PA: The Official Localization Thread

Last Updated: March 17, 2014

Status:

• Pass: Initial Pass of Text, March 17th, 2014
• Languages awaiting validation: Dutch, French, German, Polish (Poland), Romanian, Russian
• Partially Complete Translations: Czech (CR), Finnish (Almost done!), German (Austria), Japanese, Spanish
• Top Contributors so far: DeathByDenim, IruKandji, and TheLordOfTheNoobs, with quite a few others who have also contributed!

It's taken a while to get everything in place, but we're now ready to start opening the official community translation website for Planetary Annihilation. This is using the same toolset as before, www.getlocalization.com, with our project website located at: http://www.getlocalization.com/PALocalization/

Anyone is welcome to hop in and help provide translations for the languages that are of interest to them. For the test we did of this system about a year ago, it resulted in full or partial translations of over 30 languages. As long as the translation meets the requirements below, we'll support it. The size impact these translations have on build size is negligible, so it mostly comes down to how excited the community is to provide more languages.

The Tools:

We have been using GetLocalization.com. It's an easy site to use, and allows for a lot of collaboration when discussing a translation. We have the option of getting use of professional translators as well, but will wait to see how the community likes owning this part of the process.

How to use GetLocalization.com:

Entering Translations:

1. The string to be translated. This includes a largely unsorted list of every string in the game currently. See section 2 and 3 for more information.
2. This is the actual string as it appears in game. It can be difficult to understand the text in context, however, and for that, see section 3.
3. This is a combination of automated context, and hand written descriptions. For the first pass, it just includes a key to indicate where the string is from - For this image, the string comes from the Armory page of the UI, and the string shows that it's the currently selected commander in the players inventory. Many languages are very sensitive to the context of the words, and this field can help provide that context. Also, make active use of the "add new comment" to discuss strings if there is question or doubt about the exact use or location of the string in question.
4. Finally, this is where you enter your translation of a string. If someone already has a perfect translation, please don't add a duplicate. Instead, do the next steps:

Voting Up Translations:



If strings have already been translated, you'll see them here. If a perfect translation already exists, or an inappropriate one, this is the place to call it out:

1. Vote up a good translation. This is critical to the validation process. A translation isn't complete until not only all strings are translated, but also approved by the community.
2. Copy to the editor: If someone has a good translation, but you think it could be better, you can just copy it and make a minor tweak rather than re-write the entire string.
3. Delete a string. Only available for your own translations.
4. Finally, use cautiously, but if someone is "trolling" the translations, or is using inappropriate colloquialisms, please flag the translation.

When do translations make it into the game:

• A language must be 100% translated. Which means, if a string is untranslateable or shouldn't be translated, simply enter in the English string. If that language community agrees that it shouldn't be translated, it will get voted up as the "winning" translation, just like any other string.
• We may make use of a professional team to help spot check translations.
• Be mindful of the length of the translation. If the translated string is more than 30% bigger than the source English string, it will often look really bad in the UI. Use abbreviations or shorter translated words when possible to keep the strings about the same length.
• We will spot check translations ourselves to look for abuses, inappropriate language, etc. If in doubt, we WILL NOT post the language.

Q&A:

• Common questions will get answered here as I see them.
• Anyone can contribute. You just need to make a GetLocalization account. No fees, or personal information seems to be collected that I've seen. You just need to be fluent in the langue you're helping to translate.
• We will have some ways to thank the most active, and accurate, contributors. More details to come.

Are there any other words or phrases we should not translate besides the title?

In many cases, that's specific to the language. Different languages have different norms. PA should not be translated unless it's culturally expected. Same goes for other common game terms. (AI? Not sure, same with a lot of common abbreviations, etc)

I will start working on Czech translation.

I will start working on Czech translation once I pass the f*cking captcha during registration.

alot of the contex for these is missing for example "set neutral".

as for "ON" and "OFF" I get that they're probably in a small box but "Allumé" should fit, no? either way the only accepted translation right now is "ON" same for some others.

If there are questions about context, please post here, or add a comment to the tool. On the next pass, I can add some manual context to some of these to make some of these more clear. If posting here, include not only the string but also the contents of the Context box (Box 3 in the first image in my top post).

Oh i just figured out we could ignore the warning.


On some of them it's completely bogus, for example save -> sauvegarder.
there's one choice and one choice only, it's that unless it's going to stay in english. so I went ahead and ignored and saved translation anyways.

Will we be able to fix the translation if we later find ingame some mistakes?

Also a recommendation for translators: Turn off email notifications in your profile or this tool is gonna spam the **** out of your mailbox.

I'm already find some issue related to localization so I created "Localization" category on community bugtracker. If you met some serious issue in process of localization please post it on bugtracker.

My tasks for now:

• Dialog buttons can't be localized: PA#3291
• Keyboard shortcuts can't be localized: PA#3292

Yes we will be able to fix/address later, and yes, turn off email notifications unless you really want a LOT of email in your inbox.

We did it !!! German is the first language to be fully translated
Some translations need improving for sure but I'm still proud

Is "You can change the region latter in the settings menu." really intended or does it intend to "You can change the region later in the settings menu."

Curiously, is it going to be possible to mod the translation (until it is finished and accepted) so that one might see the sentences/words in their context to do a better job at polishing it?

How do you fix English? "Filter contatcs by tag:" is misspelled.

Check out <PA Install Dir>/media/ui/alpha/_i18n/locales/dev
You can edit the files there or if you want to properly mod it, you need to shadow those files.

Basically you use launch option for PA executable, e.g " --locale=dev".
Then game will load localization you need.

But is there any way to download completed localization from website in JSON?

bah! We basically tied!

Doesn't look like. There is this in the FAQ, but it doesn't work with my username/password, so I'm guessing that's something meant for the devs only.

I guess at least 50% of phrases in PA not yet translatable, so I guess you'll be even more tied when Uber fix that.

Then it's good idea what Uber can fix first because it's will be really useful to have ability to check translation in-game to see what issues different languages have.

Done some of Russian translation. Some ingame check strongly needed so I hope we can have ability to do this asap.