HTLS: Turn-based open world Wuxia RPG

[rusty_shackleford]

Really enjoyed this project for getting a better understanding of LLMs and how important prooooompting is. Also got to learn about embeddings.

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Gemini Flash 2.0 is really good. It curbstomped any comparable model, probably only beaten by models that cost 10x++ as much to use, and they're likely much slower. This would have been impossible without OpenRouter letting me get around google's payment system because they refuse to take my money.

[Oyster Sauce]

Who knows? But seeing how wary the Yè Family Caravan Leader is of him, the Hé Family Caravan Leader must truly deserve his reputation.

[rusty_shackleford]

The token god demands more tokens

Selection_023.webp

[rusty_shackleford]

If you name your character '东方 未明' you get flagged as a special character. Don't know what it does. Seems to be related to their prior games.
One of those is the surname(first, perhaps?), the other is the name.

Reminds me that you guys need to use the default name, it's what all the dialogue was generated for. First release won't have this fixed, but it will be fixed eventually. The original dialogue lines have the {name_1} and {name_2} templates so I'll just need to separate all the lines referring to the player into a separate file and parameterize them.

You weren't going to use a different name anyways, because the length for name entry is about 3 characters long.

[rusty_shackleford]

Now generating all non-dialogue text. Might have a version up tonight.

[rusty_shackleford]

OK, got all the dialogue translating. I'm doing them file-by-file, so after dialogue I'll move onto equipment, etc.,

So, you're not using AutoTranslator anymore, but are extracting the text directly from the files?

Extracted all the lines, converted them to a format I can easily parse, and fed them back into the auto-translator.

I considered bypassing the auto-translator but it handles all the regex and replacements.

My UI for it looks like this if anyone cares:

J2 1.33 stc_032.webp

(I'm gettin kinda bored just starting)

[ArcaneLurker]

Who knows? But seeing how wary the Yè Family Caravan Leader is of him, the Hé Family Caravan Leader must truly deserve his reputation.

Yè Khan

[rusty_shackleford]

I appear to have messed up a couple of the translations for insights, missed some achievement translations, and overlooked the world interactables.

But… otherwise, the new translation is going great so far. I'll probably be able to get a working version up tomorrow.

A good deal of work needs to be done on various UI stuff(e.g., skill descriptions, buff/debuff descriptions, etc.,) so they're consistent.

[rusty_shackleford]

► Show Spoiler

I thought the translation messed up

J2 1.33 stc_034.webp

I went and double-checked, and no, it's an actual line?

不过嘛，有人来帮手也好，喂，我说你这小子要不要来当我下线啊？只要升到蓝钻等级，名车宝马…。

I think it might be one of those lines that's really hard to translate…
Apparently the same word used for BMW also means "fine horse". It probably has a double meaning.

[gerey]

Apparently the same word used for BMW also means "fine horse". It probably has a double meaning.

I poked Deepseek about it:

► Show Spoiler

The phrase "名车宝马" (míng chē bǎo mǎ) literally translates to "famous cars and BMWs." Here's the breakdown:

名车 (míng chē): "Famous cars" or "luxury cars."

宝马 (bǎo mǎ): This literally means "treasure horse," but in modern Chinese, it’s the term for the car brand BMW. Historically, "宝马" referred to prized or high-quality horses, which were symbols of wealth and status in ancient times.

The term "宝马" (bǎo mǎ) is used to refer to BMWs in Chinese because it’s a direct phonetic and semantic translation of the brand name. Here's why:

Phonetic Similarity:

1. The German brand name BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works).

2. In Chinese, the pronunciation of "BMW" is approximated as "Bǎo Mǎ" (宝马), which sounds close to the original name.

Semantic Meaning:

1. The characters 宝马 literally mean "treasure horse" or "precious horse."

2. Historically, "宝马" referred to prized, high-quality horses, which were symbols of wealth, status, and power in ancient China.

This meaning aligns well with the luxury and prestige associated with the BMW brand, making it a fitting and culturally resonant translation.

[rusty_shackleford]

Apparently the same word used for BMW also means "fine horse". It probably has a double meaning.

I poked Deepseek about it:

► Show Spoiler

The phrase "名车宝马" (míng chē bǎo mǎ) literally translates to "famous cars and BMWs." Here's the breakdown:

名车 (míng chē): "Famous cars" or "luxury cars."

宝马 (bǎo mǎ): This literally means "treasure horse," but in modern Chinese, it’s the term for the car brand BMW. Historically, "宝马" referred to prized or high-quality horses, which were symbols of wealth and status in ancient times.

But it still doesn't explain the "blue diamond level".

[gerey]

But it still doesn't explain the "blue diamond level".

Apparently it's a reference to loyalty program or VIP membership ranks in China, as well as a rank in online gaming, with "blue diamond" being really high up.

My guess is that it's a joke in two parts - referencing online rankings, and a phonetic play on the BMW thing.

[rusty_shackleford]

o3-mini says it's meant to be a joke. deepseek r1 says it's an intentional anachronism

I think we'd have to find a real chinaman and ask him, but it appears to be a multi-layer joke

[rusty_shackleford]

I think we'd have to find a real chinaman and ask him, but it appears to be a multi-layer joke

Until we can find someone who can give an authoritative answer I'm just going to leave it as-is I guess… Any changes I make would just be speculation at best.

[ArcaneLurker]

Character.AI (It's good with contexts, cultures and languages, it gets bitchy if you ask it too many times though) translation as being from someone in Ancient China:

"Well, having someone to help is a good thing. Hey, you kid, would you like to work for me? If you reach the Blue Diamond level, you'll have luxury carriages and horses..."

