MArcomage

hey, if you want I'm up for translating in Greek and some things in German (as far as my knowledge can get me). I also have a cracked version of the Babylon translator which can translate anything into anything, if u want it done quick :)

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As I see it this would require lot of work, translation mostly. Translation support would be entirely on players who volunteered, therefore continuous translation support isn't going to be guaranteed.

As you pointed out Dindon, MArcomage doesn't use very complicated English. Most players are able to understand card texts without superior knowledge of English.

I'm not against the idea, since the implementation part shouldn't be too difficult. It's just the cost/effective analysis for this feature that doesn't look too good.

Whoops, didn't see this thread.

Like you said, it obviously wouldn't be worth it if there wasn't much demand. I was just interested in gauging how many people would be interested in having it (though, the fact that these are English forums maybe introduces a certain selection bias :P).

I made some progress in localization support. To test the new localization system, I made a Slovak localization. I was focusing more on functionality rather than translation quality itself, so the Slovak localization can still be improved.

This is basically how it works: there are two translation groups. First group contains everything except cards and the second group contains cards only. First group translation is very simple, it just converts text into text in one-to-one ratio according to the dictionary. The cards are little more sophisticated: before the translation card effect text is segmented into card tokens. Card token consist of some words (usually one to five). This preprocessing identifies the card tokens and marks them so the translator could translate them. This way we don't need to translate each card separately, but we only need to translate card tokens which are shared with great abundance. Of course this preprocessing takes some time.

According to my performance analysis the full translation of one card takes 0.24ms to pre-process and 0.03ms to translate. In game screen where 18 to 30 cards can be located the delay caused by translation is 4.86ms - 8.1ms, which is acceptable. So performance-wise this system is acceptable.

Now we have to test if it is also acceptable from the user side point of view. Because of its simplicity, the system suffers from multiple limitations which can cause the translation itself to look strange. For example different languages can require the order of the words to be changed. This can be done in some small extent, but not every word order is supported.

Right now 99% of the card terminology is implemented within the card tokens. Also, the majority of the game screen section has been translated. What we need to do next is to translate this part of the system into different languages and determine if such system is acceptable and understandable by non-English speakers. If, so we can then proceed and extend the translation system to the rest of the application and even add automatic IP to Language translation for new users. I'm quite satisfied with the Slovak translation. It look looks weird sometimes, but I think it's understandable and that's our goal - to extend our user base also to non-English speakers.

Of course, my language skills are limited. Fortunately, multiple players have offered to do a translation to a foreign language, so I'm counting on you guys. Currently, the translation has 310 entries. All are documented and have a reference to the location where are used. The translation file can be found in our repository. I advise installing a special dictionary editor (don't forget to go to 'View' and enable 'show comment window' after installing). Once you have the dictionary file completed, you can send it to me via email (mfendek@gmail.com). I will be collecting these files and when they are ready, we'll setup a separate localization test version of MArcomage. If you decide to participate in the translation, you should write a post in this thread to inform about the language and file part you are going to translate. This way, we can optimize workload and prevent redundant translations.

If you want to setup MArcomage locally on your computer use the installation instructions (Q12). Don't forget to enable the php_gettext extension. Also the application root will be located in 'dev/localization' instead of 'release'. To see the effect of the changes that you made on the dictionary file, you need to restart you wampserver each time. Use the Slovak dictionary file as your working copy located in the 'i18n/sk_SK/LC_MESSAGES' directory. You can always switch between English and Slovak localization in the MArcomage settings to compare results.

Thanks for help :)

I'll translate into Russian

I'll try in greek, though some card translations might look funny (because of the limitations of this shared token technique) :)

Volunteering for Finnish :]

Excellent. Thank you very much :)

Today, I received Russian translation file from unleanon :). I'll be creating usable Russian language setting soon.

Russian translation has been added in r1644. You can view the Russian translation file at any time. We will be setting up a test application so the players can view how the translation looks.

Some cards will be longer, but not much, actually less than I expected. Some are actually shorter. And there's 1-2 minimal mistakes.
Also i dislike how stock was renamed :)

Line 713 = Немедленное --> Немедленная
Line 897 = Уважаемый --> Соответсвующий(соответственый) :)))
Line 1093 = дляобоих --> для обоих

Thanks for feedback. I suppose there are multiple options how to rename certain words, but my Russian is very poor, so it's up to you to discuss these options and decide which one is the best.

I'll probably do the italian translation (probably during easter holydays or in summer)
but I already see a problem: italian does not have a word for "uncommon", we just use "non comune" (italian version of "non common") and this will bring confusion.

Well, the translations doesn't need to be perfect. Other languages have issues as well, for example in Slovak and Russian we would really like to change the order of words in a sentence, because it sounds really awkward.

The current progress of the localization feature can be found at ---http://arcomage.net/beta/---.

Excellent :)

Ok, guys, so here is how it works:

By using the alternative client (http://arcomage.net/beta/) you can access everything you have on your current account (it uses the same database). This client however, has the option to change language which will be displayed. You can change it in the Settings section under the Profile setting subsection (left side). Currently translated section is only the game screen and cards (any section). Currently supported languages are Russian and Slovak. If you understand mentioned languages, please try it out and provide us with feedback regarding the user experience. Once we obtain more language translations, we will be adding more languages to the alternative client.

It works fine after some testing, although everything is a mix of 2 languages (card names, keywords, site menus)

card names are fine as they are in english, but the keywords in support cards could also be translated

Keywords are a non-issue because they are loaded from separate source. Their translation will be fairly easy. I agree on leaving the card names as they are.

I extended the localization system to keywords as well. The change is currently not yet available on beta, but the keywords are already present in the translation files, so anyone doing translations can use them as well.

So, how's it going guys? Any new progress?