Jaroslav Beneš
ea50c6dfa6
The 125-line conversation between the two copies of the player created by the black-hole/white-hole jump inside the Ash Twin Project: confused-memory banter, the dating jokes (Gossan/Slate), the "figment of my imagination" bit, the "we are the Feldspar of weird time stuff" line, the panic-scream sequence, and the post-intro bragging menu. Both speakers are the player -> masculine, mutual ty. The 15 pure-scream onomatopoeia lines left verbatim as language-neutral. <i>/<b>/<Pause/>/<pause> markup and \\n\\n preserved; XML re-verified. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
261 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
261 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
# PLAN.md — Slovak translation of Outer Wilds
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Roadmap for building the mod. Status markers: ✅ done · 🚧 in progress · ⬜ todo.
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## Goal
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Add **Slovenčina** as a fully selectable language to *Outer Wilds*, covering the
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**base game and the *Echoes of the Eye* DLC**, distributed as an Outer Wilds Mod
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Manager mod. Quality target: natural, consistent Slovak — not literal machine
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output.
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## Approach
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- Built on **xen-42's Localization Utility / Interplanetary Polyglot**
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(`xen.LocalizationUtility`) — register a new language from one `Translation.xml`.
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No game files needed to build.
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- **Translation:** machine-assisted first pass (clean-room, no third-party
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translation text reused), then a **Slovak-speaking human review pass**. Phased by
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category so partial releases are usable: **UI/menus → dialogue/text walls →
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ship log**.
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- **Scope:** the single ~896 KB `Translation.xml` already contains base game + DLC
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strings together, so scope is "everything," sequenced internally by category.
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## Phases
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### Phase 1 — Repo scaffold & docs ✅
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`README.md`, `CLAUDE.md`, `PLAN.md`, and MIT `LICENSE` in place.
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### Phase 2 — Mod skeleton ✅
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Created the OWML mod shell, modelled on
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[`shippy/outer-wilds-czech`](https://github.com/shippy/outer-wilds-czech):
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- `manifest.json` — `author: Homer`, `uniqueName: Homer.SlovakTranslation`,
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`name`, `version`, `owmlVersion`, `dependencies: ["xen.LocalizationUtility"]`.
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- `ILocalizationAPI.cs` — interface copied from the utility.
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- `SlovakTranslation.cs` — `ModBehaviour` calling
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`api.RegisterLanguage(this, "Slovenčina", "assets/Translation.xml")`.
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- `SlovakTranslation.csproj` / `.sln`, `.gitignore`, empty `assets/`.
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- Optional: GitHub/Gitea release workflow.
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### Phase 3 — Import English source ✅
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Imported the base English `Translation.xml` (896 KB, 2424 entries, keys == values)
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from the utility repo into `assets/`. This is the file to translate.
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> Build verified: `dotnet build -c Release` compiles against the `OWML` /
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> `OuterWildsGameLibs` NuGet packages (no game install needed) and stages a
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> loadable mod folder (`SlovakTranslation.dll` + `manifest.json` +
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> `default-config.json` + `assets/Translation.xml`) in `bin/`.
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### Phase 4 — Glossary 🚧
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First draft of `docs/glossary.md` in place: tone/register locked (informal *ty*),
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and SK renderings proposed for the proper nouns and recurring terms below. Rows
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marked `❓ review` still need the Slovak-speaking review pass to finalize.
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Write `docs/glossary.md` fixing SK renderings (or keep-in-English decisions) for
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proper nouns and recurring terms, e.g.: Nomai, Hearthian, the Eye / Eye of the
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Universe, Ash Twin Project, Vessel, Black Hole Forge, Quantum Moon, Sun Station,
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ship log, Nomai statue, Ember Twin, Ash Twin, Timber Hearth, Brittle Hollow,
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Giant's Deep, Dark Bramble, Interloper, Stranger (DLC), Owlk/"Owlks" (DLC).