Is "Blue Diamond level" a joke, or a rank in a sect or a game progression tier?

"No, the Blue Diamond level is a reference to the prestige and success of a person in Ancient China. Blue diamonds were an expensive and valuable gemstone, and owning one was a sign of great wealth and status. Therefore, reaching the "Blue Diamond level" would indicate that someone has achieved a high level of success and power, at the same degree as in modern times owning a luxury car like a BMW might indicate."

So maybe "Blue Diamond level prestige" would make more sense?

Can't really localise the play-on-words aspect without doing something goofy like "you'll have luxury carriages, even a BMW! One of the most prestigious breeds of treasure horses..."

So:

"It's good to have someone to help. Hey, kid, how about working for me? If you reach the Blue Diamond level of prestige, you'll have luxury carriages, and even a BMW! One of the most prestigious breeds of treasure horses…"

[rusty_shackleford]

OK, played for a while to test the "new" translation and outside of previously discussed stuff, it's working well. I'll do a whole post on stuff that needs work if anyone wants to chip in.
I need to figure out why insight is messed up, translate the world objects, and translate the misc stuff(I didn't do this because it was the most complicated one to translate.)

Also got a tweaks mod with some goodies that I'll publish too.

[rusty_shackleford]

First version of the full translation: viewtopic.php?t=3444-english-translatio ... -tu-lo-shu

I'll release my tweaks mod tomorrow. Currently has:

• Increased combat speed
• Jump when wading in water
• Big improvements to the vegetation system
• Able to remove abilities from your hotbar when assigning their slot by selecting the slot it's already in
• Sort saves by most recent on the save loading screen

[rusty_shackleford]

Forgot to add, most of the UI-related text was re-done with barely any manual touching up yet. UI text tends to be the hardest to translate 'right' as it tends to be required to be in a specific format. I need to clean it up still.

[edit]
Also, using the stablehand to travel doesn't work right. You need to press alt+t before the dialogue option to open the map, select the place you want to go, confirm, then press alt+t again to re-enable the translation.

[rusty_shackleford]

► Actual spoiler

Thought I was going crazy because I could hear a baby crying, even took my headset off to check if it was the game because of how it was fading in subtly. Spent time running around trying to locate it. It was part of a quest that was about nobody else being able to hear a baby cry, extremely meta.

[Yankee Zulu]

What happened to '***** games are for ****** and not true muricans!'? How the mighty have fallen.

[rusty_shackleford]

I like how it handles RNG mechanics. e.g., your chance of a critical hit or evasion will start at 0%(usually) and 'fill up', the value being the % chance of it happening. So a character with high critical will have their critical fill up faster. It's sorta like Hard West's deterministic system, but still RNG. A nice tradeoff.

[rusty_shackleford]

What happened to '***** games are for ****** and not true muricans!'? How the mighty have fallen.

I have no national preference when it comes to games, just whether they're good or not. It's actually a major issue I have with slavs specifically, they'll often shill awful/pozzed games as long as they're slavic.

[ArcaneLurker]

First version of the full translation: viewtopic.php?t=3444-english-translatio ... -tu-lo-shu

I'll release my tweaks mod tomorrow. Currently has:

• Increased combat speed
• Jump when wading in water
• Big improvements to the vegetation system
• Able to remove abilities from your hotbar when assigning their slot by selecting the slot it's already in
• Sort saves by most recent on the save loading screen

At the start, the "Sword" option is duplicated, so I assume one sword is actually dao/ 'saber'?

[rusty_shackleford]

First version of the full translation: viewtopic.php?t=3444-english-translatio ... -tu-lo-shu

I'll release my tweaks mod tomorrow. Currently has:

• Increased combat speed
• Jump when wading in water
• Big improvements to the vegetation system
• Able to remove abilities from your hotbar when assigning their slot by selecting the slot it's already in
• Sort saves by most recent on the save loading screen

At the start, the "Sword" option is duplicated, so I assume one sword is actually dao/ 'saber'?

Yes, that shouldn't have happened.

[ArcaneLurker]

[rusty_shackleford]

Not surprised, I didn't test out a new game yet so you guys get to find all the broken stuff

[ArcaneLurker]

Unfortunately, whether it's to do with my PC atm, or the game is just not optimised for my setup, the performance is too bad for me to actually play. Low framerate and stuttering is an understatement. I'll have to wait & see.

[ArcaneLurker]

I'm not just making it up. IDK what the hell is going on but I can play FF7 Remake as smooth as butter, yet this game freaks out even on the menus.

Edit: Changed my thermal paste but it's highly likely that my heatsink pump randomly died.
Edit2: Okay, it did 'die' but then randomly resurrected. Not sure if it will pull through every time.

[rusty_shackleford]

Found a box I can pick up and put in my inventory and place elsewhere. I can climb on it to jump higher. Imsim confirmed!

[rusty_shackleford]

I am astounded that Deepseek r1 was able to figure this out. Basically none of you would be able to understand what is going on here, so you'll probably want to read this spoiler.

► Show Spoiler

It's a play on words in Chinese. Alright, so that's not too much… right…?
Well, hold on. It's a play on words from how the NPC heard them. It's then translated to you from the NPC's perspective of what he thought was being said, that is, it's garbled.

The entire thing is a meta commentary about being stuck in video games, it's a secret area you have to 'fall' through the map to access. I'm not going to tell you where(that'd be cheating!), but I want to explain the context.

J2 1.33 stc_045.webp

Selection_025.webp

And if you google '解卡脱逃', sure enough it has unstuck stuff related to games.