Language package MODs

The game comes with five reading languages: Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English and Korean. A language package adds another: install it, turn it on and restart the game, and it shows up in the language menu in the settings and on the language key (F7). UI text, names and dialogue the package does not translate show the fallback language you choose; where that has nothing either, the Japanese original shows.

A package can also change an existing language only, for example with a different English translation.

Installing and managing packages is covered in MOD packages: installing and making. Requires version 0.5.3 or later.

What goes in the package

yourname.korean/
  mod.json
  dialogue/ko/language.json      the language's declaration (required for a new language)
  dialogue/ko/terms.json         UI text and names
  dialogue/ko/story/…            story dialogue
  dialogue/ko/battle/…           battle dialogue
  dialogue/ko/fonts/…            fonts (when ours lack the script)
  art/ko/scene-images/…          pictures replaced for this language (optional)
  art/ko/plates/…                world map name plates (optional)

ko is the language code; the folder name must be the same as the one in language.json. Put in only what you use: dialogue files you leave untranslated and pictures you do not replace can stay out.

A complete example, Korean (stage 1 demo), has its source in config/recomp/mods/lang.ko (Korean is built into the game now, so the package itself is no longer offered for download). It has the story and battle lines of the Real-robot male route’s first stage and every UI text in Korean, the rest in English.

Making one

The tools are in the source repository and need Python 3.

1. Export a starting point from one of our languages

python3 tools/mods/language_template.py --locale ko --name 한국어 --fallback en --id yourname.korean -o korean-source

It writes all the text of the fallback (English here) into korean-source in the layout above: every UI text and name in terms.json, every dialogue file under dialogue/ko/, and mod.json and language.json filled in. --id is the package’s unique name, written as “author.name”; do not change it after publishing.

2. Translate

Replace the fallback’s text in terms.json and the dialogue files with your language, by the rules in the sections below. Entries you do not translate can stay or go: where the package has nothing, the game shows the fallback. Translating only part is still a working package; the example translates only the first stage.

3. Fonts and names

When our fonts lack the script, put the font files in dialogue/ko/fonts/ and name them in language.json’s fonts. Fill in the authors and the licence in mod.json (see MOD packages).

4. Check and pack

python3 tools/mods/validate.py korean-source

python3 tools/mods/pack.py korean-source -o build/mods

validate.py checks the files’ structure, the language code, the fonts and every field by the game’s rules; pack.py makes yourname.korean-0.1.0.srw64mod and checks it again. Whether control codes and dialogue pages match the original can only be checked with the ROM, in the game: look for SRW64_MOD_LANGUAGE_PROBLEM in the log, and dialogue/dialogue-report.txt in the user folder lists every dialogue record with a problem.

5. Install and pick the language

Install it like any MOD (drag it onto the game window on a computer; on Android put it in Documents/Marchwind64/mods or use Install from file on the MOD page), restart the game, then pick the language in the settings’ language menu or with the language key (F7). The choice is remembered: the next start is in that language.

Seeing changes as you go: put the dialogue files you are working on in dialogue/ko/ in the user folder, where they sit above the package, and press F5 in the game to reload them; the current line shows the new text at once. Copy them back into the package when they are done. Battle lines are quickest to see in the Battle Viewer on the title screen, without playing to that stage.

The repository’s docs/guide/language-mods/ folder has the translation steps, a checklist of the rules and the glossary the Korean demo used, which you can hand to an AI assistant to translate by.

language.json

{
  "schema": "srw64.language.v1",
  "locale": "ko",
  "name": "한국어",
  "fallback": "en",
  "fonts": { "text": ["fonts/MyGothic.ttf"], "title": "fonts/MyBrush.ttf" }
}

Typesetting follows the fallback. A language that falls back to English keeps spaces between words and breaks lines at spaces; one that falls back to Chinese or Japanese is set as those are. Pick en for languages that separate words with spaces, such as Korean or French.

Fonts go in fonts/ only, .ttf or .otf, up to 32 MB each. Our fonts have the Latin letters, so French or Spanish need none of their own. Korean, Thai and other scripts our fonts lack need a font file, or their letters do not show. The font’s licence must allow passing it on with the package.

terms.json: UI text and names

{
  "schema": "srw64.language-terms.v1",
  "ui": { "title_start": "시작" },
  "entries": { "base:t00_00000": "평지<END>" }
}

• ui: UI text, by the same keys as the game’s own languages (the template has them all). Keep marks such as {A} (a button) and {n} (a number) as they are; a label that loses or adds one is not used.
• entries: names of characters, units and weapons, terrain, abilities, system messages, records 0–5643. Control codes such as <BR> (new line), <STOP> (new page) and <END> (end) must match the original. An entry is a string or {"text": "…", "ja": "…"}; ja is the Japanese original for your reference, which the game does not read (the template fills it in when the ROM’s text export is there).
• Weapon menu names (the entries that start with 格 or 射) keep that first character: the game shows it as the melee or shooting icon.
• Entries you leave out show the fallback’s.

Dialogue

Story and battle dialogue and the text pages (opening, ending) are plain text in the same format as the files players edit dialogue with; see the dialogue text format in the repository. The files can go anywhere under dialogue/ko/, one record per block:

@17410 로렌스
“아가씨, 차가 준비되었습니다. 오늘은 러시안 티입니다.
---
어디로 가져다 드릴까요?”

Pages (---), the number of options and name placeholders such as {HeroName} must match the original; a record that does not is left out and shows the fallback’s. A player’s own dialogue folder can have a ko/ too, over the package’s.

Pictures per language

While reading in the language, these pictures come from the package:

• art/ko/scene-images/<file>: scene pictures, such as the title screen’s logo art/ko/scene-images/title-logo.png. The file names are the HD pack’s; the HD pack must be installed.
• art/ko/plates/<number>.png: the name plates of ships and places on the world map. The number is our plate’s file name without .plate.ja.png (5590, 5599.6), and the size must be the same as ours. Plates you leave out come from the HD pack in that language when it has them (the HD pack carries Korean plates from its next version), else the fallback’s.

The language in other packages

With a language package installed, other MODs can have text in its language too: the name and description in mod.json, a campaign’s name and chapter titles, name MODs, song titles. Whatever they leave out shows by the fallback.

Notes

• Turning a language package on or off, or updating it, takes effect after restarting the game. If the language in use is turned off or removed, the next start goes back to the system’s language.
• Korean (ko) breaks lines only at spaces and punctuation, never inside a word.
• Languages that need a dictionary to break lines (Thai, Lao, Khmer, Burmese) only break at spaces; right-to-left scripts (Arabic, Hebrew) are not supported yet.
• A language package with problems does not show up in the language menu; the reasons are in the game’s log (SRW64_MOD_LANGUAGE_PROBLEM). Check the package with tools/mods/validate.py before publishing it.