“Translation Issues”,

Discussion in 'Questions & Bug Reports' started by tassie-devil, Mar 22, 2016.

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  1. Dear Players,
    Help us improve your gaming experience! Please use this thread to report translation and/or language issues that you find in the game. To do so, please make sure to inform us:


    1) The wrong word/sentence
    2) How we can find it in the game (in which item/map/menu it is located)
    3) A screenshot of the problem.
    After you make your report here in the forum, our moderators will create a request to correct the issue in our internal tool. We expect to make such improvements much faster with your help!
    Bigpoint thanks for your cooperation and wishes you a lot of fun in the game!

    Bigpoint thanks for your cooperation and wishes you a lot of fun in the game!:)
     
  2. Arsuru

    Arsuru User

    Some questions first:
    1. Are screenshots absolutely necessary, even if it's simply the name of an asset? I'd think these would be easily searchable as stings via any relevant name as I assume they must exist somewhere, either in the code or game asset files. Screenshots can be time-consuming where I think a proper description can sometimes suffice.
    2. What is the primary language the game is developed in? I would have thought it would be German (and I don't see such a thread there), but English is apparently what is used at BP according to the community manager. This probably won't matter for most things (a lot of item names vary across locations for understandable reasons), but it can potentially make-or-break others, so it can help to understand what was intended in such cases.
    Off of the top of my head, I can think of several things, but I'd rather have these questions answered beforehand.
     
  3. G`day Arsuru,
    In answer to your fist question, if a screen shot is not available a proper description will suffice.
    On the second one, yes the primary language is German and English is mostly used as it is the more commonly used language.
    that saves a lot of translating into other languages on every day matters. I hope this is of help to you :)
     
  4. Arsuru

    Arsuru User

    Thanks tassie, that does help. I'll reuse some forum images at least for a quick reference.

    [​IMG]
    Lone Birch should be Lone Beech, a discrepancy I first noticed between English & French, but in German it appears to be Beech as well. They are related, being in the same order, but they are in different families. I'm quite certain this is wrong.

    [​IMG]
    Brown Ale might not be the most accurate translation from German. Finding it odd that ale would be served in gyms, I looked at the game in German and found that it is Malzbier, or unsurprisingly, malt beer, which is different enough than an ale of any color as far as I know and has very low alcohol compared to most beer, and which use of after a workout apparently isn't that uncommon. There is also some potential confusion with malztrunk, or malt drink/malt soda/malta, which would be practically alcohol free. Pretty sure this is wrong too, and the current translation exists in other languages.

    [​IMG]
    Château Amor is ambiguous. While it could be a reference to the gods or simply be Latin or related language, I can't help but think they intended to use the French amour. This is probably more of a judgment call.
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2016
  5. s.c.lynx

    s.c.lynx Game Administrator Team RisingCities

    Thank you Arsuru. I do have one correction Birch is a real tree name in English of the Genus Betula.
    The Brown Ale, and Chateau Amor are good catches thank you we will pass it on.
    Here is a picture of a Birch Tree:
    [​IMG]

    Versus a Beech Tree

    [​IMG]
     
  6. Arsuru

    Arsuru User

    I never said birch isn't a tree; in fact I've seen plenty. I specifically pointed out that they are related but distinct. Both belong to the order Fagales, but the beeches are in the family Fagaceae, genus Faugus, while the birches are in the family Betulaceae, genus Betula, as you've noted. The problem is that it isn't the correct translation into English.

    In German, beech is Buchen. In-game, the item is Bergbuchen, lit. mountain beech, which as far as I can tell might be vernacular, but image searches do return beeches; the literal translation would probably be confused with a variety of the southern beeches, family Nothofagus.

    A birch in German would be Birken. In French, where I noticed the discrepancy, the item in-game is hêtre, while a birch is bouleau.

    Beeches can look thinner, as the in-game item does. [Link to a rather large image of an example in Italy, via Wikimedia, which is also used on several pages for beeches.]
    Plus, I would hope they wouldn't mess up the color of the most distinctive feature of birches: the bark. The darker foliage also makes it seem more like a beech.

    And this is why the original language is so important: either it's wrong in English or the other languages, but something is wrong.

    I'm painfully aware of how the translation of plants gets particularly complicated, especially with vernacular names. Blueberry and bilberry are a fun exercise. It's almost always wrong, even in real-world examples I see on bilingual French/English product labels, both in the US and France. The Japanese umeboshi is usually translated as "pickled plum", but it's more closely related to apricots than plums, and yet it is neither fruit. It's an ume; related but different, and something we just don't have a native word for.
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2016
  7. s.c.lynx

    s.c.lynx Game Administrator Team RisingCities

    Sorry I mistook your posting as saying that there was no such a tree as a birch, I thank you again for the additional information. You are correct.