We've released 1.12.55 on our experimental branch via Steam. This build will be moved to the stable branch as v1.13 if no major issues are found by players. This has been another quick QoL based update but also includes something many of you have been asking for. Localization has been a huge want from many in the community and you’ll see that along with many other changes in the coming build. Please have a look over the blog below as we’ve included translation files and request for community help.
You can find our patch notes below. Please report bugs and issues in game using the F1 menu.
If you'd like to track the patch progress and follow more closely with development, check our changelog and feel free to join our Discord.
How to get into experimental branch:
- Open Steam and go to your games library.
- Right click on STN and select "Properties"
- Navigate to the "Betas" tab and select "experimental" in the drop down menu.
- Close the properties window.
Localization (Game Translation)
The text based system has of course made it rather difficult for non-english speaking players to easily pick up and play STN. 1.13 will introduce our ‘first pass’ over translations. James has spent his time this update cycle implementing an auto-translate system. Translating a game of this size with a team of our size just isn’t possible without auto-translate and on top of that community help. Most of you know, translations via apps or the web aren’t always the most reliable or fluid. As mentioned above, there’s a lot of text in Survive the Nights and things might not automatically translate properly. In fact, we know they won't. The system creates a great base but will also allow us to improve over time. Also keep in mind that not everything in game is translated or translatable just yet and we’ll expand on missing items in coming updates.
Below you’ll find the localization files. They’re in JSON format which James has done to make this process easier. Some of you may be familiar with this format but if you’re not, don't fret, it’s super user friendly and you’ll have no trouble understanding the format.
Here’s a quick example of JSON format and one of our translations:
{
"Translation": "Аптечка первой помощи",
"English_Ref": "First Aid Kit",
"_Identifier": "item/503_name"
},
{
"Translation": "Этот набор содержит различные средства первой помощи и обеспечивает немедленное выздоровление.",
"English_Ref": "This kit contains various first aid products and provides immediate health.",
"_Identifier": "item/503_description"
},
You can see the simple format here. In the first example, you’re translating the item name for the First Aid Kit (Аптечка первой помощи in Russian according to our auto translate). We know it’s the item name as that information is provided by the “_Identifier” the third “_Identifier” like isn’t of any real importance if you’re looking to just do a mass sweep and translate the entire project.
The second example above is for the same first aid kid but it is the translation of the items description. "This kit contains various first aid products and provides immediate health." is translated to "Этот набор содержит различные средства первой помощи и обеспечивает немедленное выздоровление.".
As you can see this has been a massive task for us to put together and we would greatly appreciate the community's assistance with translation. Translations should bring in a good deal of gamers interested and just put off by having to read and attempt to translate that much English. The better we can get these translations, the easier it’ll be for people to pick up and play STN.
This is just the initial introduction of the system and James will make translations as easy as possible in coming updates. There are great third party tools that we can use for peer review to make sure all is well before game implementation.
**Note: Notice the open and close brackets in the example above these things { } and the commas. If you break that format, everything will break and you’ll spend far too much time scratching your head. Keep that in mind - you should never need to change, move or remove commas or brackets but if you do the format is simple. Everything goes in these {} and there’s always a comma between closed and open brackets as well as between the translations, references and identifiers.
You can also use a JSON formatter to validate and ensure your JSON file is formatted correctly and nothing has gone wrong.
If you’re stumped or run into issues feel free to join our Discord and we can help out.
DOWNLOAD TRANSLATION ZIP FILE HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP TRANSLATE
or
Where to find JSON files for translation:
(After downloading the experimental branch on Steam)
- Right click on Survive the Nights in your Library
- Click on Properties
- Navigate to Local Files
- Click Browse
- Open the SurviveTheNights_Win_Data folder
- Open the StreamingAssets folder
- Open the Localization folder
Inside the Localization folder you’ll find the games current language packages. Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian.
If your language isn’t on the list above or in the project reach out and let us know, we’ll create a JSON and auto-translation for you.
There has been a lot more put into 1.13 and we’ll do a full blog post with the default patch. For the time being you’ll find the current and up to date changelog below. This should all be testable and live on our experimental branch as 1.12.55.
Video options in base languages
Experimental Patch Notes - Alpha 1.12.55 (Alpha 1.13 Experimental Build)
Quality of Life (QoL)
- Increased healing speed of fires
- Map now works without a map item. The player starts with the ability to view the map.
- Removed map harvesting from message boards and bus stops.
- Map locations key updated with new icons and locations.
- Fireworks can now be activated by shooting.
- Fireworks can now be activated by a wooden club on fire.
- Fires can now be activated by a wooden club on fire (Fire barrels/campfires/hearth/stove).
- Faster vehicle repairing
- Respawning near death now improved and more accurate and will spawn the player closer than previously. Over 500 new spawn locations added.
- Damage from sliding reduced.
- Fixed small chance of player spawning under water on new life.
- Fix for multiple fires healing the player faster
Pickups
- Club no longer spawns in the world.
- Added crafting recipe for jerry cans
UI
- Fixed critical stat not showing when joining game
- Removed phantom map pins off the coast of black rock.
Ai
- Outside areas now stay clear of zombies for a while after clearing it.
- Zombie chase distance slightly reduced.
- Zombies now have a higher chance of dropping loot.
- Players can now sneak up to the back of zombies during the day.
Tutorial
- Removed the need to find a map for guide.
- Bandages are now crafted as part of the guide.
- Trash harvest piles now give metal and wood to fix confusion in the guide.
- Filters are now hidden for health during the guide to save confusion.
- Removed delay before next waypoint is enabled in guide
Audio
- Fixed menu music playing in the game
- Generators are now quieter.
Thanks for the continued support and continued issue and suggestion reporting :). Below are some helpful links to anyone new and interested in the game. If you'd like to follow a bit closer, please consider joining our Discord. We're here, we're listening!
Links
Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights
Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive
Website: https://www.survivethenights.net
Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive