HelpUsTranslate

Thank you for Coming To This Page!

As I am sure you have noticed by now, the translations are very much a work-in-progress and we need your help to improve and perfect them. Your help will be much appreciated!

Getting your translation fixes or contributions included in the next Alpha

If you would like to get your fixes or perhaps even a new language included in the next Alpha, please talk to John on @jknotten on the Discord and he will be happy to help.

Discord

For help please visit the #mods channel on Discord.

Overflowing Text and Missing Translations

If you spot any overflowing text or places where the game is still using hard-coded English strings, please file a bug report (if one doesn't exist already) on the

• bug tracker.

A screenshot with some kind of callout or highlight of the particular area would be a very useful.

Mistakes in existing Translations

If you notice a translation error, please let us know about it on the

• bug tracker (localisation bug entry form) (bugs.introversion.co.uk).

Remember to include:

• which language,
• the incorrect phrase and the
• correct translation.
• a screenshot, if possible.

If the translation is good, but the rendering on screen is bad, a general bug report would be very welcome.

Inconsistency in Translation

If you notice an inconsistency in translation please let us know. For example, if an object type is translated in one way but then referred to in a different way.

Or if a ship name is translated in different ways.

Or other inconsistency.

• bug tracker (localisation bug entry form) (bugs.introversion.co.uk).

Translation Tools (Available from Alpha 14)

If you would like to look a further under the hood, and maybe contribute your own fixes or translations, it can be useful to enable the translator tools.

Translator Assist

In preferences.txt there is a preference called TranslatorAssist.

Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Introversion\LastStarship\preferences.txt
Mac: ~/Library/Application\ Support/LastStarship/preferences.txt
Linux/SteamDeck: ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/1857080/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Introversion/LastStarship/preferences.txt

In-game Translation Editor

If you set this true, it will enable two hot keys in the game:

• Pressing Alt will display the English text instead of the currently loaded language. Actually this is implemented by temporarily loading the English language strings and then, when Alt is released, reloading the language.
• Pressing Ctrl will display the name of the key instead of the actual translated phrase (or English fallback).
• Pessing F8 will bring up the in-game translation editor. See below.

Translation Editor In Game

If you enable Translator Assist you will be able to press F8 to bring up the in game editor. You can search for the key you would like to change and make the change directly, which should be visible in game immediately.

Once you have finished making your changes press the Browse button to bring up the File Explorer on the language folder, where you can find language.csv. This is the file that contains your changes and that you should share with Introversion (e.g. talk to @Totengeist or @jknotten on the Discord)

See this video tutorial:

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Editing Language.CSV directly

In the same directory as preferences.txt, you will find a folder called language

It contains sub-directories for each language currently supported by the game.

• preferences.txt
• language
  • french
    • original.csv
  • german
    • original.csv
  • spanish
    • original.csv

You will see that in each language directory there is a file called original.csv . These are the original translations bundled with the game.

DO NOT EDIT original.csv, because the game will overwrite them at every start.

Instead start a new file called language.csv

You can copy just the lines that you want to change from original.csv into language.csv, or you can copy all the whole contents of original.csv.

Characters don't appear properly

If you are opening language.csv with a spreadsheet application like LibreOffice Calc or Microsoft Excel, you may see a Text Import screen. Please ensure that the Character set is set to Unicode (UTF-8), or you may see some characters not display properly.

Format of language.csv

Language.csv is a Comma-Separated-Value text file in UTF-8 encoding. It must start with a header row which indicates columns for state, key, svn, english, translation.

state: NEW, MODIFIED, PREVIOUS, CURRENT, OBSOLETE

• NEW, it means that the string was recently added to the game and there is no translation for it yet.
• MODIFIED means that the English string was changed since the last time it was translated and maybe the translation needs to be updated too.
• PREVIOUS indicates the previous translation (or translations). These are typically for reference, and you should supply a translation for the MODIFIED key instead.
• CURRENT indicates the current translation for a particular string.
• OBSOLETE indicates old translations. These have been superceded by new translations. They are for reference only and should typically not be changed.

key: the language key (e.g. newmainmenu_newgame)

svn: the source code revision number (Subversion Revision) when this key's english was last updated. This is a kind of version number of the key. You can have several rows with the same key and the game should use the translation with the highest svn number. You should leave this value unmodified so that it is clear which version of the key the translation corresponds to.

english: the English text corresponding to the key.

translation: the translation itself.

Double Quotes ""

Note that because language.csv is a comma-separated value text file, if there are any commas present in the English or the Translation, then the value should be surrounded by double quotes "".

For example, if the English was:

Hello, John.

Then in the language.csv file, it should have "" around it:

"Hello, John."

This is so that the game can tell which commas separate fields of the translation table and which are part of the text itself. Note that the enclosing double quotes ("") will be ignored by the game and won't render on the screen.

Markers in the text

Programmatic Placeholders

Some strings have markers in them. We use these to programmatically add information to strings while the game is running. They are an asterisk followed by a single letter (e.g. *X). These markers must be kept as an asterisk followed by the given letter, but can be placed anywhere in the string.

For example, *X might be the number of fuel containers on your ship, or it might be a monetary value. If it is not clear, please ask for more context.

There are some markers that are special:

• S*X - a star system (e.g. NG11).
• $*X - an amount of money. The game uses the format_currency key to format it accordingly.
• L*X - the name of a star ship (e.g. PROCYON).
• R*X -the name of an object type in game (e.g. Fuel, Crew, Docking Port).

Escaped characters, e.g. \n

Some strings contain newline markers (written as \n) which should be left in appropriate places. They are used to start a new line and/or paragraphs.

Key Bindings

Key bindings are of the form {ToggleMap}. As with markers, if a keybinding appears in the English, it should also appear in the Translation.

Other Issues

The fonts used in the game don't have every character from every language. Get in touch (see below) and we will try to accommodate you in the next alpha if we can.

Some parts of the game still have hardcoded English strings. Please let us know in the bug tracker.