Fortunately, I believe our opinion is in the strong majority. There is just so much flavor and complexity in the game, I can't imagine anyone put off by something so basic as names taking an honest interest in it in the first place.
If the creators of the FfH mod were to cater to the "simplify it" crowd, the mod would quite simply be ruined.
I recall being confused by the civilization names the first time I played FfH II (and I'd played FfH a few times before, so I recognized a few of them). I think that the first game I played was the Kuriotates. I was really confused, gave up, and read the civs and leaders more carefully before picking my next one (Malakim?), which I found much more playable.
I should note, however, that name standardization has been occurring on the unit side. Tuurngait and Wind Knight are two examples of units that haven't changed significantly, but given more standardized names (I think Scout (a specific one for one of the civs), and Knight (Hippus)).
Before ffh 2 was relased there was a post saying what civs will be in. So I read it and decided that ill pick Amurtes for my first game, and test new magic system. No confusion there. After 2 or 3 games I knew all civs. So no problem there.
Eh. Personally the complexity and depth of the FFH universe is what got me interested in it in the first place. I wouldn't give up a scrap of this flavour for more ease of play. It only takes a few playthroughs and you'll know all the names, but over-simplification lowers the overall tone of the game.
A perfect example of why not to do this is the difference between Morrowind and Oblivion- Oblivion was 'dumbed down' and the mechanics were a lot easier to understand, but it's gameworld suffered in terms of originality and interest because of this. In Morrowind the dwarves were 'dwemer' and had a rich backstory, separating them from traditional tolkienesque creations. In Oblivion however they became just 'dwarves' and all the mystery surrounding them was lost.
Basic explanation of mechanics is still a bit hard to find (how many people post here asking why they can't build song of autumn with a Gprophet...), but I'm sure that'll be addressed when the mod is more complete.
Believe me, playing Oblivion I found myself thinking how they should have hired Kael to help them with design. Even though Kael said that Oblivion is great, I got kind of fed up after month or so, while I played Morrowind a lot longer in its time. Making things simpler and cutting unfun elements wasn't a bad thing, but they didn't add any new stuff to compensate lost components.
I'm new to the game, but I really like not being able to instantly identify everything. It adds an element of discovery and a reason to delve into the backstory. To choose a civ/leader I just start the game, go to the 'pedia to look at the options and then go back and make my choice.
I have a thing about spending a lot of time on a game only to discover that I am in a really bad position, so I will preview maps and save the good ones to play later. By the time I actually play one, I will have forgotten anything I might have seen so it will seem completely new, but I know it will be worthwhile to play. When I make these saves, I use names that remind me of who I will be playing, such as 'crazyguy' or 'athiest' and that tells me all I need to know.
The wiki is often outdated as the game goes through different editions. And the names can be difficult... heck, Luchuirp is misspelled in its own wiki entry. But so be it... I like the flavor, even though my wife thinks the Luchuirp should be squirrel people (and I don't deny that golem crafting squirrel people has a certain charm to it, but that's another story).
It's this forum which is, in effect, the manual for the game. Despite the hostility one may sometimes encounter on any forum, I have found this place incredibly welcoming. Early on, for example, I was confused by conflicting descriptions of the ultimate magical prowess of each of the Amurites, Sheaim, and Grigori. So I wrote a post asking for insight on which was truly the best, and got a lot of helpful responses. Ultimately, I had to make up my own mind, but the guidance was great.
My suggested help to newcomers.
I would suggest a "mini-text tutorial" for every race. I own and enjoy Dominions 3, and that game has such a thing for each of its 50+ nations.
You don't need an interactive tutorial, you could just have a spot in the Civilopedia which spells out a bare bones beginner tech, military unit, upgrade etc. goals for the first 100 years or so. There was a post recently in which someone was disappointed in the elven ability to fight in forests, but it turned out he wasn't taking advantage of any of the techs he needed to make this work. A subset in the Civilopedia about Archetypal Strategies might contain something like "Early Game: Tech Priorities - Way of forests, Education, Priesthood. Basic Military Unit of Choice - Recon line units (Hunters/Rangers) with Woodsman and Forest Stealth upgrades. Long term goals - aim to use Priests of Leaves to Bloom your entire kingdom, build cottages in all forests, and defend them with recon troops aided by nature sorceries 1 and 2." This would give a strategy outline, which when played out would reveal the uniqueness of the elves.
There's already a somewhat more general strategy outline like that for most Civs in the Dawn of Man popup at the beginning of the game... I guess it could be more specific, but it seems to serve the purpose well.
The names make no difference. If the Ljosalfar would be called Light Elves a newbie would still not know which to play. Why ? Because he/she is a newbie. Part of the fun about playing new games is exactly discovering a game and its mechanics. You can't KNOW (for sure, I mean) which civ to pick if you launched FFH for the first time.
What would help a newbie choosing his first civ are more info in the selection screen, such as those in the original "Design: Civilization" thread. And maybe anticipate the strategy tips to civ selection rather than at the beginning of the game. These are the info that would help a newbie get started, IMHO.
I did when I first played. I looked at some of the threads here before I downloaded. The civilization thread with the heroes and theme was incredibly helpful. I recommend all new players look around in the forum first.
What took time to understand is whats goes into a civ, not really its name.
seeing Calabim have brujah and vampire lords as UU ring "Vamipres!!!"
seeing hippus is the same,
svartalfar and ljosalfar should meen something to anybody reading other fantasy things than LOTR type books (or DnD)
the leader images of khazad and luchuirp calls 'some kind of dwarves'
...Etc
But whats difficult to find is :
-luchuirp have different melee tech tree than other, can't build ranged units.
-khazad cannot build ranged and arcan units
-ljosalfar units are more powerful in ranged and nature themes...
-hippus mounted units are the same as normal but boosted. (saying 'gets the horselord promo' isn't enough as they also have different names, I had to check all of them to see if there were other differences than the promotion)
-grigori don't have cleric units and should try to have better adventurer apparition.*
not giving away the flavour or strategies (else people may be locked in what strategy some modder thought best). but pointing the facts that make the civ unique and different from the other civs.
my 0.2
Cala.
* grigori issues
Spoiler:
I have some issue with grigoris... they cannot have cleric units... that's balanced with adventurers. you add the fact that they cannot have any religious civics and units (leaf archer, soldier of kilmorph...etc that are not cleric) and happy and other benefits, you have a good part of the tech tree that is lost but you have to research it if you want immortals.. why not. it may be balanced by adventurers + UB + you can manage it somehow even if it needs more work than other ci and it fits their civilization flavour.
but what I hate is the fact that they can't have (or at least should try to not have) any great people. as any GP is one adventurer less.
this bare them from wonders, from tech boost, specialists, academy, etc. and is not related to a girgori flavour. it is only a game mecanism limitation.
you have to choose between using GP (and loosing any advantage against not having clrecis and religions) or looking for adventurer and try to compensate many removed aspects of the game (no religion, no wonder, no cultural victory...etc)
IMO it seems a bit of a 'double peine' ("two time punition").
could it be made that either adventurers are in a secondary GP ladder (as great commanders in warlords) or that their GP cost is diminished (not gpp rate rised, but gp cost diminished ), or that the adv GPp are gathered civwide and not per cities... (it would give some use into having many adventurer taverns and other buildings.)
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), or that the adv GPp are gathered civwide and not per cities... (it would give some use into having many adventurer taverns and other buildings.)