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Decide tone/register (informal *ty* vs. formal) and lock it here.
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### Phase 5 — Translate `<value>` entries 🚧
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Machine-assisted pass → human review, by category (UI/menus → dialogue → ship log),
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base + DLC. Preserve all `<color=…>`/`<i>` markup, entities, and speaker
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prefixes. Track progress and any hard-to-translate lines here or in issues.
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Progress by category (source has 3 sections — the flat `<entry>` list = dialogue/
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text walls, `<table_shipLog>` = ship log, `<table_ui>` = UI/menus):
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- **UI/menus (`<table_ui>`, 814 entries) — ✅ machine-assisted first pass done,
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place-name terms reviewed & locked.** All values translated; integer `<key>`
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IDs untouched; `\n`, `<!>` input-prompt tokens, `<Profile Name>`
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placeholder, and color/italic markup preserved; XML re-verified well-formed.
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Casing mirrors the source (ALL-CAPS button labels stay caps). A consistency
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re-pass applied the locked glossary terms (Scout → *Skaut*, Signalscope →
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*Signáloskop*, Timber Hearth → *Drevený kozub*, Ash/Ember Twin → *Dvojča
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Popolu / Dvojča Uhlíka*, etc.). Remaining: a general Slovak review of the
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non-proper-noun phrasings.
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- **Ship log (`<table_shipLog>`, 483 entries) — ✅ machine-assisted first pass done.**
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All values translated (location names + rumor/fact entries); string `<key>`
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lookups untouched; plain text (no markup). Narrator voice locked to masculine;
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ship-log place names locked in the glossary (§3, §5b). XML re-verified
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well-formed; mod builds. **Still needs the Slovak review pass.**
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- **Dialogue / text walls (flat `<entry>` list, 2423 entries) — 🚧 in progress.**
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Batched by **content type** (not planet — the flat list is asset-ID ordered):
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Nomai lore/wall-text (by speaker) → Hearthian villagers → travelers →
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player/system/DLC. Preserve `<color=…>`/`<i>`/`<size=…>` markup,
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template tokens (`<Pause/>`, `<TimeMinutes>`, `<NbTimeloops>`,
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`<…SinceRedGiant>`), `\n`, speaker prefixes, and per-entry whitespace.
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- **Batch 1 — Solanum (70 lines) ✅** — Quantum Moon pilgrim: astronomy-museum
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walls, Tower of Quantum Knowledge / Quantum Shrine, Eye philosophy. Feminine
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voice. Applied by key; XML re-verified; builds.
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- **Batch 2 — Vessel / warp-core debate (29 lines) ✅** — the Nomai clan
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debating how to obtain the advanced warp core for the Ash Twin Project
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(Oeno, Clary, Poke, Idaea, Avens, Cassava, Spire, Mitis) + Poke's personal
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reflections + the Vessel's escape-pod launch / crash computer log. Poke &
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Clary feminine, Annona masculine.
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- **Batch 3 — Orbital Probe Cannon (50 lines) ✅** — Construction Yard cyclones
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(Conoy, Spire, Cassava), building/firing the cannon (Cassava, Daz, Mallow,
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Privet, Avens, Yarrow), the "let's send a probe" decision, and the cannon's
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damage-report / launch-log system text. Avens masc, Ramie fem. Preserved
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`<TimeMinutes>`/`<TimeSeconds>` tokens and the "on the other
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appendage" Nomai joke.
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- **Batch 4 — Ash Twin Project warp mechanism (53 lines) ✅** — warp-tower
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alignment lore, White Hole Station tutorial, tower designs, ore/shell
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construction, warp-core-source debate (Yarrow, Clary, Poke, Root, Phlox,
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Oeno, Cycad, Annona, Ramie, Ilex). Pye fem, Plume masc. (Sun Station debate,
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firing, failure + memory statues still to come.)
