errors in their documents. The main problem with "broad scots" is that it has never really been written down properly in modern times. So many of the words are guesswork and to make matters worse, different things go by different names depending on what part of the country you are in. Then there is modern cultural influences to consider as well.

I think, if in doubt, they just refer to Rabbie Burns.

Quick question to all you German speakers. For "status," should I write Status or Zustand?

Auf Deutsch, um "status" zu übersetzen, sollte Ich "Status" oder "Zustand" schreiben?

There. Now my lack of German skills have been well and truly outed. (-:

I couldn't help wondering, why did I understood everything so clearly, until I read that it was written not by a native speaker of German. (:

Btw, one mistake: arbeiten an (D.).

It seems to me, that "Status" would be more appropriate, because I have a feeling, that "Zustand" is closer to "condition".

As for translation on other languages. I'd like to have a look at the volume of the text data.

Hello to all,

I'm a native speaker of German and I would like to help with the translation.

To introduce myself I would like to make the following proposals to terms used in the picture in the first post of this thread:

[Hyperlaufwerk] --> [Hyperraumantrieb]

[Klasse 2 Hyperlaufwerk] --> [Standard Klasse 2] - - assumed that it is a basic class 2 hyperjumpdrive.

[Hubraum] --> [Laderaum]

[Frei] --> [Verfügbar]

[Vor Waffe] --> [Bug Waffe] - - but I would prefer the term [Bug] instead - so you have the option to install other equipment than weapons.

[Hinten Waffe] --> [Heck Waffe] - - but I would prefer the term [Heck] instead.

left/port --> [Backbord]

right/starbord --> [Steuerbord]

[Kein Mountpunkt] --> [Keine Halterung]

[Fahrbereich im Hyperraum] --> [Reichweite im Hyperraum] - - but I would prefer the term [Sprungreichweite] (jump range) instead.

[light years] --> [Lichtjahre]

[Atmosphärischen Hitzeshild] --> [Atmosphärischer Hitzeschild] - - but it could also be called [Atmosphären Hitzeschild] or just [Hitzeschild] if there are no other types of heat shields.

The term [Ruf] seems informal to me, I would prefer [Reputation].

Btw, the term [Status] is a much better translation than [Zustand].

I hope you liked what you read, and if there is no more need with the translation to German just ignore me.

I tried to download the files mentioned in the thread, but I got the infamous 404-error.

Thanks. The links are now out of date, since the languages are now a part of the main project.

You can find language files here:

https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pion ... /data/lang

I am not a native German speaker, so really I'd have to go with any advice from somebody who is.

This is my only doubt. In the English, there is no "basic" hyperdrive. It's either a hyperdrive or a military drive, and each of these has several class numbers.

Still, you'll be a better judge, and I don't mind you making it look more natural to German eyes. In fact, if you're feeling very enthusiastic, you could take over the German translation. If you want.

Thank you very much. I think I figured out the format, so I just replace the terms with the correct Germans expressions (or whatever I think them to be) and mail the .txt-file back to you?

The point is how you offer information to the player. Let me give an example - the line reads: [Apples] or [Apples]. The second term does not make sense, because after you read [Apples] you expect some information about apples - and not something else. The first term doubles the information, with [Apples] you transport exact the same information.

So, in the case of [Hyperdrive] the title already transports, that what is following is about the hyperdrive the player has installed in her or his ship. As far as I understood your reply, the "normal" hyperdrive is just a hyperdrive (or the "standard") and the military drive is the more sophisticated version. Therefore I would suggest to write:

[Hyperdrive] for the "a hyperdrive" and (e.g.) [Hyperdrive] for other versions.

Perhaps there will be a [Hyperdrive] in the future?

Oh, thank you for the offer. But I would prefer just to help and to let you (or somebody else) be the one in charge, who has to sort out my better ideas from the rubbish.

It is the first time I summoned the courage to really offer my help in such a project, and I don't want to go over board by taking the lead on the first day I registered to the forum.

It will take some days to scan through the textfile and there will be two major points I will return with questions to you:

(1) The file does not contain whole sentences. Therefore I will sometimes ask about an explanation of the context of a term, to find the correct translation (example: In the German version of Freelancer the term "credits" was incorrectly translated to "Mitwirkende", which would be correct if credits would have referred to the people who had worked on the game - just in this case it was referring to the player's money).

Of course I will refer to the English version of the textfile, but this might be not much of help, because there aren't whole sentences either.

(2) In German the grammar changes with the object of the sentence (plural or singular, masculine or feminine). It will take some time and maybe help to think a way around that. (Example: YOU_DO_NOT_HAVE_ANY_X - Sie haben keine %item. - - Sie haben keinen Wasserstoff - - Sie haben keine Lebensmittel).

If this is not what you expected, please tell me.

You can. If you do this a lot, it would be better if you figured out how to use Git and Github.com, but for now, yes, mail is fine.

It's unlikely. The terms date right back to Frontier, in 1992. There are three drives: interplanetary drive, hyperdrive and military drive. If there were a new experimental SpaceCorp drive, it would either be a hyperdrive or a military drive. If it's an entirely new type, using a new fuel, it would get a new name - perhaps a SpaceCorp drive.

I understand that. Ideally, we'd have a native German speaker do the translation. I did the whole lot in something like two days, and I've never been sure whether I did a good job.

Sure thing. Normally the context is nearby, but the best thing to do is play-test the game, and get used to the places where the strings are used. For example, "PIONEER" is the text used as the registration on the wing of the spinning ship in the start menu.

We are aware of this. Already we've made changes to tokenisation because of different word order. In fact, we want to avoid sentence fragments, too, eventually. We used to join things like "You have bought " and "hydrogen" together, but that made "Sie haben Wasserstoff gekauft" impossible. For those gender articles, we might need some good ideas.

English and German are closely related; the Romance languages offer their own problems, and the non Indo-European languages could be really interesting.

Any help is appreciated. You want to make the game better; so do we. Thanks!