I gave it a try to make “Extended Translation Pack” in my own language, here’s the repo.
Update: The repo is renamed and have script infrastructure for variations.
Non-English players that have hard time with English can feel ease, if they see their local language.
(Or say, maybe weird, if they don’t see any strange foreign script…)
Detailed explanation below.
I’m working on localization work these days and noticed that stuffs like Campaign description can’t be translated via “standard” approach (official Transifex team).
Singleplayer Campaign is the very first experience to new players. But what’s the point if it can’t be understood?
So workaround should be done. I know about that the game/engine have concept of “packs”, those .pk3 files or .pk3dir directories. This made it convenient for modding, for example.
In the meanwhile, a big majority of Xonotic functional assets are text files. In my opinion it’s a good matter: they are much easier to learn & modify, in contrast to those static code.
This also shows how devs here care about flexibility. Big thanks!
So that I just search for those related files (e.g. maps/campaignxonoticbeta.txt), copy & modify the strings inside, put to external pack, raise its priority to override the original, then it will work.
However, there’s a significant drawback: those functional bits are also being overridden, if affected files have official updates, they won't take effect until players update the pack (after my update, of course).
At the moment it does no harm, for affecting only few files. But be careful anyway, as a non-functional game (edge case) can be worse if English makes less or no hassle.
I wish better internationalization ability will be offered officially. Great game like Xonotic ought to be known by global gamers — and let’s don’t forget Software Freedom.
Update: The repo is renamed and have script infrastructure for variations.
Non-English players that have hard time with English can feel ease, if they see their local language.
(Or say, maybe weird, if they don’t see any strange foreign script…)
Detailed explanation below.
I’m working on localization work these days and noticed that stuffs like Campaign description can’t be translated via “standard” approach (official Transifex team).
Singleplayer Campaign is the very first experience to new players. But what’s the point if it can’t be understood?
So workaround should be done. I know about that the game/engine have concept of “packs”, those .pk3 files or .pk3dir directories. This made it convenient for modding, for example.
In the meanwhile, a big majority of Xonotic functional assets are text files. In my opinion it’s a good matter: they are much easier to learn & modify, in contrast to those static code.
This also shows how devs here care about flexibility. Big thanks!
So that I just search for those related files (e.g. maps/campaignxonoticbeta.txt), copy & modify the strings inside, put to external pack, raise its priority to override the original, then it will work.
However, there’s a significant drawback: those functional bits are also being overridden, if affected files have official updates, they won't take effect until players update the pack (after my update, of course).
At the moment it does no harm, for affecting only few files. But be careful anyway, as a non-functional game (edge case) can be worse if English makes less or no hassle.
I wish better internationalization ability will be offered officially. Great game like Xonotic ought to be known by global gamers — and let’s don’t forget Software Freedom.
