Naming Critters

If im understanding you right then you would only need an extra option "Autoname selfmade stuff" (or something like that, you know what i mean) Yes or no.

And if im not understanding you right, what do you mean?

BastianKraft wrote:

If im understanding you right then you would only need an extra option "Autoname selfmade stuff" (or something like that, you know what i mean) Yes or no.

And if im not understanding you right, what do you mean?

I'm saying the option that nothing gets named by this process unless:
the player creates it, but does not name it
it was created by the game for a nation other than the player's nation
it was created by the game for a planet inhabited by a nation other than the player's nation

Therefore, content is only named when it makes sense for it to have names. If you encounter an uninhabited alien planet, and all of the creatures on it already have names, you'll of course then wonder why they would have names if nothing had been there to name them. It doesn't make sense for them to have names.

now i get what you mean.

But in reality if you discover a new nation they already have a name for themselves and for everything else in thier own language. For example if you are chinese and you discover russia then you dont have names for them but they already have names. Thats why you would just take thier name for themselves and convert it into a similar word into your own language. For example Polak into Polnish. And if they have invented something that you dont already know about like they have a computer or a special food you would do the same again. You could invent a word in your own language for "schnitzel" but why because you already have the german one.

So it would be logical if only civlized creatures and thier creations have randomly generated names and maybe even only a special amount of percent of the lifeforms on planets that already have a civilisation. The random name would just simulate that you take an alien word a convert it into your own language. They wont make any sence but its a name for something that exsists you copy it in reality. Example: In english you use "Kindergarden" that came from the word "Kindergarten". The word dosent make any sence but you know what it means.

Quote :

After a certian time in the game a name Generator of some type will just make the game better from my point of view. When the first contacts with a other civlisation are made it would just be annoying if everything had no name. I mean the player could just name everything himself, but i cant imagine that most of the players are happy with that solution. And if there are just alot of nameless creatures, vehicles or whatever runnning around it would just seem less interesting.

The perfect mix would be if you could just have the options:

-letting things be named randomly with the possibility to change the name how the player likes it

or

-No names will be generated randomly and everything will be nameless but with the possibility to change the name how the player likes it.

giving the player these options adds more playability while staying simple. You could even extend the option so you can specifically choose what kind of ingame object (Species, Vehicle, and so on) shall get names generated automatically and which ones not. Its a little more additional work but not that much. It has the advantage that you can make the game give names to things that should have names like parts of a civilisation but also leave other things like plants where the name is less important stay unnamed. And maybe some players like to give animals they discover names but would like all plants to have a randomly generated one or no name.

And if the random name generation gets added as a gameplay option it would be best that the names only get generated when you "look up" the species or whenever the name gets displayed the first time to save the ~0,01% percent of the memory/processor resources the script uses.

Its just a concept but im just trying to combine playabilty and simplicity as good as possible.

Its not very unlogical but it keeps playabilty in the game. And i think more people would complain if everything were nameless instead of complaing why everything already having a names being unlogical.

That's what Scio said, Bastian.

I agree that other civilizations should have names, as long as your civilisation can understand the other civ's language. If you discover a civ that was isolated from yours long, long time ago, or if it's from another planet than yours, the names should stay hidden until some research is done.

Also, each civilization should have it's own random "characteristics" in the name generator. Some civs could have lots of doubled vowels, some could have more consonants in their words, some could have quite long words and some very short, etc.



(By the way, it's funny how you chose German to defend taking words from other languages. The word "German" is "Němec" in Czech, as from "němý" (meaning "voiceless"). There are very few words of German origin in Czech despite Germans making around 30% population in the 19th century).

Commander Keen wrote:

That's what Scio said, Bastian.

I agree that other civilizations should have names, as long as your civilisation can understand the other civ's language. If you discover a civ that was isolated from yours long, long time ago, or if it's from another planet than yours, the names should stay hidden until some research is done.

Also, each civilization should have it's own random "characteristics" in the name generator. Some civs could have lots of doubled vowels, some could have more consonants in their words, some could have quite long words and some very short, etc.



(By the way, it's funny how you chose German to defend taking words from other languages. The word "German" is "Němec" in Czech, as from "němý" (meaning "voiceless"). There are very few words of German origin in Czech despite Germans making around 30% population in the 19th century).

We're arguing exactly the same point, bastian
And thanks for the interesting fact, keen.

So we are sticking to the idea of the random name generation? (For more less specific ingame entitys)?

It will just be expanded with the idea that every ... lets say Planet gets its own seed so they names from the planet all sound similiar.
It will base of my random generator idea.
Name generation will On/off-able for every specific kind fo object
Everybody should look through this and tell me thier ideas


I will code it as soon the game engine has come far enough for this to get implemented.


P.S. i kinda have a hard time finding other topics to help out on

BastianKraft wrote:

So we are sticking to the idea of the random name generation? (For more less specific ingame entitys)?

It will just be expanded with the idea that every ... lets say Planet gets its own seed so they names from the planet all sound similiar.
It will base of my random generator idea.
Name generation will On/off-able for every specific kind fo object
Everybody should look through this and tell me thier ideas


I will code it as soon the game engine has come far enough for this to get implemented.


P.S. i kinda have a hard time finding other topics to help out on

Yeah, name generation is greenlighted. different nations should get different seeds- a seed would just be a collection of which letters they use. For instance, the Hawaiian language only has about a dozen letters in it. That's why they call the reef triggerfish the humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

We really shouldn't call the difference in each nation's language seed, or we are going to really confuse our programmers.

That being said, it's a good idea. I don't know if my addition to it was seen, so I'll just quote myself:

Quote :

Also, each civilization should have it's own random "characteristics" in the name generator. Some civs could have lots of doubled vowels, some could have more consonants in their words, some could have quite long words and some very short, etc.

Just increase the probabilities of some and decrease chances of others. Also, only consonants should be disabled, and not more than three at once, or we'll end with very uninteresting words (the humuhumunukunukuapua'a is a pretty good example of such a word).

Commander Keen wrote:

We really shouldn't call the difference in each nation's language seed, or we are going to really confuse our programmers.

That being said, it's a good idea. I don't know if my addition to it was seen, so I'll just quote myself:

Quote :

Also, each civilization should have it's own random "characteristics" in the name generator. Some civs could have lots of doubled vowels, some could have more consonants in their words, some could have quite long words and some very short, etc.

Just increase the probabilities of some and decrease chances of others. Also, only consonants should be disabled, and not more than three at once, or we'll end with very uninteresting words (the humuhumunukunukuapua'a is a pretty good example of such a word).

Number of sounds in the language and word length are inversely proportional.

~sciocont wrote:

Number of sounds in the language and word length are inversely proportional.

Still, it should be a bit random. We'll need as much variety as we can get there.

Commander Keen wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

Number of sounds in the language and word length are inversely proportional.

Still, it should be a bit random. We'll need as much variety as we can get there.

Of course.