7 replies to this topic

[Ulb]

Hey there,

 

I would be grateful if someone could proofread my upcoming mod.

You can either copy & paste the text from the spoiler or download the attached .tra file, that's up to you.

 

As usual, please also comment on the text/phrases as a whole; do they sound off or silly? If so, please let me know.

 

Also, if you're a native German speaker and would be willing to proofread the German translation, just drop me a note and I'll contact you once it is finished.

 

Many thanks in advance,

 

Ulb

 

Full text:

Spoiler

//UBRPET0.BAF
@1 = ~Your animal companion is dead.~
@2 = ~Your animal companion has returned!~

//UBRPETD.BAF
@3 = ~Your animal companion is still injured and needs healing!~

//UBRPET.BAF
@4 = ~Your animal companion died!~
@5 = ~Your animal companion has gained in power!~

//UBRPET.D
@6 = ~As you look in the eyes of your new animal companion, you see curiosity and sympathy but no fear.~
@7 = ~It is time to give your new friend a name and you certainly don't have to think long before you come up with the right one ...~
@8 = ~%name% is what you will be called from now on.~
@9 = ~From now on you will be called %name%. Do you like that, my big friend?~
@10 = ~From now on I'll call you %name%. Do you like that, my winged friend?~
@11 = ~From now on I'll call you %name%. Do you like that, little friend?~
@12 = ~As you approach your animal companion ...~
@13 = ~%name%'s head rises in what you think to be a gesture of approval.~
@14 = ~Fine. Now that this is settled, there is something else I wanted from you...~
@15 = ~Now, listen %name%, there's something else I want...~
@16 = ~Great, let's get going then.~
@17 = ~Time to go then.~
@18 = ~%name% tilts its head and waits for your instructions.~
@19 = ~I want you to behave naturally. Do as you normally would do, whether we are in combat or not.~
@20 = ~I want you to keep behaving naturally and do as you normally would do, whether we are in combat or not.~
@21 = ~I want you to only do what I tell you to do, at least while we are not in combat. It is OK for you to behave naturally while we are in combat, though.~
@22 = ~I want you to keep doing only what I tell you to do, at least while we are not in combat. It is still OK for you to behave naturally while we are in combat, though.~
@23 = ~I want you to only do what I tell you, whether we are in combat or not. No matter what happens, you will only do as I tell you.~
@24 = ~I want you to keep doing only what I tell you to do, whether we are in combat or not.~
@25 = ~%name% looks at you with a confident expression and seems to be curious as to what you might want next from your loyal friend.~
@26 = ~Come here %name%, I want to pet you a little.~
@27 = ~Is everything alright with you, my big friend?~
@28 = ~Is everything alright with you, my winged friend?~
@29 = ~Is everything alright with you, little friend?~
@30 = ~I would like to give you a few instructions about your behavior %name%.~
@31 = ~Listen %name%, I want you to keep your distance from the group for a while. Just stay within hearing range and I will call you when I need you back here.~
@32 = ~You pet your animal friend for a while, much to %name%'s enjoyment as it seems.~
@33 = ~There is something else I wanted from you...~
@34 = ~That was fun, let's get going then.~
@35 = ~%name% looks at you with a sad expression for a moment but then turns around and quickly disappears out of your sight.~

