Read before starting a translation

[Nexcentric Games]

First of all big thanks to all those getting involved in the game development by helping with translations. We think players are the best translators since they know the game context better than any agency :), on the other hand this allow devs to dedicate more resources to the game development itself.

Before starting a translation, it is good to let to know to the community about it, by posting it in the specific language forum (if it doesn't exists already, feel free to create it), so you may not redo work, get help, find cooperation, etc.
So if you want to start a translation to Finnish, check the forum to see if a "Finnish" thread already exists, and if it doesn't, create it yourself and post your intentions.

HOW TO TRANSLATE PROJECT AURA

Text is stored into language tables in SQLite format, so you will need any of the many available editors. Our recommendation: sqlitestudio[sqlitestudio.pl]

TRANSLATING THE CORE-GAME

The Language database for the core game is stored inside game folder "Langs": (Your game installation folder)/Langs/.
Once in that folder, copy " PALang_en.sqlite" and paste it somewhere outside the game (just in case, to avoid overwriting by any Steam update). Open the new file and you will find all the language tables to start translating to your own language.

TRANSLATING THE MODS

The game standard version also includes a set of preinstalled mods for tasks like the campaigns. Each mod has its own lang database which can be find inside game folder "Mods": (Your game installation folder)/Mods/ModName/Langs
Once in that folder, copy "ModLang_default.sqlite" and paste it somewhere outside the game (just in case, to avoid overwriting by any Steam update). Open the new file and you will find all the language tables to start translating to your own language.

TESTING YOUR TRANSLATION

To test your translation you can just overwrite PALang_en.sqlite (or ModLang_default.sqlite if it was a mod) and start the game normally. For any change made to the lang database a game-reload will be needed to see the changes (translations are done just once according to the selected language to save performance).

TIPS

Since the amount of text to translate is pretty big, it can be divided into 4 parts and share the work with other players. The 4 parts we see in the translation process are:

1. Tutorials (include all the tutorials tables in the core game translation).
2. Productions and Items (include both tables: Productions and Items in the core game translation).
3. The rest of tables in the core game translation.
4. Mods (include all the mods tables for translation).

For the language tables it is important to keep the names short or they won't fit in the interface windows.

A spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel will come in handy for translating repeated entries. E.g.: The table Connectors has 40 times repeated the text: "Links to: Colonist", you can easily replace them all instead of typing it 40 times.

It is important not to work directly in the game folder, because, after any game update it would be overwritten.

When finished, send the SQLite file/s to [e-mail], so we can update the Steam sources for all players to gain access to it.