City names.

[Antilogic]

This 'ad%T&098t4' random, is this a sneaky XML/SDK/what not change to make, say, London always the capital of England, and have random cities after that?

No, I was trying to figure out what the previous poster was saying with "completely random cities".

Personally, I wish the game would pick different city names from the list after placing your capital. Since I play Small or Standard size maps, typically with an extra Civ, I rarely see any city names beyond the first half-dozen for any particular civilization.

My ideal solution to this would be to give you a button while naming your new city that would pull another name off the list. The default would pop up in the same order it always has, but then you would have the option of getting a new name from the list if you wanted to skip a particular name or see some different names for a change. I'll open up the XML and then pick names from further down in the list half of the time just for variety's sake.

 

[Gwil]

Personally I never understood why Derby is not in the English city names - considering Derby had the first industrial mill, was home to great scientists and painters, is the pretty much the centre of the country and has history dating back to the Romans as a key settlement.

There is more case for Derby being in the English city list over Brighton, Mumbles, Berwick and Carlisle.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

actually the Birmingham referred to is in Alabama actually the capital

Gosh, I never knew that before. Maybe (although I could be wrong about this) that was why they called the song "Sweet Home Alabama" and not "Sweet Home West Midlands". Thanks for clearing that up for me! Cheers!

 

[jason77024]

Gosh, I never knew that before. Maybe (although I could be wrong about this) that was why they called the song "Sweet Home Alabama" and not "Sweet Home West Midlands". Thanks for clearing that up for me! Cheers!

Sadly, the follow-up singles "Nice Place, Wolverhampton," "My Edgbaston Council House," and "Lovely Coventry Residence" never hit the charts. "That Splendid Sutton Coldfield Flat" cracked the Top 100, iirc.

 

[Antilogic]

Gosh, I never knew that before. Maybe (although I could be wrong about this) that was why they called the song "Sweet Home Alabama" and not "Sweet Home West Midlands". Thanks for clearing that up for me! Cheers!

Really? The moment I saw a map of Alabama and saw the city of Birmingham there, I figured that was the city the singer was referring to. Why anybody would conclude the singer was referring to a British city in a song about an American state like that is beyond me.

 

[sooooo]

Thanks for those posts Locutus, very informative.

 

[702]

Personally I never understood why Derby is not in the English city names - considering Derby had the first industrial mill, was home to great scientists and painters, is the pretty much the centre of the country and has history dating back to the Romans as a key settlement.

There is more case for Derby being in the English city list over Brighton, Mumbles, Berwick and Carlisle.

Im originally from Carlisle, so will attempt to make a case for it
It was an important military city, either for the English against the Scottish, (or sometimes for the Scots against the English), and indeed the last siege on English soil took place there in 1745.
So it would have walls, a castle, and a barracks.

It is also located at a major geographic junction, if you are heading up the west coast to Scotland, you will pass Carlisle, at one point 7 different railway companies had a presence there.

And of course, like a lot of other English cities it was an industrial centre with a variety of factories.
So factory, presumably a forge in the past, and nearby is/was the nuclear power plant at Chapelcross.

Other buildings would include bank, broadcast tower, Christian church and cathedral, courthouse, grocer, hospital, library, market, supermarket, theatre, and university.

And of course one of the members of boyband 911 was born there, so it's home to a Great Artist!

Not a terribly important place, but then it isn't very high on the list so that's ok.

Perhaps I took this a little too seriously...

I don't get why Brighton is so high up the list though.

Berwick I can understand, though a very low ranking makes sense.

And as for The Mumbles, I presume that is in as a joke as it is a silly name.
I would prefer as a joke last city name though (this one is actually English as well) Westward Ho!



Also, Khurasan for the Arabs and Shandong for the Chinese are regions, not cities...

 

[jason77024]

I would prefer as a joke last city name though (this one is actually English as well) Westward Ho!

