Naming Cleanup

Vokarya · Feb 22, 2014

Starting a thread for general names of things in-game. I know some people would like to clean up unit names, and I would like to do some work on units and a few other things.

Here are my personal rules for naming things:

Be as concise as possible.
The first unit of any type does not need an adjective. For example, I would never support a rename of the Fighter. It's the first fighter unit (after a quick rename of the Early Fighter), so adjectives go on the later fighters to distinguish them from the Fighter.
Avoid Early, Modern, and Commercial. The builders of an Early unit don't know that it's early, Modern starts to look anachronistic in the Transhuman Era, and Commercial sounds incredibly artificial and often anachronistic on anything before the Industrial Era.
Never use model designations. Those are okay on civ-specific flavor names, but not on core units. We can find better names.

So here is the first change I would like to make: Armor M60 -> Main Battle Tank. This is the name that is actually used for Cold War era heavy tanks. It's a little longer but much clearer.

Rezca · Feb 22, 2014

Early Fighter could be renamed to Bi-Plane perhaps?

I haven't gotten a real close look at its model so I'm not sure if it'd fit, but it might be a possibility?

Vokarya · Feb 22, 2014

Rezca said:
Early Fighter could be renamed to Bi-Plane perhaps?

I haven't gotten a real close look at its model so I'm not sure if it'd fit, but it might be a possibility?

That's on the list. The current model is actually a triplane, but I can swap the model for the biplane from Legends of Revolution and rename it with no problems.

What does everyone else think? I want to call it Biplane without a hyphen.

Rezca · Feb 22, 2014

Vokarya said:
That's on the list. The current model is actually a triplane, but I can swap the model for the biplane from Legends of Revolution and rename it with no problems.

What does everyone else think? I want to call it Biplane without a hyphen.

Ah I never noticed that! Triplane works too, though did they come after Biplanes or before...? If Biplanes were the earliest weaponized aircraft that saw reliable action in wartime, then it might make more sense to swap in the Biplane model and rename it to that.

Combat Wombat · Feb 22, 2014

Could keep the triplane model and re-use it has a special unit for the Germans. Call it a Fokker Dr.I. Give it a small bonus vs other fighters.

Vokarya · Feb 22, 2014

Combat Wombat said:
Could keep the triplane model and re-use it has a special unit for the Germans. Call it a Fokker Dr.I. Give it a small bonus vs other fighters.

I don't want to go down the route of making lots of UU's with different stats, but as a flavor unit with different name and art but identical statistics, it's a possibility.

45°38'N-13°47'E · Feb 23, 2014

I always wanted to do some name clean-up but never had the time to look into this matter. So thank you again Vokarya, you have great ideas as usual. :goodjob:

Noyyau · Feb 23, 2014

Vokarya said:
I don't want to go down the route of making lots of UU's with different stats, but as a flavor unit with different name and art but identical statistics, it's a possibility.

The more diverse unit art there is, the better!

Vokarya · Feb 23, 2014

There are a couple of Modern Era ships that I want to rename and tweak a little bit, mostly to get rid of the word Modern.

Modern Carrier becomes Supercarrier. This is just a name swap.

We've discussed this already, but Nuclear Submarine becomes Missile Submarine. I'd like to tweak the stats somewhat as well, so that we have the Attack Sub and the Missile Sub coexisting before both upgrading to the Stealth Submarine.

Finally, Modern Destroyer. I think this should become the Missile Destroyer and give it 3 missile slots (one less than the Missile Cruiser).

45°38'N-13°47'E · Feb 23, 2014

Noyyau said:
The more diverse unit art there is, the better!

Unique arts for units and buildings was limited a long time ago; it's true it's beautiful to see all those different units and buildings, but it's expensive in terms of resources needed on the game core. With all the recent improvements in the code, it could be much easier to handle a lot of data in comparison with AND 1.75C or earlier, but the more data, the easier the game will crash for one reason or another. AND has always been designed for stability rather than diversity of graphics. But never say never, I'd also like to see more diverse art; maybe we'll do more testing in the future.

45°38'N-13°47'E · Feb 23, 2014

Vokarya said:
Finally, Modern Destroyer. I think this should become the Missile Destroyer and give it 3 missile slots (one less than the Missile Cruiser).

I don't remember stats for Destroyer / Missile Cruiser, but isn't just 1 slot less than MC too little difference? Aren't 2 slots enough? (Just asking!)

Vokarya · Feb 23, 2014

45°38'N-13°47'E;13078708 said:
Unique arts for units and buildings was limited a long time ago; it's true it's beautiful to see all those different units and buildings, but it's expensive in terms of resources needed on the game core. With all the recent improvements in the code, it could be much easier to handle a lot of data in comparison with AND 1.75C or earlier, but the more data, the easier the game will crash for one reason or another. AND has always been designed for stability rather than diversity of graphics. But never say never, I'd also like to see more diverse art; maybe we'll do more testing in the future.

The triplane art that's currently being used for the Early Fighter will still be in the FPK files; I don't want to repack all of that just to change the artwork. We can try it without actually calling on the triplane first, and then try later to see if the game will handle both.

Vokarya · Feb 23, 2014

45°38'N-13°47'E;13078710 said:
I don't remember stats for Destroyer / Missile Cruiser, but isn't just 1 slot less than MC too little difference? Aren't 2 slots enough? (Just asking!)

I'm not changing anything else about the Missile Destroyer (it's still cheaper and lower-strength than the Missile Cruiser) and you can only load missiles onto a ship in port (you can't rebase a missile onto a ship at sea), so I don't want Missile Destroyers to have to run back to port super-often. I just want the new name and the abilities to match.

