Grammar, Style and the Colopedia

[Fürstbischof]

Seeing that we have lots of activity with the strings/translation, I have been wondering about how to organize it. I'm seriously considering setting up a new git repository, one with only translations. It then has a folder for each language. This way two languages can update at the same time without conflicting even if the same string is edited. It does however require scripting to split and merge files.

Ideally we should also have an interface to it, one which supports assigning gender and stuff to text. Ideally we could code it in javascript and put it on github meaning we get a text editor in the browser, but if we do that, then we need somebody with javascript experience to code it. It would solve the problem of getting it out to everybody because everybody has a browser.

In general this would work quite nicely, especially for getting new translators started. Unfortunately, it requires the texts to be sort of finished. ATM the diplomacy texts have the problem that either the English text is 'bland' or the German text is 'bland'. (replace bland with silly, almost missing, similar etc.) Due to the development history of TAC & RaR the English and the German texts have almost a symbiotic relation. My guess would be that they had planned to fully revise the German texts but got it never finished. Just count how many "Danke, [CT_NAME]." are used as placeholders for new German text which had never been added. Don't get me wrong. The German texts which had been revised are great. They're way better than anything what Firaxis had produced.

To not lose sight I was pondering the idea of separating the native diplomacy from the European diplomacy so that I'd move 'finished' texts to another file which Kendon could safely work on with. In the end that might be superfluous although for the time being it would be a good workaround for me. I'm hesitating to do this on the fly which might come as a nasty surprise for everyone else who is working in parallel. Let's see how far I get till next weekend... ;-)

 

[Fürstbischof]

The main reason for splitting is that ideally only one person works on a single file at a time. If more than one works on the same file, we risk conflicts with risk of overwriting the work of other people. If there is a file for each language, then an update in Russian can't conflict with an update in German. As the number of translators and languages increases, the conflict avoidance becomes more complex unless we use a better system to avoid it.

Well, it's not funny to include the 500 changes made in the meantime to the file which you've been revising...

 

[Fürstbischof]

I can go through XML_AUTO_UTF8_UnitInfo and XML_AUTO_UTF8_YieldInfo. I'll do units first, unless you'd prefer I start with yields.

Please go ahead! I'll try to finish my revision of the diplomacy texts and some minor tasks while others will be pushed aside to produce some revised files.

 

[Kendon]

Please go ahead!

I've just committed XML_AUTO_UTF8_UnitInfo, adding to what's in the box in the lower right of the unit page.There's extra information from the German, and sometimes the French, versions.

I made a couple of minor changes to CIV4GameText_Achievements_utf8 so I uploaded that too.

I doubt I'll make it through YieldInfo this weekend so I thought I'd better send this now.

 

[Fürstbischof]

There's extra information from the German, and sometimes the French, versions.

I've spotted that, too. Occasionally the French text is far more elaborate than the English or German text.

No need to hurry.

ATM I'm looking with astonishment at the CIV4GameText_RaR_New_Nations_utf8.xml file. The German text (each 19x) for

AI_DIPLO_REFUSE_TO_TALK_
AI_DIPLO_NO_PEACE_
AI_DIPLO_GREETINGS_ATT_FUR_
AI_DIPLO_DEMAND_TRIBUTE_POWER_WEAKER_
AI_DIPLO_DEMAND_TRIBUTE_POWER_EQUAL_
AI_DIPLO_DEMAND_TRIBUTE_POWER_STRONGER_

has been entirely standardised. The variety of vanilla is gone. I'm not sure if I like that. If we go down that road I can easily mass replace the English, French, Italian and Spanish texts. The other option is to reinstate the vanilla German text. Maybe I'd prepare another separate commit for this alternative case.

BTW, I've just seen your latest commits. Are you sure that they should be committed to the master branch? (committing revised .xml files of the master branch adapted to changes made in the Large Rivers branch to the master branch will definitely make the upcoming merge easier but causes a lot of additional workload)

 

[Kendon]

BTW, I've just seen your latest commits. Are you sure that they should be committed to the master branch? (committing revised .xml files of the master branch adapted to changes made in the Large Rivers branch to the master branch will definitely make the upcoming merge easier but causes a lot of additional workload)

I'm not sure either way. My changes are to text and format, not to variables. My guess is that modders keen on programming may not want to put the time into proofreading long documents with 1,500 changes. The one thing I don't want to do is increase workload for busy people.

I've been going straight to commit because it's easy to do on the screen. I don't know enough about the process to understand how it makes the upcoming merge easier but causes additional workload (for me or the merger?)

I've been uploading to GitHub. I could stop there and leave the commit to someone more knowledgeable.

 

[Kendon]

I'll try to finish my revision of the diplomacy texts and some minor tasks while others will be pushed aside to produce some revised files.

Apart from small typos and tweaking format the English text is generally complete. I’ve done random checks in any text files where the most recent commit is two years ago. Only one has German text materially different from the English: CIV4GameText_Colonization_Diplomacy_utf8.xml.

That means all the text files except that one are available now for translation to Spanish, Russian or whatever language you like. I’ll be doing minor spell checking on the English and formatting for appearance but none of that will affect content to be translated.

Let me know when you finish the German version of the diplomacy text. Once you commit it I can see it.

This week I did a download to see if the text changes recently committed are incorporated into Mod-master. They are.

That includes most of the changes for Large Rivers. When something new is added to gameplay, text can be updated for everybody. Apart from that, what’s in place now can be the standard. It will always need improvement so pass on any glitches or typos you find.

 

[Kendon]

I’ve committed CIV4GameText_Colonization_Diplomacy_utf8.xml and CIV4GameTextInfos_Original_utf8.xml.

English now follows the German text more closely. The new dialogue is a little longer, not so courtly, more direct and skeptical.

Next I’ll do New Nations.

Changes will be proofreading and formatting, nothing that would affect translations.

 

[Kendon]

I’ve done some corrections to Buildings in the Colopedia, mainly finding typos that should be lowercase; but the Medical Office, Textile Mill, Tobacconist Shop, Town Hospital and University entries are a little longer now, matching the original German text.

At the same time I corrected minor typos in Achievements and Diplomacy I noticed during gameplay.

I think it reads faster now, more accessible for new players. In descending size order I'm going through text documents that haven't been updated in two years. It's mainly for minor typos and formatting. I don't expect to find anything that would affect translations into other languages.

 

[Fürstbischof]

The biggest differences between the languages were found in the achievement texts and the diplomacy texts, which we have corrected in the meantime.

 

[Kendon]

2.8.2.2 was released on December 23, 2020. Since then the more detailed original German has been translated into English, and other text including the Colopedia has also been upgraded.

Anyone playing in English can download this attachment and extract a folder named ‟English Text” which can replace the ‟Text” folder in ‟WeThePeople-2.8.2.2/Assets/XML/Text”. Once ‟English Text” is in the spot where ‟Text” was, ‟English” should be deleted.

You can test that the update is in place. During the opening you should see a more detailed ‟You Have A Dream” panel. When you discover the New World the phrase ‟the crew cheers loudly!” now has an exclamation mark, a simple indicator that the new folder is active. As you proceed into the game you should see many other additions.

Character dialogue is more colourful. The Colopedia is more detailed and includes gameplay changes.

All the updated text documents have been committed so they’ll be part of any new release, but I’d like players to notice spelling problems or, most importantly, gameplay errors as soon as possible. There are several thousand changes so it’s highly likely something’s been overlooked though I’ve tried to be thorough.

 

[Mr. ZorG]

no space between text and numbers

 

[Kendon]

no space between text and numbers

Thanks. I've found and corrected it. I'll wait a few days to see if I get more corrections before updating my attachment but I'll commit the improved document to GitHub now.

 

[Mr. ZorG]

the city was destroyed, not ruled by the natives. I propose to return the previous version of the text.

 

[Kendon]

the city was destroyed, not ruled by the natives. I propose to return the previous version of the text.

It might not be a text issue. The response is in CIV4GameTextInfos_Original_utf8.xml.

The situation should trigger TXT_KEY_MISC_CITY_HAS_BEEN_RAZED_BY or TXT_KEY_MISC_CITY_RAZED_BY to describe the situation you're showing.

Instead you're seeing one of the three Captured responses: TXT_KEY_MISC_CAPTURED_CITY, TXT_KEY_MISC_CITY_CAPTURED_BY or TXT_KEY_MISC_CITY_WAS_CAPTURED_BY. They all generate the same sentence in English or German.

I know how to change the text but I don't know how to find the action that triggers it. That's a problem for wiser heads than my own.

 

[Mr. ZorG]

NEWLINE

 

[Kendon]

There were four [NEWLINE]s. At least I got one of them right. Corrected and committed.

 

[Fürstbischof]

Instead you're seeing one of the three Captured responses: TXT_KEY_MISC_CAPTURED_CITY, TXT_KEY_MISC_CITY_CAPTURED_BY or TXT_KEY_MISC_CITY_WAS_CAPTURED_BY. They all generate the same sentence in English or German.

Only TXT_KEY_MISC_CITY_CAPTURED_BY and TXT_KEY_MISC_CITY_WAS_CAPTURED_BY are identical, while TXT_KEY_MISC_CAPTURED_CITY describes the successful seizure by your troops.

Spoiler :

[COLOR_POSITIVE_TEXT]Triumph, Milord! [COLOR_REVERT]Your brave soldiers have taken control of [COLOR_SELECTED_TEXT]%s1_CityName[COLOR_REVERT].

Since I remember seeing in the log the message that a city was razed while playing 2.8.2.2 I've set up a short test. I declared war on the natives and sacrificed on purpose a minor village:

Spoiler :

So, yes, both messages are correctly triggered if one of my colonies is attacked and razed.

@Mr. ZorG
If you want to identify which tag is actually triggered simply change the text slightly by adding a few words or numbers. Then run end of turn several times to trigger it again.

 

[Kendon]

I’m not entirely clear what happens with the text folder when the main branch and the Large Rivers branch are merged. I’d guess the main branch text folder would take precedence but that may not be accurate.

I wonder because it affects which text folder I update.

 

[Schmiddie]

I assume the LR text folder will do, because there need to be included a lot of new texts. Maybe both folder should be aligned before the branches merge.