Well then you might also have Sunningdale, Walton Heath, Royal Liverpool, and (closer to your old stomping grounds) Silloth-on-Solway.

 

[Jerrymander]

So many cool American cities are missing, in that case.

Like Anytown.

 

[kristopherb]

And as for The Mumbles, I presume that is in as a joke as it is a silly name.
I would prefer as a joke last city name though (this one is actually English as well) Westward Ho!

What whould westward ho have in civ terms? nothing

 

[TheLastOne36]

ok i want to see the full native american city list. Someone post the new BTS civs please?

 

[Quildavyr]

On page 4
BTs cities..

 

[TheLastOne36]

Oooh thanks i missed that.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Did anyone notice that Macao is on the Portuguese City list?

 

[Antilogic]

Macau/Macao was a Portuguese colony in China. You'll notice that several Portuguese names are colonial names. Santarém, to cite another example, is in Brazil.

 

[Locutus]

Santarém is actually also a native Portuguese city that was a very important political and cultural centre in pre-industrial times. I wasn't even aware that is also a Brazilian city, although I'm not the slightest bit surprised. I'm sure there are plenty of other Brazilian cities that were named after Portuguese towns, just as there are plenty of American cities named after English, French, Spanish, Dutch, etc counterparts.

But yes, a number of Portuguese colonies were included on their city list as the Portugal doesn't have all *that* many major native cities and because it's relationship with its colonies is rather unique in European colonial history, in that they were much more on an even footing with the home country. Cities like Goa and Macao were almost on par with Lisbon in importance, and Rio de Janeiro was even the capital of Portugal for a few decades.

 

[KMadCandy]

interesting thread! i'm weird in that i have no knowledge of history whatsoever (you'd be flabbergasted how many of the BtS leaders i'd never heard of before BtS was announced), but love civ anyway. this stuff tho is way cool, since it's not just memorizing dates like my boring teachers in school who ruined history for me made us do. Locutus, thanks for sharing your insight into why you picked what you picked, it was nifty to read!

on a silly note: i showed this thread to a dutch friend who tried civ4 but doesn't have time to play it, poor guy. he read the list of cities for the netherlands with your notes and got a kick out of it. he said it was obvious you were from there, and that you like your job . he almost completely approved ... but he's biased and thinks Almelo should be on there too, since he lives there.

 

[Antilogic]

Santarém is actually also a native Portuguese city that was a very important political and cultural centre in pre-industrial times. I wasn't even aware that is also a Brazilian city, although I'm not the slightest bit surprised. I'm sure there are plenty of other Brazilian cities that were named after Portuguese towns, just as there are plenty of American cities named after English, French, Spanish, Dutch, etc counterparts.

But yes, a number of Portuguese colonies were included on their city list as the Portugal doesn't have all *that* many major native cities and because it's relationship with its colonies is rather unique in European colonial history, in that they were much more on an even footing with the home country. Cities like Goa and Macao were almost on par with Lisbon in importance, and Rio de Janeiro was even the capital of Portugal for a few decades.

Really...I was looking at my world map, and Santarém is listed prominently in Brazil (more towards the Amazon jungle, centralized). I couldn't find it in Portugal, although, to be fair, there are only 4 cities listed: Lisbon, Oporto, Setúbal and Vigo. However, if anything, we are in agreement that the Portuguese list contains several colonial names (including Macau).

 

[Figaro]

Germany ought to have had Koningsberg in it. It was a very strategically important place with a lot of history to it; the only argument against it is that it's not within German borders today - which is odd as there are plenty of other civs who have cities no longer within their borders.

And The Mumbles isn't even in England, for the record, nor has it ever been. It's in Wales.

 

[Arlborn]

Portalegre is Portuguese too? We got a relatively big city in Brazil named Porto Alegre!

Oh-oh, I gotta make around 40 cities with Portugal to start getting Brazilian cities! < Doing it ASAP! Maintenance? Who cares?!?! >

Thanks Locutus for the information!