<Nexus> · Feb 24, 2014

for everithing

Maybe Main Battle Tank could be just Battle Tank?
Adding the "main" prefix also sound artifical for me.

Vokarya · Feb 24, 2014

Sogroon said:
Maybe Main Battle Tank could be just Battle Tank?
Adding the "main" prefix also sound artifical for me.

Main battle tank seems to be the actual name used to describe these kinds of tanks. For example, that is the name of the Wikipedia article on them and Battle Tank redirects to Main Battle Tank. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_battle_tank

I'm trying to avoid artificial constructions, but this one isn't.

<Nexus> · Feb 24, 2014

Vokarya said:
Main battle tank seems to be the actual name used to describe these kinds of tanks. For example, that is the name of the Wikipedia article on them and Battle Tank redirects to Main Battle Tank. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_battle_tank

I'm trying to avoid artificial constructions, but this one isn't.

I know. I started with googling for the expression.
Maybe it's only my taste...

How about (according to the artcle) using "___ MBT", where "___" is civ specific (Leopard for Germans, Centurion for English, Leclerc for French, etc.)
EDIT: If you want I can do the searching work for all the names.

Vokarya · Feb 25, 2014

Sogroon said:
How about (according to the artcle) using "___ MBT", where "___" is civ specific (Leopard for Germans, Centurion for English, Leclerc for French, etc.)
EDIT: If you want I can do the searching work for all the names.

I don't want to do that. You still need a generic name, and I find trying to give every unit a civilization-specific name to be way more confusing than helpful.

Vokarya · Mar 10, 2014

A few more renames that I want to do in the interests of keeping names short and to-the-point:

Helicopters
We aren't using the Helicopter name at the moment, so I think we should use that up first and then rename the second Helicopter to just the Gunship.

Gunship -> Helicopter
AH64 Gunship -> Gunship

Remove Model Numbers
I don't think we should be using model numbers at all on generic units. As flavor unit names, that can be okay, but I'd rather not overuse that either. So I think we can take off the following names:

Heavy Tank M26 -> Heavy Tank
Strike Fighter F15 -> Strike Fighter
Modern Fighter F35 -> Modern Fighter
V1 Missile -> Missile

Pre-Dreadnought
I think Pre-Dreadnaught is a really bad name for a ship because you don't know that they are pre-dreadnaughts until you actually have a Dreadnaught. I suggest Ironclad Battleship instead.

T95
This is just a really confusing name. I looked into this a little bit, and I think we should call it the Hybrid Tank. The Russian T95 was a planned diesel-electric hybrid-drive tank, so I think that would be a good generic name.

Remote Controlled Bombers
This is another clunky name that I think we can shorten to Drone Bombers.

Airports
I've always disliked having the first Airport show up so early at the discovery of Flight. While I understand needing a building there, I think the first Airport should be named Airfield, and then the second one (that shows up with Supersonic Flight) have the Airport name. I also really dislike using the word commercial to name things, as it almost always sounds to me either anachronistic or artificial.

Castle Wonders
I think a couple Wonder names could use trimming. I would like to shorten Himeji Samurai Castle to Himeji Castle and Edinburgh's Castle to Edinburgh Castle (no 's).

I think that's enough for now.

Noyyau · Mar 11, 2014

45°38'N-13°47'E · Mar 11, 2014

Vokarya said:
A few more renames that I want to do in the interests of keeping names short and to-the-point:

Helicopters
We aren't using the Helicopter name at the moment, so I think we should use that up first and then rename the second Helicopter to just the Gunship.

Gunship -> Helicopter

AH64 Gunship -> Gunship

Remove Model Numbers
I don't think we should be using model numbers at all on generic units. As flavor unit names, that can be okay, but I'd rather not overuse that either. So I think we can take off the following names:

Heavy Tank M26 -> Heavy Tank

Strike Fighter F15 -> Strike Fighter

Modern Fighter F35 -> Modern Fighter

V1 Missile -> Missile

Pre-Dreadnought
I think Pre-Dreadnaught is a really bad name for a ship because you don't know that they are pre-dreadnaughts until you actually have a Dreadnaught. I suggest Ironclad Battleship instead.

T95
This is just a really confusing name. I looked into this a little bit, and I think we should call it the Hybrid Tank. The Russian T95 was a planned diesel-electric hybrid-drive tank, so I think that would be a good generic name.

Remote Controlled Bombers
This is another clunky name that I think we can shorten to Drone Bombers.

Airports
I've always disliked having the first Airport show up so early at the discovery of Flight. While I understand needing a building there, I think the first Airport should be named Airfield, and then the second one (that shows up with Supersonic Flight) have the Airport name. I also really dislike using the word commercial to name things, as it almost always sounds to me either anachronistic or artificial.

Castle Wonders
I think a couple Wonder names could use trimming. I would like to shorten Himeji Samurai Castle to Himeji Castle and Edinburgh's Castle to Edinburgh Castle (no 's).

I think that's enough for now.

I mostly agree. The only thing I'm not sure of is Pre-Dreadnought. I liked that name because it fits very good IMO. According to wikipedia "Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s". Ironclad battleship sounds like a different kind of ship, more or less the same as ironclads (I guess you can use both Ironclad Battleship or Ironclad for the same ship). While I know that at the time Pre-Dreadnoughts weren't called Pre-Dreadnoughts, I guess they were simply called battleships and not ironclads anymore. But to tell the truth, I don't have other names to suggest if we want to change it.

Naming Cleanup

Deity

The Greatest Jaggi

Deity

The Greatest Jaggi

Warlord

Deity

Deity

Privateer Captain

Deity

Deity

Deity

Deity

Deity

Traveler of the Multiverse

Deity

Traveler of the Multiverse

Deity

Deity

Privateer Captain

Deity

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