Touhou Patch Center:About/en-tyke

Welcome teur t' future o' Tou'ou gem patchin'.

Dis's our attempt a' eur new approach ta creyte gem patches. ‛Tis...

In doin' orl dis, we breyt away fra t' classic ‘rom'ackin’ tradition ‛n t' notion o' secluded ‘translation groups’ ‛n fetch gem patchin' directly teur t' fans.

If theur thinks abaht it, t' majority o' t' non-Japanese Tou'ou fanda completely ‛inges on t' contributions o' eur small numba o' translators. Dis project ‛onours their contributions ta dis fanda ‛n supports ‛em i' an unprecedented way.

Motivation
Theear're jannock eur numba o' reasons ta undatek such eur project. Dis's eur list o' ‛em int' orda they cem up.

Accuracy
T' whole ideeur wor born afta witnessin' yet anotha translation debate on touhouwiki.net. Afta eur while, theur realise da' Tou'ou translations nivva seem ta be final.

No matta ‛ow long eur particular translation o' sum aspect ‛as endured, years lata, sumone wi' ‛appen eur bit mooar knowledge o' Japanese culture c'n cum in, debate it ‛n eventually ‛ave it changed. Durin' these debates, fowk're sumtahhms shocked abaht ‛ow lahl sense t' original translation med or ‛ow it distorted t' original meanin', ‛n thus, t' general perception o' t' content. Da's w'y touhouwiki.net's policy openly encourages dis process.

In t' end, t' wiki page everyone skegs a' is edited ‛n the correction's made. ‛N orl o' dis'd be fine if we wor merely translatin' pieces o' literature.

Bur wea'ar chelpin' abaht gems ‛ere. T' English patches stay frozzen a' eur certain state ‛n ‛re nivva updated - ‛cos their original developas continue ta beleev i' their own translation, they considered t' job done as soon as they've released t' patch, or even ‛ave long abandoned dis fanda i' case o' t' olda gems.  Our idea: Let's build eur new patch system fra scratch, which'll tie t' translations closa teur t' patches, ‛n see wha' else dis leads ta. 

A' eur first glance, we don't skeg reight different. We, an orl, use eur wiki system wheear translations c'n be edited by anyone. Bur not only do we provide eur convenient translation interface ta mek dis process as simply as possible, our pages're also written i' such eur way da' they, afta sum initial configuration, c'n be automatically parsed ‛n converted back teur t' original gem formats.

 Afta everee edit on   , t' patches thersens ‛re automatically updated wi' t' latest translation state. 

Dis way, we gerr completely rid o' situations wheear an owd patch diffas fra t' text int' wiki. Then, even common fans not interested in t' patchin' process'll be sensitised fert' fact da' Tou'ou translations may be debated fer years to cum - bur na', these changes reach ‛em immediately.

Speed
T' forma privilege o' lakin' Tou'ou i' English ‛as na' turned inta an expectation. Patches ‛re na' demanded by t' fanda, ‛n they're expected ta be finished i' eur reasonable amoun' o' tahhm.

Wea'ar gunna satisfy dis demand by completely separatin' t' technical modification ‛n ‛acking process from the translations. T' tahhm dis process takes depends ont' complexity o' t' gem's programmin', our experience ‛n knowledge o' t' gem's dateur formats, ‛n t' feckless encryption applied on those.

Dis's gunna become reight apparent once ZUN releases eur new Tou'ou gem.  For new gems, we'll release eur wukin', sen-updatin' patch as soon as t' basic ‛ackin fettle ‛as bin dun ‛n t' content ‛as bin put up for translation. For eur typical ZUN gem, dis takes no longa than eur couple o' ‛our afta we gerr our ‛ands on t' executable. 

'N dis's t' onny ‘release date’ da'll matta. T' fanda then experiences ‛ow t' gem's incrementally translated as they laik it. Eur certeeam translation patch then onny is dun once t' translators, wukin' independently o' t' administration, ‛av finished translated everythin'. Aah, dis means da' our patches'll stay unfinished, slightly incorrect ‛n eurbit fahl for jannock eur while. Bur fert' majority o' Western fans w'o ‛av lahl ta no knowledge o' Japanese, it'll be betta than ‛avin no patch a' orl.

Multilingualism
Na' we've an automatic engine ta sharp patch t' gems... bur then, w'y shud we limit oursens to just translatin' into English?

As we supply t' entire automatised infrastructure required ta patch t' gems onnyrooard, we reduce t' adaptation ta any otha language teur t' mere input o' t' translated text ‛n t' editin' o' sum graphics. Thus, we c'n effectively promote translations ta languages wheear an ‘owd-school patch group’ would've neva existed or bin considered necessary.

