Ultima 7 Black Gate – Status update

The Ultimacodex has featured an oldish status update here and thereby reminded me that an update on the project is due (Hence: Thanks :-))

I’ll keep the (very) detailed changelog in German and list the most notable ones here (with Beta Version 3 being almost finished):

Translation:
First and foremost: the translation is complete now. 🙂

Bugs:
Approx. a dozen non-working or malfunctioning dialogue options in the original game now work

Interface and non-interactive parts:
– Startscreen is translated and reworked
– Subtitles for Intro and Outro is corrected
– Pointers.shp now features new spelling
– GUMPS.VGA graphics have been reworked

Names:
– Wench
For wench a German equivalent that suits the double meaning has been found
– “Companions” translation has been modified
– Gargoyle principles have been aligned with other translations
– senseless translations have been altered
– pubs, inns and tavern German translations have been used indifferently. These
have been aligned now reflecting what they have on offer

Ships:
– the ship name “Anne’s Revenge” is nodding to “Queen Anne’s Revenge”
a ship of Blackbeard, the pirate. The original name “Goddess of Revenge”
has been modified “Annes Rache” (=Revenge) to keep this reminiscence.
– two more ship names have been aligned with other translations

Pubs, Taverns, Inn & shops:
– A handful pub and tavern and shop names have been altered to have the names they had in
U5 and U6
– “The Hallowed Deck”: up to now “The comely fisher” -> now read “Zum Hohlen Deck”
In English “the hallowed deck” is a play on words with the “Holo
Deck” in the Star Trek Universe. I changes the name to preserve this play on words
– “Keg O’ Spirits”: was “Wine Jug” as well as “The Mug” -> now read “Zum Weingeist”
(Spirits of Wine) For a pub in Skara Brae it needed a name with a reference to the
spiritual world, didn’t it 😉

Places and Locations:
– “Deep Forest” and “Bee cave”: aligned as in U5&6
– Dungeons are not “Labyrinths” anymore but “Dungeons”
The names have been translated but as the same time the the English name has been
kept as a kind of Label so it reads “Covetous, das Verlies der Gier”
– “Well of Souls” was “Soulprison” -> now reads “Well of Souls”
according to the historic ideal in “Al-maghara” (Dome of Rock, Jerusalem)
– “Shrine of the Kodex”: now is “Temple of the Codex”. this is more suitable, since
you normally cannot enter a German “Schrein” (shrine) but only a temple.

Weapons and Armours:
– A lot of weapon names have been altered. Most notably all magic armoury has
new names. it all changed from “Zaubersomething” to “magisch something”
The reason is a bit hard to explain in English. The original translation
simply does not use “Zauber” semantically correct. “Zauber” is (most of the times)
used to describe something (passive) in the field of Magic, whereas “Magic”
describes something with (active) magic abilities. Whatsmore “magic soandso”
certainly has a more mature attitude to it, while “Zauber something” will most
be found in children books.

Reworked books:
– Biography of Lord British
– Huberts hairraising adventures
– Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang
– Ringworld
– Murder by Mongbat
– The Wizard of Oz
– Stranger in a strange Land
– Encyclopedia of Britannia Vol 1
– Encyclopedia of Britannia Vol 2
– Encyclopedia of Britannia Vol 3
– Encyclopedia of Britannia Vol 4
– Encyclopedia of Britannia Vol 5
– Gone with the wisps
– 101 Tricks for Nim
– Ritual Magic
– Book of Circles
– The black compendium
– Path to Planartravel
– Enchanting for household use
– Book of Prophecies
– Handbook for britannic minerals and gems

Sonstiges:
– Die Übersetzung von Chuckles folgte nicht den Regeln seines Spiels und macht
selbiges sinnlos. Dies wurde komplett überarbeitet und kann nun “richtig”
und ohne wild zu raten gespielt werden
– In the German version Emps and Gargoyles speak the same dialect.
They now have two dedicated dialects and peculiarities in their language,
that follow the dialects I used in U6 for Gargoyles and Fuzzys (Predecessors
and/or relatives of U7’s Emps)

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