[DEV] I've made a superb CHINESE local for POE 1

[GrandSong]

Dear Obsidian Dev Team,

 

Have you ever wished there was a Chinese localization for POE 1?

 

Well, numerous Chinese fans have dreamt of it for very long.

 

Now, I proudly present to you, my high quality Chinese language pack!

 

 

I released it last Saturday at SteamCN, the largest unofficial Steam forum in China.

https://steamcn.com/t334498-1-1

And my post has gained popularity so fast that, after mere 3 days, over 10,000 people have read it, and it is already the second most heated post of the Chinese localization ones this year!

(The top one is for Hollow Knight, only twice comments as mine.)

 

Mine is a complete overhaul/rework upon two prior Chinese packs.

Those efforts were brave and respectful indeed. But they ceased respectively on 2016 Nov and on 2017 Mar, leaving a huge lot to be desired.

Many Chinese players stumbled along, grew very disappointed and sadly gave up this otherwise wonderful game.

 

Until now.

So, how about my version?

·  It’s taken me over 500 hours of hard work (not including my game play time)

·  I’ve improved maybe 1/50 of the 1,786,450 Chinese characters

·  I’ve covered at least 1/10 of the 53,062 entries.

·  I’ve maintained a comprehensive list of 2,037 terms.

·  I’ve eliminated a great lot of errors, partly by programming (batch replacement, etc.)

·  Always make sure I understand each term via what’s actually like in the game or what we can learn from the official POE wiki.

·  Make translations not only correct, but also consistent throughout the huge amount of entries.

·  Read and think enough about their context and background before fixing some veryconfusing contents.

·  Fathom out the most likely pronunciations for even the strangest names, even beyond wiki (i.e. Old-English Fyrgen /ˈfirɣen/)

·  Think twice before choosing the best Chinese words or expressions out of several candidates.

·  98% of files in “game” folder and 100% ones in “quests” have been revised with utmost seriousness.

·  Hard to tell precisely but most of “conversations” have been improved greatly, and I’ll keep working.

 

I believe my translation skill is at a very high level, higher than probably 90% of prior translators (they were many and yet very uneven) who had left me with such a mess of texts.

However, this claim may sound to be a boast, and especially unconvincing if you can’t read Chinese and thus has no way to evaluate my word with your own eyes.

 

Never mind.

Please allow me to show you two things:

1. The heart of data - Glossary

There is a vital problem for anyone who translates, or even just plays, POE.

Its glossary.

 

There are many proper names, concepts, idioms, and fictional languages.

·  From “adra” to “Zephyr”

·  From “He Who Sees and Is Not Seen” to “the Shroud”

·  From “(What) on Eora” to “I'll be the Effigy”

·  From “mênpŵgra” to “Di verus”

 

Let alone how to pronounce those strange names.

 

Moreover, common words sometimes mean uncommonly. For example:

·  In “Príncipi(=princes)” and “anamenfath(=soul prince)”, “prince” is not “son of a monarch”.

·  Occasionally, “pike” is actually “irontooth pike” fish. i.e., “Pike's Pride”.

 

There are also many words without explanation either in game or in wiki.

True, it would be a fail-safe solution to transliterate them into meaningless Chinese words

But I always try to do better than that.

·  For example: “Crägholdt” is probably “crag hold”. I prefer “峭壁塞(crag stronghold)” than “克拉格霍尔德(sounding like Ker-Lah-Ger-Hwou-Err-Der)”

·  Another example is “Caed Nua”. I suspect “caed” is “cad” which means “chief” or “head”. While “Nua” is just a family name (not that Irish “nua = new”).

 

 

I’ve also checked every occurrence/appearance of each term in all entries, so that I can fully understand how a term is used and see to correct translations of that term being applied in all those corresponding translated texts.

 

2. The powerful weapon – Editor

 

 

I’ve forged this editor for maximal efficiency of my work. And it serves marvelously!

 

With it, I can –

·  Browse my glossary in the order of occurrences(次数), and filter it with a keyword. Also I can hide those already flagged as “done”(已处理).

·  Edit a term.

·  Add Chinese translations.

·  Keep a note if necessary.

·  If a Chinese translation is modified, all entries having both the English term in its English text and the old translation in its Chinese text will be replaced automatically. I call this a double-locate-and-replace.

·  Open a tab to search entries with an English keyword, or a Chinese one, or both.

·  Matched words will be highlighted.

