Game Goblin Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 Over the past couple weeks while lurking here and there and testing a few mods I've noticed a few mods have a glaring problem. That is to say translation errors. I understand most languages have a different syntax to English (as well English can be a difficult language.) I for one don't have a clue how to use the creation kit and it hurts my brain more than when I taught myself HTML. But I'm a wiz with words. I am very much willing to spend some time for our non-english speaking modders to rewrite in-game dialogue that is in need of some shine. Question is, how hard is this to do? Can a modder simply rip out dialogue from a mod, slap it into a notepad .txt document and send it to someone like myself for a rewrite tune up? If so, then I am available to help. Or would I need to DL the mod and do any changes inside the creation kit itself? Thanks for reading, any advice or suggestions are welcomed.
DocClox Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 Over the past couple weeks while lurking here and there and testing a few mods I've noticed a few mods have a glaring problem. That is to say translation errors. I understand most languages have a different syntax to English (as well English can be a difficult language.) I for one don't have a clue how to use the creation kit and it hurts my brain more than when I taught myself HTML. But I'm a wiz with words. I am very much willing to spend some time for our non-english speaking modders to rewrite in-game dialogue that is in need of some shine. Question is, how hard is this to do? Can a modder simply rip out dialogue from a mod, slap it into a notepad .txt document and send it to someone like myself for a rewrite tune up? If so, then I am available to help. Or would I need to DL the mod and do any changes inside the creation kit itself? Thanks for reading, any advice or suggestions are welcomed. There is an option to export text from the game into a text based format. CSV files, IIRC, so they can be loaded into Excel. I'm not sure if they can be loaded back in directly though. (I'd very much like to write some of my own dialogue without having to battle with the CK at every turn). There are also issues of line length. there's a limit of 80 chars for PC speech and 138 for NPCs (again, IIRC, don't have the CK installed here) and possibly other gotchas to contend with. Worst case, you could still translate based on the text dumped to XML, if you had someone willing to type it all back to the CK.
Guest Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 Exporting dialogues is possible, but please keep in mind that exported dialogues are just a "set of dialogue lines". No order, no conditioning. To fix/improve a dialogue, you should need the real sequence of sentences. And I am not aware of a way to export it. And for sure there is no easy way to import back in. Copy/paste is the only reliable solution I found.
Game Goblin Posted July 17, 2015 Author Posted July 17, 2015 Exporting dialogues is possible, but please keep in mind that exported dialogues are just a "set of dialogue lines". No order, no conditioning. To fix/improve a dialogue, you should need the real sequence of sentences. And I am not aware of a way to export it. And for sure there is no easy way to import back in. Copy/paste is the only reliable solution I found. Yeah, I figured it would be a hot mess, double so if everything comes out jumbled. And your right, having the dialogue in some semblance of order is a must have. If everything is out of order then attempting to follow the tone of spoken dialogue would most likely come out feeling robotic or spastic. Over the past couple weeks while lurking here and there and testing a few mods I've noticed a few mods have a glaring problem. That is to say translation errors. I understand most languages have a different syntax to English (as well English can be a difficult language.) I for one don't have a clue how to use the creation kit and it hurts my brain more than when I taught myself HTML. But I'm a wiz with words. I am very much willing to spend some time for our non-english speaking modders to rewrite in-game dialogue that is in need of some shine. Question is, how hard is this to do? Can a modder simply rip out dialogue from a mod, slap it into a notepad .txt document and send it to someone like myself for a rewrite tune up? If so, then I am available to help. Or would I need to DL the mod and do any changes inside the creation kit itself? Thanks for reading, any advice or suggestions are welcomed. There is an option to export text from the game into a text based format. CSV files, IIRC, so they can be loaded into Excel. I'm not sure if they can be loaded back in directly though. (I'd very much like to write some of my own dialogue without having to battle with the CK at every turn). There are also issues of line length. there's a limit of 80 chars for PC speech and 138 for NPCs (again, IIRC, don't have the CK installed here) and possibly other gotchas to contend with. Worst case, you could still translate based on the text dumped to XML, if you had someone willing to type it all back to the CK. I attempted to edit a mod a little for practice, the copy/paste method has proven a nightmare. So far the CK only allows me to type it in manually. So I have to have a separate window open with any text to be inserted. Based on the replies of 2 expirenced modders, it only reinforces my suspicion there isn't really a simplified drag and drop option. (And if there is anything close, it works one-way, making more work for the other side.) It would seem the best options would be either to be in contact with the modder during dialogue scripting and do the re-write in small chunks, or manually download the mod and edit the text from within the CK.
Guest Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 I usually work with other people that build the dialogues for me (while I am creating the whole mod.) My approach is to used a structured for to depict the dialogues like this one <Name of the speaker1>: <sentence> [<condition>] <Name of the speaker2>: <sentence> [<condition>] <Name of the speaker1>: <sentence> [<condition>][joined|random] <Name of the speaker2>: <sentence> [<condition>] <Name of the speaker1>: <sentence> [<condition>] <Name of the speaker2>: <sentence> [<condition>] Example: Player: What do you want? NPC: You are a pretty looking girl, I want you [player female] NPC: You are a handsome man, I want you [player male] Player: I think I am going to spank you NPC: No way! [Random] NPC: Stay away from me! [Random] Usually the people that help me write long sentences. Then I will split it and tweak it to fit in the CK limits. A response from a NPC can actually be very long, you just have to split it in many sub-responses.
Game Goblin Posted July 17, 2015 Author Posted July 17, 2015 I usually work with other people that build the dialogues for me (while I am creating the whole mod.) My approach is to used a structured for to depict the dialogues like this one <Name of the speaker1>: <sentence> [<condition>] <Name of the speaker2>: <sentence> [<condition>] <Name of the speaker1>: <sentence> [<condition>][joined|random] <Name of the speaker2>: <sentence> [<condition>] <Name of the speaker1>: <sentence> [<condition>] <Name of the speaker2>: <sentence> [<condition>] Example: Player: What do you want? NPC: You are a pretty looking girl, I want you [player female] NPC: You are a handsome man, I want you [player male] Player: I think I am going to spank you NPC: No way! [Random] NPC: Stay away from me! [Random] Usually the people that help me write long sentences. Then I will split it and tweak it to fit in the CK limits. A response from a NPC can actually be very long, you just have to split it in many sub-responses. Exactly what I had envisioned. If/when a modder punches my arm for some help in this matter, I figured in smaller chunks, such as Common dialogue NPCs would say throughout the mod. Then another chunk would be quest specific such as Main-quest dialogue, then onto side quest. Your example alone shows me that i'm not a complete doof lol. I know with many modders there's often a tone/narrative they want to set. One mod I'm looking to get my hands dirty in is "Ravenous" by Delzarion. His native language is not english. (French if my sleepy brain remembers right.) The mod has lines in it such as... "I am living this hell." or "I take bit of you while sleep." Which make some sense to me. (Iv'e seen far worse in 20 years or RPing at the table.) I already see the tone he wants to set with the NPCs and the overall mood of the mod. If there isn't a reliable method for him to pull up the dialogue and reinsert it after cleaning. I may need to crack it with the CK and get up to my elbows in code, then move on to assisting him like your writers assist you. And lend my pen hand from the ground up.
Guest Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 Try to contact with a PM this mod author. If you want also to write some short stories I have work for you. I am continuously expanding my main mod, and I need to introduce a new character with some background story, based on dialogues with the player and with other NPCs. If you wish to help me, just let me know. Of course it is an Adult mod... P.S. English is not my native language.
Game Goblin Posted July 17, 2015 Author Posted July 17, 2015 Actually just sent a PM to him about 5 minutes ago, requesting permission to edit. It would be rude just to barge in and put my fingerprints all over his work otherwise. Writing is what I do mate. (Currently I'm running 5 people through a RPG with massive storylines interwoven all over, and I have some writings already on Writing.com if you want to take a look at the kind of stuff I dabble in.) That said, feel free to PM me your writing needs and give me a bit of time to put some thought into dialogue and I'm willing to help. P.S. English is my native language, but some days I just grunt like a caveman.
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