Hello everybody!
I'm Armin Winterer aka Barbatrix - the guy who's done the major part of
the German translations so far.
Since new means of FDRPG's translation have been introduced (Launchpad),
and a growing number of translation contributors are joining our cause,
I'm gonna jot down a few directive notes on translations in general.
These are meant to provide some basic courtesy for new contributors and
to help us finding some fundamental base for our work - suggestions are
welcome!
* Important:
Be aware, that the original English version itself may contain bugs
and typos, the newer the containing text passages, the more likely.
Additionally, as the story and game development progresses, and text
is being replaced, previous text snippets can get marked as 'fuzzy'.
This means, that the original underlying content has changed, so the
translated counterpart is outdated and won't be used anymore.
Thus, it's important to go over the translation from time to time and
Also, to help finding bugs in new content, please focus your efforts
on new, untranslated stuff, first.
To find and work out untranslated text passages for your language,
NOTE: some, already well progressed translations, such as French and
German translations, have been restricted to a translation team,in
order to maintain consistency (refer to '* Launchpad trouble').
You can't directly edit or add content to them via Launchpad, but you
can still post suggestions there. If you want to become a regular
translator for freedroidRPG, best contact the dev team via chat
(irc.freenode.net / channel: #freedroid) or mail to:
sourceforge mailinglist.freedroid-discussion@lists.sourceforge.net
* First of all:
it's very helpful to play and finish the game at least once. We had
several occasions, where contributors obviously had no idea of what
they actually translated; sometimes things add up only with the story
in mind...
* Reference-checking:
It's always a good idea to check the enclosing dialog passages in case
of uncertainties, in order to create coherent dialogs. The original
English text isn't free of bugs itself and contains many incoherencies -
I'll try to spare some time and correct some of them, the next few weeks.
EDIT: 1st major overhaul of general freedroidRPG- and data-section is done.
* Launchpad trouble:
There was trouble with our French and German translations via launchpad.
Many already translated text passages were edited and changed to the
worse. Often, just nuissances were changed at will. Yet more alarming,
contributors introduced lots of grammatical errors, bad style of writing
and even tons of ->spelling mistakes, forcing us to reduce them to a ->propositional status.
* Some essential guidelines on writing text:
- before 'improving' existing text passages, focus on untranslated stuff
- you need advanced skills in both your native and English language
- no scatology ('shittalking')
- no slang style, except where applicable (e.g. goon characters / thugs)
- always review what you've written at least once and check for mistakes
* Suggestions on the style of writing (etiquette):
I mostly stick to the original text, but I tend to adapt more of a free
translation style, if I see it fits better into the story's context
(provided, that the original sense is being preserved, apart from
some things I've adjusted in the English version, anyway).
Finding the original text being somewhat monotonous, at times, I like to
make use of the various punctuation marks, to make the text more lively
(if excitement and action is taking place, which should be reflected
appropriately, I think)...
At times I get struck by some extraordinary exaggerative or weird ways of
expression, which I always try to adjust and translate in a senseful manner,
rather than sticking to the original ('double-wolf-fang...'-ufo's, ->e.g.).
When discovering incoherencies (quite some, due to the long development
history of FD - see below), I write them down, in order to also adapt the
changes to the English version later.
Considering the open source community to be a pool of open-minded and
altruistic people, I always try to apply etiquette and some social
behaviour to Tux and other protagonists. Addressing other characters
informally should only take place at intimate dialog situations, or when
talking to machines / robots, I feel (Speziell im Deutschen: 'duzen'
nur, wo es angebracht ist).
While keeping a polite basic tenor and a natural distance to people
mostly, in certain situations Tux or other characters can get enraged
and forget themselves; that's where I use informal addressing and/or
expletives / bad language, too (handled with care). Generally,
good manners should be applied in the majority of cases, I suggest.
Naturally, a professor's character like 'Francis' has a different way
of expressing himself, than a goon like the 'Bender' character, which
might tend to slang language and being less eloquent. Another example:
the cyber-bitch 'Tanya' - again, completely different nature.
irony and humor is always welcome, provided it's not too clumsy.
* basic guidelines regarding specific / fixed expressions:
specific expressions and terms (e.g. German: Ausdauer, Geschicklichkeit,
Stärke, Lebenspunkte... ) have to be used by default. I'm gonna update
the list soon. We need to keep those standards for reasons of consistency
and also due to game limitations (e.g. the GUI: STR / AUS / GES / LP).
Some need to be worked out, still.
the freedroidRPG's universe has a certain triangular shaped currency -
we agreed on using the term 'Tribucks' from now on. For now, the
English version will continue to use cyberbucks due to the depth of
changes needed there. All translators are encouraged to call them
'Tribucks' in anticipation of future changes.
some contradictions between single dialogs and the story as a whole
have to be ironed out, still. I have made a list on some of them and
will update the thread with it soon. (why town=colony? interplanetary
travelling?? robo-freighters in orbit?) and so on.
We've settled on earth being the focus of the story (with possible
colonies on moon and mars in future episodes, to make the robot-ships
and beaming down from orbit plausible). Maybe the time needs to be
shifted some 100 years into the future...
EDIT: 'colony' is obsolete. the scenery is taking place on earth in near
future, not on another planet. Thus, e.g. 'town' is used, instead.
a few specific terms have become obsolete, like 'force', 'magics'...
We still need some standards on specific expressions in the English version.
EDIT: a list should be worked out.
Best regards,
Barbatrix