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- **Batch 5 — Sun Station + memory statues (61 lines) ✅** — the Sun Station
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build debate (Idaea/Pye/Ramie/Poke), Pye's supernova/"gas" humor, the firing
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orders, the failure aftermath, and the memory statues + masks (Phlox, Daz,
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Yarrow, Ramie, Oeno, Root). Idaea masc. Preserved the 1304 countdown tokens
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(`<RemainingMinutes>`…) + `\n` and `<TimeMinutes>`/`<TimeSeconds>`.
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- **Batch 6 — High Energy Lab (42 lines) ✅** — the negative-time-interval
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experiments (Pye & Ramie), the white/black-hole-core setup, the 22-minute
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hypothesis, and the High Energy Lab / Sunless City labels + distance markers.
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Kept Pye/Ramie's "gas / aeriform" state-of-matter puns (flagged for review)
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and Conoy's "lose his head" joke.
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- **Batch 7 — Quantum caves (48 lines) ✅** — the quantum shard, the Quantum
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Moon locator, the wandering-rock / quantum-travel experiments, Coleus's
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disappearance and the search for him, and the Ember Twin shelter-path
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directions (Coleus, Melorae, Bur, Annona, Thatch, Plume). Coleus/Melorae
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masc. Kept the pre-discovery moon names (*putujúci / prízračný mesiac*) and
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Melorae's "my sedimentary friend" geologist humor.
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- **Batch 8 — Interloper shuttle + warp-tower scroll-wall (43 lines) ✅** — the
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comet crew discovering the exotic/ghost matter in the ruptured stone (Pye,
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Poke, Clary — all feminine; Poke & Clary are sisters), plus the leftover
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White Hole Station / warp-tower scroll-wall lines that finish the batch-4
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conversations (Clary/Poke/Root/Yarrow, incl. the Clary–Yarrow romance).
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- **Batch 9 — Brittle Hollow / Escape Pod 1 clan saga (94 lines) ✅** — the
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crash, the volcanic-moon danger, quantum-grove wandering trees/shard, the
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Eye-signal locator, the migration to the northern glacier, and the loss of
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loved ones (Plume, Thatch, Filix, Lami, Annona, Rhus, Ilex, Spire, Coleus,
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Cassava, Kousa). Filix & Melorae revealed **feminine** ("her note", "Aunt
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Melorae") — corrected batch 7's Melorae lines to feminine here.
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- **Batch 11 — final Nomai batch (113 lines) ✅ — ALL NOMAI DIALOGUE DONE.**
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The warp-window details, mining-sites/native-life (Coleus/Cycad/Oeno), the
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new-Vessel debate (Ilex), the memory-statue philosophy (Phlox/Daz/Cassava),
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the probe-cannon-origin / Eye-search debate (Avens/Cassava/Plume), the
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Sun Station "mission" humor (Idaea), the anglerfish-fossil study
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(Melorae/Coleus), and scattered scroll-wall leftovers. Privet revealed
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**feminine** ("her brother") — corrected her one masculine line in batch 3.
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**Every speaker-prefixed Nomai line is now translated.**
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- **Batch 10 — Bells scrolls + kids' game + Escall's clan history (87 lines) ✅**
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— the Tower of Quantum Knowledge pilgrimage scrolls (Bells), the Fossil Fish
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Cave anglerfish blindfold game (Laevi/Taget/Ilex/Lami), and the ancient
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"Disappearance of Escall" myth + Escape Pod 3 / Secca–Din (Canna, Bromi,
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Clem, Hyssop, Neem, Escall, Filix, Din). Distant place names translated
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(*Súmračná galaxia*, *Čierna skala*, *Jasná iskra*) and flagged.
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- **Nomai dialogue: ✅ complete.** Remaining dialogue is the ~1725
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Hearthian/player lines (villagers, the travelers, player-facing/system text).
