VPM Translation v0.82 Released

I'm not dead!

Also I've released a new version of the patch. v0.82 marks 82% of the game being complete, which comprises everything up until the end of Act 4, and all H-scenes in Wiccaholt, Alchester, and Frisbee. It does not yet include the content added in v1.1.4 of the game, so if you're on that expect to see a few untranslated lines lying around. I'll get it sorted eventually.

I'll be focusing on getting the new version of RPGMaker Trans out during the next week or so, but I am planning on picking up the pace a bit for the next version of the patch.

Quick Update

So then, a quick update.

First off, I am hoping there will be a new version of the patch this month - at the very least, it seems quite likely. EDIT: Go figure, I got ill. This delayed things.

Second off: Due to a forced website move for RPGMaker Trans, it's now quite hard to find on Google. A tldr of the problem: Google wants 301 redirects when websites change, but due to how Bitbucket handled the move I could not provide them. Because most of the old links are to the old website, Google seems to be giving the old website more priority than the new one, despite the fact it no longer exists.

So I'm linking to the new website here: https://rpgmakertrans.bitbucket.io.

I will continue linking to the new website where I can, and hopefully will be able to overturn this. Incidentally, Bing finds the new website just fine. So it does appear that this is just an instance where Google search sucks - or at least, isn't doing what it's supposed to.

Not Dead, Current Situation, and Future Plans

So someone asked if the Virgins Protection Magic translation was still being worked on in the comment, which is a polite way of asking "Are you dead?"

Well, I'm not dead.

There has been lots of trials and tribulations though. I'm a bit more active on the forums at ULMF due to Blogger being a kinda poor platform in a lot of ways (i.e. not pleasant to use). I made a long post on my current situation there, and it's certainly worth a copy and paste here:

It's been a hectic month or so due to employment issues. As of a couple of weeks ago, I was made part time (thanks, Brexit! I'm an academic, and there is evidence showing academia has already seen a direct, negative consequence of the vote. I'm not sure if it would have helped my specific case had the vote gone the other way, but it certainly couldn't have hurt.) I've already reduced my costs, but I still need to find some other way of generating money or things will get tricky.

Is this a plea for donations? Categorically No. Leaving aside the fact that I do not solicit donations for my fan translation works due to the ethics of doing so, there's the practical aspect: Donations won't solve the problem, they'd only prolong the amount of time I could go between full-time jobs. And, to be honest, my current experience with donations is that they really don't amount to that much - I can reveal that since 2011, I've received about $250 in donations for RPGMaker Trans, which won't cover a single months rent in the UK. It's a good thing it's a passion project, not a commercial one.

What this is notification of is that things are very hectic for me at the moment. I have no idea on how much time I will be able to dedicate to translation. Progress could be faster, slower, or wildly oscillating. I would certainly like to have the next version of the patch done by Christmas, but again this is an aspiration, not a timetable.

And as to where I am personally: don't worry too much about me. I'm fortunate in that I've got about 4-months of "rainy day" money, and I am still earning some from the part-time work I have. I estimate I've got about 7-8 months to find an alternate source of money before I start to have issues, which is way, way more than most people who find themselves having their employment status being altered. In short: There is a problem upcoming for me, but it's still some way off.

With regards to the patch itself: my tools put the patch at being 76% complete at the present time. I don't yet have all the tools I need to do the quality checking though, so the release has been postponed while I implement them. Quality checking includes quite important stuff like checking to see if translations go out of box, spelling etc. so I'm unwilling to release an unedited patch. But expect the next release to contain the complete game up to the end of Act 4, including all H-scenes in Alchester and Frisbee.

As to ongoing progress... as I've said, it's going to be a bit hectic. The Stream on Assembla is a good source for updates, so if you want to check the heartbeat of the project, head over there (although note that the timestamps are when I push the changes up to Assembla, and not the actual timestamps).

Due to the general crummyness of Blogger, I'm currently looking at creating an actual website for this project, as well as a bunch of other stuff. If all goes well, that should be done before Christmas, but I've made promises of this nature before and they've lapsed.

Anyhow... congrats on reading this far I guess.

v0.51 Patch Redux

So, after a bug report, I've made a quick redux of this patch that fixes a bunch of mismatched brackets. Only one of these was serious (as in crash-game serious), so if you got the patch within the first few hours of release you may want to redownload.

Won't happen again, as this is now one of the things I check for with my checking utility.

v0.51 Virgin's Protection Magic Translation Release

Yay, it's out. Check the VPM patch page for full details. A quick summary is that this will translate all of the story up until Act 3's end, as well as all non-H-event stuff in Alchester and earlier.

Going forward, all the releases will be numbered by how much of the game they translate.  So v0.51 Translates 51% of the game - this should make it easy to see progress.

Also going forward, I'm going to hopping off of Blogspot and onto Tumblr. The reason is a simple one: I find the "Adult content warning" click through to be annoying. I'm currently trying to sort out a page on Tumblr which has the screenshot gallery embedded in; I haven't quite managed to do this yet.

Not Dead and Current Progress

This is just a progress update on what's going on with this translation patch, not a release I'm afraid. But it's all good news.




First, it's worth noting that progress has been delayed by a whole lot so far. I'd apologise, but the majority of the delays were not within my power to control. To recap for people who don't follow me on other places around the interwebs, there were issues with my laptop breaking, my backup laptop requiring repair, and real life work going haywire. These issues are not more or less resolved. Apart from real life work, obviously.

Now onto the happier news. First up, my editors toolset is near-enough completely working; maybe a few things to add to it, but it's certainly working enough for me to do some good stuff with it. I'm currently working through the issues that it's flagged - these are stuff like spelling, line overflow, wrong character names etc. So pretty important to get through this all. There's approximately 1000 to get through; not quite sure what the ratio of false positives to actual issues is, but I need to investigate all of them.

Translation wise, I've only got a handful of things that I need to translate left for the Act 3 translation (some of Branwen's dialogue, specifically). I'd also like to finish off a few H-events that I started to translate as well.

The current target for the Act 3 translation is beginning of March. Given that I thought I'd be able to meet this target for December originally (before the issues I mentioned happened), take this with a pinch of salt.

Virgin's Protection Magic Released, and a slew of patches

So VPM has been released. I've also been hard at work with some highly experimental stuff for getting decent machine translations out of the game. Lots of versions of stuff came out tonight.

Hopefully the current ones work.