Consider checking out http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23324. It doesn't just add NPCs, it adds nearly 900 of them with specific tasks, locations, and conversations--some favorable to you, some otherwise. The problem is that at this point, their conversation's in German. Now, I can manage the German, but I think it would be a lot more popular if we had a fully English language version.

Haven't got the time to do a translation, unfortunately, and I'm trying to learn Hungarian, which makes it difficult to wrap my head around three languages. So can anyone volunteer to Lycanus about translating it, themselves? Just a thought. If you don't, I eventually will, though my head will explode all over the keyboard, and you will be personally responsible!

Have you asked the mod author whether he would give permission to anyone to translate? Maybe he's already been asked and he refused.

I wanted to avoid that, because asking about it and offering to do it might be difficult to distinguish to someone who doesn't speak English. (And Babelfish is less than any assistance.) Eh, might as well offer to do it, myself--which I now have.

Well I'm already working on it, but obviously without permission from the author I won't be able to release I was merely asking in case it turned out there was another modder had asked previously and been refused.

Heh. Well, he's got my request on the way, now. So we'll work out what we want to do if and when he replies.

No reply then? I translated everything except the books the same day you requested this, but without permission, I can't share it. I didn't touch the books since I don't speak German and found the results from Google Translate to be poor.

This sounds like an interesting mod and addition. If the author sends us permission, I'm willing to help if you like. German is my mother tongue. Just send me a PM, then we can continue the project in private and hopefully provide some good stuff to the community.

The author has been asked for permission to make a translation, and has not responded. The author has released the untranslated mod. So I don't see that translating and releasing the resullts would constitute an intrusion on the original modder's work.

It sounds like Display Name Is has already got a part of the work done, and Tommy H has the skills to do all the rest faster than either of us. (My German is serviceable, but rusty.) As a writer, I can definitely do touch-up to make the results "feel right" for individual NPCs. So let's put our heads together via personal messaging, here, if you're both still willing.

If you get permission from the mod author, then yes. But without that, I'm afraid I won't be sharing what I've done so far, not even privately. The readme clearly prohibits this without permission.


Denial of permission doesn't even need translating, he wrote it in English.

fable2, did you try contacting him on either of the other two websites noted in the readme?

EDITED to add "Denial of permission" to second last sentance

Sure, Display, I fully understand you. That is perfectly in order. I will contact the author myself and ask him if it was OK if we translate his mod into english. I will formulate it as such that he shall have the right to say where it should be eventually hosted. I would even think that we should claim no copyrights for our work, but leave all rights with him. I'd consider our translation as if it was made by himself, so to say. Like this I think our chances to get approval are higher than if we said we claim any rights for the english version.

Would that be OK with you, Display and Fable?


EDIT: On re-reading I think we SHOULD definitely get his approval. At least give him ample time to respond. I would feel uncomfortable if we started without giving it some serious effort to bring him aboard. I'll write him a message tomorrow, if that's ok for you guys?

Fine with me. I have no interest in receiving any credit anyway. He could add the English version on the same Nexus page as the German version if he wanted.

I totally agree with you!

I have no problems with any of this. One note:



We don't need to mention copyright, because none of us can claim it. The only one who owns any copyrights in all this is gamesas, who could (if they so chose) claim a copyright on our own work, as well, as it was done using their tools. They have no interest in this, and have stated as much, but this doesn't give away their copyright.

What we can claim as our own is our effort. I have no problems with letting Lycanus know that he will receive all credit in our efforts for creating the mod.



Both.

...and at least your messages were not returned "Undeliverable because receipient's message box is full...", no?

Yeah well I didn't mean copyright in a legal sense, but rather "bragging rights" of course.

Not even that much of a reply. The rest, as they say, was silence.

Hm, not encouraging, but alright I'll send him another message tomorrow on behalf of the three of us. I keep you posted.

Hell, if he wants to brag in German, English, or any other language under the sun, I'll stay quiet and just admire his work.

Just throwing in my 2 cents, it's generally okay to go ahead and modify something if a modder doesn't get back to you in a couple weeks. I've seen it done before. Although I guess it depends on the modder.

It's generally ok to work on it privately, aka for your own use, but it is generally not ok to do so publicly without the modders permission. You get people clamoring for something you might never be able to release, which can in turn make the converter feel obligated to release it regardless of the original modders feelings on the subject.

You are gong to get mixed answer

Some say it fine, some will say it is not

Depend on Mod Itself and the Modder, has some modder go silent for a while and then show back up once again.

if you have tried to contact the modder serveral time and they have not responded and have not been active on their account for a said amount of time (months) then it usually okay, has along has you give credit back to original author and state that the changes that you did to said mod and take credit for only those changes that you did..

That is how I feel about it..

Depends on permissions as set in the readme, coupled with the length of time the original modder has been inactive. In this case, the readme clearly denies permission, the Nexus page was last updated less than 4 months ago, the modder was last on Nexus less than one month ago. He may only pop in once a month, or less often. He may not visit Nexus normally at all since Nexus is natively English and he is German, so contacting him on Nexus may be a waste of time. I haven't looked to see when he last accessed the other two sites listed in the readme (probably would require registration to get that info), but since Tommy_H is German (or German-speaking at least) and he has offered to handle contact, I leave that to him

Everyone's opinion is different. For me, when a readme denies permission: if the modder had been inactive for more than 12 months, I would consider the possibility of releasing an edited version of the mod, but ONLY if those edits fixed known issues or was a translation. I wouldn't consider releasing an updated version of the mod with changed or new content.

google translate dude. you don't need someone who speaks German.

I know of a popular german OB fan site/mod site where I will ask too, if they know him or his work.

I agree with Display that in this case one must proceed cautiously. The author is clearly proud of his work and quite frankly, his restrictions are possibly the most stringent that I've seen so far attached to any mod. But he worked his ass off on it, so one has to respect that.

Well is he active on German mod sites? I've been able to run a few of their websites (like where Kriegsburg was linked on the UL page) with Google. Maybe he is active there (assuming he on my part).

I translated http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=21061 into English for myself using online translators and the basic things like map markers and titles was easy, but translating the simple little book was more complex. I found that by plugging in the text to three different translators i got different results. So many books with longer passages would be difficult especially without something to check against.

I will have to check that but there is something like a german version of planetelderscrolls called "Ei der Zeit" and if he's active in German modding, he's probably known there, albeit possibly under a different name. As I said, I'll check it.

Translations will not be a problem. Three humanoids have already committed themselves to it, and they'll beat any machine translation by a good margin. For some things having a brain is still useful, even today. :read: