Test your MC2 translations

This guide will go through the process of testing unfinished translations into your local game.

Firstly, it is worth mentioning that testing your translation is very important. The process of checking in-game if the sentences are correctly translated given the context should be done at some point by either a translator or the proofreader. Indeed, some strings may have a meaning we overlooked - a very simple example is the "Build" in the game menu, which could be interpreted as "Build [some structure]" which is not the correct meaning in this context.

Step 0: Download the Ape Apps Launcher and download My Colony 2 from it. This is the only way to modifiy the game files, and no installation is required, just put the Ape Apps Launcher.exe anywhere on your computer and run it.

Step 1: use the !genarchive command inside the #bot channel. This might take a minute and Tradbot will generate a .zip file. Everyone with a language role can use it, but note that there is a one hour cooldown on this command!

Step 2: open a file explorer window and in the folder location bar, enter %appdata%\Ape Apps Launcher\apps\My Colony 2\appdata.

Press enter. You should be redirected to a folder with the following contents:

This folder will now be reffered to as the "appdata folder".

Step 3: rename strings.js to stringsen.js and copy the data folder to dataen. You can use any other names, it's just to be able to go back to the english version if needed.

Step 4: the archive from Tradbot contains a strings.js file. Copy that file in the appdata folder. There are also multiple .c2d files. Copy all these files in the data folder from the appdata folder.

Step 5 : run My Colony 2. Once your translations are proofread and a new version of the game is out, it is recommended to download the mod My Colony 2: Sandbox (once it is updated to match the game version). This mod is like a creative mode and enables you to build all structures for free hence helps a lot to test the translations.