So, translating PSO into other languages...

Yesterday I was browsing PSO's quest files and realized that they're pretty easy to modify with a hex editor. Which got me thinking about possibly translating the game into other languages, though there are caveats, yes?

I tried changing three things in the quest file for "Magnitude of Metal" - the quest name, description and dialogue. Changing the quest's name has no bearing on the quest's name when selecting it from the Hunter's Guild, but does show the change in the player's screen. The description doesn't change at all. On the other hand, changing dialogue works - to a point. There seems to be the same kind of character limit games usually have (don't remember PSO's now, but I think it was around 18 or 20? not sure, will check again), which means fitting text without losing meaning still remains challenging.

But what exactly determines that the quest name and description do not change? I tried editing both the English and Spanish quest files, as a text, then selecting the appropriate languages in the game. Same thing.

I've also realized the game changes nearly every text into other language when asked for, but I don't know where I can find said text. I'm guessing tile maps, since the PSO_Offline .exe *has* text, but the only noticeable one in a hex editor is a series of errors and dev messages.

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Sega was lazy when dealing with the text in the quest list. The only reason quest files have the descriptions in them at all is for the sake of downloadable quests, because neither offline nor online quests used them. Sega read the text for the quest list from external files both in the client and on their server, which is kind of funny.

As for editing the text in the quests themselves, you can easily do that with the quest editor.

That explains a few things, then. Thank you both

Don't know why, just been in a translation rampage as of late, and decided to check out PSO for that. It seems a much more monumental task than what I've been doing lately, though. I'll give the Quest Editor a spin later, see what I can do. Who knows?

Now, to examine PSO with hex editors and see what else I can dig up...