EN Translation

French translation

ArchCore comes with a full French translation of the game, on both the client and the server side.

Enable French in the client

The client reads an integer from Launcher/LanguageInfo.txt. The value 17 selects the Game/ini_fr folder, which holds 19 text files. The value 5 is English.

Item templates also come from the language folder: the client reads ini_fr/ItemTemplateAll.ini, then ini_fr/ItemTemplateAll2.ini, but only if the first one loaded. Without ItemTemplateAll.ini, no item exists on the client side: the inventory and the shops stay empty. This file was missing from ini_fr and was copied from Game/ini (item names in English, to be translated). archcore i18n apply does not delete it.

Tool chain

1. archcore i18n strings lists what is still in English in data/i18n/pending-en.json.
2. Translations are added to data/i18n/fr.json, the translation memory.
3. archcore i18n apply rebuilds Game/ini_fr from the original copy ini_fr.orig. It re-encrypts the files with RC4 and encodes them in Windows-1252, which keeps accents.

archcore i18n apply options: --dry for a trial without writing, --ascii to strip accents. The tool always starts from ini_fr.orig, so it can be run again as often as needed.

fr.json format

{
  "files": {
    "UI_1024X768.ini": { "1:Fabriquer": "1:Créer" },
    "uimessage.txt": { "ko:<Korean text>": "<translation>" }
  },
  "global": { "<exact text>": "<translation>" }
}

• The key is the exact text of the cell in ini_fr.orig: a tab-separated column, or the value after =.
• The ko: prefix targets texts left in Korean (decoded CP949).

Server side

NPC titles (" Darryl") are translated on load with data/i18n/npc-titles-fr.json, according to World.Language: the language of players who chose no other.

Server languages

Since 2026-10-19 the server serves its texts in the player's language: an ArchRust client announces it through the language/1 capability of the ArchRust extensions (selector in the Options window), the choice follows the account (account.language), and an original client gets the account's last language, otherwise World.Language. NPC and monster names leave localized in view packets; other texts (quests, items, skills, regions) are fetched with TEXT_REQUEST.

Languages kept

ArchLord never had a single multi-language client; the offered languages (language table) come from the game's history:

Code	Language	Why
ko	Korean	original version, NHN Korea (open beta 2005, service 2006)
en	English	Codemasters, North America and Europe (October 2006), then Webzen worldwide (2009-2014); language of the reference client
ja	Japanese	NHN Japan, Hangame portal, "ARCHLORD THE GRAND CROSS" (open beta 26 July 2007)
zh-CN	Simplified Chinese	Shanda, "霸王", Chinese version announced in March 2006
de, fr, es, pt-BR	German, French, Spanish, Portuguese	multi-language client announced by Webzen in January 2010; Archlord 2 (2014): English, German, French (Webzen Dublin localisation team)
tr, ru, pl	Turkish, Russian, Polish	private-server communities (Turkish threads on DonanimHaber, unofficial Russian Archlord 2 client); disabled by default (enabled = 0)

Sources: Wikipedia, ArchLord (dates and publishers), Engadget, 14 January 2010 (German, French, Spanish, Portuguese client), WorthPlaying, October 2009 (Webzen outside Korea, Japan and China), Webzen, Archlord 2 (English, German, French), Impress Game Watch, July 2007 and Inside Games (Japan, Hangame), 17173, March 2006 (China, Shanda), DonanimHaber (Turkish community). The Japanese and Chinese versions had their own clients: only ini (English) and ini_fr (French) exist in the reference client (client_folder).

Tables

• language: BCP 47 code, names, tier (1 official version, 2 Webzen 2010 client, 3 community), client text folder, enabled, display order. Disabled languages are not offered.
• localized_text: one row per (kind, ref_id, lang). kind: npc_name (npc_spawn.id), monster_name (TID), item_name, item_desc (TID), quest_name, quest_desc (TID), skill_name (TID), region_name, npc_dialog (reserved).
• account.language (auth database): the account's last wish.

Text fallback: requested language → base language (fr-CA → fr) → translated NPC titles (npc-titles-<language>.json) → English → the client's original text. An en row also corrects an original text for everyone.

Filling the texts

archcore db-init                 # creates language and localized_text, adds account.language
archcore i18n db fr              # 555 NPC names from npc-titles-fr.json, plus the data/i18n/fr.json memory

i18n db <language> replaces that language's rows for the kinds it produces, from the NPC titles (npc_name, monster_name) and from the global entries of data/i18n/<language>.json whose key is exactly a quest, item, skill or region name. Hand-written translations for other identifiers go straight into localized_text:

INSERT INTO localized_text (kind, ref_id, lang, text) VALUES ('quest_name', 5007, 'de', 'Erste Schritte')
  ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE text = VALUES(text);

The server reads the tables at startup. Check without the game: archcore sim lang (Tools page).

Rules

• Keep accents: the game displays them correctly in Windows-1252.
• Never translate chat commands (/join, /party…) or place names.
• Watch the length: a text longer than the original can overflow its window.