Translations

[Guest]

I don't know if this feature has been suggested before but I think it's necessary. Some people don't understand English very well and prefer gaming with their own language. Yes, I am one of those persons.

I'm suggesting a self-sustaining translation system managed by the community or something like that. In fact, the community will only modify how does the text displays and not the main code.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Guest

[sumghai]

You're looking at replacing the hard-coded text descriptions throughout the entire codebase with placeholder variables, which are then repopulated using localisation files. That's no small feat, given that even post-1.0, features are not necessarily finalized.

As for having the community perform each translation, I foresee two major problems:

- How would one prevent a fan translation from containing profanities, NSFW references or thinly-veiled insults towards SQUAD? One could potentially appoint certified individual(s) from SQUAD as part of an oversight committee, but very few people are proficient in multiple languages.

- Consistency in Kerbal-related terms, such as planet names - for instance, I suspect that Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese Chinese would transcribe "Kerbal" in different ways, and so there would be differing opinions on which is the "official" way to describe Kerbal in Chinese. The wide range of local dialects in India could be troublesome as well.

It's an interesting idea, but IMHO an impractical one.

[waterlubber]

I'd have to agree with sumghai, but maybe a modder could do this.