Nice surprice (thanks translators!)

Today after logging in i have found a nice surprice!
My client was translated in my language (Italian)
I have not tested all and not everithing has been translated, but, for what i have seen, it seems a good job.
So i want to thank all the volunteers who have worked on it.

The only thing that have disoriented me at first is the translation of the locations names,.
For example i have used a teleport scroll and have seen that a friend of mine was in "Miniere Elisee", .. hmm i was perplexed, where are "Miniere Elisee" ?!? then i have realized that he is in "Elisyum Mines" , the translation is correct but, when you used for a lot of time a location name, it feel strange to use translated locations.

I imagine that translation is tedious work, so THANKS again, from me and i am sure also from all the others not native english language players.
Oberon

PS: please forgive my bad english

 

@Katrina Bekers & all the other awesome translators!

 

It's too late to open that can of worms again but I was (and still am ^^) strongly opposed to translate the location names.

Beside that we all are doing our best to deliver the best translation possible.

Ok. Not me this release. Rl work ate too much of my free time

 

As far as I know, location names are not translated in French because it sounds weird AND it doesn't make any sense to have multiple names for the exact same location on a single-server game with multiple languages.

That make me think I should help with localization again, when I'll have the time and the motivation.

 

It's the same in german.
Want an example? Thunderbluff = Donnerfels Oo dafug....
But i was the only one that cared ^^

 

As a rule of thumb proper nouns should never be translated, an argument can be made with descriptive nouns however.
A few examples:
Elysium Mines -> "Elysium" is a proper noun but also a reference to Greek mythology, there may exist translations for this already, but I'd advice against translating this. "Mines" is just a descriptive part of the name and could be translated.
Braemar -> is a proper noun (and also the name of an actual village in NE Scotland, which indicates that it could have descriptive meaning) and should not be translated
Thunderbluff -> is a descriptive noun and could be translated

Although I state that some parts of these names could be translated I would advise against it for one simple reason:
If you'd want this game to be multicultural, in the sense that players from multiple countries of different languages can play in the same instance, it will only add to confusion that each have their own name for everything.

If however the plan is to stick all the Italians on their own server, and never having them communicate with others, sure translate everything. Since I don't expect it to be translated to languages like mine, will I in this case have the choice of server or am I just going to get stuffed on a server with the Germans? (closest proximity translated language)

@Attenwood , @Lexie
Has port. not supplied any translation guidelines specifically in regard to proper nouns?
If the direction has been given and the decision is to translate names (proper nouns) I would like to hereby officially contest that.

 

I had a brief look at the game in the languages I know, and am impressed at what an awesome job the localization people did. This gives the game a totally different feel, depending on the language you choose. Personally I'll continue playing in English, though, simply out of habit.

I must agree with Earl Atogrim von Draken and Lady Hornpipe on the location names topic, however. I think when playing with friends that play in a different language than oneself, localized location names could lead to a lot of confusion, e.g. when trying to decide where to go for a hunt. Sure, Tiefer Rabenwald and Verborgenes Tal sound very nice and make me feel like I'm at home or in a roleplaying world of German origin, but I think it doesn't make playing with my friends of other natinalities any easier. And some translations seem strange to me. Why is Wynton's Folly called Colosso di Wynton? Wouldn't a more direct translation like Capricciosità or Buffata di Wynton help to at least make backward translations easier when trying to explain where you are going? I like the French version. It seems no location names have beeen translated there.

Where I find translations really useful is when it comes to lore and quest content. Because every player, no matter their level of English proficiency, should have a chance to fully understand everything in their quests and feel as immersed in the story as possible. A great job has been done already with many quest letters and such that now read as if they were originally written in the native language, really beautifully translated to portray not only the meaning but also the spirit and flavor of the message! I also found a few quest letters, though, where the title is translated but not the content. Perhaps the localization team could have another look at these, because with some of them it is really important that the player understands what is written in them.

Anyways, a big THANK YOU to the volunteers!

 

A VERY BIG thank you to the Translation & Localization Volunteers! That's a lot of work! I love the fact this game is multi-national / international !

I only know English though, and it's a bit fishy anyway.

 

By the way, for everyone that did not know this: In your options, on the interface tab, you can toggle off "Show translated location names". I think this will be helpful for those that want to play the game in a language other than English but still keep the English location names.

Edit: My bad. I should have tried the functionality out before getting enthusiastic about it here... I do think it would be a wonderful thing, though, to allow people to choose. But now thinking about it it seems like it probably would be too much a hassle to implement this.

 

@Mototopo & @Moiseyev Trueden thank you so much, these messages really warm up my heart.

Credits where credit is due, tho!

I just started the translation, but soon fell behind the true heroes: @Fox Cunning (team leader), @Inkub0, @Luno, @Tony99, @Greatcaesar (and who knows I'm forgetting). They deserve more praise than yours truly, especially since I paused my game and involvement in localization (RL expatriation).

