Back to work on it soon, really! (January 1st, 2010)

[starmage2006]

Ha! Never give up! Never surrender!

[bajol]

so how is the project going?
we havent had news in a while
is the project going well, or it is stoped due to some issue?

[Cless]

When I have anything else to post other than "script editing is still progressing," an update will be posted. My progress with that is always in my signature.

Anyway, how punny is ToP?

Too punny. Maybe not as punny as what I've heard of Dragon Quest V DS, though.

One thing that gets me about localizing Japanese puns is that you often need to do something ridiculous to make them work and be somewhat amusing. Very few of them can make it through without altering the original meaning.

I do say it's very hard to resist adding in less ridiculous English puns in various places where there weren't any puns originally. They just fit and feel better than the literal, dry translation, without harming anything that matters.

[Sirius9]

We're closing in on this editing draft anyway.  There's just one more plot heavy file that will probably be a bitch and the rest are tiny.  What that means for the release of the patch I can't say, but it will be a lot more interesting to play when it is released.  Cless should really release a patch containing just the raw translation, so that people will appreciate the work the team has put into this.  I doubt I'd make it past the mausoleum if I had to play it in that form. 

The script IS funnier now, and before Cless tells you he is Mr. Unfunny let me put it on record that I think there is only one major pun that he didn't come up with the working version of.  Sadly, the very funniest is in a scene I don't think most people will play the game thoroughly enough to see.   

[FSLink]

Sadly, the very funniest is in a scene I don't think most people will play the game thoroughly enough to see.   

Definitely post it somewhere on these boards after the patch is released  since I love puns. (so I can hopefully find it on my own.)

[Sirius9]

Whether any part of the script gets posted here or anywhere else on the internets is up to Cless.  But I'll be happy to give you a hint about where to look once the patch is released.

[LJkAze]

1% left; I would like to thank for your 10years of Hard work Cless and staff. Now await for your next Tales Projects ^_^

[Penance]

Could it be? This is going to be released soon?
What number draft is this, Cless? I seem to remember you mentioning you'd done a few.

[Cless]

Don't get the wrong idea, now. MY current draft is coming to a close. I'll be damned if this isn't the last major one from me, though. This is what the main script pipeline looks like right now:

1) Finish current draft (one file left) - May take a day or two when I actually sit down with it. Final battle confrontation...it needs to be well done, period.
2) Review Sirius9' changes for approval/disapproval/modification - Hopefully won't take longer than a week
3) Submit all changes to nusakan0 - Will be done simultaneously with #2
4) Review his corrections and any other modifications - Will probably take less than a week once I receive them.
5) Work out all lingering issues that remain; dumb little things still currently being stewed over, consistency issues, puns, etc - no idea how long this will take
6) Submit full script to nusakan0 to work on the final draft to patch up any remaining English problems and give him a little more creative freedom than before
7) Do the final review. This should not erupt into another major draft, so I hope it won't take more than a week.

It would be nice to think it won't take more than a couple months to get through all these steps, but it depends on everyone's schedules and motivation. More major drafts from me probably aren't going to be worthwhile as I think I'm reaching my limit as a writer. It's time to draw the line.

However, that's just the main script. Skits are still pretty far behind (though the skit script, I reiterate from the past, is not nearly as large as the main one). I'm hoping the experience I've gained over the last year will make that a lot smoother. Sirius9 has to go over these as well as another full draft by nusakan.

I'm really worried about the status of the menu text. I announced the edits were (finally) finished months ago, but I have been unsuccessful in actually getting them back for reasons unknown. The person in charge of them, gogs, has been completely MIA for the last three months. My last message requesting them has gone unanswered since. I don't know what's going on, but I hope gogs is well.

Habilain's got some cool stuff up his sleeve still, too. I received some new hacks a couple weeks ago, but they're still in development. Item pickup strings a related will be much more grammatically pretty. I believe he's currently trying to fix a bug with text centering and right-alignment functions in dialogue windows (trying to do these using work-arounds sucks). Future hopeful hacks include subtitling the voice clips in the Arche minigame and map events with no accompanying text box.

......this might as well be some kind of unofficial update post, but whatever.

[habilain]

Actually I'm fixing the grammatically correct stuff to work in menus at the moment, but not really having much time to do it. Centre/Right align fixing comes later because it's roughly workable at the moment, even if it is a bit sucky to use.

On the hacks mentioned, I'd be surprised if Arche minigame subtitles don't get done. That's pretty easy, because I've got a pretty much full understanding of how the minigame works. Subtitling map events is a big unknown for me, because I'll probably need to hack some pretty deep stuff to get it working. And the final hack is automatic newlines in dialogue (for ease of script editting), which happens pretty much as soon as I get centre/right align fixed.

[fuccons]

Enough lurking for me! I've been visiting the site for years now and found out about this project.

I had to sign up and tell you guys that I appreciate your hard work!

[bajol]

"It would be nice to think it won't take more than a couple months to get through all these steps"
I dont like the word months
(Just kiding  )
keep up the good work

[SlicerSV]

Actually, I'm probably alone in this sentiment, but a couple months might just be too soon.  If I know me, and I think I do, I'm going to want to check out this patch as soon as it becomes available, and I've got 14 credit hours this semester - I need to concentrate on that, not be playing ToP.

[Cless]

The two months figure is nothing more than an estimate if things were to go absolutely perfectly. And it was only a figure for the main script's completion, not the whole project. I know I'll be able to squeeze in time to work on other things during steps that are out of my hands, but still...a release two months from now is far too optimistic.

History considered, I am not making anymore release date estimates for this project. Not until I have what I consider release candidate builds that are in testing by beta testers, at least.

[gyozilla]

Just wanted to tell everyone else that I'm ok, if anyone cared. There's been some sad IRL stuff and personal business I needed to take care of; I'm taking time off in another part of the world right now and I hope to come back ready to work. Cless will get my edits when I get back, and I've been going through the skits and subtitles since before I left. I would love to check the whole game to make sure whether things are translated correctly, meaning is too far off, or if retranslations are needed, QCing continuity and missed intentions.

The script IS funnier now, and before Cless tells you he is Mr. Unfunny let me put it on record that I think there is only one major pun that he didn't come up with the working version of.

Agreed. I don't remember who handled the leaf pun, but it was done well.

[Yetika]

We do care, gogs. It's good to hear from you again.