Used encoding

Hello,
I started to write a custom translation of this wonderful game to help some of my friends to better understand the game.
I looked through the game files and found these strings_xx.data files, where English currently is the Only complete files. So I simply write my translation directly into the strings_en.data file.
A quick test showed me a successful attempt at doing this.
But due to the fact that I’m trying to write a German translation, I assume that I will encounter a very common blockage in doing so.
The German language uses quite a bit of umlauts as äöüß.
Therefore I would like to know if I will encounter encoding problems with my use of given umlauts.
Or does this game uses UTF8 for its string encoding?

I would be really happy to receive a positive answer.
Thanks a lot.

Ok, a second test first showed me no umlauts ingame, instead of “Verflüssiger” only “Verflssiger” was written
Then I checked back with my text editor (Notepad++) the conversion of the strings-en.data ist utf-8 without BOM
So i simply marked up all of my written translation and told Notepad++ to convert everything in utf-8 without BOM.

Result: Working umlauts ingame!!!

MägñÏfiçënt! Good job! :smiley:

Sweet, if there’s one translation needed more than others it’s German. Good job!

Currently I’m at about 80% with my translation.

Line 1090 of 1363 within the strings-en.data
Still have to translate :

  • names.data (contains all the name parts that are used to compose these fancy chemicals names within your production line)
  • drugNames.data (all name parts for the drug naming process)
  • locations.data (all names of the expeditions locations) (maybe i will not translate that due to unique names etc.)

In general there are some missing strings in the strings-en.data (or they are not used if they are present)
for example: in the information windows of a equipment, drug oder ingredients the fields for process cost, cost per drug etc.

Ok i have finished my Translation.

It’s abit rough but should work.

When someone wants to try it, it can be found here : German Translation

All modded files are contains a _mod in their name, backups of the originals files are also present (sometimes needed to apply updates)

To install it simply copy the _mod.data files into \Big Pharma_Data\GameData
Delete or rename the original files (strings-en.data, drugNames.data and/or names.data)
Rename the _mod.data files to their original name (simply remove the _mod within the name)
Start the game
If it hangs in the screen where you see the BigPharma logo, then it can be that there is something wrong with one of the modded files
if a new game update was released and you have to update your game,
this can sometimes work with the modded files active and sometimes it won’t work,
therefore i included backups of the original files to remove my translation to install any update that will come

the original string-en.data is about 119kb large, my modded file is 123kb large, if an update introduces new strings it is likely that my translation won’t work anymore or has missing strings in it

I will not promised that i keep this translation up to date!

Currently I’m unhappy with the modded names.data, due to the facted that the algorithm that creates the names is not useable in the german language
Here’s an example:
English name : Bruised Fervillei Crystal
German Translation: Gequetschter Fervilleikristall
The problem here is, that in German we have gender specific variations of attributes: Gequetschter here would be male, Gequetschte would be female, Gequetschtes would be genderless
Therefore it wouldn’t make much sense to use the translated names.data, because I cannot add those variations without touching the naming algorithm, so that it can interpret the gender need in corresponse to the used object name
To explain it better:
the crystal - der Kristall (male)
the juice - der Saft (male)
the oil - das Öl (neutral)
the powder - das Pulver (neutral)
the liquid - die Flüssigkeit (female)
the air - die Luft (female)

German instruction to Install the Translation / Deutsch Anleitung um die Übersetzung zu nutzen

Ladet den Mod über den obigen Link herunter
Entpackt alle Dateien mit _mod in ihrem Namen nach \Big Pharma_Data\GameData
Löscht oder benennt die orginal Datein um (strings_en.data, drugNames.data, names.data)
Benennt meine modifizierten Dateien wie die original Datein (also entfernt das _mod im Namen)
Startet das Spiel
Wenn es beim BigPharma Logo hängen bleibt (es kommt kein Ladebalken) dann kann s sein das etwas mit den Datein nicht stimmt
Falls ein Update kommt, kann es mit der modifizierten Datein funktionen (dafür geb ich aber keine Garantie), wenn sie nicht funktionieren, dann nutzt die original Dateien (sind im Archiv mit enthalten)
Falls neue Strings hinzugefügt werden, kann es sein dass meine Übersetzung nicht mehr funktioniert

Ich verspreche nicht, dass ich diese Übersetzung aktuell halten werde!

An official translation is coming for full release but encourage those that would like to play in German to use Xcevion’s version for now.

A few notes:

  1. Swapping out the files will indeed mess up the patcher. You will need to swap the vanilla ones back in to avoid the file being completely garbled during an update.
  2. Some strings are not currently farmed out to the json file. This is not deliberate, just a simple oversight. I might in fact use these German language files to help me identify the ones that still need farming out!
  3. This one regards modding in general. My plan is to eventually have a separate “Mods” folder within which you will be able to place different versions of the “GameData” folder to act as mods without having edit the vanilla files themselves this will avoid the update issue in future, and allow potential modders to be a little more fast and loose with their antics without the fear of messing up the main game files.

To finish, I’d like to thank and congratulate Xcevion for their hard work in translating the game. Nice one!

Well thank you for your appreciation.

I didn’t translate all of it, the tutorial is still missing and there were some mistypes in the mod.
Therefore I uploaded an updated version, which was clear checked for mistypes, but still lacks the tutorial.
It can be found here BigPharmaGermanTranslation.rar.