Issues, Workarounds & Localization

How the 'Spaceship Command' could be back translated to 'Ship Type Permits' and the 'Navigation' instead of previous version (surprise: 'Navigation') translated to 'Spaceships piloting'?

> Эксплуатация сменных подсистем (Subsystems) should be translated as Modular Subsystem Operation
Also could be back translated to 'Use of Replaceable Subsystems', and before was just 'Subsystems'

That 'Use of something' or 'Operating with / something' or even 'Combat use of rocket launcher' is looks redundant for the UI of one universe multiplayer game and not helping to newbies to understand what they got explained in chat and finally be helpful. Moreover that kind of translations become useless, harmful, not illiterate but inappropriate for context, and as result a lot of pilots decide to switch client from RU to ENG to be in synch with the rest of the universe.


Take a look:
The 'Shields' was 'Shields', one simple word: 'Щиты', now we have kind a WarAndPeace: 'Operating with a Power Protection' ('Эксплуатация силовой защиты')!
The 'Armor' was 'Armor' ('Броня') and now: 'Operating with of Armor Protection' ('Эксплуатация броневой защиты')

More examples:

Industrial Command Ships: was 'Industrial Command Ships' (Промышленные корабли управления) - just world to world translation, now we have 'Flagships of Drill Gangs' (Флагманы буровых групп).

Jump Freighters. Was: 'Грузовые корабли с гипердвигателями' ('Cargo Ships with Hyperdrive') now we have: 'Джамп-фрейтеры' - almost just as non translated transition from english: Jump-freiters.

Carriers, was: 'Ship-Carriers' ('Корабли-носители'), now: 'Ships of Autonomous Deployments' ('Корабли автономного развёртывания') or K.A.R. which is similar to CARriers, but to me this sounds like S.A.D.

Supercarriers, was: 'Superships-Carriers' ('Суперкорабли-носители') now: 'KARs of ExtraLarge Tonnage' ('КАРы сверхбольшого тоннажа').

Industrial Ships, was: 'Industrial Ships' ('Промышленные корабли') now 'Cargo Ships' ('Грузовые корабли') BUT,
Capital Industrial Ships, was: 'Industrial Ships of ExtraLarge Tonnage' ('Промышленные корабли большого тоннажа'), now 'Industrial Ships' ('Промышленные корабли') which is ambiguous to the original.

And one more old story which I can not tell you:
The 'Stack All' probably the most useful item in context popup menu translated to 'Make Stacks' ('Сложить в стопки') which is suitable to flat object not any objects. Moreover the noun 'стопки' (plural of 'стопка') means small glass(es) aka shots thats makes guys laugh ('Put into glasses') because thats is not common in Russian to use the same world for different meaning than in English if possible.


And same goes on almost each places.

Btw, the original topic now has a more than 230 replies and about 550 likes against this innovation and upcoming translations.

Well, in your case translating both back and forward highly depends on who is translating. Half of your variants I would translate differently.

Lets take shields: If I had to do a translation, I would translate is as "Силовое поле" or as "Эксплутация силовых полей". Why? Because I read a lot of Sci-Fi (like tons of it) and usual translation to russian used is "Силовое поле", "Защитное силовой поле", "Силовой экран" or "Силовой щит". Yes, I also saw "шиты" in some cases, but usually that word is used after it is explained that a ship uses a shield. Just look up Wikipedia here http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B5_(%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%83%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D1%84%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0)

You see, I have an extensive Sci-Fi background on my part and I treat translations differently than you.

Let's take Carriers - I would translate that as "Авианосец" from a get-go, but! In EVE carriers are not pure fighter-carriers, but also a logistics ship. Personally I would clarify the English "Carriers" to something like "Logistic carriers" or something like that. Just because the English variant is not actually presice.

But that's just me, and I don't work as a translator :)

no it's not
it's a bureaucratic language
you can see such an excessive usage of words in English legal documentation as well

In EVE there are things which can't be translated - the ships, skills, items etc. It is inadmissible because of originating confusion in names.

Do not translate!!!!

Decided to translate my rus posts to eng in order to show CCP our big problem.
I tried to translate it as direct as I could. It may difficult to read but it was important to show all points why Russians against this translation and localization team.

Sorry, could not accept this insanity. Not for the game offensively, but for the people.
Lets start.

1.
What kind of savagery is the translation of the meaning instead of the original name? If this is the "Industrial Ships", then translate it as "индустриальные корабли (industrial ships)". It looks like in the game in the original (English) version the name of the branch itself is not correct and CCP suddenly decided to give the correct name of the branch just in Russian version. You should make all names correct in original English version and just then do a competent and quality translation. It looks like always, everyone wanted as always the best, but it turned through a uniform interface (ass).

Want in Russian version "Грузовые корабли (Cargo ships)" (which by the logic of the use of ships of this branch is 100% correct), then name it in the English version "Cargo ships" instead of "Industrial Ships". Is that so hard to do correctly? How many translators have changed since that time, when CCP began to deal with the localization? Translators know English, knows Russian, but do not have heads on their shoulders to think (this is like "bought a car, bought a driving license, but the driving skill is not purchased).

2.
Basically that Rorqual is like a factory ship, seems to be true (although it can be debated and remember about Orca, but then everything goes more complicated.) If we start from the quotation, then also remove "Capital" from the English version and make simply "Industrial Ships", where you can add Orca (shared branch for Orca and Rorqual - "Industrial Ships")
Well bring everything in the end to a common denominator, because how it is is now looks really stupid from the 3rd part side.

