[GS] Geographical Feature Labels

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Why not go all the way and name every single tile!

A1, A2, …
B1, B2, …
C1, C2, ...

Probably not immersive, huh?

 

[Futumch]

A1, A2, …
B1, B2, …
C1, C2, ...

Probably not immersive, huh?

Sounds like a game of Battleships, to be honest : )

 

[Kinestic]

For Australia, there are a few I can probably guess.

Mountains: Snowy Mountains, Great Dividing Range, Blue Mountains

Deserts: Great Sandy Desert, Little Sandy Desert

Rivers: The Murray-Darling river, or possibly it's two tributaries, the Murray river, and the Darling river.

We Australians are a creative bunch, aren't we?

 

[Greywulf]

River:
3. Indus River (Gameplay Reveal YT - 2:17) ENGLAND or INDIA

I would have preferred it if they had called it the Sindh river, like my ancestors called it (I'm Sinti descent), and what it is still called today by the locals.

 

[BenZL43]

Maybe it's still WIP, and the AI is randomly labelling the places. As the gameplay already started with the Thames labelled, I think they rename (I suppose that will be possible) the river from it's former name to Thames to show us basically how the system would work. At least, this is what I hope...

Yep. Hoped for that as well, but so far Hai, Amur and Tarim river, also Gobi desert and Qinling mountain are located nearest to China than England, Zulu or Indonesia.

The same case with Limpopo river, which was in southeast of Zulu's capital iirc.

Maybe it's WIP only for England - which make it a stupid choice to showcase this feature imo.

 

[Leyrann]

For Australia, there are a few I can probably guess.

Mountains: Snowy Mountains, Great Dividing Range, Blue Mountains

Deserts: Great Sandy Desert, Little Sandy Desert

Rivers: The Murray-Darling river, or possibly it's two tributaries, the Murray river, and the Darling river.

We Australians are a creative bunch, aren't we?

I was about to comment that the names were *ahem* very creative, and then you said it already...

 

[TomKQT]

It's a cool idea that the rivers (or whatever) are named automatically using some real rivers names from the civ and when you discover an already named river, you know that somebody already was there and you can guess the civ.

But it is hilarious how silly this idea is I mean - is the scout who first discovered the river going to put a sign with the name to every few hundred meters of the river banks? And using some kind of universal language/writing? Otherwise, how is the second scout supposed to know that the river already has a name

Please - don't take me seriously, I know it's just a game and I love this feature. It's just that I was trying to imagine this in real life and it made me laugh

 

[Disgustipated]

ut it is hilarious how silly this idea is I mean - is the scout who first discovered the river going to put a sign with the name to every few hundred meters of the river banks? And using some kind of universal language/writing? Otherwise, how is the second scout supposed to know that the river already has a name

Many names for places in the U.S. came from Native American names. We know because they told us. While there are no cities or barb camps necessarily in these areas, I always imagine there are small bands of people living in every non claimed tile on the map. That's where your money goes when you buy a tile, you are buying their land. That's how I like to think of it anyhow. So presumably, these people tell other civilization scouts what the name of the river is. Of course realistically, these small groups of people should have a say on the name of the river. And even nearby barbarian camps should be able to name nearby rivers.

 

[God of Kings]

Australia also has the Gibson Desert and the Simpson Desert, as well as many smaller sub-deserts.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I was about to comment that the names were *ahem* very creative, and then you said it already...

You just need some time. Someone already pointed out that Thames was once the word for river.

The way Australian English is going, I'm sure it won't be long before Great Sandy Desert sounds like some exotic place name borrowed from the aboriginals.

 

[Guandao]

I wonder why Firaxis chose Hai, Amur, Tarim Rivers over the Yangtze or Huang He. Hopefully those two major rivers are in the game.

 

[Leyrann]

You just need some time. Someone already pointed out that Thames was once the word for river.

The way Australian English is going, I'm sure it won't be long before Great Sandy Desert sounds like some exotic place name borrowed from the aboriginals.

Definitely do not quote me on this, as I have no idea if it's etymologically correct, but Rhine actually sounds a lot like a somewhat outdated Dutch word for "clean". So no "river" there.

 

[Guandao]

Definitely do not quote me on this, as I have no idea if it's etymologically correct, but Rhine actually sounds a lot like a somewhat outdated Dutch word for "clean". So no "river" there.

Well, the Roman name for the river was Rhenus....way before the Dutch people existed

 

[altayrneto]

Will this labelling system work with city states? For example, if Babylon starts near a river, it will be called Euphrates, or will be named according the civ which first make contact with them?

 

[bite]

Will this labelling system work with city states? For example, if Babylon starts near a river, it will be called Euphrates, or will be named according the civ which first make contact with them?

That's actually an interesting question, I'm going to ask the Devs on Twitter

 

[bite]

That's actually an interesting question, I'm going to ask the Devs on Twitter

And according to Ed, City State will not use the geographic label system.

 

[Zaarin]

Well, I look forward to the mod that heavily expands these lists, because pretty much any civ is going to have a lot more than three river names available and, depending on how generously we define "mountain," most will have plenty of mountains to choose from, too.

Why not go all the way and name every single tile!

If every tile is named, no tile is named. /dashparr

And according to Ed, City State will not use the geographic label system.

Well, that's a shame. I guess, though, Sumer gets the Two Rivers. The question is will they be the Tigris and Euphrates or Idigna and Buranuna (or Idiqlat and Purattu, if we go with Gilgabro's Akkadian)? If they're "Tigris" and "Euphrates," I'm gonna want a mod for that, too.

I wonder why Firaxis chose Hai, Amur, Tarim Rivers over the Yangtze or Huang He. Hopefully those two major rivers are in the game.

I bet they're chosen randomly like city names.

 

[God of Kings]

And according to Ed, City State will not use the geographic label system.

At least there's still the Humber, the Don, and the Rouge rivers even if Toronto were still a city-state (since there are other rivers named Humber, Don, and Rouge outside of Canada, such as the River Humber in England, the Don River in Russia, and various rivers named Rouge).

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

It would make sense to have a Minimum Size/Length of Feature before it gets a name. So, if a river, regardless of number of branches, is less than, say, 3 tiles long - no name. If, on the other hand, it is 12 tiles long with 2 branches each over 8 tiles long - 3 river names. The length might even vary with the size of the map.
Likewise, a minimum number of contiguous desert, forest, marsh, mountain, hill, or rainforest tiles would/might be necessary before we get the Gobi, Schwartzwald, Okeefenokee, Grand Tetons, Valdai, or Dark Place (can't remember the original Native American, it's the translation of what they called the Olympic Rain Forest about 100 kilometers from where I sit!)
Further, I suggest that it would make sense that the minimum size should be slightly Larger than the largest Natural Wonder - keeping the Wonders distinct from the simple Place Names.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

And according to Ed, City State will not use the geographic label system.

Yet. That could potentially be an easy tweak, depending on how it's coded. I think City States (and barbarians) are mostly treated the same as major civs.

I suppose it might reduce the potential to name your nearby territory through early scouting, if City States can name their own territory. Cut it down even more if you let barbarians name their territory …