ROM Hack [Request] Culdcept DS

[Some Gamer Guy]

I love The Culdcept series and have been using Theli's utility for a few days now translating the text using google. I realize that this is not the best way being as there is a lot of room for story line error. I would love to see another release of Theli's utility with the demonstrated upgrades if for no other reason than to continue with my work for personal use.

As for the Character limit, I have been simply shrinking text or using synonyms for things that do not fit. On the same not I have played all the way through the PS2 version of this game and I have already recognized what some of the larger strings could be trimmed to.

I would like to also ask Theli and the rest of the community if there are any tech documents that I could read that would explain the structure of NDS games? I love what is being done here and would love to read more about it so that I may be able to help.

 

[theli]

It'll probably work if they are the exact same character length.
But it'll most likely be a huge pain in the butt to make it fit, if not impossible.
It would most likely be easier figure out how to change the offset size.

this is not about strings' lengths ...
i'll try to explain:
one of CULDCEPT.DAT subfiles (316) contains cards' data, crests' data and some graphics.
so, this file, basically just contains several more subfiles each with their own structure.. and there is no 'main' offsets or sizes table... this lesser subfiles are just coming one after another.
so, when the first part (with cards) get's bigger it moves other parts and you get that data screwed ingame.

speaking short, - you can have cards' strings with any length until whole card's block get's bigger than original.

(while i can't for sure understand what i just wrote i can't think of better explanation now)

 

[twiztidsinz]

It'll probably work if they are the exact same character length.
But it'll most likely be a huge pain in the butt to make it fit, if not impossible.
It would most likely be easier figure out how to change the offset size.

this is not about strings' lengths ...
i'll try to explain:
one of CULDCEPT.DAT subfiles (316) contains cards' data, crests' data and some graphics.
so, this file, basically just contains several more subfiles each with their own structure.. and there is no 'main' offsets or sizes table... this lesser subfiles are just coming one after another.
so, when the first part (with cards) get's bigger it moves other parts and you get that data screwed ingame.

speaking short, - you can have cards' strings with any length until whole card's block get's bigger than original.

(while i can't for sure understand what i just wrote i can't think of better explanation now)

I could be wrong, I don't know much about ROM hacking, but..
It would have to have an offset table somewhere. If there wasn't a table, then the edited data would be able to be read fine.
Since the data gets messed up when you change the size, that means the game is reading from a table to find the offsets.

 

[theli]

It would have to have an offset table somewhere. If there wasn't a table, then the edited data would be able to be read fine.
Since the data gets messed up when you change the size, that means the game is reading from a table to find the offsets.

yes, i've already said that there should be offsets or sizes table defined elsewhere

 

[Some Gamer Guy]

Theli you mention that there are offsets some where. Well I know absolutely nothing about how you are determining this information so I may be assuming to understand more than I do when I ask; why don't you just trace a call to one of the cards?

I am assuming that you are finding this data using some kind of disassembler, so can you debug or follow one of the calls to load the card information to the screen? If you can then follow two or three of them and see what they have in common, i.e. the read from the offset table.

 

[theli]

here is a dump of card list
http://culdcept.referata.com/wiki/Card_List

and i've traced down the offsets

they are, indeed, in arm9 binary ... like this:

LDRÂÂÂÂ R2, =address_of_loaded_unpacked_file
LDRÂÂÂÂ R2, [R2]
ADDÂÂÂÂ R2, R2, #0x18C
ADDÂÂÂÂ R3, R2, #0x16C00
//so... using a block at 0x16D8C offset

 

[theli]

btw, i'm going to get a copy of Culdcept SAGA (latest English Culdcept installment)
and get a dump of cards from there - for another cards' translation reference

 

[theli]

i also found something which looks like credits (?)
i wonder should this be editable?

