Undocumented SE4 i18n! Modders rejoice!

[Ed Kolis]

Whoa, check this out... in your Deluxe data folder, find the file called MainStrings.txt... ALL the text strings in the game in one file, just as promised for SE5... Now Imperios Espaciales doesn't have to be an EXE hack... and if you want to rename "drones" to "space bugs" you can! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

[Will]

Looks like you can change the labels for abilities as well. Meaning if somebody took the time to go through all of the data files (probably doing a global search/replace for certain phrases), they could translate SEIV into any language, including the data files... so that ...

--edit: Ok, so I did have the Russian for something like "Capital Ship Missile" does "90 damage", but the cyrillic alphabet is apparently not kosher, and the boards are ASCII-only. Oh well, you get the idea.

[Makinus]

Does that mean that i can create a Brazilian Portuguese version of the game? So i finally can convince my friends to at least try the game, as it will be in portuguese?

[Will]

Looks like it, and as I said, even down to the data files. So they can mod in Portuguese as well. If they get as hooked as the rest of us.

Only down side, the file is a nice big 415K, with around 5400 lines of text that would need to be translated. While a bunch are pretty similar from line-to-line (eg "System Resource Gen Modifier"), it would still take quite a bit of time to do the search replace just for that file; and even longer to translate the rest of the data files. But there's room there for a start. Estimating from my own (rather poor) Spanish skills, I would probably take a few months at about an hour or two a night to translate a meg and a half of data files via search/replace... and a lot faster if I just wrote a program that would take the relevant strings from all the files, pass it to a computer-translation software package, and write it out to new files in a different language. Too bad I have no idea how to do that at this point, and too bad some of the translations would be... strange.

[geoschmo]

Aaron has stated that most of the work he's had to in getting SE4 deluxe together was, and I forget the exact term but I want to say "regionalizing" it. Strategy First is supposed to be selling other language versions of SE4 Deluxe. I'm not sure which all languages, but it's nice that it appears he's made it moddable so if any specific languages aren't offered, the fans can do it themselves.

[Wolfman77]

I saw that file a couple weeks ago, but my memory being what it is, I forgot to ask what it was for. Now I know. I'm sure someone who is proficient in english and whatever language they are translating to would be able to do it in a more resonable time (and probably more acurately) than someone using a translation program.

[Fyron]

Hmm... wonder if that file causes invalid mod data errors... If not, I could have custom files based on paradigm in Adamant! *drools*

[Combat Wombat]

Sweet http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[Fyron]

Unfortunately, the file is not currently read, whether I change the one in a mod folder or the default Data folder.

[Captain Kwok]

Have you tried starting a new game Fyron with the changed file?

[Captain Kwok]

I tried a few things including starting a new game, but no success.

Since Aaron has mentioned he is not adverse to making a new patch for SE:IV, maybe it will be activated in the future?

[Fyron]

Captain Kwok said:
Have you tried starting a new game Fyron with the changed file?

That's all I tried.

Some dire news:

Malfador said:
Its not supposed to be in there in the first place. I’ll delete it in the next patch.

[Captain Kwok]

I also e-mailed MM and got the same reply.

I suggested that it might actual be better to activate it in the english version of SE:IV deluxe. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Captain Kwok]

Apparently the file takes time to load and does eat an extra chunk of memory. MM said maybe he'll make the english version one work in a future patch.