Naming convention for units in Steph's mod

[Steph]

The mod has a few more units than Vanilla C3C.

There are 20 civ, with 150 differents units, and each civ has it's own flavour unit... So it means about 3000 units.

My pb is how to name all these units, and make them easy to identify, and locate in the civilopeia.

I have several possibilities:

UnitName (CivCode) : Example : Medieval Swordsman (Jp)
It gives a good indication of the unit use. All the flavour units have the same name, except for the last part betwen ( ) that identify the civ.
You can still find your units in the civilopedia, and can easily compared the different flavour units as they follow each other.

CivAdjectif UnitName) : Example : Japanese Medieval Swordsman
Still a good idea of the unit. In the civilopedia, all the units for your civ are together. But it's harder to compare the different flavour units.

CivAdjectif FlavourName) : Example : Japanese Samurai
Specific name for the unit, but hard to know where it goes, and how to compare it with other. Does it replace the swordsman? The Knight?
Also, difficult to find name in some case.
In the civilopedia, all units for a civ are grouped. And the game is more immersive.

FlavourName : Example : Samurai
Short, good flavour. But totally uninformative.

Or a very informative but ugly name?
TimeRank CivCode UnitName, Flavour : Example : 3Jp Medieval Swordsman - Samurai
3Jp -Japanese unt, 3rd in the unit line, it's a flavour of medieval swordsman, and the flavour name is Samurai
Name is long... But in the civilopedia, all the units are ordered by rang : all the units starting with 1 are early ancient units, with 2 they are ancient units, with 3 medieval... Then they are sorted by civ name... So they are easy to identify in the civilopedia

Other variations, to sort things differently in the civilopedia
CivCodeTimeRank UnitName, Flavour : Example : Jp3 Medieval Swordsman - Samurai

CivCodeTimeRankTye Flavour : Example : Jp3I Samurai
Japanese Unit, 3rd time period, Infantry type. Specific name is Samourai

Or any other variation so the civilipedia list the units in a specific order (any combination of type, era, civ)


Personally, I like the Jp3I - Samurai solution.

Because when I play as the Japanese and I attack the British, I want to check easily in the civilopedia what units I can build, or what the British can build, so the civ should be the first sorting criteria
Then, I like to see the evolution during the game, so the time period should be the second criteria. And last,the type of unit (I: infantry, C: cavalry, A: Artillery, N: Navy, P: plane)

So the civilopedia entry would look something like

Jp2I - Otomo swordsman
Jp3C- Mounted Samurai
Jp3I - Samurai
Jp3I - Samurai archer
Jp3I - Ashigaru Spearman
Jp4I - Samurai Musketeer
Jp5I - Rifleman
Jp6I - Infantry
Jp6N - Yamato class BB
...
Us5I - Rifleman
Us6I - GI
Us6I - Paratrooper
Us6N - Missouri class BB
Us6N - Enterprise class CV
Us7C - M1 Abrams MBT
Us7I - Modern infantry
Us7N - Nimitz class CVN
Us7P - F15

 

[The Last Conformist]

Go for flavour names, unless they're very obscure.

("Samourai" is normally spelt "samurai" in English.)

 

[Steph]

Go for flavour names, unless they're very obscure.

("Samourai" is normally spelt "samurai" in English.)

Will you use the civilipedia to get knowledge of the mod then, or just to get info on a new unit when you encounter it?

 

[Kyriakos]

Personally i think that since by moving the cursor over the unit you can anyway view its stats, and therefore form a clear view of what era/type it is (at least in most cases) you could go with just the flavour name.

 

[Plotinus]

I think that people are most likely to look up the information on a unit when they encounter it, rather than read up on them all beforehand. So provided that the pedia entry contains all the relevant information (such as what "unflavoured" unit it replaces), there is no need to put that information in the unit name. I doubt that it makes much difference what order the entries come in if you browse the pedia alphabetically, because there's no real need to do that in-game. I think that if people want to get general information on all the units they can build, it's simply to look at the tech tree and follow the links from there.

 

[Steph]

The problem is not with getting the stats of a unit. In that case right click on the unit, select "show civilopedia entry", and hop, you have it all.

No, my concern is how to get a general picture of what you are doing.

For instance, I'm playing the warhammer mod with the elves.

Question: what units can I expect in the future?

