Dear JAF Staff, Sorry to bother you, I'm a Chinese player. I would like to know, if you interest in supporting Chinese? As you know, on Steam, there's many games that support Chinese. But there's always one problem, that is the translation is very bad. In China, there's many players which love to play TBS games. So I suggest, if you want to make the game support Chinese, you may make a notice and get some Chinese players which have good English level to make the Chinese language patch. You could make the notice on your website or Steam. And if you do have this thought, I am one of the best persons. As I love this type of game, it will be my pleasure to do the translation.

honestly at this point making game s(in this case translate) for the chinese market  that are not MMOs doesnt make much sense since all other games are going to be pirated. so IMHO dont waste money on something that has zero potential for sales.

if some fan wants to do it on his own it should be possible due to modability

I don't think there's "zero" profit of gamesaling in China. I just bought two games from Steam. And there are many "me".

so your are suffering from Dissociative identity disorder :P

I think we'll start out with the "basic" Language package ...EFIGS + a few other languages...not certain and I think there's also been some talk about letting dedicated fans do the translation for e.g. Polish or as you suggest Chinese...but I really can't say at this point. 

I truly appreciate your reply, mister! Last year, I translate the game Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge into Chinese all by myself. (I can show you the Chinese patch, if you like.) Maybe I have some difficulties in speaking English, but I can ensure you my translation (English to Chinese) is good.

I totally see your point, mister. I must say, if, just if, you have the plan, please, let me know. At that time I will be very grateful to do the translation!

Don't joke on me, my friend. You know what I mean. Not all the Chinese are thieves.

software piracy is not thieving. but piracy is a big thing in china not only concerning software but also music and movies. you cant deny that.

You are right. But if you are in my country, maybe you can understand that.

I think we'll make a post as some point when we'd be ready for this..probably right before release or post release so all text is ready. If we setup the system properly it shouldn't be too difficult to get new translations in the game. 

Thank you, sir! I'll be waiting and preparing for that time then!

Piracy may be big in China, but legitimate sales are even bigger.  Worth considering!

Don't forget you also may have an opportunity to reach other Chinese-speaking markets like in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Sir, sorry to bother you again, I see JAF have already log on steam, maybe you can upload the English text to a network disk, so our fans can make the translation? You see, as the steam beta version show up, every Jagged Alliance players will buy and test the game, so we will be very glad to translate the game as soon as the game update. Waiting for your reply, sir.

I believe the text should be in the json files with the game. You might want to personally look into it more what's available and can be modified. However, much is subject to change (game is expected to be finished on November) so I think starting a translation project a little later might be wise. 

I did a quick test by modifying this file: "...\SteamApps\common\Jagged Alliance Flashback\game_Data\StreamingAssets\Original\Data\Quests\Farmer'sDaughter.json"
The file was ANSI encoded, but I used Notepad++ and converted the encoding to UTF-8 (without bom). Chinese characters seem to work after that:

imo its too early to start translating. the text ingame is far from complete and completely subject to change. so wait some time if you dont want your efforts to be wasted

There is no reason to start translating text until we're furhter into development, they're still WIP and there's a lot missing a this point

just to reiterate my previous statement. on some chinese site JAF is already available!!!!!! case and point!

Sorry to bother you, sir. Is now the right time to release the English game text?

The English text is in the game and is freely editable once you purchase the game. I think now would be a good time to start translating to other languages as the game story is finished. Might still get a few sidequest added, but not sure.

If you were to create a Chinese translation, it might be required to create in a way that your translation replaces one of the existing localization. Or has Full Control made it easy to add a new language localization files and a dynamic language selection button? Developers are probably better to answer, what's the best approach for your project.

Thank you for your reply! I will make some money from doing part-time job, and purchase the game on Steam. Waiting for Mr. Admin.....

FullControl is still on christmas holiday until the 5th of january. You´ll probably have to wait until then for a reply from the Admins.

I personally think it´s a good idea to have the game translated into chinese. Especially if you want to do it for free. I don´t think FC could/would do it by themselves, because it´s kind of hard for non native speakers to do so. Imo a proper chinese translation would just raise the legal sales. So why not? You have at least my vote ;)

And yes, the conversations and text should be somewhere in the .json files already. If no major update is planed anymore, nobody can stop you from getting started.

Thank you for your reply and thank you for your support from words you said! What you said is exactly what I thought about! Like I said before, I translate this kind of game, because I like to do so. And I don't want a peny. Maybe it will increase some Chinese player to buy this game. With the money increased, maybe the game will become better!

Think we're looking into making the text avaialbel for community translation, thogh not top priority at the moment. 

Sir, I have noticed the game's situation recently. So I still wonder, after the final updated version, you still release the text, right? Because we still got passion to translate.

Thanks man. I have noticed that. But I just think, it is better that admin give it to us offically.

Better yes, but i wouldnt expect much from that direction anymore.

But i maybe still have good news for you. A while ago the developers send shanga all JAF quests and dialogues in ChatMapper format. Shanga is the head of the bears pit community (Big Jagged Alliance Fan and Modding Community) and they see him as the best way to reach the community.

I doubt that there are much chinese in the bears pit but its a experinced modding community so they are maybe able to help you.

http://thepit.ja-galaxy-forum.com/index.php?t=msg&th=22508&goto=340024&#msg_340024

Chat Mapper is available in a free to use version and its probably a better way for editing the dialog files than using Notepad++.

http://www.chatmapper.com/download-now/

Sorry for stiring up the old discussion. But just to give my 2 cents: the game is also available in most of the western pirate "communitys"/places since version 0.2 so your argument isnt a real argument. Piracy is also big in russia and yet some of the biggest JA fan community come from there. I come from Germany and piracy is very common here too (No matter if the people have the money or not). There has also been a research study that found out that the same people that pirate the most stuff are also the very same people that also buy the most of that stuff.

And by the way there are about 120 million people speaking german in the world and about 500 million people speaking english but there are about 890 million people that speak standart chinese (Mandarin/Putonghua) out there (All numbers including non native speakers).

Its the most spoken language in the world so there is definitly a big market.

@gdalf

Because you mentioned Hong Kong, everybody there speaks english and native language is Cantonese (or Yue chinese) not mandarin.

Just for the heck of pointing out that there is more than one chinese language but of course i think Celice is talking about mandarin.

Thanks man. I create an account on the Bear's Pit, and I spoke to him once. He is very kind and patient. After seeing the website above, maybe now is not the best time to start translate, I may wait till Mr. Shanga and his team make JAF better, and then maybe I can ask more people to help me translate. But before that, I definately should ask Shanga for his permision. Or even then the game is already good enough, maybe some people whose english level better than me will replace me to do the translation. And thank you again for mention that.