·  Or, the view of “unmatched(不匹配)” can greatly help find wrong translations or new correct ones.

·  Edit an entry.

·  In its English text, all known terms are converted into links which can be middle-clicked to open a term editor.

·  Click to select a term, select an incorrect translation in the Chinese text and then click a registered translation of that term (at the sidebar), a double-locate-and-replace will be done to replace that incorrect translation everywhere.

·  Select a word in English, then search it in entries, in POE wiki or in Youdao, a very good dictionary.

·  Select a word in English and a word in Chinese, then quickly add a new term about them.

·  Highlight and compare changes in Chinese text.

 

This is the secret weapon for me to outdo Chinese translation groups.

Without it, work would be very slow and many mistakes would be easily overlooked.

What next?

1.    I have many questions which I’ve tried and failed, and thus I believe only you can answer.

2.    Would you kindly make my work official?
As some games have already done (like Shadow Warrior 2, Darkest Dungeon) or will do (rumors about Divinity: Original Sin EDIT: last Sunday the rumor came true: its fan Chinese local had become official.)
(It is said that the Darkest Dungeon team had outsourced to a company, only to find that the old existing fan-made version was still far better, and eventually used the latter.)

3.   At least, inherit my valuable glossary in the localization of POE: Deadfire.

4.   And discuss about if and/or how I get involved Deadfire.

 

Please contact me by grandsong@163.com

 

Best wishes,

GrandSong

 

PS:

I am also the author of other two Chinese localizations:

·  Prison Architect (11,387 subscribers)

·  Invisible, Inc. (2,378 subscribers)

As well as a mod pack of Prison Architect (27,796 non-Chinese subscribers) which took me 500+ hours.

Edited December 26, 2017 by GrandSong

[Boeroer]

Phew - hats off!

 

I hope OBS will just hire you for Deadfire. Not that I speak Chinese at all - but for all those fellow gamers in China.

[Madscientist]

wow, this is impressive.

 

I helped to improve the german translation by posting lots of errors.

But most things were improving grammar and spelling of an existing translation. ( Which was lots of work, many thanks to the ones who did most of this).

 

I do not speak chinese, but I think the translation is much more difficult than english->german.

Edited December 7, 2017 by Madscientist

[Ashjyr]

Wow this looks legit. The terms have proper context to minimise things getting lost in translation.

 

I like how their explanation of Durgan's Battery has parenthesis (not an electric battery) 

[GrandSong]

Phew - hats off!

 

I hope OBS will just hire you for Deadfire. Not that I speak Chinese at all - but for all those fellow gamers in China.

 

Thanks. I hope so too.

 

wow, this is impressive.

 

I helped to improve the german translation by posting lots of errors.

But most things were improving grammar and spelling of an existing translation. ( Which was lots of work, many thanks to the ones who did most of this).

 

I do not speak chinese, but I think the translation is much more difficult than english->german.

 

Glad to hear from someone with experience in translation!

 

Western languages (perhaps especially true between English and German?) share a lot in common.

In contrast, Chinese is way too different.

[Messier-31]

That's some commitment.

[Boeroer]

Yeah - but why didn't you take some Kraken eyeballs and make it legendary?

[GrandSong]

Phew - hats off!

 

I hope OBS will just hire you for Deadfire. Not that I speak Chinese at all - but for all those fellow gamers in China.

Thanks.

I hope so, too.

[GrandSong]

Yeah - but why didn't you take some Kraken eyeballs and make it legendary?

Sorry, but I don't get it.

What do you mean by "Kraken eyeballs" here?

[GrandSong]

Wow this looks legit. The terms have proper context to minimise things getting lost in translation.

 

I like how their explanation of Durgan's Battery has parenthesis (not an electric battery) 

Glad to hear an appreciation!

You surprised me.

You can read Chinese?

[Boeroer]

It was just a joke about enchanting. "Superb" as a tier of qauality when it comes to enchantment of weapons and armor. You can upgrade weapons and armor to "superb" once you got Adra Dragon or Sky Dragon Scales. And if you can get Kraken Eyeballs you can even upgrade them to "legendary" quality.

[GrandSong]

It was just a joke about enchanting. "Superb" as a tier of qauality when it comes to enchantment of weapons and armor. You can upgrade weapons and armor to "superb" once you got Adra Dragon or Sky Dragon Scales. And if you can get Kraken Eyeballs you can even upgrade them to "legendary" quality.

I see.

I haven't played far enough to fight a Kraken yet. So, well, superb it is.