Ok so I’ve started tackling this beast of a job, but I’ve already run into a problem with respect to gendered nouns which I’m sure that you folks doing German might already have found a solution for.
I’m doing the artifacts and their random names, and in order to produce the random name the game fits a ‘‘noun’’ string with an ‘‘adjective’’ string in order to produce an artifact name. For example, ‘‘Silent Beast’’ or ‘‘Cursed Dream’’. The problem that I have in french is that the adjective changes depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, and whether the noun is singular or plural. So for example:
a dream = un rève, which is masculine.
a beast = une bête, which is feminine.
Then, if we add the adjective ‘‘Cursed’’ (maudit) to either one of these, we have to change the adjective’s ending based on the gender and the number, like so:
a cursed dream = un rève maudit
a cursed beast = une bête maudite
cursed dreams = rèves maudits
cursed beasts = bêtes maudites
Now, if this pattern were regular across all adjectives, there would be no problem, because I could just add the appropriate ending in the string after the variable part where the adjective is inserted. However, nothing is regular in french, as you can see with the next example with ‘‘silent’’ (silencieux):
a silent dream = un rève silencieux
a silent beast = une bête silencieuse
silent dreams = rèves silencieux
silent beasts = bêtes silencieuses
So as you can see, there are some pretty serious problems with generating a grammatical noun + adjective phrase in French and I assume in German as well, due to your also having gendered nouns. Does anyone have a convenient solution to the problem? I’m sure such a solution exists, I just don’t have experience in the matter.
I don’t think the solution for this is in place yet. Don’t worry about the artifacts too much. Other cases will also be hard to translate fluidly, but pretty much everything else will be easier than artifacts. We’re still in the process of marking strings for translation, so everything will be a little rough around the edges until that is complete. After we have 100% of the strings translatable, then we’ll start improving support for gendered nouns etc…
I speak passable French, so i know just how annoying this is ;).
It might be a good idea to ask in the translations forum if anyone else is working on a French translation.
Actually this whole thread should probably be in the translations forum.
Yeah, you’re probably right; the only names that are truly generated this way are the artifact names and the faction names, both of which are pretty unimportant and can probably be left in English without too much trouble. I’m just a perfectionist and I have a hard time truly being satisfied about the job if it’s not done 100%.
Try and stay as much descriptive as your grasp can get you, when offered a chance.
Otherwise go with the structure already offered; for example,
“You feel slightly nausiated”
aims at no gender, just as -
“You’re hungry”
altough it’s that passive in English, not in Serbian for ex. so go with
"Gladan/na" *in serbian
so the “trick” works.
I also used a small number of brackets for the purpose, when the difference occurs in one or two letters likewise.