Jam was playing EDF 4.1 at the end of May, so I presume he's still alive and well. I'll send him a message to let him know that people are missing him.
Hey man, it's been a while, good to hear from you. I've done everything I can to contact him and I'm sure he already knows people are looking for him.
Why he's not responding only he knows, and I don't want to speculate about it here. But if you can reach him, that would be great.
In 3 weeks it'll be 1 year since JamRules last posted in this thread.
Weyu, who's poured many hours into this project, has lost contact with him.
Weyu is optimistic and doesn't seem to think it's a big deal, but as someone who's followed the emulation\translation scene since the early Zophar's era, the track record for projects that stall for 1 year or more before release is on the wrong side of 50%. As a point of reference, Coldbird's translation ended up the same way. And when considering community track records, one must also consider the track record of that individual (JamRules). How many projects has he seen to completion?
That said, the dude can do whatever the F he wants. We're not his keepers. Just don't count on this project finishing at this point.
Last I heard from him was mid-late Feb and he didn't show any indication that he was burned out, I was honestly surprised that he just went off the radar.
So while it's been a long time since he posted here, he hasn't been gone for nearly a year.
I wouldn't say I'm being overly optimistic. Like I said before, I just hope that he's taking a break and that he'll be back eventually.
I've put a lot of time in this yes, there were times I'd spent entire weekends doing nothing but translating and checking my work in the game. But so has Jam: he's worked on almost every part of the game.
From the various text windows to UI windows alterations (there are a ton of different kinds), text insertion, swapping around UI items (to account for the change in language), image replacement, the various types of NPC text, UI position tweaks (to make the UI more accessible since some parts were poorly done) and a ton of other stuff.
Rather than just a simple text insertion, a lot has been done to make the UI better than the original game and many things had been changed to accommodate to the translation.
What I'm trying to say with the above is, this wasn't a quick attempt and quit when it didn't work, he'd put in a lot of work in this as well and we're so close to completion.
So I'd be very surprised if he doesn't come back at all.
But yes, this is one of the things that plagues free fan translations. There is no obligation to see things through and many projects that were started enthusiastically end up abandoned when they turn out to be more effort or more frustrating than initially anticipated. I'm not saying that this is what happened here (as said, I have no idea what his motivations are), but let us hope that this project is on the right side of that 50%.
Sorry if this is rude to ask but do you have a backup plan
It's not rude, I've been thinking about it myself too.
I'm just the translator and QC person, I've had very little to do with the tech side of things— that was entirely Jam.
Hopefully MrFwibbles above can contact Jam, or that Jam comes back by himself eventually, since I do want to finish this with him.
If he stays MIA for a much longer period and it doesn't appear he will be back, I'll start a new thread asking for help. I really hope it doesn't come to that though, because Jam is the one who knows the ins and outs of this game.
And considering how complex the game apparently is to work with, probably only the most experienced could handle the task.
And as a very last resort, if truly nothing can be done to further the project, I'll release the latest test version I have now, so people can play through the story at least and haven't waited for nothing.
But that is only when every other option has been exhausted, so please don't ask for it.
That's about everything I have to say on the subject right now.