2009-10-30, 05:03 AM
Originally posted by HolyDiver:
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Seriously now (we can always edit this top post)
I made this thread to define SOM terms (the English terms which we choose to use as a community)
This isn't necessarily the definitive glossary as such, though wherever that is established (on the main website somewhere) should basically be reflected in this thread (edited into the top post -- possibly with a link to the main website for a complete list)
John's work is amazing, no disrespect, but I think it's more important we all work this out together. If John's version of SOM was the only version, I would just leave it to him. But I think down the road there will be many spinoffs of SOM and the groups of tools for this niche of games would ideally all share the same lingo.
It's better to address this asap rather than retconning it further down the line. This thread will also help people keep up with any changes in terms and hopefully minimize confusion.
That said, I would like to make some proposals to get started, but I want everyone to take this seriously and combine our collective knowledge to make sure no influential aspects of SOM are left out.
To begin with, many terms used by SOM are influenced by the original filetree folder names (I'm assuming John has not changed these) ...these would include enemy, item, map, menu, my, npc, obj, sfx, sound. It's probably not worth changing the names of these folders, or the names of things stored in them (so to avoid any confusion) ...but I would not completely put this off the table. There will be other non-English translations and Japanese should never be the authority on English matters.
There are also limitations upon the number of letters in a name dictated by the original PE (exe/dll) images. This may or may not be a limitation in the future after a proper translation regime is established. For the games it isn't, but GDI/resource widgets might be a different story (probably not however)
Anyway, basically what I can bring to this discussion is knowledge of proper technical terminology. We could decide to go a more domesticated route considering the audience for SOM developers is not necessarily technically minded people. But still some of the terms currently in use are technically incorrect.
This thread isn't about me though, I really want everyone to talk about this, because the translation possibilities are going to start opening up, and the website is going to start undergoing changes which will mean copying over a lot content to a different system, which would be a good time to change the way things are talked about on the main site. Nevertheless it's never too early to address such matters. Possibly we can even come to some consensus before John releases another round of his translation patches...
========================================================================================
Seriously now (we can always edit this top post)
I made this thread to define SOM terms (the English terms which we choose to use as a community)
This isn't necessarily the definitive glossary as such, though wherever that is established (on the main website somewhere) should basically be reflected in this thread (edited into the top post -- possibly with a link to the main website for a complete list)
John's work is amazing, no disrespect, but I think it's more important we all work this out together. If John's version of SOM was the only version, I would just leave it to him. But I think down the road there will be many spinoffs of SOM and the groups of tools for this niche of games would ideally all share the same lingo.
It's better to address this asap rather than retconning it further down the line. This thread will also help people keep up with any changes in terms and hopefully minimize confusion.
That said, I would like to make some proposals to get started, but I want everyone to take this seriously and combine our collective knowledge to make sure no influential aspects of SOM are left out.
To begin with, many terms used by SOM are influenced by the original filetree folder names (I'm assuming John has not changed these) ...these would include enemy, item, map, menu, my, npc, obj, sfx, sound. It's probably not worth changing the names of these folders, or the names of things stored in them (so to avoid any confusion) ...but I would not completely put this off the table. There will be other non-English translations and Japanese should never be the authority on English matters.
There are also limitations upon the number of letters in a name dictated by the original PE (exe/dll) images. This may or may not be a limitation in the future after a proper translation regime is established. For the games it isn't, but GDI/resource widgets might be a different story (probably not however)
Anyway, basically what I can bring to this discussion is knowledge of proper technical terminology. We could decide to go a more domesticated route considering the audience for SOM developers is not necessarily technically minded people. But still some of the terms currently in use are technically incorrect.
This thread isn't about me though, I really want everyone to talk about this, because the translation possibilities are going to start opening up, and the website is going to start undergoing changes which will mean copying over a lot content to a different system, which would be a good time to change the way things are talked about on the main site. Nevertheless it's never too early to address such matters. Possibly we can even come to some consensus before John releases another round of his translation patches...
- Todd DuFore (DMPDesign)
Site Founder
Site Founder