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- **Hearthian villagers — 🚧 started.**
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- **Batch 12 — Museum + Slate (100 lines) ✅** — the museum signs/exhibits
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and Slate the shipbuilder's whole launch-day conversation (ship, launch
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codes, ship-log markers, marshmallows, his jabs). First use of **mláďa**
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(Hatchling). Player addressed as *ty*; "Stars above" → *Hviezdy nad nami*;
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Hearthian names kept (Slate, Hornfels, Gossan, Hal, Mica).
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- **Batch 13 — Hal + Gossan + Hornfels (204 lines) ✅** — the rest of launch
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day: Hal (translator inventor, the new Nomai statue), Gossan (flight coach,
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zero-g training), and Hornfels (curator, launch codes, the travelers'
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whereabouts, Feldspar, and his redshift "Observations" exhibit on the
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expanding universe). "Stars above" → *Hviezdy nad nami*; translator tool →
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*prekladač*; preserved `<Pause>`/`<Pause/>`/`<color=grey>` and `\n\n`.
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The village kids (Tephra, Galena, Marl, Rutile…) and other NPCs remain.
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- **⚠️ Scope correction (batch 17):** the earlier line-counts under-counted.
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A proper scan (a value is untranslated iff it's a suffix of its ID-prefixed
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key — e.g. key `MeetGabbro3F…` / value `…`) shows **~1090 dialogue lines
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still untranslated**, not the ~730 previously estimated. Remaining blocks
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(asset-ID ranges): player-self/duplicate convo (169–308, 140), **Gabbro
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366–575 ✅**, Feldspar/Chert HUD signs (800–842, 1329–1380, 1822–1840),
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village kids (1459–1752, ~260), Chert campsite (1975–2283, 308), Signalscope
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kid + misc (2360–2421, 59), plus generic traveler responses interleaved.
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- **The travelers — 🚧 started** (Gabbro, Riebeck, Feldspar, Esker, Chert; each a
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big campsite conversation).
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- **Batch 17 — Gabbro (204 lines) ✅** — the laid-back "time buddy" on
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Giant's Deep (*Obrova hlbina*): his surfer-philosopher patter about the
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time loop, the memory statues, Statue Island (*Ostrov sôch*, his coinage),
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the Orbital Probe Cannon breaking, his quantum poem/art, the meditation
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mini-lesson, and the deep-space-satellite ("Ol' Spacey" → **Vesmírko**)
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inspection log. Masculine; player as *ty*; Hornfels masculine (per existing
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SK). Preserved `<i>`/`<Pause>` markup and the many repeated
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menu blocks. **Flag for review:** the "Ol'"-is-affectionate line (465)
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references old-ness while the nickname *Vesmírko* carries affection via
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diminutive instead — minor disconnect. Remaining travelers: Chert (308),
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Esker, Riebeck/Feldspar leftovers.
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- **Player / self dialogue — 🚧 started.**
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- **Batch 18 — the "two of you" black-hole duplicate convo (125 lines) ✅**
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— the meeting between the two copies of the player created by the
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black-hole/white-hole jump (Ash Twin Project): the confused-memories
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banter, the dating jokes (Gossan/Slate, "Gossan's eye"), the "are you a
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figment of my imagination" bit, the *"we are the Feldspar of weird time
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stuff"* line, the panic-attack screaming sequence, and the post-intro
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bragging menu (first solo trip, Sun-Station landing, "even Riebeck
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survived their first launch"). Both speakers are the player → **masculine**;
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they address each other as *ty*. The 15 pure-scream onomatopoeia lines
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(AAAH, with `<b>`/`<size=50>` markup) left verbatim as
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language-neutral. Preserved `<i>`/`<b>`/`<Pause/>`/`<pause>`
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markup and `\\n\\n`.
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- **Batch 14 — Feldspar (120 lines) ✅** — the boastful crashed ace in Dark
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Bramble (his crash tale, the anglerfish skeleton camp, the "space is
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bigger inside the seeds" theory). Masculine; heavy on *mláďa*; kept his
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swagger. Remaining travelers: Gabbro (~213), Riebeck (~125), Chert (~150),
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Esker (~160).
