[Suggestion] Random name generator needs improvement

from Elemental Forums

Loving the game so far, but one thing that really stands out is the horrible names that the name generator spits out. It seems like the coding of the generator is such that it says "throw a bunch of alternating vowels and consonants into a word that's between 4 and 16 letters long". Needless to say, it takes hitting the button a good 10-15 times before a name that is even usable (though still not good) will pop up. At least for the city names, it would be nice if there were some pre-programmed names for each nation (maybe 6 for each?). If I had to think of a new name every time I founded a new city in Civilization, I would have given up long ago.

elemental
8,789 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Well it is a random name in every sense. One thing I do find funny is they randomize the world names. Why? There are only a fixed number of maps anyways. Now if they actually made truly ramdom maps it would make more sense.

RAT

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Agreed, and they need names that seem more "not random" if you catch my drift, the names as they are currently convey nothing to me about the atmosphere of the game.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Yup. Thereis nothing quite as awe inspring as the Fabled City of ERWWOUYYEOOII in the fabled land of TYUUTRVUATT.XD

RAT

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Names should be put together by syllables, with some syllables being more likely as ending, than others.

 

That said, I just had the last Master Quest-battle against a bunch of trolls and demons named Jeff, Paula and the likes. Probably either lazyness or an easter egg of some sort :P

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I will give it props for being the most "random" name generator out there though, I rarely see the same thing twice :D Unfortunetly they convey nothing which is sad. LOL

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Here's the solution:

Everybody Most people on the forums want to be helpful. Have a thread where everyone puts in whatever they think would be a good name for a city. Compile these, and then have the random name generator select randomly from that list. All Stardock would need is some intern to sift through and remove all the "Cockvilles", et cetera, and everyone is happy. You'd end up with a nice, varied list, some of them in English (e.g. "Desperation Point") and some just pleasing combinations of syllables, and since the player can cycle through them he can choose what he likes.

I'm completely serious, too.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

It would be nice if the generator could take different inputs to spit out much like some internet name generators available. Thus you could have random, name based off the word style that Brad used in the book, or anything else that someone would come up with (ie a mod). It would produce nicer names and give some options. 

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

I think if they just set it the basic vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant system it woudl be much better than what we have. Having a prerendered list may be moot point as folks can add their own names easily if they want their "cockvilles", "phallusbergs" and "wangtons".

RAT

 

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

I agree 100% with stethnorun and Baleurion.  The current random name generator is pretty lame. 

There is an old Games workshop stategy game, Mighty Empires I think was the name, it used multiple tables to product names, so if you were creating a city you would roll first to find out how many elements the name contained.  Different races had different maximum numbers of elements.  Then you would roll again on that races element chart to create the name.

For example, you find a dwarf city, you would make your first roll to find the number of elements:

Roll    #of Elements

1-2     1 element

3-6     2 elements

Then you roll however many times you need to on the elements table to find the actual elements:

Roll    Element1     Element2

1        Askul          -a-grim

2        Brok           -a-karak

3        Dun            athol

4        Dur             ban

5        Kar             krag

6        Thor           ungol

So if you roll a 4 the name is two elements; you then roll a 4 and the first element is Dur; finally you roll a 2 and the second element is -a-karak; name = Dun-a-karak.

If you were rolling on an orc city it might be more likely to select only 1 element, and the orc element table would be different, so the names for an orc city would be something like: Bog or Naz for single element names, or Bogrot or Bogbad for two element names.

Maybe elven cities even had 3 elements possible.

A system like this would still give a great degree of randomness, while also letting each faction create city (and hero) names that are specific to each faction, and eliminate the unpronouncable random names.

Anyway, just a suggestion...

[is this a duplicate thread?]

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

I name my cities like this: A city, B city, C city, D city

 

The only thing that worries me is if I play on a huge map what I will do after Z.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting efarias, reply 10

I agree 100% with stethnorun and Baleurion.  The current random name generator is pretty lame. 

There is an old Games workshop stategy game, Mighty Empires I think was the name, it used multiple tables to product names, so if you were creating a city you would roll first to find out how many elements the name contained.  Different races had different maximum numbers of elements.  Then you would roll again on that races element chart to create the name.

For example, you find a dwarf city, you would make your first roll to find the number of elements:

Roll    #of Elements

1-2     1 element

3-6     2 elements

Then you roll however many times you need to on the elements table to find the actual elements:

Roll    Element1     Element2

1        Askul          -a-grim

2        Brok           -a-karak

3        Dun            athol

4        Dur             ban

5        Kar             krag

6        Thor           ungol

So if you roll a 4 the name is two elements; you then roll a 4 and the first element is Dur; finally you roll a 2 and the second element is -a-karak; name = Dun-a-karak.

If you were rolling on an orc city it might be more likely to select only 1 element, and the orc element table would be different, so the names for an orc city would be something like: Bog or Naz for single element names, or Bogrot or Bogbad for two element names.

Maybe elven cities even had 3 elements possible.

A system like this would still give a great degree of randomness, while also letting each faction create city (and hero) names that are specific to each faction, and eliminate the unpronouncable random names.

Anyway, just a suggestion...

[is this a duplicate thread?]

End of efarias's quote

 

I like this solution. Stardock, any thoughts?

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

They have alot more important things to do than this IMO. Not to rag on the idea of improving the name generator, but i hope if this is taken into consideration its very low on the priority list.

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

i think it needs some work. i'd like to see a linguistic theme for each faction: that would really help establish the tone. tolkien was a linguist and that may be part of the reason his world is so compelling.

 

imo, stardock usually pays too little attention to immersion and tone (though elemental is an improvement) and this would be an easy way to improve this.

 

but if the snathi are in the next gal civ game i will scream.

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting asteroides, reply 13
They have alot more important things to do than this IMO. Not to rag on the idea of improving the name generator, but i hope if this is taken into consideration its very low on the priority list.
End of asteroides's quote

 

There is no one big "priority list" for game development. Lots of people on the team have individual list. So while the world builders make better maps and the artist make better models, there might be an intern sitting around that can make a better name generator.

And don't go into a thread and **** on everyone saying "Don't listen to these guys!" That's just a jerk move. If you think it's not important, just don't post.