Translation

[Erlend]

I dont know if this is a common problem in wesnoth, It's not a big problem for me either ,but it's quite annoying..

hmm Let me get to the point..

If ur using ur own language in translation (if its not english..) you get most of the units names ONLY on the language that ur using. This is not a problem if u are only playing solo campaigns,but if you play online you could get a bit confused in the beginnning.

When I started playing online, I had some troubles understanding what the other players meant. For example: Move that adept to zoc that grunt

NOW I can understand that sentence..

My solution is to write the translation first like normal and then have the english word in a ( ) after it.

Example(norwegian): Erkemagiker (Great Mage)



I hope that atleast 1 player in wesnoth understands my way of thinking

And I DO know that it's possible to turn on english,but I found out that it is more fun to make a new topic instead

[Bellerophon]

Considering the translation into my language sucks hard, I immediately turn it to english as soon as I install a new version. xD

About your proposal on dual unit names; it can be done, but I think every unit's name would be at least partially off screen unless it would be in two columns.

[Yoyobuae]

Or maybe translate chat messages too?

[Aethaeryn]

Why not provide the English translation when you mouse over the name? At the moment, all it gives is the unit flavor text when you mouse over the name. Unlike other tooltips, this one's pretty useless.

EDIT: One good non-MP justification is that sometimes people post on the forums talking about a unit that does not exist. I assume that they're translating their language's unit name into English, which doesn't always work out.

[Kalajel]

Yeah, I had a somewhat similar problem with the French translation.

[Viliam]

Technically, when the unit type information is read from WML file, the English names do not exist. Only localized names and IDs exist. (I guess the ID is usually the same as English name, but it is supposed to be an internal identifier that is never shown to user.)

Somehow I do not like the idea of showing the unit type names in both languages. If the players are communicating in English (or any other language), why don't they just both switch Wesnoth to English? Then they would see same unit type names, etc. So perhaps when creating the game there should be a possibility to select a common language (with default option "everyone in their own language"), so when you start the multiplayer game, Wesnoth temporarily switches to that language.

[Erlend]

Villiam: hmm that might be a good idea

[Thanatos]

Somehow I do not like the idea of showing the unit type names in both languages. If the players are communicating in English (or any other language), why don't they just both switch Wesnoth to English? Then they would see same unit type names, etc. So perhaps when creating the game there should be a possibility to select a common language (with default option "everyone in their own language"), so when you start the multiplayer game, Wesnoth temporarily switches to that language.

Considering that English - for good reasons - is the lingua franca used in multiplayer and on the forums, this is a quite reasonable proposal. However, on terms of saving work: Anyone who wants to join the international community should now that English is the standard language and should therefore try to play in English anyhow.

[Viliam]

I tried to make my suggestion language-neutral. It is just "if you all agree to speak in language X, why not all play the scenario in language X, so you won't have problems with different translations?". It works equally for any X.

If you switch the language, you have to reload all data, and it takes some time. But all data are reloaded at the start of scenario, and probably also at the end of scenario (I am not 100% sure about this), so this seems to be the right time for language change.


By the way, when there is a communication problem, is it possible to use labels on the map? Like "USE THIS..." and "...TO KILL THIS" below the units. Are my labels visible only to me, or to my teammates, or to everyone? (I suggest everyone should make their own labels, and I will see my labels in white color, and my teammates' labels in their team-colors.)

In Wacraft there is a possibility to click a location on the map... and all my teammates will see a flashing dot there. Maybe something like this should be included to a chat... for example I click an icon "select place on map" and click on some position on map, and that position is highlighted to my teammates. Alternatively, I click a position on map, and its coordinates are added to chat message, e.g. "[10,20]", and when someone moves mouse over the message, the position on his map is highlighted.

(This only works for units on the map. It does not solve communication problems with phrases like "You should recruit 3 adepts.")

[AI]

Team labels are visible to your team only, ordinary labels are visible to everyone.