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- **Batch 15 — Riebeck (69 lines) ✅** — the anxious, stammering archaeologist
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on Brittle Hollow: loves the Nomai ruins (the Hanging City), terrified of
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the "you-know-what" (black hole). Masculine; timid *ehm/uf* voice; kept the
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`<size=20>` shrinking-text asides. (His planet's HUD labels + the museum
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star/skeleton exhibits interleaved in this range are deferred to their own
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batches.) Remaining travelers: Gabbro (~213), Chert (~150), Esker (~160).
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- **Batch 16 — Nomai shrines + system/HUD text & location signs (98 lines) ✅**
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— a sweep of the player-facing/system and Nomai-shrine text interleaved
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through the flat list that earlier speaker-based batches skipped: the
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**Eye Shrine** and **Quantum Shrine** wall-text (the *Oko vesmíru* signal
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philosophy Q&A), the **Tower of Quantum Knowledge** trial/pilgrimage lines
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("Seek the wandering arch", quantum-imaging congratulations), the Brittle
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Hollow **location signs** (districts + directional `\\n(sever/juh/… N m)`
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markers — *Visuté mesto*, *Kováreň čiernych dier*, *Veža kvantového
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poznania*, etc.), the **Escape Pod 2/3 flightlogs** + cannon/probe/Sun-tower
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system readouts (`<NbTimeloops>`, `<TimeMinutes>`,
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`<MinutesSinceRedGiant>` tokens preserved), and scattered UI labels
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(RECORDING → *NAHRÁVANIE*, warnings/verdicts, "the Prisoner" → *Väzeň*).
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Directions localized (north→sever, below→dole, left→vľavo…); "281,042" →
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*281 042*. Left the two ASCII-art easter eggs (LOADING/QR) unchanged. XML
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re-verified well-formed. **Only remaining key==value entries are the 22
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Hearthian/Nomai character names (kept in English) + those 2 art blocks.**
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Terminology change (applied file-wide): **Black Hole Forge → Kováreň čiernych
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dier** (was *Zlieváreň čiernej diery*) — 15 occurrences across ship log + dialogue.
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### Phase 6 — Diacritic / font check ⬜
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Verify the stock game font renders all Slovak glyphs
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(á ä č ď é í ĺ ľ ň ó ô ŕ š ť ú ý ž). Only if any are missing: build a font asset
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bundle in **Unity 2019.4.27f1** and wire `api.AddLanguageFont(...)`.
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### Phase 7 — Build & in-game test ⬜
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**Prerequisite:** install *Outer Wilds* + Outer Wilds Mod Manager + OWML (none are
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on this machine yet). Then `dotnet build`, load via the Mod Manager, select
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Slovenčina, and verify menus, dialogue, and ship log render correctly.
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### Phase 8 — Release ⬜
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Tag a Gitea release; optionally submit to the Outer Wilds mod database so the mod
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appears in the Mod Manager for everyone.
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## Open items / risks
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- **Font coverage** for Slovak-specific glyphs (ľ ĺ ŕ ô ä) is unverified until
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in-game testing (Phase 6/7).
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- **Translation volume is the real cost** — ~896 KB of source text. A
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Slovak-speaking review pass is essential, especially for DLC/dialogue nuance,
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puns, and Nomai text-wall length constraints.
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- **In-game testing is blocked** until the game + Mod Manager are installed locally.
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- Confirm the tone/register decision (Phase 4) early — reworking it later is costly.
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## References
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- Localization Utility / Interplanetary Polyglot (framework, MIT, source template):
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https://github.com/xen-42/outer-wilds-localization-utility
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- Czech mod (structure reference): https://github.com/shippy/outer-wilds-czech
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- OWML: https://github.com/ow-mods/owml
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- Mod Manager: https://outerwildsmods.com/mod-manager/
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