Existin' patchin' groups c'n benefit fra dis system, an orl. By wukkin' wi' us, they'll...
 * sev t' ‛ackin fettle ‛n t' resultin' duplication o' effort
 * recei' permanent ‛ostin on our serva
 * ‛n their translations'll gerr mooar exposure
 * while retainin' full credit fer their fettle.

 Int' true Tou'ou spirit o' ‘mooar o' everythin's betta’, wea'ar opun ta ‛ost translations into enny language fowk want us ta ‛av. No matta if it's eur widely spoken world language, eur regional accen'tli' or even eur constructed language. 

Just start translatin' inta thy language, ‛n tha'll'v eye wukkin' patch i' no tahhm.

Bur just... W'y? W'y orl dis madness?
Does tha rememba t' tahhm when Tou'ou wor t' best thing ivva?

When it seemed li' eur neva-endin' source o' varied ‛n ‛igh-quality content, made possible by t' intense dedication o' fowk li' thee ‛n me?

Neya? Bur we sure do. ‛N we want ta savour dis feelin'.

Tha's certainly ‛eard t' legends da de'ar's fanart o' new characters 20-30 minutes afta eur new gem's release ont' respecti' doujin convention. So w'y shud theur wait up ta 2 months for an English patch, ‛n da' was it? Wi' our system, t' fans themsens c'n asteead openly display t' sem amount o' dedication ta patches da' we've seen i' fanart for eur long tahhm.

 Dis project's supposed ta be eur benchmark o' wha' c'n be possible - when everyone c'n fettle ‛n immediately contribute unda optimal circumstances, wiyaa' t' need o' unnecessary middlemen. Orl dis'd clearly be o'akill for enny otha franchise. Bur i' view o' t' Tou'ou fanbase ‛n its own pride, it'll certainly be significant, ‛n worth t' tahhm o' everyone involved. 

 Dis'll be t' Tou'ou meeam gem translation project ta en' orl Tou'ou main gem translation projects. 

Patch stackin'
Our engine allows ta use an unlimited amount of patches a' t' sum tahhm, sorted thru eur priority list.

Let's imagine tha's got eur thorough undastandin' o' English, bur'd ratha want ta laik eur certain gem i' Spanish. Unfortunately, t' Spanish translation o' da' gem ‛ant bin finished, bur t' English un ‛as. I' dis case, tha'd daawload ‛n activate both t' English ‛n Spanish patch ‛n put t' Spanish patch on top o' t' English un. Na', orl text dat's bin translated ta Spanish appears i' Spanish, ‛n t' rest appears i' English - orl whilst runnin' on top o' t' sem, unmodified gem executable.

I' addition, theur're also able ta select t' types o' dateur apiece patch's allowed ta modify. Ta use t' above-mentioned example ageeun, theur c'n, for example, keep spell cards or music titles i' English t' keep eur common groun' for forum discussions.

As wi' t' whole engine, this in't limited ta languages onny. Every single patch da' uses dis engine c'n be re-used ‛n combined wi' otha patches. Thus, our engine could also be used ta implement things li' ‛itbox display removal, Vsync patches, replay desynchronisation bugfixes... t' possibilities're endless.

 Dis turns our engine inta eur full-fledged Tou'ou modkit, allowin' theur ta fully customise thy Tou'ou experience. 

No duplication o' gem dateur, no instalation
I' our case, dis's mooar o' eur necessity resultin' from or t'otha feytures than eur clear feyture or design goal on its own. Dis also comes wi' t' gran' additional benefit da' t' gem directory stays clean ‛n unmodified - asteead o' bein' crammed wi' a load o' modified dateur files ‛n patch loadas.

Chuffin' ‛ell, not anotha Tou'ou Wiki.
Except da' dis in't ‘anotha Tou'ou Wiki’. We dun't ‛av articles on characters, locations or t' 9001st th06 arrangement album, ‛n dun't aim ta compete wi' enny websi's claimin' ta be Tou'ou encyclopaedias, no matta t' language.

 Our focus lies strictly i' providin' multilingual translations o' original Tou'ou gem dateur. We're eur dateur repository fust ‛n eur wiki secon'. 

Terminology

 * (abbr.  )
 * Name o' dis websi' ‛n t' server-side dateur conversion modules.


 * Touhou Community Reliant Automatic Patcher (abbr.  )
 * Name o' t' patch engine - i.e. orl code written for dis project.
 * Aah, t' abbreviation's deliberate. We thowt it'd be eur laugh ta ‛av eur well-made piece o' software wi' eur name showin' t' developa's actual distaste fert subject matta.
 * If theur finds it too offensi', just think o' it as an anagram o'  .


 * Touhou Patch Wiki
 * Initial name o' dis websi' - sharp made up ont' spot when dis project split off from t' German Tou'ou Wiki. I' view o' orl the otha Tou'ou wikis i' existence, dis un only increases t' general confusion. Dun't use it.