i think there should be a predefined, long list of good names for each faction. establish a linguistic theme for each: this is a really easy way of giving each faction a bit of individuality. by trying to make a random generator sound good you end up applying so many extra rules that you might as well just write out all the permutations.

give one faction a romanesque theme (places ending is -us and -ium), one a more refined elfish lilt, etc.

I agree that the name generator needs to be changed radically. The names it produces right now are complete gibberish. Out of 30 names it suggested for a town, only 3 of them were ok, not great but recognisable, memorable and easy enough to pronounce. 5 more were usable with a little work, but the rest were trash.

The predefined lists are a decent solution, faction-specific ones would add a nice touch of flavor. Perhaps you could pick from several lists, not only from your own faction, but also from a general list for your race/allegiance.

To the guys that are saying 'why cant you think of your own names?' or 'you can easily modify the ones that are given into something you like', I'm playing a tbs, not the ****sims. The things you get to name are usually not that important that they all need an awesome personalised name, just an ok one will do most of the time. I really hate it when I get pulled out of a game because I have to name something and can't think of anything on the spot, thus having to refresh fifty times until something remotely usable comes along. This makes it feel like work and kills fun. If I happen to think of something fitting I'll use it. If not, I want to be only a few clicks away from a decent name. Doesn't have to be great, just good enough.

The random names don't really bother me.  I do find a couple of them completely unpronounceable (if thats a word).  Kind of a small thing, but I would like the name of the world to default to Elemental and let me change it if I like.

Hmm...I think that I might look at the name generation files and come up with something to help with this.   For example for the Faction Generator, I have a large list of names that are randomly chosen, and can be added to.  I could come up with something like that for this as well.   Or alternatively, I may implement the Markov Name generator and populate this file.    Just a thought.  

How many random names do you think need to be available for any particular game (2000, 5000, more?)

Note:  if anyone is interested in the markov Name generator you can look at it here: http://www.siliconcommandergames.com/MarkovNameGenerator.htm

The random name generator has its ups and downs, but it think it is okay, and a lot of times it will be close to a pronounceable name but I'll just need to add or delete a letter.  I wouldn't want to see us lose that.  And of course we don't want to lose the ability to name the city whatever we want, although, when multiplayer rolls around, who knows I may end up going back on that. 

But I like the faction names ideas above too, though I'm not sure I'd want to keep seeing the same or similar city names over and over in game after game. 

Perhaps a compromise would be an additional button on the city naming box which says "Faction City" and then has 40 (or so) names for each faction it can randomly choose from.  Whenever someone mods a new race, there would be a field of city names for that particular race.  That could go a long way toward giving each faction its own characteristic style, which we don't have with the random generator.

You know it can be modified right look in the StardockGames\Elemental\data\English folder for WorldNameRuleset.xml.

Although it's possible these rules only apply to the actual world naming they might also cover characters. Seems mostly probablistic.

Hmm... I've been playing around with creating random names that come out more like this "Uruk the Bonebiter, and Gre'old of Greenleaf"   however, even when I create a modded file of the CoreNameRulset.xml file and put it in the mods directory.  It still uses the old name generator.   Same thing with WorldNameRuleset.xml.  

I don't know why it won't pick up these mod files when it grabs the others just fine.   I'll keep working on it.  If anyone wants to see the modded files to try it on there own.  Let me know.

Well, taking names from places in the real world or in book series isn't very original

But my "issues" with the name generator isn't that I can't or won't think of names myself but that the names generated don't seem to convey any feeling or difference between the cultures and peoples of Elemental. Even if one race used the names as they are, it's the same across the whole world. If it varied so that Altar used one kind of names and Urxen used another, then that would be better because it's a difference across cultures and gives more flavor.

As it is, every culture and nation has names like Ungamarbeckastan and it loses some flavor, imo.