3.
Probably better to start from the end - who is the "habitual to all pilots "?
I assume that these are people who are "get used to it" to play Eve, but it is at least the old pilots, and they already know the terminology of the game.
I venture to suggest that the localization of EVE in different languages is primarily to attract new players, not to keep the olds (if the old pilot has not left the game using English, then he should not go away, from the point of view of the language of the game).
So, a new pilot does not understand what is “freighter” because there is NO such word in Russian language at all.
CCP Droog, you're our man, Russian, you're like no one else has to know that. And you telling us, existing pilots, that everything is done for us. Those who grew up in English Eve, so frankly do not care how it is called in Russian, those who grew up in Russian - they already know the English terminology (which is de facto accepted in the game). If something is done, it should be done with the mind, and not for show.
Translation "Freighters" to "Фрейтеры (Freighters)" understandable only to people playing in Eve or people who know English, but not as people who have never played EVE and who do not know English (Do you do localization for this group of people don’t you?) .
My suggestion Freighters - well, at least Фуры (Trucks).

4.
Again. Well, where did you see the word "Джамп (Jump)" in Russian? Do you do translation for who? For those who already know how to play it? If so, it is absolutely not necessary for current players.
If the pixels are free, then my suggestion is if not use "jumping trucks" because this "jumping" itself sounds like an idiot in Russian version and it is not clear for the beginners, then at least use "Гипер-прыжковые фуры (Hyper-jumping trucks)." By analogy, well, at least with the Star Trek, hyper-jump is an understandable thing, rather than just abstract "jump".

P.P.S In reality, the overall picture is that the translation is done just for translation purpose, translation for translation, without any specific, balanced, clear concept. Seems that for EVE works one single company, but the feeling is that everything is done as it separated from a common strategy, just to make something done and report that the project is done, no one cares how.
P.P.P.S. Urgently need to find Soundwave, it's just a nightmare what is happening.

Also want to translate the quote from this post



From me I want to add, that in the new Russian localization we can see vice versa of all above mentioned points

The problem with the new names of skills and attributes is that they have become longer and confusing. Yes, it's still Russian, but that's not the Russian, on which we are communicate. It's boring language of documentation that is saturated with long and confusing phrases. Perhaps this translation is good for descriptions, but not for names.

Hi,

I have been reading this thread with interest and am happy to see such a lively and passionate exchange on the finer details of language, which is a rare sight indeed.

Let me start by saying that I don’t speak any Russian (unfortunately – I feel my enjoyment of Russian literature would be greatly enhanced if I was able to read the classics directly in your beautiful and rich language), so I am unable to comment on those details, but I can give some more insights into some basic principles on how we handle our translations for EVE at CCP:

As you may have noticed, language is a very personal and in many cases subjective topic. Sure, there are rules that some official body has created for most languages, but they don’t cover all aspects and also there is a huge variety of directions you can go. Do you want to be formal or informal? What atmosphere are you trying to create? What are you trying to get the reader to do or how do you want them to feel? Any answer to those questions can then take you to different possibilities of implementation and personal preferences. Questions like this can be debated until the end of days and there will be never a consensus, because it is so personal and so subjective.

So a while back, we have started to hire Linguistic Owners like CCP Droog for each language into the localization team at CCP. Those LOs do many things, but one big aspect is that they define our language policy, or shall I say philosophy, for the languages they are experts in. This is done not in a vacuum, but by having them here in Reykjavik so they can have close contact with the development teams in EVE, knowing the game, and coordinating the direction so that it fits into the overall feel and style that we as CCP are aiming for. Then there are further steps like overseeing or handling the implementation of this policy etc., which includes revising old translations so that we eventually end up with a coherent client that is immersive and does the English original justice. This is a task that will probably never be fully completed, but you can trust that work is always under way.

Will such a policy satisfy everyone? No, this is impossible of course. But in the interest of getting things done, at some point someone has to set a direction and go for it.

Does the opinion of you, the players matter? Absolutely. One thing we do undertake apart from forum conversations like this is localization surveys which you might have participated in, talks with players at fanfest, reading the help channels in-game etc. – one interesting aspect we have observed is that in many cases you get a very different picture depending on where you look. Sometimes you have one opinion being very dominant on the official forums, but then in a survey we see that the results are the opposite. Or we see players are passionate about a topic on inofficial, player-run forums while on the other hand we have not a word being said on the official forums here. So, in the end we take all those pieces, external and internal, and make a decision based on that. Due to the size of the game and the amount of content, we then have to stick to those decisions though and move forward with them, otherwise we will be stalled instead of moving forward towards an improved and coherent localization.

So where does that leave us for this particular discussion? We have had a conversation about it in the localization team and looked at what we can learn from your reactions. What we have come up with is:

• We will work towards being more transparent and making the basic principles we are aiming for on the Russian client translations available to you. You will have the opportunity to comment, of course, so that the Russian team can take your preferences into consideration. Many of those principles are already available in the responses by CCP Droog in the forum discussions, but they will be made available to you in a structured and concise manner.

• We also realize that this change could have benefited from being available on a test server and announced longer before it went live on TQ. We are looking into our processes so that we can give you an opportunity to comment in this pre-release phase so that we can adapt the planned translations based on your feedback, of course within the parameters of the overall direction we are headed for.

Thank you for your continued feedback and passion for the Russian client localization! We are looking forward to keeping the conversation going.

-CCP Shiny
Producer NES Localization Services
(Head of Global Localization)

+1 to TS