Suggestions from Steam users

[Pepisolo]

From Steam user Alex [GER]

Again only english?
What is this - a game only in english language?
Not alle people speaks this language perfect and i will relaxe when i play a game not reading and learning. You have nor ressources for this activity?

Here is a game from a one man Studio http://www.unepicgame.com/en/game.html
and he has the importants 16 translations on board...

Please follows this sign.

Also, from Mr PineApple:

Translations
Hi, I think everybody should have change to play game on their own language. I would like to make a translation to the Finnish language.


Thanks,
Mr.Pineapple

Doesn't seem like there's a huge amount of text in this game. As I recall, Project Zomboid had a community translation project. Maybe SC could do the same. You'd just need to prepare some kind of template with all the original english text in place, which would presumably be mostly the tutorial, and hope you get some translator volunteers. Maybe more complex than I think, but worth discussing, at least.

Edit: Looking more closely at the game that the steam user Alex linked to, the translations did seem to be as a result of community help. They have a whole separate translations board. The user base of this forum is also vastly smaller than Arcen's, so it's likely that there would be enough interest to complete at least a few translations through the users on this board.

[Gammro]

Since there's no other "official" request and suggestions post:

I'd like it if there's something like an indefinite game. I started playing sandbox so I could see how long I can keep on playing, but I was put off by everything being free. So if there'd be a game mode where you can play indefinitely with resource management, I'd really like that. You don't even have to keep score(as I can imagine high scores will skyrocket), just the amount of rounds you've managed to not kill one side.

[Castruccio]

I second Gammro's idea.  Sounds like a lot of fun and a sort of test of will.

[Pepisolo]

I second Gammro's idea.  Sounds like a lot of fun and a sort of test of will.

Sounds like a fun type of survival mode.

[Aklyon]

It certainly sounds neat.

[Misery]

Here's one from a Steam user named "Waffles Of Mass Deliciousness":

1.Auto Turns (unless i have missed this somewhere) sometimes i just want to sit back and let the world unfold before me / let each faction build up resources.

This one sounds like a nice addition to me, if the interface bits for it can be figured out.

[zespri]

I saw this topic as well, and already answered it.
The mountains thing only works on the lower difficulties.  On "hard" or higher, you're not allowed to place mountains or lakes ever;  they're removed from the land-tile selection.
If you intend to later on play at a higher difficulty like that, it's best to learn to NOT use mountains/lakes too much, and instead find other solutions.

But, if you wall in a town, are not you preventing carnage and thus not getting the required score to win?

[zespri]

Doesn't seem like there's a huge amount of text in this game. As I recall, Project Zomboid had a community translation project. Maybe SC could do the same. You'd just need to prepare some kind of template with all the original english text in place, which would presumably be mostly the tutorial, and hope you get some translator volunteers. Maybe more complex than I think, but worth discussing, at least.

I think this question was asked in regards to other Arcen titles and the answer was that they prefer to spend the resources on different things, since it's not easy to ensure the quality of translations. It sounded like a concious choice, to target english speaking audience only. I of course could get it wrong, in this case I think I'll soon be corrected by Arcen staff.

[Misery]

I saw this topic as well, and already answered it.
The mountains thing only works on the lower difficulties.  On "hard" or higher, you're not allowed to place mountains or lakes ever;  they're removed from the land-tile selection.
If you intend to later on play at a higher difficulty like that, it's best to learn to NOT use mountains/lakes too much, and instead find other solutions.

But, if you wall in a town, are not you preventing carnage and thus not getting the required score to win?

Actually, no, you're not.   It's still easy to hit the score requirement.   You only need one walled-in town in order to make this tactic work.... and chances are you'll still have 4 or 5 other towns on that side.  You'll still have plenty of ways to meet the score requirement.

Of course, a walled in town isnt TOTALLY invincible (unlike, say, a town that's hit 100% enlightenment) as you can still get units popping up in there due to various effects.   But on those lower difficulties... which are the ones the tactic is possible on.... yeah, it's going to be pretty effective.

[KDR_11k]

Perhaps humans could start building hiking trails or tunnels when they have to go through a mountain.

[Breach]

Perhaps humans could start building hiking trails or tunnels when they have to go through a mountain.

As of patch 1.003, which disables mountain and lake placement in all modes except sandbox, it's not really an issue anymore 
Although that is quite an interesting idea! Maybe something that comes with the highest educational building or something... not reached that level yet so can't say whether that would be functional or not

[sojourner]

I understand why mountains and lakes were removed, however I think it is possible to balance them for all difficulties by giving them a lengthy cooldown, a 3 ap cost instead of one, and possibly a negative point hit.
The cooldown could scale with difficulty just like tokens, making it so that use at high levels especially would be severely limited, making it impossible to cordon off a town. Limited barriers would create interesting tactical opportunities, not exploitation and cheese.

[Pepisolo]

I think this question was asked in regards to other Arcen titles and the answer was that they prefer to spend the resources on different things, since it's not easy to ensure the quality of translations. It sounded like a concious choice, to target english speaking audience only. I of course could get it wrong, in this case I think I'll soon be corrected by Arcen staff.

OK, they must have their reasons. Community translation projects sound like a tremendous idea to me, though. Seems like an easy way to break out into a new audience at minimal resource cost. There is a bit of support for this on Steam, too. I won't post quotes from each person as anyone interested can just look at the translations thread on Steam.

[zespri]

OK, they must have their reasons. Community translation projects sound like a tremendous idea to me, though. Seems like an easy way to break out into a new audience at minimal resource cost. There is a bit of support for this on Steam, too. I won't post quotes from each person as anyone interested can just look at the translations thread on Steam.

I looked at a translation of Unepic and it does come off as unprofessional. Don't get me wrong, the game is still playable but it's not quite the language you'd expect in a polished title. To clarify, I'm not talking about english translation, I think they actually *paid* someone for this one.

[Pepisolo]

OK, they must have their reasons. Community translation projects sound like a tremendous idea to me, though. Seems like an easy way to break out into a new audience at minimal resource cost. There is a bit of support for this on Steam, too. I won't post quotes from each person as anyone interested can just look at the translations thread on Steam.

I looked at a translation of Unepic and it does come off as unprofessional. Don't get me wrong, the game is still playable but it's not quite the language you'd expect in a polished title. To clarify, I'm not talking about english translation, I think they actually *paid* someone for this one.

Quality is definitely a concern, but surely you could just hold off on actually implementing a specific translation until it reached a certain consensus quality level? For example, you just cast your eye over one of the Unepic translations and deemed it slightly sub-bar. You could do the same for an eventual Arcen translation and so could other fluent speakers. If the translation is generally accepted to be significantly off then I'm sure feedback would reveal it, and it could be iteratively improved. If it then reaches a certain level of professionalism it could be implemented in the game. You could just start with one language, let's say French, and see if the whole process works or falls completely flat.

Looking into this a little more, apparently the Xenonauts guys only officially support English, but they have prepared a way for users to import language packs. Unofficially supporting different languages. Maybe something more along these lines would be suitable to Arcen.