Issues with the Chinese Translation of Map Place Names

[Tarawa2019]

As a Chinese player, I would first like to sincerely thank 1C for creating a Chinese version of IL-2 Korea. As we all know, China was an important participant in the Korean War, and war games related to this conflict have always attracted considerable interest among Chinese players. After comparing the Chinese and English versions of the game and conducting some research of my own, I would like to raise a few issues and suggestions regarding the Chinese localization of IL-2 Korea.

First, I noticed that several names of Red airfields located in China are incorrect in the Chinese version.  Tatung-kao Airfield is translated as 大洞高, whereas it should be 大东沟. Dapu Airfield is translated as 大浦机场, whereas it should be 大堡. Kuandian Airfield is translated as 关店机场, whereas it should be 宽甸. The Chinese pronunciations of these names are relatively similar, but the Chinese characters are different. Therefore, I believe these are likely transcription or transliteration errors.

Second, I noticed that the place names on the map within Chinese territory do not appear to correspond to the names used in the English version at all. As a native Chinese speaker, I compared the place names in the two versions and found that the Chinese names are not likely obtained by translating the English names. Furthermore, place names containing elements such as XX里 or XX洞 do not conform to normal Chinese naming conventions, but instead seem much more consistent with Korean naming conventions.

By comparison, I found that many of the place names in the English version that are located within China sound much more consistent with Chinese pronunciation. In fact, based on their pronunciation alone, I can often make a reasonable guess as to what their original Chinese names might be. However, when I compare these names with both modern maps and a historical map from 1939 that I have access to, the locations of many of these places do not appear to correspond very well to their real-world locations either. Although the 1939 map was produced by the Japanese Empire in WW2, I believe its level of detail represents a relatively high standard for that period.

The Chinese localization of IL-2 Korea has already made the game much more accessible to Chinese-speaking players. I also understand that accurately researching and translating every single detail on such a large map is an extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive task.

Nevertheless, I believe that if the place names on the map—especially key locations such as airfields—could be translated and localized more accurately, it would significantly improve the overall experience for Chinese players.

Thank you again to the development and localization teams for your work on IL-2 Korea. I hope these observations can be helpful for future updates to the Chinese localization.

[Donauhans]

As an employee of a translation company, I'm well aware that high-quality translation is impossible within such a short timeframe, and these companies generally lack a passion for flight. Could the translation work be handed back to Chinese-speaking players?

[chn6]

Best approach: Use the correct Chinese place names that correspond to their English equivalents, and display both the Chinese and English names on the map, so as to facilitate understanding of the instructions in English.

Intermediate solution: If dual display in Chinese and English is not possible, then the Chinese name must be correct.

Worst option: The Chinese version also shows English place names; we would rather have that than messy and useless Chinese maps.

[lkyfly0859]

Indeed, many Chinese place names are translated completely incorrectly. This may be because English place names are transliterated from Chinese, and there is no comparison when translating them back into Chinese. This indeed greatly affects the gaming experience
Another issue is that in the career mode, the surname and name of North Korean and Chinese pilots are in the opposite order to that in the West. In East Asian culture, the surname comes before the name. I hope this can be corrected as well

[=FB=VikS]

Hi Guys!

Thanks for tne offer for help! - we will contact you soon 😉

PS: as about order of family name before the given name - we have plans to fix it in the future when time will allow.