| Version 10 (modified by , 6 years ago) ( diff ) |
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This guide provides some ground rules to write user-facing texts for 0 A.D.
Capitalization
Use title case for:
- Button captions
- Entity names (including generic unit and structure names)
- Key names
- Proper names
Never use full capitalization.
For example:
| Good | Bad |
|---|---|
| Click the Citizen Soldier icon | Click the CITIZEN SOLDIER icon |
| Hold shift and click | Hold Shift and click |
Cursor vs Mouse
Mind the difference between the cursor (virtual) and the mouse (physical).
English Dialect
Use US English.
For example:
| Good | Bad |
|---|---|
| Color | Colour |
Terminology
In texts that the user needs to understands, such as menu entries, help tooltips, and similar, you must be consistent with the vocabulary that you use.
An object should always be referred to using the same word everywhere in the game, and an action should always be referred to using the same verb.
For example, if there is a unit type called ‘female citizen’, always refer to it as such, do not also use alternative forms such as ‘females’, ‘women’, and so on. Even in the same paragraph or sentence, you should use the same term.
For specific words that you should use or avoid in 0 A.D. gameplay texts, see the tables below:
Actions
| Good | Bad |
|---|---|
| Collect (treasures) | |
| Gather (resources) | Collect |
| Train (units) | Produce, build |
GUI
| Good | Bad |
|---|---|
| Icon | Portrait |
Stats
| Good | Bad |
|---|---|
| Health | Hitpoints, HP |
Structures
| Good | Bad |
|---|---|
| Civic Center | Civic Centre, Civil Center, Civil Centre |
Units
| Good | Bad |
|---|---|
| Cavalry Citizen Soldier | |
| Citizen (cavalry or infantry, female or male) | Worker |
| Citizen Soldier (cavalry or infantry) | |
| Female Citizen | Female, Female Worker, Woman |
| Infantry Citizen Soldier |
Unicode
We have a somewhat complete Unicode support, do not limit yourself to ASCII and learn how to use Unicode input in your system.
For example:
| Good | Bad |
|---|---|
| … | ... |
However, Atlas does not support Unicode, so English strings of map files (e.g. anything under binaries/data/mods/public/maps/) should not contain Unicode characters for the time being. But you should avoid using combinations of ASCII characters to try and reproduce Unicode characters as well. Be creative, try to rephrase the content in question so that Unicode characters are not necessary.
