#Please increase priority on improving/fixing translations/localizations

18 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

runic glade
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I know that translations have very low priority for the team in that game, but honestly right now the priority is "none", please, change that to extremely low, a lot of language reports can be done in less than half hour (literally), just change few strings... I'm worry that this game will be the first game that I play where I will need to download a "language mod" just to fix every text.

(Spanish) maybe in other languages is getting updated/fixed, if is like that I'm ok with that.

analog quartz
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Let me ask who the best people to talk to about this is ^^

wanton forum
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I can second that. When I launched the game initially, the German localization left to be desired. I immediately switched to English and have not changed it back.

azure rover
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I hope you don't find my feedback about translation quality harsh or smth.
In June 2025 Civ 7 playable only when game language is set to English and some translations should be redone from scratch with actual professional translators.

But for now I just want 2 things:

  1. Let me switch between languages without reloading whole game on PC in 2025. If I want to check actual English text/line/description it takes almost 30 mins for each one. I'll describe whole process. Saved my game -> options -> changed game language -> quited to desktop -> started civ -> loaded game -> waited for "first" load -> waiting.. -> still waiting.. -> took screenshot to not make same process again -> options -> changed game language -> quited to desktop -> started civ -> loaded game -> waited for "first" load -> done.
    Repeat every 5 turns when new completely wrong line appears.

  2. Devs should understand that it is a problem. Now (in June, before 1.2.2) I don't think team nearly understand how bad localizations are and that is the main reason why this part of the game set to extremely low priority for fix. In perfect world, If someone actually plays test builds, I want from devs to make an inside build using their translation tool/methode to reverse translate any (will be better with non-european language) translation back to English. Someone should find a few hours to play (with reading UI text and narative events) that build. That will perfectly show how a lot of players see civ 7 game. Those players who can't write their opinion in English - speaking discord server right and clear without knowing English.

P. S. COMPLETELY agree with TC, civ 7 is a first game where I need "translation mod" for already officially supported localization.

runic glade
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Yes, I never saw that in my live... you actually will need to put a mod to can play in Spanish too...

azure rover
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Just a comment to bring this topic up the list.
I'm shocked how only 8 ppl in official discord care about localization quality.

reef perch
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Please increase priority on improving/fixing translations/localizations

reef perch
azure rover
azure rover
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I just got a pack of chinese tea, so I decided to write its description here. Its a perfect example how I see every ability in civ7.

"Chinese Litchi Black Tea"

"Litchi black tea cooperate with litchi quintessence modulate with high-quality black tea,fragnant to assail the nostrils fruit have,tea bad smell strong,enter the mouth thin to slip,its appearance piece Suo form detailed and straight closely,the color and luster is dark and moist,interrior quality fragnance is fragnant,flavour is fresh and comfortable and fragnant and sweet,being color red and on,soup there is flavor of litchies,help digest,clear up stomach and wake up brain refreshing efficiency."

Devs can make a diamond of a game, but when every screen looks like this I won't came back for another try.

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I decided to add image for any non-believers.

IMG_20250826_153759.jpg
fossil vigil
timber solar
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Usually the issue with localization is not having a real person do it but how the game is designed to piece sentences together out of separate blurps. For example, "rough plains" is technically two separate entries: "rough" and "plains". Rough can also go with tundra, grassland, etc. In the majority of languages plains and tundra would require "rough" to change to fit the gender and number of the noun it defines. But not in English, so designers define these words separately and then mix and match. When these blurps are translated, they either end up with all possible endings for the adjectives or with an ending that only works for some of the nouns that follow these adjectives. Same goes for noun/verb and other grammatical alignments.
A lot of native English digital stuff like websites, apps, software suffers from this issue. This is unlikely to get resolved without working with native coders to review the json lists of these text blurps, reformat and reindex them, which is something few professional translators have the skill for, tbh. AI is actually pretty good at contextual translation these days, but when a product is designed to have words outside of context, AI won't do well either.
So the process to fix this stuff is extremely painful and time-consuming. The best option is to consult loc professionals on how to approach product dev before there is even any text to translate.

azure rover
# timber solar Usually the issue with localization is not having a real person do it but how th...

I understand blurps situation and difficulty that come with this approach.
About model they use:
It actually pretty bad at contextual translation, because in half of seen narative events nothing make sence.
Looks like it halucinate more and more, after every patch overall translation quality drops further, and sometimes overwrite manual changes that was fixed through bug reports.
About 2025 gaming:
I played a lot of different games. I don't expect perfect translation, but it shouldn't be gamebreaking.
Translation was good in previous firaxis projects like civ 5 and 6, xcom 1 2 CS. I played localized versions without language switching at all. Yeah some words were wanky, but it didn't affect overall playthrough.
A lot of modern games support language changing on the go, without reloading whole game from desktop.
For example: In darkest dungeon 2 I checked 1 English text line in 100hrs and it took 5 seconds. In civ 7 I need to check something every 5 turns and it take 30 minutes for each change.
About strategy games:
While civ 7 pretend to be a strategy game it is not appreciated when game terms like "rough", "grassland" or "blacksmith" translated differently in different places.
And another problem with AI model, I can't trust any translated ability, because sometimes It looses symbols or replace words. When ability stated +2 of any yield at some condition, it actually can be +20, +2%, another yield, or another condition. This isn't a strategy game anymore with this translation approach.
About professionals:
When price was set near 100$ for preorder, customers expected that product was made by team of professionals. Coding, marketing, modelling, translation, QA - everyone. Civ7 isn't a 5$ Steam game that was made by 1-2 people, but generally even those projects have better localization quality, or don't have it at all.
You see, if there wasn't localization at all, I would not complain about it. 😅

analog quartz
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@dreamy ferry none of that, ta

azure rover
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I just found this topic don't even have "seen" tag after almost 3 monthes. Great. 🤦‍♂️

reef perch
azure rover
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You know, I didn't provided exact example from game, just general opinion.

I think a good example will be "12 tables" Rome ability.

I load my first ever Rome game. On loading screen there is a discription of main ability.

(In localization)
It says:
° +1 to (icon culture) culture from districts in capital and city centers in
(next line) towns.
° +30% to (icon production) production while constructing Colloseum.

I read it for 10 minutes of loading. Ok. Second part of ability is ok, I'll build Colloseum a bit faster.

But whats going on with the first part? Why it is so complicated? Why every word is a bold font blurp? Which combination of these words is a condition?
How do I get +1 to culture from districts in city centers? How do I get +1 to culture from districts in city centers in towns specificly?

Just WHY?
I didn't even play for 1 turn and I already want to check English line.

And another problem with Russian translation is a word that someone chose for Town translation. You know, "city" and "town" are completely different words in a way that every letter is different. In localization "city" translated as "город" and "town" translated as "городок". Just look at these words and you could understand that sometimes it will be problematic. It's like if in original version there would be burg/burgh instead of city/town.

And now main Rome ability suddenly looks like +1 to Culture from Districts in Main City and City Centers in Cities. Easy to understand, hard to..