KSP Weekly: A Frozen God of War

[Mrcarrot]

Just now, Darth Badie said:

send me a PM  

I did.

[NSEP]

Looks like some good stuff @SQUAD

So is 1.4 going to be another localization update, is there going to be more?

[Mako]

15 minutes ago, NSEP said:

Looks like some good stuff @SQUAD

So is 1.4 going to be another localization update, is there going to be more?

Read the other Weeklys for more (albeit only slightly) details, but the 1.4 update is implementing a Unity engine update as well as some of the features that have been developed to go with the Making History Expansion.

[mystik]

On 1/29/2018 at 5:32 PM, Tyko said:

I see your point, but here's another way to look at it:

1. Squad is a company who pays their awesome coders/modelers with revenue they make by selling more games. By adding on additional languages they get the chance to sell more games, grow the community and keep paying for more coding/modeling. So, you want KSP to be as widely playable as possible
2. I would love to have those features you mentioned integrated into the game, but there are mods you can download and use. There's no mod to add additional languages, so Squad is actually focusing on something that doesn't exist rather than recreating something there's already a solution for.

Again, I want the same things you do, but I recognize that all of it falls apart if they're not making enough money to sustain further development.

There is no mod that adds extra languages because it's not important and there is little interest in it. If it would have been so useful it would have existed. Your logic applies both ways.

Also, a game sells if it is interesting, not if it is available in multiple languages. Also, Brazil has high taxes for impoting anything that is not made there, like a Playstation 4 costing $1800. I doubt it's much of a market, now that we're talking about portuguese. Really, twist and turn it anyways you want it, I'm pretty confident I can give you a mimumum of 2 counter arguments to any point you will make for translations and that's without even spending more than 1 minute remembering it.

 

On 1/29/2018 at 2:54 PM, klgraham1013 said:

No, but it probably helps people who speak Portuguese!

Yes, but it would help people who speak portuguese to learn english more, so that they can travel the world and read interesting books, watch movies and learn jokes that are not lame translated into devoid of fun phrases.

Edited February 1, 2018 by mystik

[0111narwhalz]

8 minutes ago, mystik said:

Yes, but it would help people who speak portuguese to learn english more, so that they can travel the world and read interesting books, watch movies and learn jokes that are not lame translated into devoid of fun phrases.

And how many languages have you learned because you just wanted to read a book…or play a silly game with little green men?

Also, good localization is not just translation. You're correct that a lot is lost with simple translations, but a good localization pass maintains the "character" of the work.

8 minutes ago, mystik said:

There is no mod that adds extra languages because it's not important and there is little interest in it. If it would have been so useful it would have existed. Your logic applies both ways

This is simply false. I can't read a word of this thread, but it's probably one of those.

 

Edited February 1, 2018 by 0111narwhalz

[HebaruSan]

14 minutes ago, mystik said:

There is no mod that adds extra languages because it's not important and there is little interest in it. If it would have been so useful it would have existed.

French:

Polish:

http://forum.kerbale.pl/modyfikacje/tlumaczenie-ksp-1-3-autorstwa-grupy-cebula-translations/

(German already cited by @0111narwhalz)

[Mako]

5 hours ago, mystik said:

Yes, but it would help people who speak portuguese to learn english more, so that they can travel the world and read interesting books, watch movies and learn jokes that are not lame translated into devoid of fun phrases.

You're absolutely right. Everyone should learn a new language to play this game.

I think KSP should look at what language your system is set to, in my case it's English, and at load times the game language should be randomized to anything but the system langauge, in my case Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, or any addition languese added in the future. This way we'll all be forced to learn new languages to play the game, and in doing so then we can travel and enjoy books, movies, and of course jokes (who could forget about the jokes when they're right in front of your face like this). 

I think this idea is the only right way to go, because as I'm sure we all can agree: every culture and langauge is capable of creating great things without the use of English. English isn't even that great of a language if I'm being honest. So KSP should totally have everyone learn new languages so we can enjoy all the great stuff from other cultures in their native tongues.

It looks like the mod community has been hard at work translating the game for a long time to make sure this idea will be easy the implement when it comes time. In the meantime, the's mods are useful for all the folks who might like to play KSP in their native languages, you know, until the language switcher update forces us all to learn new languages so we can all avoid anything that is 

5 hours ago, mystik said:

lame translated into devoid of fun phrases.

 

Maybe after the language switcher we can get development back on track to make this game a hardcore "leet gfx" experience. All true hardcore gamers know that is the only possible way for this already successful game to ever possibly be successful. Oh, is this the part where I'm supposed to say a meme or something condescending, or even something derogatory, towards some group of people who are different than me? I'm not great at being an ignorant, hateful child on the internet; can anyone give me a hand here? 

[NoMrBond]

I hope we get some technical/under-the-hood insights into the engine upgrade process for 1.4

I mean we've had blogs about various technical aspects in the past (like the fonts/kerning, transform maths for smoother runways and shadows), so something about porting the launch smoke system to shuriken (if that's happening) or other particle overhaul shenanigans and other stuff happening with Unity 2017.1 for KSP 1.4 would be an interesting read for a lot of people I think

I also acknowledge that writing something like that would take away from actual development time, so it's pretty conflicting.

[SG Aero]

I agree that localization is important, but does KSP really have enough reading in it other than the start menu that it’s an essential? 

[razark]

57 minutes ago, ShadowGoat said:

I agree that localization is important, but does KSP really have enough reading in it other than the start menu that it’s an essential? 

Part descriptions, tutorials, options...

[stibbons]

1 hour ago, ShadowGoat said:

does KSP really have enough reading in it other than the start menu that it’s an essential? 

Change the language in your install and find out?

[VaPaL]

20 hours ago, mystik said:

Also, Brazil has high taxes for impoting anything that is not made there, like a Playstation 4 costing $1800. I doubt it's much of a market

Playstation 4 sells for around R$1300,00, which is about US$405,00, and KSP for R$72,99 (US$22,75) I believe due to some incentives the government has to games.

True, Brazil has a lot of taxes, the iPhone X costs around R$7000,00 (US$2180,00), but Apple still translates the iOS to Portuguese-BR, because we are stupid enough to buy this overpriced stuff 

EDIT:

 

Edited February 2, 2018 by VaPaL

[SG Aero]

Well I’ve been playing for multiple years so I could easily navigate the game in any other language, but I see where you are coming from.

[Raptor9]

I think a lot of people are overlooking the broader localization potential here.  Having KSP available in multiple languages doesn't solely benefit non-English-speaking adults, but it also makes it available to a significantly larger portion of children or young adults as well.  Even in countries that teach English early in schools as a second language, those kids are probably not going to have the same proficiency of reading in English as adults.

Let's not forget the Kerbal EDU branch of the game, that is specifically meant for classroom use.  I took several years of French and Spanish in school, but I can't imagine trying to learn how to translate French/Spanish so I could read my science or physics lessons, let alone do it in real time during a practical exercise.  I didn't do well in French, and I'm not even conversational in Spanish, but I love science and physics.  So I can understand how significant it is to remove at least the language barrier for someone that may not be bi-lingual, but is interested in science/physics.  Another analogy would be making someone learn an advanced programming code, just so they could buy a laptop...But that would be ridiculous. 

As an English-speaker myself, localization doesn't give me any additional gameplay value, but I recognize how important that may be to a lot of other folks around the world.  Why should they miss out on the full potential of KSP, simply because of a language barrier?