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New UI and Localization overhaul
GrayKodiak
Member CommonPosts: 576
http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/02/11/age-of-wushu-gets-a-ui-and-localization-overhaul/
Massively is reporting that Age of Wushu is getting a much needed locatlization overhaul
"In response to player feedback from the closed betas, the development team has been working on a major overhaul of the game's localization and UI."
Good on them, this was one area everyone, even fans of the game, thought some attention was needed...and it is nice to know they are doing more on the extended beta than celebrating the chinese new years.
I do like how they have condensed text to fit the tab instead of having all that spill over I hope this goes into other game elements as well.
Comments
I wonder if this extends beyonds the menu. Are they changing up the GUI ingame? E.g health bars, avatar logo, etc.
But hey Snail is stepping up their UI game in closed beta not a lot of devs do that.
WIND...FLOWER...SNOW...MOON!
LUNAR AIR BLOSSOM CHILLY ATTACK!
True,
but the descriptions of those skills could use some standardization and localization and simplification.
agreed
Here's an example of "westernizing" might change a skill name beyond recognition:
Trivia:
The ability name for "Wind Flower Snow Moon" in Chinese is ???? (Feng Hua Xue Yue)
A more meaningful translation in English would be "The wind rustles flowers under a snow white moon"
In Japanese, this Chinese idiom is often rephrased as (the equivalent) ???? (Kanji)
This is also the original Japanese name of a skillchain in Final Fantasy 11 - in English it is "westernize" to "Cosmic Elucidation"
"A game is fun if it is learnable but not trivial" -- Togelius & Schmidhuber
' Wind rustle flowers under a snow white moon'...
Would be awesome, nuff' said.
yeah if they do that, I'm cool.
I don't know the flat out literal translation really captures that old bad translated kung fu flick feel.
I think its a great sign that they are actually listening to players in the beta.
However I dont get why so many people make such a big deal about the UI. I can see how it needs improvment but I have read in a few AoW threads about how some people say it makes it unplayable.
In fact, if you know Chinese yourself, you'll understand how hard it is to translate it in English because the linguistic system is so different. Translation word by word is simply impossible, not to mention this game actually uses lots of Chinese poems and literature. I can only say that the translation will take so much time to be perfect, if it ever could. Coming from a Chinese background, I always kept on laughing myself whenever I read English attempts of translation on Chinese poems.
I think they should just focus on getting the important information right - the tutorials, the in game info, the tooltips, etc. Skill names and such isn't that important to translate "right" as long as you manage to describe how each skill/feature actually works.
has this happened yet? the game releases in like 2 weeks, right?
They just added the patch for this today, actually. The UI definitely looks more aesthetically pleasing now.
EDIT: Actually, I'm not a fan of the new font for chat. I really don't like how it looks in the chat bubbles, it just looks odd somehow. I want my old font back!
Consume. Be silent. Die.
That is pretty cool!!
I always said the game would be great if they would trash the clunky overcomplicated UI and also have a better localization.
Finally a developer who is listening? It must be Christmas
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
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The Return of ELITE !
Yeah, they did it. Localiztion seems correct. Item names remain constant through menus
In all honesty if you couldn't understand in order to learn before, you will still be stuck by the learning curve, even though it's easier to understand.
There is no way around it. Where as games we've been playing in the west have 5 systems max (questing, raids, battle grounds, and crafting) AoW has atleast 10x that amount.
There is no magical menu that explains all that's possible.
the magic is making complicated systems easy to handle with a intuitive user interface, that is where AoW completely fails and needs to redo the UI from scratch.
It´s like Android OS vs. Iphone OS, both systems do the same but Android is a cluttered, chaotic mess compared to IOS usability
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
.
.
The Return of ELITE !
So are quest/mission texts actaully readable now? When I talk to an NPC does it make sense and have actual structure to the conversation instead of random gibberish?
The games really not hard to figure out at all and those blaming the 'learning curve' for people not liking it I think are using it as a shield, but having to skip pretty much every piece of text because it made more sense to not bother reading it was seriously immersion breaking.
That analogy doesn't really work. The Iphone and andriod are equal in features. Even if you feel the Iphone is easier to use.
AoW is like an Iphone, the games we've been playing in the west (except EVE) are like Motorolla razors. There's just that much more content in AoW. No matter what they do the learning curve will be too much for some.
They were before, it was broken english though. It took effort sometimes to understand.
What I'm saying is if someone could not take the time to make the connection before, they will not take the time to learn the mountain of features and content now either.
No one is saying that the localization and translations were good before. I mean some of the cut scense were like "wtf did he just say?" It was never to the point of game breaking, complete disconnect though.
So are they readable, in english, and not broken like they were before? You avoided the question and didnt answer it at all.
For you it may be not be game breaking, but for people that like to read quest/mission dialog and feel part of a world they play in, it certainly is. If a developer cannot be bothered to translate a game to english, for an english market, it doesnt give me much confidence in what they are doing.
Blaming, shielding, avoiding, and can not be botherd, geez . Gonna chalk all that up to us typing and not talking.
I didn't mean to avoid your question, they were readable before. As far as being clearer, I can't answer that. I have not done a quest since the first 2-3 hours of the tutorial 4 months ago. I'll do a 16 man in a couple hours and let you know how the text in the cut scenes looks now.
I can tell you that questing is not what attatches you to AoW thoguh. Where as in other mmos questing is key to progression, story, and lore, in AoW this is simply not the case. You don't quest to cap, or for rep or xp for that matter. If someone where to quest (not many do) it would be because they just like questing. The rewards a next to none.
Immersion comes from a living world that reacts to your actions. In all honesty if you are thinking about playing because you like questing, AoW probably wont work for you.
The $150k winner take all, all exspense paid, mainland China 1v1 invitational, along with 20 million players world wide should give you confidence in what they are doing.