You have two different approaches.
1 - You like to discover the mod, and don't care about control. You research tech as they come, and are happy if it gives you a better unit.
2 - You like control. You wan't to know what units you wil have during the game, what tech path you will follow, what units the ennemy currently has and what he can discover late.

For case 1, flavour names are OK (although a bit hard to organize with CEC)
For case 2, they are not sufficient

 

[Steph]

I think that if people want to get general information on all the units they can build, it's simply to look at the tech tree and follow the links from there.

With 60 techs per era, it's not so easy

 

[The Last Conformist]

Will you use the civilipedia to get knowledge of the mod then, or just to get info on a new unit when you encounter it?

I suppose your mod may be alot more opaque than anything I've encountered yet, but finding out what units are good for have never been a notable problem for me. Tech and unit names usually give plenty of hints, and the 'pedia can be checked for anything that's unclear.

 

[Spacer One]

I agree with Conformist, the Flavor names are good, usually I look up Civilopedia entries when I A) meet a new unit B) Learn a new Tech...I just check out what unit Im meeting on the feild, or what techs give what units on the tree...rarely "research" the pedia

 

[Steph]

Hm... Do you find a small code, like in Jp3I - Samurai, boring?
Can you think it's an acceptable compromise: to mostly use the unit flavour name, and add a few letters before it to help organize thing in the civilopedia?

 

[Steph]

I suppose your mod may be alot more opaque

Well... With about 240 techs and 3000 units, I think it will take some time to master everything!

 

[Kyriakos]

perhaps jp3i -samurai is better then. But you could skip the jp part, since the nation is obvious from the cursor engagement. so 3I- Samurai

 

[Steph]

perhaps jp3i -samurai is better then. But you could skip the jp part, since the nation is obvious from the cursor engagement. so 3I- Samurai

The goal of the Jp is to sort the units by civilization in the civilopedia. The nation is not obvious in the civilopedia.

Another thing about the cde; it's useful in some case when you have no flavour name.

For instance, for medieval swordsman, I can use Samurai.

But for the Japanese flavour Rifleman? I use Rifleman. Same name for the US Rifleman.

To identical names, not accepted by the editor

Using Jp5I- Rifleman and Us5I - Rifleman is a way to differentiate them.

And I forgot to tell...

A lot of units exist in two versions : with an without resources.

So in fact you have the Jp3I - Samurai that requires iron, and the Jp3I - Samurai (-) that does not require iron, but has an HP penalty and takes twice as long to build

 

[jatibi]

varwnos made a good point. the civ designation can be skipped, if each civ has completely different units. perhaps you can make a " " between.
my solution would be "3 Inf - Samurai" but i voted for your solution, since you're the one, who has to deal with it.

 

[Takhisis]

Go for the normal flavor units name, then in the civpedia specify who can build that unit.
Example:
"A heavy offensive unit, SAMURAI can be built only by JAPAN..."
It´s the standard civ3-type definition.

 

[Steph]

I feel completly understood....

I don't care about the way civ3 dfoes thing. Civ3 doesn't have 3000 units, with flavour units for every 20 civ, and 150 units in the unit lines...

Can you imagine in the civilopedia 3000 units, sorted alphabetically by their flavour name?

However, it doesn't prevent the use of the flavour name in the civilipedia description.

So... If you play japan, and want to look at your units, you go to Jp in the unit list, and see all your units

With Jp3I - Samurai : Japanese infantry units of thr 3rd time period.

But when you read the description, you will see "A heavy offensive unit, SAMURAI can be built only by JAPAN..."

of course I won't write "A heavy offensive unit, Jp3I - SAMURAI can be built only by JAPAN..."

 

[Kyriakos]

of course I won't write "A heavy offensive unit, Jp3I - SAMURAI can be built only by JAPAN..."

That was Great!

i agree that you should go with the xyz -flavour name then

 

[Takhisis]

You could put as a civilopedia entrance just "Civilization x´s unitname class flavor unit, like in TAM.

Or, if you want to look at your current civ´s unit list, you could put them in the second page of the civpedia description.
You could put a list with two columns -hand made with tabs, etc.- on the left you have the unit names, on the right you have the stats.

 

[Takhisis]

To identical names, not accepted by the editor

They would have been allowed if you had used C3MT.

 

[Steph]

I'm using C3MT

But try to maintain a unit list in the editor when you see 20 entries with the same name!

Hmm.. The Japanese... was it the 13th or the 14th?