//UBRPETA.D
@36 = ~You decide that it is time to search for a proper animal companion of your own.~
@37 = ~As you are about to inspect the area for animal tracks ...~
@38 = ~... you realize that you are lacking the experience to form a lasting bond with an animal and decide to try it again once you have more experience.~
@39 = ~... you realize that there are no suitable animals in this area and decide to wait for a better opportunity.~
@40 = ~... you discover the tracks of a brown bear and decide that this is exactly the kind of animal you are looking for.~
@41 = ~... you discover the tracks of a wolf and decide that this is exactly the kind of animal you are looking for.~
@42 = ~... you discover the tracks of a panther and decide that this is exactly the kind of animal you are looking for.~
@43 = ~... you discover the tracks of a leopard and decide that this is exactly the kind of animal you are looking for.~
@44 = ~... you discover the tracks of a dog and decide that this is exactly the kind of animal you are looking for.~
@45 = ~... you discover the tracks of a giant spider and decide that this is exactly the kind of animal you are looking for.~
@46 = ~... you discover the tracks of a young wyvern and decide that this is exactly the kind of animal you are looking for.~
@47 = ~... you discover the tracks of a groundhog and decide that this is exactly the kind of animal you are looking for.~
@48 = ~... you discover the tracks of a rabbit and decide that this is exactly the kind of animal you are looking for.~
@49 = ~... you decide to not look for an animal companion right now.~
@50 = ~You mimic the roar of a brown bear and after only a short while a strong and fierce looking bear emerges from the undergrowth...~
@51 = ~You mimic the howling of a wolf and after only a short while a strong and swift looking wolf emerges from the undergrowth...~
@52 = ~You mimic the roar of a panther and after only a short while a strong and swift looking panther emerges from the undergrowth...~
@53 = ~You mimic the roar of a leopard and after only a short while a strong and swift looking leopard emerges from the undergrowth...~
@54 = ~You mimic the barking of a dog and after only a short while a keen looking dog emerges from the surrounding area...~
@55 = ~You mimic the hissing sounds of a giant spider and after only a short while a dangerous looking spider emerges from the surrounding area...~
@56 = ~You mimic the sounds of a young wyvern and after only a short while you can hear the flapping noise of small wings coming towards you...~
@57 = ~You mimic the comforting low barking sound of a groundhog and after only a short while a cute and swift looking groundhog emerges from the undergrowth...~
@58 = ~You mimic the soft snuffling sound of a rabbit and after only a short while a cute and swift looking rabbit emerges from the undergrowth...~

//TP2 Copy&Name
@59 = ~Call Animal Companion~
@60 = ~%name%~
@61 = ~Attack~
@62 = ~Defensive Howl~
@63 = ~Hamstring Biting~
@64 = ~Hamstring Biting: Ended~
@65 = ~Slowed~
@66 = ~Web~
@67 = ~Alertness~
@68 = ~Zigzag~
@69 = ~Find Animal Companion~
@70 = ~%name%'s corpse~
@71 = ~Rod~
@72 = ~Rod of Resurrection~
@73 = ~Rods are about three feet long and as thick as your thumb. They are normally found in cases or similar storage places. Rods can be fashioned from metal, wood, ivory, or bone. They can be plain or decorated and carved, tipped, or not.  Rods are powered by charges, unless noted otherwise in the description of a particular rod. Each time the rod is used, one or more charge may be expended.~
@74 = ~Rod of Resurrection
This rod enables anyone to resurrect the dead as if they were of high enough level to cast the resurrection spell and if they were a priest. No rest is required, as the rod bestows the life giving effects.  Each use of the rod expends one charge.

STATISTICS

Special Abilities (one charge):  Resurrection~

 

 

Full text as file:

 UBRPET.tra   6.74K   356 downloads

 

*Edit* Updated text with Daulmakan's improvements.

Edited by Ulb, 07 May 2013 - 03:20 PM.

[Daulmakan]

My suggestions:

@8 = ~%name% is what you be called from now on.~

Either 'you are called' or 'you will be called' (as you wrote below).

@16 = ~Great, lets get going then.~

let's.

@18 = ~%name% tilts it's head and waits for your instructions.~

its.

@19 = ~I want you to behave all natural. Do as you normally would do, whether we are in combat or not.~

I think 'naturally' instead of 'all natural' sounds better.

@31 = ~Just stay within hearing range and I will call, once I need you back here.~

I'd change the last part to '...and I will call you when I need you back here'.

@34 = ~That was fun, lets get going then.~

let's.


You have several sentences that differ very little between them, to the point that it doesn't seem worth it to have two strings saying almost the same thing IMO.

@72 = ~Rod of Resurrection~
@73 = ~Rods are about three feet long and as thick as your thumb. They are normally found in cases or similar storage places. Rods can be fashioned from metal, wood, ivory, or bone. They can be plain or decorated and carved, tipped, or not. Rods are powered by charges, unless noted otherwise in the description of a particular rod. Each time the rod is used, one or more charge may be expended.~
@74 = ~Rod of Resurrection
This rod enables anyone to resurrect the dead as if they were of high enough level to cast the resurrection spell and if they were a priest. No rest is required, as the rod bestows the life giving effects. Each use of the rod expends one charge.

STATISTICS

Special Abilities (one charge): Resurrection~

When you're using strings already present in the vanilla game, instead of repeating them in your .TRA you can just point the game to those lines. For example, instead of doing SAY DESC @74 in your .tp2, you could just do SAY DESC #39620 and not have to do that line in the .TRA.

Your mod seems nice, I'll give give it a try once it's out.