@Earl Atogrim von Draken and other friends wrt translating locations: it's a can of worms indeed, and one started from Blizzard when they began translating every-f'in-thing in WoW. I hated them with a passion, but they did set a cumbersome precedent. It's a very fine line we're threading, and any decision on any locale can and will be wrong, no matter what. The same can be said of any reagent, actually, with the rationale of "everyone else calls a nightshade a nightshade, why we should call it 'belladonna'?" We're trying our best - feedback is always welcome.

@Helvig Ingvildsdottir : I think that option is referred to the world map yellow banners being translated from runic to the latin alphabet (in the current locale), not something affecting ingame strings.

And also: OMG ég tala ekki (enn) íslensku, but there's another player from Iceland playing this game? Isn't your signature a quote from Edda? I moved in Kópavogur three weeks ago!

 

Oh then I misintepreted that functionality. Didn't get around to trying it out yet.

I'm not from Iceland (though I absolutely wouldn't mind if it were so, can't say I don't envy you for living there). Actually I don't even speak Icelandic, though I can understand some of it when I read it, it does have a certain similarity to Swedish after all. You are right, the quote is from the Edda, the poem where Oden speaks about all his magical skills. I found it fitting for my character, since I am roleplaying a viking healer, as this part of the poem says "The second (type of magic) I am capable of is that which all must know that wish to heal."

 

If I saw that, I'd probably ask "What dafug?"

 

German, beside the fact that it is a rather complicated language to learn, is pretty good for translating texts. That's why we have the best dubbing in the world. If I'd show you the new Thor in German you will swear it was produced in German from the first second. But as soon as it comes to names.... Ehw.
Blood angels = Blut Engel
Space marine = Weltraum marine
It may be correct but it's an overkill to every coolness the original name might have had ^^
That's why most book and film translations stopped to translate names 15 or so years ago.
Seems like SotA is stuck back in time even if it comes down to translations

 

Ah, tell me about it And on top of that I had issues with the Steam version of SotA which would either take a week to update or not finish at all (it was in "Verifying" status for over three days...).

Anyway, cheers Mototopo! Location names are not fixed yet, not everything will be translated, there is method in that madness.
I'll keep doing what I can and should have more time to spare soon!

 

@ll Translators:
Thank you für your work.

First time I tried the German language, I was really confused from the Citynames...
And decided to play further in english

I wished, Land and townnames wouldn't be translated.

If someone asks for help in forum in english with another townname, how shall we understand, what we're talking about?

Different names would bring different forum languages... is this intended?

 

I'm on your side.
The translation of Names and some things are difficult to do in german and we need more consistency about crafting ressource, materials etc...
I worked a little bit for translation, but it's really hard. If i switch to german i cannot find things in my Backpack anymore, because they are renamed and sometimes hard to figure out what was this.
Example Pie dough.
It cannot be 'Kuchen' or 'Torte' because it's also been used in meals with meat, so it's 'Pastete', but then it's curious to bake some Apple Pie with 'Pastete'

Maybe only 'Teig' whats more neutral.
It's just feels often not correct and if you switch you cannot find the most ingredients in your storage anymore.

 

The problem is that there maybe one or two words in english and maybe 5 in german ^^

 

It is just “cool” because it is not your mother tongue. If it would be your first language I would guess that it would be similar “boring” as the translation is for you.
And maybe we are viewing different movies but I would say just the important/remarkable proper names stay untranslated. E.g. “Lord British” would be such a unique and untranslated name but I do not remember a fictional movie where the protagonists are talking German but using untranslated words like “Skull Swamp” in their conversations to describe an area or e.g. “Guards of Honor” for a group of soldiers.

I think the decision was based on the fact that the meaning of names has to be understood in SotA as they are important regarding lore and if there is someone describing a problem you don't understand someone else will just as it is with everything else too.
And about the forum…I think you are just talking about this official one, right? I would guess they will stay just English till release as I guess the devs would like to understand what their fans are talking about.
But if you release a game in a language you also have to be able to support customers of said languages and localized forums might be an easy step in that direction even if you still need staff to support these forum sections…but maybe that’s an additional reason why they created partnerships with e.g. Travian Games.

 

Imagine how they feel and what sort of Volksmusik Typen they are listening to english Music XD
But i'm happy thst my daughter dont understand the Texts of the music she likes. Love me so soft, come in so softly...
I just hear from her room - 11yo

But then i think of
Wir ja, Wir ja schütteln dich, schaukeln dich, erschüttern dich
Folksmusik, no matter the distortion level of the guitar
I think it is so popular, because we do not understand the most if it, it sounds more harmoneous and soft, and we care less about the meaning.
Not in Detail, i like to listen to conscious Reggae or at least music with good text, society criticism, lyric or whatever, but i also like to just follow the rythm and the melody and do t care for Text.
In german thus is impossible, if they sing about their hipster live or love or whatever i just facepalm and think oh my god awkward.

 

@Stundorn,

as a child I was listening to a Schlager LP from my brother. It was in the mid 80's...
"... komm in den Sattel der Liebe, wir reiten wir reiten, wir reiten... Heute sollst Du mich begleiten, morgen 'ne and're vielleicht!"

As child I heard and saw nothing curious about, later after years I thought:
Hey, what are they singing about!

Well, we all have to take care of all sort of manipulation...