Ukrainian players want a Ukrainian translation

[DJmoha]

All players want to play games in their native language, and Ukrainians are no exception. In Ukraine, almost everyone understands Russian. But one year ago everything changed, and now our people have a stronger preference for everything Ukrainian, including the language. Many people have stopped watching movies and playing games without a Ukrainian translation.

 

I want to bring this to the attention of Joel and his entire team. I started this poll to prove my point. Players, do you want to see a Ukrainian translation of this game?

Edited February 27, 2023 by Crater Creator
merging text from multiple threads (see edit history)

[Fox]

You're obviously a very small minority with this issue or the devs would have already done something about this several years ago. There are 7106 total languages out there, 23 of which are considered as main languages, Ukrainian isn't recognized as one of them. Imagine if every game had to create translations for every language. You should be thankful for the current 14 languages that are in the game as it takes time and money to make each translation and a person who actually speaks the language (and English) to translate everything.

 

EDIT: If a dev can't expect to make additional money from translating a game, then it's financially dumb (and a waste of time) to do it hence why most games only do a few translations if at all, and this one does 14 which is a lot for an Indie game. You can't expect a game to have every single language. Those who speak the lesser known languages are often capable of speaking more common ones too as proven with this topic filled with well spoken English. Those who can't speak at least one main language, I imagine don't game much if at all, but that's just my opinion as I can't imagine anyone knowing for sure.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Crater Creator
D1 discussion of moderation (see edit history)

[M1rak]

I think every community has the right to invite the addition of the localization they want, and if the developers are able to do it and support this idea, it will be great. But we are waiting for a response from the developers 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Crater Creator
B5 politics (see edit history)

[zztong]

Developer effort and the timing of the work could certainly be an issue. I wonder how that would change if Ukrainian players submitted a localization.txt file with the Ukrainian translation already added. Perhaps some arrangement with TFP could be made towards that end.

Edited February 27, 2023 by zztong (see edit history)

[Fox]

Sure, anyone can ask for implementations into the game, but it doesn't mean it'll ever happen, especially if it fits in the minority category as I already mentioned. From my understanding, there are 9 more main languages that should get implemented before a minor language like Ukrainian.

 

Also, I can see problems with having random ppl on the internet creating free translation files for a popular game like this, especially given the current obvious situations right now. So I doubt these devs would accept something like that officially implemented without first hiring someone to proofread it. Maybe nexusmods website has translation files you can use, or maybe someone can make one and upload it there. It's what that website is for anyway.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Crater Creator
removed response to now-deleted content (see edit history)

[Survager]

5 hours ago, Fox said:

[snip]

 

As for the localization language.
Could you specify the source you use when determining which localization language is "primary" and which is "secondary"?
I'm very interested.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Crater Creator
D1 discussion of moderation (see edit history)

[Callum123456789]

the way i see it if there is a localisation made for most languages (however that would take a lot of effort however doable) it would open up to a more broader audience, in my opinion i think its a good idea however i'm not entirely sure if it will be added before the game goes gold.

[Fox]

2 hours ago, Survager said:

As for the localization language.
Could you specify the source you use when determining which localization language is "primary" and which is "secondary"?
I'm very interested.

 

As for my sources, use Google or common knowledge.

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Crater Creator
D1 discussion of moderation; D4 meta-forum commentary (see edit history)

[Maharin]

If someone that can understand one of the built-in translations wants to add another translation for an unsupported language they can attempt to do the work themselves.  The files are easily accessible.  Then they can submit the translation for review and inclusion.

 

I doubt at this point that there is anyone on the team that could provide a Ukrainian translation so the community will have to step up.  Clearly there are Ukrainians on the forums that also manage English well enough to do this task.

[Crater Creator]

Thread cleaned up. Just to address the elephant in the room, I know many here may have passionate views on the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict. But I’d like to remind everyone that we can't discuss politics on this forum. Nor should users use the thread to discuss forum rules. That’s what reporting is for. Thanks.

[Fox]

^ Sorry for my part. 😇

[DJmoha]

22 hours ago, Fox said:

Вы, очевидно, очень незначительное меньшинство с этой проблемой, иначе разработчики уже сделали бы что-то об этом несколько лет назад. Всего существует 7106 языков, 23 из которых считаются основными языками, украинский не признан одним из них. Представьте, если бы каждая игра должна была создавать переводы для каждого языка. Вы должны быть благодарны за текущие 14 языков, которые есть в игре, так как для каждого перевода требуется время и деньги, а для перевода всего требуется человек, который действительно говорит на этом языке (и английском).

 

РЕДАКТИРОВАТЬ: Если разработчик не может рассчитывать на дополнительные деньги от перевода игры, то делать это глупо с финансовой точки зрения (и пустой тратой времени), поэтому большинство игр делают лишь несколько переводов, если вообще переводят, а эта переводит 14. что много для инди-игры. Вы не можете ожидать, что в игре будут все языки. Те, кто говорит на малоизвестных языках, часто могут говорить и на более распространенных, что подтверждается этой темой, наполненной хорошо разговорным английским языком. Те, кто не говорит хотя бы на одном основном языке, я полагаю, мало играют, если вообще играют, но это только мое мнение, поскольку я не могу представить, чтобы кто-то знал наверняка.

