Possible improvements of the localization in simplified Chinese

[ashen swallow]

After seeing in the promotional video that says the game supports simplified Chinese, I gave it a shot and spent like 5 hours playing it. I noticed that the in game text appears to be machine translated and in fact many phrases are confusing*.

I found the .txt file that documents translation chart and I'm interested in improving the localization in simplified Chinese (I'm actually working on it while playing the game). Do we have a localization group or places to give feedbacks on the translation?

*Since I'm new to the series I have no idea what exactly a 'suspendiumCannon' is. It was translated as something like 'floating cannon', although to me it looks more like a railgun or other similar weapons.

[paper rose]

the bullet is literally a stable flying crystal

[worthy sand]

can someone who has time and the knowledge explain to this person the lore of airships and what suspendium is?

[paper rose]

i dont have either one

[tame mason]

That is a failing it should really just be called suspendium cannon in the translation because it's a fictional material

[paper rose]

Non chinese understander be like

[worthy sand]

cut them some slack, they literally said they are new to this universe

[tame mason]

Really any name that comes from fiction shouldn't be translated if its not using an actual word, because that's like localizing someone's name although I think someone who is an actual linguist could tear that argument apart XD

[paper rose]

Asia languages are some of the difficulties languages to translate

like we cant pick up the ium

translate

and put suspend before

like in portuguese we could say Suspendânio or Suspendio

[tame mason]

But like you know if a person has a name and it's just in their native language wouldn't you use how that's pronuced or spoken even in a conversation with a different language? I suppose it's a bit different since suspendium comes from actual English roots which you can translate, but either way floating cannon is certainly a poor translation

[ashen swallow]

I get the part that it might be a fictional particle but I need to know what it does to give a proper translation

[tame mason]

So essentially

Suspendium comes in the form of crystals or dust in the airships universe and provides lift to ships either containing the dust or using it in engines

The mechanism for this from what I've read can be attributed to crystals repelling each other, a chamber lifts a ship off the ground by having a crystal push on suspendium underground effectively

Which makes the analogy of railgun pretty good

[ashen swallow]

ok since it's a gun that shoots suspendium how about 'floating/repelling particle railgun'

[paper rose]

crystal cannon

simple and remarkable

[tame mason]

It should probably be cannon still but I'm not Chinese so I wouldn't know

The word suspend literally comes from hanging something in the air though so

Do what you will with that

Chandelier cannon XD

[paper rose]

悬浮的 and 大炮 ?

[ashen swallow]

I know, the word floating is for the particle but not the gun

[paper rose]

anyways I need to rest

seeya

[tame mason]

Really low res large suspendium chamber for context

[tame mason]

Suspend is a bit of a different word then floating though so I don't know how you'd translate that I'm a bit clueless sorry 😅

[ashen swallow]

no worries I think I know how to translate it but I have to make sure developers acknowledge it

[tame mason]

Ium is generally used for metals so maybe like "floating metal cannon" or something like that?

[tame mason]

That's not quite right but I think it's a lot more descriptive

If you really broke suspendium down into components it might be like "still floating metal" which seems a lot more correct although you probably wouldn't get much out of that if you just put cannon in front of it

Perhaps rather than cannon the term should be projector?

Because the technology suspendium cannons come from in conquer the skies is suspendium projection

[ashen swallow]

is it metal or crystal

[ashen swallow]

it's cannon in English so I guess I'll keep it

[tame mason]

It takes 2 forms in game crystals and dust

I don't think it fits into either category well

It also dissolves in water I believe (because people make drinks with it)

And it's quite dense?

The issue is it's a material and you need to reflect that if your coming up with a name for it localized to a language, just saying floating doesint really give you the concept because thats just a description not a type of object

[ashen swallow]

I see your point, but making up names is even easier in Chinese

a combination of descriptive characters itself can work as a name

like how we call a computer '电脑'

[tame mason]

Oh also it holds up floating islands

And when heated it repulses much harder

I think the explanation for floating islands is literally lightning striking a sensitive part of the ground and the energized suspendium taking everything around it upwards XD

[tame mason]

Oh yeah doesint chinese basically have a lot of words as letters?

Oh also

An ore suspendium comes from is called levitite

[ashen swallow]

its the other way around, characters have simple meanings by themselves and they make up words with complex meanings

[ashen swallow]

l see

[tame mason]

I mean either way you could make very complex stuff but yeah average American talking about cultures I don't know stuff about XD

[ashen swallow]

no worries

[dark gyro]

I'm pretty certain it wasn't machine translated, but it was translated in a huge hurry. I will set up a place where people can work on improving the translation.