Localisation tables

Ever wondered why something like this:

gamemode.AddGameObjective(self.PlayerTeams.BluFor.TeamId, "EliminateOpFor", 1)

adds a game objective with nice text Locate and eliminate all threats in the area instead of EliminateOpFor? Localization files is why.

1. Creating a localization file for your game mode

Simply create a .csv in the en folder. Name it whatever you want but remember to:

• Keep the .csv extension,
• steer clear of white spaces or special characters,
• note the file name you'll need it later.

Better yet copy one of the files existing in the en folder, rename it to whatever you like and use it as a template.

2. Setting up the translations

First line of the .csv file has to be:

Key,SourceString,Comment

This line defines the order of data in each row. Now every following row should contain of three strings each surrounded by double quotes " and separated from each other with commas ,, like so:

"missionsetting_opforcount","Expected resistance","Opsboard"

Key

This is where most of the magic happens. Key is the string Ground Branch will use to try and match the string from the lua script to a pretty text in the localisation file. Key has two parts separated by the first underscore:

• prefix is the part before the first underscore and has to be one of the following:
  • objective if it is supposed to go on the objective board, used by gamemode.AddGameObjective
  • summary if it is supposed to be displayed in the after action report, used by gamemode.AddGameStat("Summary=...")
  • gamemessage if it is supposed to be displayd as a in game message, used by gamemode.BroadcastGameMessage
  • missionsetting if it is supposed to be displayed as a mission setting, this is not used by any function but will be used to "translate" mission settings.
• name this is the part that will be used to match the string provided in any of the lua functions mentioned above.

Note: missionsetting is a special case - the name provided in the .csv will be matched against the names of the variables in the game mode settings table. Also name of the missionsetting should be all lower case.

SourceString

is the pretty string that will be used instead of the key if the key matches.

Comment

can be anything you want and is mostly here for you. ;-)

3. Letting your lua script know

First of all you'll need to define the name of the localization table you want to use in your game mode. You can do that by adding a StringTables variable to your gamemode in the lua script. If I understand correctly you can add multiple string tables to a single game mode, but did not try this.

local killConfirmed = {
	...
	StringTables = {"KillConfirmed"},
    ...
}

Now you start using the Keys you from your localisation file in your lua script.

Example

Given a localistaion file GroundBranch\Content\Localization\GroundBranch\en\KillConfirmed.csv

Key,SourceString,Comment
"missionsetting_opforcount","Expected resistance","Opsboard"
"objective_ExtractionPoint","Locate and eliminate all threats in the area.","Opsboard"
"gamemessage_HighValueTargetEliminated","HVT eliminated.","objective"
"summary_OpForLeaderEliminated","High Value Targets were eliminated.","AAR"

First tell the script where to look for the slugs:

local terroristhunt = {
...
	StringTables = { "KillConfirmed" },
...

Then the missionsetting_opforcount slug will match mission settings variable OpForCount like this:

...
    Settings = {
        OpForCount = {
            Min = 0,
            Max = 50,
            Value = 15,
        },
    },
...
}
...

And following that the code below will match

• ExfiltrateBluFor with objective_ExfiltrateBluFor,
• HighValueTargetEliminated with gamemessage_HighValueTargetEliminated, and last
• OpForLeaderEliminated with summary_OpForLeaderEliminated.

...
    gamemode.AddGameObjective(self.PlayerTeams.BluFor.TeamId, "ExfiltrateBluFor", 1)
...
    gamemode.BroadcastGameMessage("HighValueTargetEliminated", "Engine", 5.0)
...
    gamemode.AddGameStat("Summary=OpForLeaderEliminated")
...