[Ulb]

Thanks for your input Daulmakan, I'll update my .tra file and the one in my first post in a minute.

 

As for those very similar lines, each of them is for a different kind of animal. (E.g.: ''.. my winged friend.'' is for a wyvern and ''., my big friend.'' for a brown bear. So those lines won't show up together.

 

About the already present description lines; I wasn't sure whether the dialogue entries are really the same for each install or might change (due to another mod or just the order in which you install the patches and fixpacks).

 

Also, I always thought WeiDU would search the dialogue.tlk file and avoid duplication lines, all by itself?

 

Anyway, thanks again for your help.

[Daulmakan]

As for those very similar lines, each of them is for a different kind of animal. (E.g.: ''.. my winged friend.'' is for a wyvern and ''., my big friend.'' for a brown bear. So those lines won't show up together.

I meant these type of lines:

@19 = ~I want you to behave all natural. Do as you normally would do, whether we are in combat or not.~
@20 = ~I want you to keep behaving all natural and do as you normally would do, whether we are in combat or not.~

@21 = ~I want you to only do what I tell you to do, at least while we are not in combat. It is OK for you to behave naturally while we are in combat, though.~
@22 = ~I want you to keep doing only what I tell you to do, at least while we are not in combat. It is still OK for you to behave naturally while we are in combat, though.~

@23 = ~I want you to only do what I tell you, whether we are in combat or not. No matter what happens, you will only do as I tell you.~
@24 = ~I want you to keep doing only what I tell you to do, whether we are in combat or not.~

@14 = ~Fine. Now that this is settled, there is something else I wanted from you...~
@15 = ~Now, listen %name%, there's something else I want...~
@33 = ~There is something else I wanted from you...~

Still your call, though, I don't want to nitpick too much.
 

About the already present description lines; I wasn't sure whether the dialogue entries are really the same for each install or might change (due to another mod or just the order in which you install the patches and fixpacks).

Assuming the standard install of english ToB with latest patch, the order/reference of the vanilla lines shouldn't change.
 
 

Also, I always thought WeiDU would search the dialogue.tlk file and avoid duplication lines, all by itself?

You are correct. (That's what I get for not reading the entire weidu Readme).

[Ulb]

The first three of your quotes are 'either-or' lines too.

If the animal's A.I. is currently set to another option you'll get the 'I want you to do..' line.

If the A.I. option is already set to that value, you'll get the 'I want you to keep...' line.

 

As for the three other lines, you are probably right. Though a little variation isn't too bad I guess.

 

Assuming the standard install of english ToB with latest patch, the order/reference of the vanilla lines shouldn't change.

Hm, but what about other languages? If the string entries aren't the same for those languages, pointing to a stringref instead of just adding the whole text would probably complicate things a lot for potential translators.

[Daulmakan]

Hm, but what about other languages? If the string entries aren't the same for those languages, pointing to a stringref instead of just adding the whole text would probably complicate things a lot for potential translators.

I don't know for sure because I don't have BG2 in other languages, but If I was a dev, I'm pretty sure the sensible thing to do would be translating strings into other languages without changing their dependencies, that would mean extra work for no reason. And doing the # thing would save you copy/paste time and your translators wouldn't need to translate lines that are already available from within the game.

[Gwendolyne]

As far as I know, I had little problems with the dialog.tlk and dialogF.tlk files.

 

When I began to write my dialogs, I used many # strings to avoid too much job for the translators.

Everything was fine in French until I dowloaded the US dialog file !

 

Sometimes, in French, the translators changed the structure of strings to make them fit better to the background.

 

The simplest exemples are "oui" and "non" ("yes" and "no") : in many cases, "oui" or "no" are enough to respond a question in French, but when you look in the US files, you find "yes I can" or "no I won't" just because it's the way english language is ruled.

And I  know it is the same thing in German and in Spanish.

 

Furthermore, sometimes we must change the string in the dialogF file because the male string doesn't suit to a female character.

So, the same string in the dialog file may have different entries in the dialogF one !

 

All that to tell you, Ulb, that I had to rewrite all my dialogs !

 

So the best thing to do is to write your own strings and let WeiDU do its job : compare the strings and write new ones when needed !

There are exceptions of course, such as "Epée courte +1" that will always have the same meaning in every language : "Short sword +1" !

Edited by Gwendolyne, 07 May 2013 - 09:04 PM.

[Ulb]

Aye, thanks for the elaboration (both of you).

I'll keep putting everything into the tra file, seems to be the safer way.