I would like to start another initiative where people can contribute to the mod. So far, I have not invested much work into translating the mod into the other four EFIGS languages supported by the international release of Civ4. That is on one hand because I do not (sufficiently) speak French, Italian or Spanish to do so, and even for German have not always found the time when compared to other things I could invest my time into.
On the other hand, it is relatively easy to do if you speak one of these languages and are willing to invest the time. Over the last month contributions on git have shown that we could start this effort without the need for much assistance from my end.
So what is the plan? For each language, I would like to assemble a team that includes the following skills:
- fluent grasp of the language
- sufficient skills in git to create pull requests against the mod
- ability to edit Civ4 game text in XML
or for the last two, the willingness to learn it (neither is very complicated). I would like to emphasise that it doesn't need to be a single person that has all of these skills! Even if you do not speak any of the languages in question, you can contribute by extracting the English text from the XML to have others translate it and putting it back into a pull request. Likewise, if you feel up to the task of translating text but not getting it into the game, you will still be able to contribute. I envision the actual translating work to take place in a shared medium like Google docs.
For each language, work will kick off once sufficient people have volunteered. Afterwards, I see three steps to the process:
1. Ensuring compatibility: currently, most English texts are not only not translated, but completely lack an entry for the other languages at all. This leads to errors, most notably to missing in the main menu, currently rendering the mod unplayable in any language but English. Even if the mod was technically playable, it would still lack texts for many units etc. rendering it functionally unplayable anyway. I think it is preferable to have English texts in some places for a localised version instead of it being completely broken with no text at all. Therefore, the first step is to add tags for the target language to all texts in the game lacking a translation with only the English text as content. Obviously, this step does not require knowledge in the target language.
2. Removing errors: some RFC texts already had translations, but then later on I changed the English text without updating the translations. These entries will not break the mod, but are still wrong and can lead to confusion. The goal of this step is to identify these errors and either replace them with English text like in step 1, or the correct translation if already possible. This step only requires moderate skills in the target language, and not necessarily fluency.
3. Adding translation: here is where the actual translation work comes in. All texts identified as in need of translation in steps 1 and 2 need to actually be translated and updated in the mod.
Now is the time to volunteer, if you are interested please let me know in this thread with your relevant skills.
List of volunteers:
- merijn_v1 (git, XML)
- Steb (French)
- Imp. Knoedel (German, XML, git)
- BasilBerylium (Spanish)
- Kipra (French)
- J422 (French)
- Sarius1997 (German, XML)
- Genghis Khaiser (Spanish)
(Pre-emptive) frequently asked questions:
What happens if text is added after this project is complete?
I promise to be a better citizen here and make sure to follow steps 1 and 2 whenever I add or update existing texts, and will always include a German translation from the start. For the other three languages, I will do my best to research trivial translations myself (e.g. civ names etc.), but when it comes to complete sentences I may need help from the original translator teams again, for example every time around a release.
What about Russian or Chinese?
I know that there are also Russian and Chinese DoC communities who mostly interact outside of CFC. Unfortunately, their translation uses a completely different base game that is not directly compatible with the EFIGS version and that I do not understand. I of course encourage them to update their existing translations as well, but I think it is best if they organise that within their own communities, since I don't think I can offer much support for them.
On the other hand, it is relatively easy to do if you speak one of these languages and are willing to invest the time. Over the last month contributions on git have shown that we could start this effort without the need for much assistance from my end.
So what is the plan? For each language, I would like to assemble a team that includes the following skills:
- fluent grasp of the language
- sufficient skills in git to create pull requests against the mod
- ability to edit Civ4 game text in XML
or for the last two, the willingness to learn it (neither is very complicated). I would like to emphasise that it doesn't need to be a single person that has all of these skills! Even if you do not speak any of the languages in question, you can contribute by extracting the English text from the XML to have others translate it and putting it back into a pull request. Likewise, if you feel up to the task of translating text but not getting it into the game, you will still be able to contribute. I envision the actual translating work to take place in a shared medium like Google docs.
For each language, work will kick off once sufficient people have volunteered. Afterwards, I see three steps to the process:
1. Ensuring compatibility: currently, most English texts are not only not translated, but completely lack an entry for the other languages at all. This leads to errors, most notably to missing in the main menu, currently rendering the mod unplayable in any language but English. Even if the mod was technically playable, it would still lack texts for many units etc. rendering it functionally unplayable anyway. I think it is preferable to have English texts in some places for a localised version instead of it being completely broken with no text at all. Therefore, the first step is to add tags for the target language to all texts in the game lacking a translation with only the English text as content. Obviously, this step does not require knowledge in the target language.
2. Removing errors: some RFC texts already had translations, but then later on I changed the English text without updating the translations. These entries will not break the mod, but are still wrong and can lead to confusion. The goal of this step is to identify these errors and either replace them with English text like in step 1, or the correct translation if already possible. This step only requires moderate skills in the target language, and not necessarily fluency.
3. Adding translation: here is where the actual translation work comes in. All texts identified as in need of translation in steps 1 and 2 need to actually be translated and updated in the mod.
Now is the time to volunteer, if you are interested please let me know in this thread with your relevant skills.
List of volunteers:
- merijn_v1 (git, XML)
- Steb (French)
- Imp. Knoedel (German, XML, git)
- BasilBerylium (Spanish)
- Kipra (French)
- J422 (French)
- Sarius1997 (German, XML)
- Genghis Khaiser (Spanish)
(Pre-emptive) frequently asked questions:
What happens if text is added after this project is complete?
I promise to be a better citizen here and make sure to follow steps 1 and 2 whenever I add or update existing texts, and will always include a German translation from the start. For the other three languages, I will do my best to research trivial translations myself (e.g. civ names etc.), but when it comes to complete sentences I may need help from the original translator teams again, for example every time around a release.
What about Russian or Chinese?
I know that there are also Russian and Chinese DoC communities who mostly interact outside of CFC. Unfortunately, their translation uses a completely different base game that is not directly compatible with the EFIGS version and that I do not understand. I of course encourage them to update their existing translations as well, but I think it is best if they organise that within their own communities, since I don't think I can offer much support for them.
Last edited: