Some translations are wrong, and other are not coherent with the english version. Namely:
The skirmisher is correctly called “tirailleur”, but is sometimes called “escarmoucheur” in other text boxes. It has the wrong name in the text description of archer (the “weak to skirmisher” part), arbalester (“weak to elite skirmisher”), elephant archer, and ALL archer units from the Chronicles dlc. In this dlc skirmishers are called “escarmoucheurs” in their own text description.
Solution: the correct word should be “tirailleur”, “escarmoucheur” is not used as it is just a litteral translation of skirmisher. “Tirailleur” is the world that has been used through history to describe this kind of unit.
The konnik is called a “cavalier bulgare”, or “bulgar cavalier”. Although this is not wrong (apparently konnik means horseman or rider), why is konnik translated like this in french when the leitis (litteraly a lithuanian noble) and the boyar (a slav noble) are still called “leitis” and “boyar” in the french version?
Solution: when units don’t already have a name in France, keep the original name, like it is done in the english version. So the “cavalier bulgare” becomes a “konnik”, like “leitis” and “boyar”.
In a similar vein: the Magyars are called “Hongrois”, or “Hungarian”, in the french version. Again, this is not wrong, but this is also not coherent with the english version, nor it is with the french version: the Franks are called “Francs” and not “Français” (“French”), the Britons are called “Britons” and not “Britanniques” (“British”).
Solution: Translate the Magyars as “Magyars” to reflect that they are the steppe peoples that migrated to present-day Hungary, and not just the people who lived there.
From the chronicles dlc the immortal is sometimes called an “Immortel”, but is also called a “Mélophore” in its description (see the pictures). “Mélophore” seems to be used in France, it is apparently based on μηλοφόροι / mêlophoroi, but Immortals is used in English and is based on Ἀθάνατοι / Athánatoi.
Solution: Choose “immortels” if you want to be coherent with the base game, or maybe use “mélophore” if it makes more sense in french (I didn’t know about the word myself, but apparently it’s used by historians), but at least don’t use both.
There are issues in this thread that haven’t been corrected yet French translation issues - #3 by Horapallas. The biggest offenders are the the Hindustani unique tech “Grand trunk roads”, which for some reason was translated in all languages except french and italian. For the french translation, users in this post had suggestions, choose one.
Also, the camel rider and heavy camel rider are still called “chameau” (so “camel”) and “chameau lourd”. It doesn’t make much sense (we don’t call the paladin a “heavy horse”), so please rename them as “chamelier” and “chamelier lourd” which is the correct translation for someone who rides a camel. Also, the “relic gold” stat on the stat card at the end of a game is translated as “or relique”, it should be “or des reliques” (it’s all the difference between “Me eat food” and “I’m eating food”).
Please no, let 's them be called Hongrois in the french version. Because in french we rarely call them Magyars. The majority of french people don’t even know the word Magyar.
I agree.
Yes choose Immortel for the french version. Because in french we almost always call them Immortels. Personally I never see this term Mélophore before the release of Chronicles, including the fact than I know this military unit since the 1980’s
I agree and the Hindustani UU must be called Chamelier impérial in french (Imperial camel). The Gurjara UU must be call Chamelier éclaireur (Camel scout)
6 Gambeson
Also the technology Gambeson was translated in french by Jaque I think it’s better to use one another term for this technology, the french word : Gambison because this term is more in line with the english term.
Update: I looked in details at the tech tree page and realized they were many more issues. The general them is that units and techs are given different translations whether we look at the tech tree (the pictures of units/techs alongside their name) or unit description (the black pop-up window). Apparently the two texts were translated separately.
As a general rule, I think when there are 2 different translations we should keep the closest to the english text. Otherwise I’ll provide explanation. But the most important part is: pick only one translation.
Here are all the issues I found in the general tech tree (on top of all issues I mentioned earlier in this thread):
the militia is called both milicien and milice => keep milicien, it describe a militan, while milice means a group of militian;
the scout cavalry is called both cavalerie d’éclairage and cavalerie éclaireuse => keep cavalerie d’éclairage, it is the term used in France, cavalerie éclaireuse is not used and sounds more like scouting cavalry;
the fire galley and its family are translated either as galère d’incendie or galère incendiaire => the incendie ships are the more litteral translation, but the incendiaire ships (“ships that put fire on thing”) sound better. Pick one of your choice, but pick only one.
heated shot is called either projectile en feu or projectile incendiaire => again, projectile incendiaire is better as it says these projectiles set things on fire;
This one is tricky: arrowslits are translated as either archières or meurtrières. The correct name is meurtrière, but it is also used for another tech: murder holes. In an ideal world, the murder holes tech should be translated as mâchicoulis, which is the world used in French to describe the holes in floors or at the top of walls used to throw things at an enemy standing right next to the wall. Then arrowslits is called either meurtrières or archères, those are synonyms. Otherwise, keep calling murder holesmeurtrières, and call arrowslitsarchères. Also: there should be called archères, without the “i”. Irl or online, I never encountered archières, but archères is broadly used.
In french keeps are called donjons. Since Sicilians also have donjons, those are called donjons normands. But the tech that convert regular guard towers into regular keeps says in it convert them into sicilian donjons => should just be convertir en donjon.
hoardings are called both pallisades and hourds => hourds is used in french and is the litteral translation of hoardings, pick it;
herbal medicine is called both médecines aux plantes and plantes médicinales => the first one is a litteral translation, but it’s not used. It’s plantes médicinales that is broadly used.
fervor has two translations => ferveur is a closer translation and is used more, pick it;
town patrol has two translations => pick patrouille de ville, it’s the litteral translation while milice communale imply they would make militians.
hand cart is correctly called charette à bras in its description, but the icon only says charette à…, or cart…, when there is place to fit bras.
gold mining and stone mining are correctly translated as minage de … in their description, but their icons just say gold mine and quary. Maybe it’s because it fits better in the small icon box, I don’t care, I beg you just pick one of the two translations.
crop rotation has two translations => It’s quite simple: I’ve never heard assolement before, but even baboons know about alternance des cultures. Pick alternance des culture. Or even, pick ROTATION DES CULTURES it’s the most used and it is closer to the english text.
[…]
BONUS: for some reasons, the elite composite bowman is called an élite archer composite on its icon. It should be archer composite d’élite
[…]
IMPORTANT: I can already tell translations on the new civs are not very well polished, I’m too tired to list them know, but one of them is very problematic:
The new traction trebuchet is called a mangonneau, or mangonnel if you prefer. There is already a mangonneau in game. Indeed it is a weird name, as mangonnels were some sort of trebuchets and not catapults at all, but the base game picked this name so it should not be reused => seriously just call them trébuchet à traction.
I hope these mistakes can be fix, shouldn’t be too hard. Please in the future translate both descriptions and tech tree icons at the same time.
Honnêtement je ne suis pas vraiment d’accord avec ce point, le mot escarmoucheur existe bel et bien et serait plus ancien que tirailleur. Personnelement, je n’utiliserais pas le terme tirailleur avant les guerres napoléoniennes pour désigner le rôle spécifique d’un soldat d’infanterie légère dans un contexte de bataille rangée par ligne. C’est clairement un terme apparu avec l’usage des premières armes à feu.
Nice work otherwise. One day, Fantassin à arc lourd should be bannished into oblivion as well.
Tu as du déjà vu le mot escarmoucheur employé? C’est possible, moi je ne pense pas le voir souvent (escarmouche en revanche je le vois souvent).
Le problème est aussi que le jeu de base désigne comme “skirmisher” (donc une unité légère, bien armée) une unité avec peu de dps et beaucoup d’armure.
Tirailleur c’est un terme récent, mais beaucoup plus connu, et le fait de désigner des soldats par leur rôle c’est aussi quelque chose de récent. Au Moyen-âge ou à l’antiquité je pense qu’on parlerait plus de lancier, de javelinier, ou des noms vagues comme auxiliaires ou troupes légères.
The technology Yeomen is called Paysan in the french version. This is a bug because since the year 2000 this technology was always called Yeomen in french version. In tech tree this technology have the correct name of Yeomen.
Two Unique technology have the same name in french
Also in french the Celt UT Stronghold (Citadelle) have roughly the same name than the Persians UT Citadels (Citadelles). I suggest to replace the name of the french version of the Celt Ut Stronghold by Place forte.
Bolt magazine technology have incorrect translation
The UT of the Shu Bolt magazine have an incorrect translation. This was translated by Arsenal à carreaux but the correct translation is Chargeur à carreaux. Because in french the word arsenal is for the storehouse of ammunition who is a building not the little bolt magazine of an arbalest or the little magazine of a gun. We never load our weapons with a building but with ammunition.
In french version replace Arsenal à carreaux by Chargeur à carreaux
Druzhina tech
The Slav UT Druzhina is badly translated in french. It’s the russian word дружи́на
In french version replace *Druzhina * by Droujina
I suggest to replace them by Droujina because the russian letter у is translated in french by the two letter ou. Also in russian the letter ж is translated by the letter J in french a letter who is the analogue of the letter J in the french alphabet
GAME INFORMATION