I am not trying to raise any political topics, I just made a detailed request regarding the language issue. There is only one official language in our country, not to mention the fact that calling Ukrainian a "secondary" language is quite insulting. I understand that the development of the game itself should be a priority, it is important, the game has room for development, but what's wrong with the fact that I once again offer to do a good deed with a minimal contribution. I know that adding another language to the game requires minimal effort, because I've done it myself before. Of course, someone can just make an unofficial translation of the game and throw it on nexusmods, but this person can simply disappear somewhere and stop updating the translation, especially since this happened once with the Ukrainian translation about 5 years ago. If an official translation appears, it guarantees that it will always be in the game. In other countries, it is quite possible to play with a non-native language, but we need it. I would give an example, but I don't want to get punished for discussing politics. I am in no way forcing the developers to take action, but I am hoping for some sort of response.

 

I personally want to apologize for the past spam, I wrote the two previous topics incorrectly, so I created a new one.

[Fox]

2 hours ago, DJmoha said:

There is only one official language in our country, not to mention the fact that calling Ukrainian a "secondary" language is quite insulting. I understand that the development of the game itself should be a priority, it is important, the game has room for development, but what's wrong with the fact that I once again offer to do a good deed with a minimal contribution. I know that adding another language to the game requires minimal effort, because I've done it myself before. Of course, someone can just make an unofficial translation of the game and throw it on nexusmods, but this person can simply disappear somewhere and stop updating the translation, especially since this happened once with the Ukrainian translation about 5 years ago. If an official translation appears, it guarantees that it will always be in the game. In other countries, it is quite possible to play with a non-native language, but we need it. I would give an example, but I don't want to get punished for discussing politics. I am in no way forcing the developers to take action, but I am hoping for some sort of response.

I didn't mean your language was secondary, I meant your language isn't a commonly used one for the rest of the world. There's nearly 8 billion ppl in the world, how many of those do you think can even speak your language at all?

 

If you're capable of making the translations yourself with "minimal effort", then be the hero and do it. The devs here can't speak Ukranian, so like I said, they would need to hire someone to do it and then hire them again for each new update. It'd be a waste of time and money for these devs for something very few ppl could benefit from. But maybe I'm wrong and the voting poll will climb up to a substantial enough number (with legitimate users).

[Riamus]

You see these requests for localizations in language X on just about every game's forum.  In most cases, the requests end up being ignored.  That doesn't mean the request doesn't have merit, but instead that the developers have weighed the cost of creating such a localization versus the profit that might come from doing so and found it wasn't worth the cost.  In determining this, they will consider how many new people who use that language might end up buying and playing the game if they do the translation.  And they'd also consider how many of those people do not know a language that is already available in the game because those people can already play the game even if it's not in their native/preferred language.

 

A quick Google search shows that the top 20 spoken languages in the world all have at least around 2x the number of speakers as the population in Ukraine.  Based on that, it would generally make the most sense for the first 20 languages added to a game (if it were to add so many) to not include the Ukrainian language.  Of course, this isn't an entirely perfect metric to use as some countries (specifically people speaking certain languages) have a higher percentage of gamers than others.  If a language had 50 million people who spoke it and 60% of the population played video games was compared to a language with 75 million people who spoke it and 20% of the population played video games, then it would make more sense to add the language with only 50 million people speaking it as the impact would be higher.

 

As it stands now, about 1/4 of the world's population speaks one of the top 2 spoken languages - English and Mandarin.  Add in the next 2 top languages and you're up to around 2/5 of the world's population and that's just 4 languages.  Those are going to be the most useful languages to add translation support for because they cover a large number of people and potential gamers.  The Ukrainian language is only about 0.5% of the world's population (and some of those speak other languages), so it isn't going to offer much of a reason to spend the time and money to add the translation.  That doesn't mean they might not consider it, but it's just how it is.

 

The best option as mentioned by others is to have fans who speak Ukrainian create their own translation.  Yes, if the person/people who make it stop having interest in the game, it may become outdated.  But, if there are so many players who want such a translation, then someone should be willing to update it.  If that doesn't happen, it's a good indication that there are not all that many people who want to play the game in that language (or any other that might be in the same situation), which just goes to show that devs not spending time with such a translation is probably the right move for them.

 

Personally, and this is just my own opinion and perhaps biased, if I were a gamer who did not speak a main language of the world and so was limited in the number of games I could play, I would most likely work on learning one of the main languages so that I wasn't limited.  I think maintaining your cultural language is a good thing to do, but doing so doesn't mean you can't also learn other language(s).  Not only is that helpful if you want to play games from other countries, but it has the potential to open up opportunities in life and work that you may not otherwise have.  Just my thought on it, and again, I am perhaps biased in that I speak a main language, but I truly believe that if I didn't, I would learn to do so because of how much I like gaming.  On the flip side, I would love to see some of the game development studios from other countries that do not offer translations into the major languages to do so.  I know some of their games are likely to be amazing, but although I would put in effort to learn a major language if I didn't speak one, I am unwilling to put in effort to learn a lesser known language just to play a small number of games that are written only in that language as the benefit would not be enough.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Riamus (see edit history)

[Fox]

That's pretty much everything I said, but it sounds better when you say it. 😉

[starinfo]

чи є якісь новини по цій темі?
може розробники можуть скинути данні для перекладу наприклад?

в багатьох іграх ком'юніті перекладає такі речі самостійно

[DJmoha]

4 minutes ago, starinfo said:

чи є якісь новини по цій темі?
може розробники можуть скинути данні для перекладу наприклад?

в багатьох іграх ком'юніті перекладає такі речі самостійно

Даних ніяких і не треба, все можна перекласти власноруч, але як показала практика - така ініциатива триває не довго.