Spoiler

ゼネス
ナジャラン
ゴリガン
カルドラ
セバスチャン
ポコポコ
コーテツ
ヴァイデン
ミランダ
オライリー
ホロビッツ
グルベル
ベルカイル
バルテアス
イクシア
セレニア
ビステア
テレイア
カルドセプト
アティス
ガイデス
大宮ソフト
ＪＡＭＳ
ジャムズ
じゃむず
ＳＥＧＡ
セガ
せが
猿楽庁

 

[tsol]

wow, you actually figured out the offset tables! From the way you were talking i was afraid you had given up.. seems like a real pain in the rear to work with all that compressed data, great work.. i think you should change every line in the credits to theli

 

[theli]

btw, i'm not sure Wiki is a good idea...
maybe googledocs spreadsheet would be better?
or maybe something other? and how this should look...?

 

[twiztidsinz]

btw, i'm not sure Wiki is a good idea...
maybe googledocs spreadsheet would be better?
or maybe something other? and how this should look...?

The wiki should be fine....
GoogleDocs are probably OK too... but the problem is, they can be vandalized (Found out just how bad working on Ragnarok DS). Though I think RODS just attracted a wider audience of people -- Those who liked it and disliked/didn't care and who would cause trouble -- Hopefully Culdcept won't attract the later group.
You can always lock the spreadsheets so that only approved people can edit it.

 

[nIxx]

I would recommend a google spreadsheet.
Then columns for japanese and english and if you use a counter (makes it easier to find the text again) a column for it too

 

[theli]

someone had started to translate cards at wiki...
i'm not sure it is done the right way - i think the formatting should be kept closer to original
example
card 0 (Bundle Gear)
ability
無効化[巻物]：スペルの対象に選べない
translated to
Neutralizes: Scroll attacks / Cannot be targeted by spells
i think this should look like
Neutralize [scroll]: Cannot be targeted by spells

also:
card 7 (Amber Mosquito)
ability
戦闘中、"ティラノサウルス"か"Ｇ・ラット"に変身する
translated as
In Battle: Transforms into Giant Rat or T-Rex
while there is no such card "T-Rex"... there is a card "Tyrannosaurus"


... i'm also thinking of somehow leaving original text at translation page for reference and review.... anyone has an idea?

 

[twisteddeeds]

I would suggest editing the descriptions as close as you can Theli to the original japanese, ie keeping the original names and such for other cards.
keeping the original text compared to the translation, for reference (just incase some meanings get lost in translation so to speak) would be a good idea.

 

[Sasha77]

someone had started to translate cards at wiki...
i'm not sure it is done the right way - i think the formatting should be kept closer to original
example
card 0 (Bundle Gear)
ability
???[??]????????????
translated to
Neutralizes: Scroll attacks / Cannot be targeted by spells
i think this should look like
Neutralize [scroll]: Cannot be targeted by spells

also:
card 7 (Amber Mosquito)
ability
????"????????"?"?????"?????
translated as
In Battle: Transforms into Giant Rat or T-Rex
while there is no such card "T-Rex"... there is a card "Tyrannosaurus"


... i'm also thinking of somehow leaving original text at translation page for reference and review.... anyone has an idea?

that's me who started some translation
I can try to translate some cards , even if I am not the most suited person to do that, because I have only played the PS2 version of Culdcept .
So I suggest to try translating the first 30 cards because I will not have time and skills to translate everything. . This will be my contribution

I am using the list of cards on the mirrored web site to do that.

So if there are othe people motivated for translation, they can start after the 30 first cards of the list.

 

[tsol]

However you think is best as far as how we do it, but i would agree that it's best to have the original text so that if someone that actually knows Japanese comes along they can tell us how wrong we are.

 

[theli]

However you think is best as far as how we do it, but i would agree that it's best to have the original text so that if someone that actually knows Japanese comes along they can tell us how wrong we are.

you can now see original Japanese text by hovering over ID number.
I also split list to 10-cards sections

 

[Sasha77]

I have tanslated what I could among the first 10 cards, but there are some abilities I was not able to translate, because I don't know the game enough. I use a mixture of google japanese / english translation+ culdcept card list.

If someone could help to translate on them, it would be great since most of the abilities are generic; so when translated the first time , it is then much easier to translate the others

 

[tsol]

so just to clarify: character length is no longer an issue?

 

[theli]

so just to clarify: character length is no longer an issue?

right.
I'll create a page with menus/messages soon - the only place where length is an issue.