Review Space Rangers 2 cuddled up with RPGDot

[Dhruin]

The RTS thing is 3D but I didn't do many of those (RTS just isn't my thing) so I forgot to point that out. If you run SR2 on a low-end system, the RTS portion is automatically disabled; I think the main game is like DX7 level - my notebook is a Celeron 1.4, 512Mb, integrated Intel video. Frankly, it's a miracle that Solitaire works.

Really? I ran Morrowind on a system with lower specs than that (well, the video card was better...)

OK, bit of an overstatement. The video has no hardware T&L support, so many modern games won't run on it at all. SR2 should run (minus RTS) on almost anything someone would reasonably try to game on.

 

[AnalogKid]

Learn Albanian... I mean Russian, heh.
More quests this way too . Not simply more, but best of them, too. (The bastards).

What's the deal with that? Why would they choose to cut out missions that were already in the game instead of at least giving them the same level of translation as all the others?

Were they particularly "Russian" missions? Like going around giving all your hard-earned stuff to the weaker, lazier Rangers? :shock:

 

[Balor]

Heh, well, two of them were indeed a bit way too Russian - there were based on Russian folklore that noone but Russian would know. And not that they were really good anyway.
But the rest (about 8 or so) quests were among the longest and most interesting - Like Citadel and 'Master of Ikee'bana' (or, heh, Master of Magic in disguise... yes, I'm talking about THAT VERY Master of Magic) - they were cut out, as I understand.
For no better reasons then translators being not only lamers, but lazy as well.

That, or Escalibur payed them so little that, to quote Russian anecdote:
"What a worker must do for month salary of 1000 rubles?
Nothing, except for a bit of sabotage, perhaps'.

 

[AnalogKid]

For no better reasons then translators being not only lamers, but lazy as well.

Ha! Very nice. :D

 

[aboyd]

So, is there a dialogue file, similar to how BG2 did it? I'm not even sure the game uses dialogue, I've not played it yet. But you know what I'm getting at?

If there is a plain-text file that contains all the writing, I'd be happy to improve that over this weekend, and send it back to anyone who wants it. I don't even have the game yet, though, so I'd need someone to send me the file.

Barring a text file, is there an editor? I've been looking, and I've not found one yet.

Ideally, I'd like to buy the Russian version with all the quests, and swap in the English translation. I'm not sure if that's impossible, or just hard work.

-Tony

 

[Balor]

Er, question is, new quests would be in Russian anyway... you sure you'll succeed where official translators failed?
However, I'll ask this question on official boards, just in case.

 

[bryce777]

The problem is, there is a TON of text. It would be easy to clean up the grammar of the stuff which has been translated already, but the sheer volume of it would make this difficult

I don't see any way to easily get at the dialog, after poking around the files, but maybe there is some editor out there.

 

[aboyd]

Er, question is, new quests would be in Russian anyway... you sure you'll succeed where official translators failed?

Oh, no, I can't beat official translators, and I don't speak Russian. However, I'm not sure I need to. Can I cleanly drop the already-translated text into the Russian game, so that I have a mostly-English but partly-Russian game? Then all I need to do is get help (via Systran, or Babelfish, or a human) on the remaining Russian parts.

Even if that's not possible, it may still be possible to at least clean up what was already translated. So I don't have to start from scratch, as the official translators did. And I'm not limited to paid employees. Just as happened with BG2, a group of people could collaborate on the text. I've also done translation of the phpBB language files, and that model was fine too. So I know that stuff is possible, and I'm comfortable doing it.

However, if SR2 has a very different model -- perhaps you have to edit text line by line in a special app -- then all bets are off.

-Tony

 

[Balor]

Well, there is a eng.dat file in CFG folder (in Russian version it's rus.dat).
You DO need an app to edit it, yet there IS an editor for it - but I've yet to find a working version.
I've posted a question on official boards - will see what they'll answer.

 

[aboyd]

The problem is, there is a TON of text. It would be easy to clean up the grammar of the stuff which has been translated already, but the sheer volume of it would make this difficult

Agreed. My way to deal with this is simply to set my sights pretty low. I'm happy to do 10 hours of cleanup, and then play the game with that, however marginally improved that is. Even 10 hours of cleanup must make things slightly better. And if, over the course of 6 months, I put in 60 hours of cleanup, that might really be a marked difference.

I don't see any way to easily get at the dialog, after poking around the files, but maybe there is some editor out there.

Well that's a pisser. Thank you for looking.

-Tony

 

[Dhruin]

I just don't think it's that bad to be worth the effort. I can understand someone bailing on the Starforce but the English version is absolutely playable and pretty much bugfree - just some awkward translation here and there.

 

[bryce777]

The problem is, there is a TON of text. It would be easy to clean up the grammar of the stuff which has been translated already, but the sheer volume of it would make this difficult

Agreed. My way to deal with is simply to set my sights pretty low. I'm happy to do 10 hours of cleanup, and then play the game with that, however marginally improved that is. Even 10 hours of cleanup must make things slightly better. And if, over the course of 6 months, I put in 60 hours of cleanup, that might really be a marked difference.

I don't see any way to easily get at the dialog, after poking around the files, but maybe there is some editor out there.

Well that's a pisser. Thank you for looking.

-Tony

Well, if something could get going, your help would be appreciated. I will look at the eng.dat file. If Balor can't find a working English version I will try too figure out what's going on and if you are serious, it would only take me a few hours to make you a real simple editor for it (Once I figure out how they are formatting the file, that is). I think it would be a great thing to do. Unfortunately, I have no idea how we could get the totally untranslated texts going, but if balor can get some answers maybe even that would not be such a big deal, depending on how they did things.

 

[bryce777]

The eng.dat looks like gibberish so it must be compressed or encrypted. I think there is a tool to decompress dat files or something that may be necessary. I have never used them myself, though, so please forgive my ignorance if I am saying something foolish....

 

[AnalogKid]

As I mentioned, if "we" can figure out an editor and somehow divvy up the work, I'd be happy to contribute to the editing as well. I sort of agree with Dhruin that the game is enjoyable without extensive cleanup, but imo it would be a LOT better with after cleanup. Since I've already played it quite a bit I'm not worried about encountering text that gives something away, but I would suggest that people play and experience all the cool new stuff the game has to offer before spending a lot of time under the hood, since the "newness" is part of the fun.

 

[Balor]

Well, the editor exists, but it must be version-dependant, cause it does not work for eng.dat.
Trying to contract tool developer to solve this.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Wow. English in the future sucks.

Someone do the translation and I'm sure that by then, I'll actually be able to find the game for sale in Australia. Maybe.

 

[Balor]

Well, anyway, everyone agree that with proper translation and all quests it would be one of those rare games that deserve 10 out of 10?

Sometimes being a Russian does have it's merits.

 

[AnalogKid]

Well, anyway, everyone agree that with proper translation and all quests it would be one of those rare games that deserve 10 out of 10?

Well, I don't know about "everyone", but I seem to be about the only one with a big stick up my ass about the translation, and as far as I'm concerned: yes. If all the text in the game were natural and easy to read, I would give it at least a 9.5.

(there's always at least some room for improvement. :wink

 

[bryce777]

Well, anyway, everyone agree that with proper translation and all quests it would be one of those rare games that deserve 10 out of 10?

Sometimes being a Russian does have it's merits.

To me, I think it is pretty much 10/10 already. You can always improve a game, but to me the translations are just sort of funny, not annoying, but I do see how to some it could be annoying.

I find myself thinking "I better get this party of nodes to the ranger station!" quite often.

The ideal would be to add back in the missing text quests, if that is possible.

 

[Balor]

Well, I guess it's possible, cause there is 'addquest' program that allow one to create one's own quests... yet I'm not familliar with it, perhaps it does not allow one to edit them.
I'll see about that too.

 

[bryce777]

Well, I guess it's possible, cause there is 'addquest' program that allow one to create one's own quests... yet I'm not familliar with it, perhaps it does not allow one to edit them.
I'll see about that too.

Well, if we could get the original text then we could just translate that and then stick it in. I suppose that the addon thing might now work with English, though.

 

[Roqua]

Can you translate it into ebonics too so the negros can read it good? And add in some titties? Word.

 

[Balor]

Hmm, addquest is wrong prog, TGE is the program we want.
And this prog allow one to unpack '*.pkg' files (including common.pkg that has text quests - *.qm files) and some other nifty stuff.
It's all in Russian, though...
And I'll ask about details of quest editing and adding. (I suppose it will have to be verified too - see below).

And about eng.dat.
It's encrypted for a reason - all the game item stats are stored there too, so if you'll be able to edit it, you'll have 'legal opportunity to cheat', which will result in broken online scores, which is hardly an option.

So, the only way, as it was explained, is to assemble a 'group of translators' that will be given the texts in question, that group will correct it, then send it back to elementalgames staff that will repack it and issue an 'unofficial patch' - provided they'll be satisfied with modifications made.

Any comments?

 

[Balor]

Oh, and can someone willing to send me eng.dat PM me?
Just in case I'll find a way to unpack it anyways.

And btw, anyone who played and completed Rangers (like Bruce) - were you given an option to send records online?
The scoreboard seem to be version-specific, and I don't see english version records, only russian... unless I'm missing something.

 

[bryce777]

Oh, and can someone willing to send me eng.dat PM me?
Just in case I'll find a way to unpack it anyways.

And btw, anyone who played and completed Rangers (like Bruce) - were you given an option to send records online?
The scoreboard seem to be version-specific, and I don't see english version records, only russian... unless I'm missing something.

Oh boy, I don't remember if I did get that option or not. I got a score on my scoreboard but it was pretty low even compared to the computer's scores.

I will definitely send you the .dat file if you like. I would be happy to help out on the translation (though knowing no russian I suppose I can only do the babel fish + guess + pray method) and the cleanup.