Translation glitches

[Unimatrix11]

Its really nice that you can switch languages in Civ4 without reloading the game. But there are several glitches in the german version:

- "Power" (as in the powergraph) is translated as "Elektrizität" which obviously means "electicity" - not quite the same as "power" - suggestion: make it "Macht" (like the "force" in "Star Wars")

- when a nuke is fired it says "xy zünedete eine atombombe über yz, die JEDOCH explodierte" (or something like this) - this translates back to: "xy fired a nuke at yz, BUT it did explode" - now you can guess this is rather confusing... it is a message for a succesful nuclear strike as i figured later... the BUT (JEDOCH) needs to be removed at the least - if firaxis needs help with german translation--- here i am...

[Wiglaf]

Thoes problems have been around forever. Either start speaking English or edit some game files, I'm sure it's possible if you get digging.

[Unimatrix11]

Sure it´s possible to ask thousands of civers to edit the files for themselves - it would be just so much more efficient, if it was done once at firaxis and included in a patch for everyone, right ?

And btw i do speak english (as You can see, duh !)- but how is your german ? These are just minor glitches, no real problems, but they should be easy to fix. As i said, that civ4 offers a couple of languages is great - i bought my vanilla civ in vegas and was pretty surprised to be able to play it in german...

Anyways - i cant stand this (typical american arrogant) attitude of "everybody should speak english anyways" - heck even You guys should learn at least one more language (spanish i´d suggest, as You have a lot of spanish speaking people in the southwest), just like EVERY other "western" people does. IF there was one language, everybody should learn, it ought to be mandarin anyways...

OH and btw: thank god, Your avatar is unconstitutional.

[_BuRjaCi_]

Originally posted by Unimatrix11
Sure it´s possible to ask thousands of civers to edit the files for themselves - it would be just so much more efficient, if it was done once at firaxis and included in a patch for everyone, right ?

And btw i do speak english (as You can see, duh !)- but how is your german ? These are just minor glitches, no real problems, but they should be easy to fix. As i said, that civ4 offers a couple of languages is great - i bought my vanilla civ in vegas and was pretty surprised to be able to play it in german...

Anyways - i cant stand this (typical american arrogant) attitude of "everybody should speak english anyways" - heck even You guys should learn at least one more language (spanish i´d suggest, as You have a lot of spanish speaking people in the southwest), just like EVERY other "western" people does. IF there was one language, everybody should learn, it ought to be mandarin anyways...

OH and btw: thank god, Your avatar is unconstitutional.

Unimatrix11 is right, poor translation makes for fewer games sold so Firaxis has a financila interest to fix this, since at least 100 million people can speak german.

[snoopy369]

http://civilized.de/www/content/index.php?cat=civ4_deutsch

[Unimatrix11]

Danke !

[Wiglaf]

And btw i do speak english (as You can see, duh !)- but how is your german ?

German is irrelevant.

OH and btw: thank god, Your avatar is unconstitutional.

Is that another stipulation Americans put into your constitution? Can't have political avatars?

[Unimatrix11]

Well, no, of course the avatar itself is not unconstitunional - but what it stands for is. 2 terms max - thats your constitution - we had Kohl for 4 terms (and he ran for a fifth, but lost (in 98)).

A pity you btw, for never being able to read the originals of Marx, Nietzsche, Goethe, Clausewitz, Guderian, Menck, Manstein, Lessing, Schiller, Brecht, Grass......

(As for a joke i threw my name in there as well - now which one is it ?)

[Wiglaf]

My Latin's gotten rusty, too. Can't read Virgil, Caesar, Catullus, etc in the original anymore. My knowledge of irrelevant languages truly isn't what it used to be.

[Solver]

Get back on topic.

[Krill]

Catullus isn't hard to read...Tacitus only requires me to get out a dictionary for the occasional word...

[Unimatrix11]

Now will there be a latin version of Civ 4 ?
I mean that german is within civ4´s options truely shows how irrelevant it is... oh yeah - all my software is german language. Actually i get my games in german so i can play with a polish buddy of mine. He doesnt speak english - but at least two (living) languages: Polish and German.
But i hope to to be able get Windows Vista in latin.

I guess "relevance" has something to do with "scope" - if it is very narrow, then a lot seems to be "irrelevant"...

[Civilized 67]

Not all Americans are hopelessly self-centered and arrogant (Just the Republicans ). And it's true that the vast majority of us can't speak but one language, but, until recently, one language was all you needed to know in the US.

On the other hand, I'm personally grateful that English is so widespread. It enables Americans, Germans, Swedes, Brazilians, Latvians, etc. to all communicate in one language as we do on this forum and many others on the Internet.

But yes, you're right, the translations should be better. Maybe if the translators would actually read through all of the material and understand the context in which a word was used this wouldn't be such a problem. I see this all the time in Japanese Anime/Manga where the translator translated the term with no regard for the context in which it was being used, leading to awkward word choices and mangled syntax...Very Frustrating...

[Unimatrix11]

Anime no tomodachi !

[Proteus_MST]

If I emember correctly the mistranslaton of power isn´t even a new one. AFAIK it was already translated into electricity in Civ III

Well, poor translations are one of the reasons why I prefer games, books and movies in their original language instead of the german translation (even with good translations it often makes a difference to read it in original language, for example many jokes in the Hitchhikers guide to galaxy are much funnier in the english original than in the german translation)