"Pokrovka" is surely not Scythian city name

[Manifold]

I absolutely agree, Pokrovka is the worst choice for the capital of the Scythians which I can imagine. I realy hope they change this before the release!

Of course the Civ-games were never historical correct in many ways. I remember that in an early game Samarkand was the capital of the Mongols...African War elephants...

...but Pokrovka would be the peak of unimaginativeness. The name does not fit in any way to the Scythians.

There are a lot of alternatives it depends on wheater the capital should be west or east of the Caspian Sea located. It is simply possible to take for the names of the the Scythian cities the ancient names (not Russian, Turkish and Mongolian) of rivers, tribs or kings of the region.

I would prefer Baktra or Chorasmia for a capital east of the Caspian Sea,
otherwise Themiscyra, Olbia or Atil will be okay.

Maybe Tomis (as the name of the queen herself) whould be the best choice.

 

[Bibor]

If thread was about a Paradox game, I would understand, but in Civ it's just not worth the effort.

 

[cazaderonus]

Omg please.... It s a game not an history channel.

Maybe, just maybe, it doesnt matter that much. You can rename cities to whatever you want and i d rather have devs invest time in the gameplay than in debating city names for an obscure "civ" that left nothing of real'interest to mankind history.

 

[Zaarin]

Omg please.... It s a game not an history channel.

Maybe, just maybe, it doesnt matter that much. You can rename cities to whatever you want and i d rather have devs invest time in the gameplay than in debating city names for an obscure "civ" that left nothing of real'interest to mankind history.

...And this is why disasters like Civ5 Celts happen.

 

[Couch Tomato]

This is why whenever I played as the Maya, I changed the name of the capital from "Palenque" to the Mayan name Baak.

 

[durfal]

I agree that the Scythian city list shouldn't at least look like Russian cities. I probably adjust them myself, if they stay the same, into probably the ones mentioned above.
But at least things aren't as bad as they were in civ 3 or 4. When I saw the Citylist in 3 of the Netherlands I cringed. They literally took some Ferry-stops (I even had to look them up) from places with no more than 3 houses (I know our country isn't that big but with 17 million people they could have at least checked it with a Dutch person). I think they wanted some harbor cities or something and just took the highlighted ferry-stops from the map. And even though they were down on the list it bothered me as a Dutchman a lot. People for who most Dutch cities were unknown it didn't mean anything but for people from those civilizations it can be very important. This game is played by people from around the world. In 5 they used a much better list but even then it was clear that the person who made the Dutch city-list came from an area in the SE of our country, because suddenly some small not that important villages from that little area were (down) on the list.

 

[stealth_nsk]

The only Scythian city we know about is Scythian Neapolis and even it sounds quite lame. To name Scythian cities developers could:
- Use some random Scythian words. This would be bad.
- Use names of Kurgan locations. The approach developers seem to use, which inevitably leads to getting names from different languages.
- Use names of Scythian tribes. To me this sounds like the best solution, but it's a matter of personal preference.

 

[Greek Stud]

I'm pretty sure most people are pronouncing Scythia incorrectly anyways. I think it's awesome having them on here

 

[gunnergoz]

This is a great source of potential Scythian 'cities' but, alas, does not have many precise Scythian city place names.

The entire list has just six:
Portmei
Roxanaki
Gilea - a sacred site
Napit
Palakion
Habei
...the last three being Fortresses built by the Scythians in the Crimea area

BUT there are also a lot of clan/tribe names which could be applied to settlements in Scythia:
Avhatai
Agaroi
Alizons
Amador
Amurgion
Arimoi
Assaioi
Katiars
Palos
Paralates
Skithins
Skolots
Tiragets

AND there is an even longer list of Scythian names for rivers in their territory which could be adapted to city names:
Arar, Arax
Herr
Hypanis
Hipakiris
Daix
Borysthenes
Lik
Oap
Naparis
Ordess
Pantikapeum
Porata
Silis
Sirgis
Tanais
Tiarant
Tiras

And finally, don't forget the mythical founder of the Scythians, whose name could certainly be applied to a city: Targitai

Out of all those, even Firaxis should be able to come up with a set of city names that are actually derived from Scythian words, titles, tribes, clans, and places ...

Kudos for the interesting posts and research. Amazing what I've learned in this forum over the years.

 

[isau]

Meanwhile, Teddy Roosevelt in 4000 BC is completely reasonable.

 

[Siptah]

Meanwhile, Teddy Roosevelt in 4000 BC is completely reasonable.

We are all used to that. But Firaxis has done a lot of effort to get the languages for the leaders as close as possible to the original ones. That's a really great thing. But because of that, it seems even lamer that the Scythian City List is far from creating immersion. City Lists have always be a problem with some civs (e.g. Hitties, Egypt, Huns, Polynesia), but since they seem much better in civvi, I was sure Scythia's would be better as expected beforehand as well. And now it's not the case.

 

[Agent327]

This is a great source of potential Scythian 'cities' but, alas, does not have many precise Scythian city place names.

The entire list has just six:
Portmei
Roxanaki
Gilea - a sacred site
Napit
Palakion
Habei
...the last three being Fortresses built by the Scythians in the Crimea area

BUT there are also a lot of clan/tribe names which could be applied to settlements in Scythia:
Avhatai
Agaroi
Alizons
Amador
Amurgion
Arimoi
Assaioi
Katiars
Palos
Paralates
Skithins
Skolots
Tiragets

AND there is an even longer list of Scythian names for rivers in their territory which could be adapted to city names:
Arar, Arax
Herr
Hypanis
Hipakiris
Daix
Borysthenes
Lik
Oap
Naparis
Ordess
Pantikapeum
Porata
Silis
Sirgis
Tanais
Tiarant
Tiras

And finally, don't forget the mythical founder of the Scythians, whose name could certainly be applied to a city: Targitai

Out of all those, even Firaxis should be able to come up with a set of city names that are actually derived from Scythian words, titles, tribes, clans, and places ...

So, in short, instead of Russian sounding names we would get a list of Greek sounding names. (Tanais and Pantikapaion actually were Greek colonies, by the way.) Tribe names might be a better idea, but I'm sure this will be picked up by a modder. (As for CiV there is an 'Egyptian city name' mod.)

 

[Karmah]

...And this is why disasters like Civ5 Celts happen.

It would be a disaster if a lot of people cared. But it wasn't. Celts had a druidic flavor ,with wood based faith for early religion and faith fighter and it was enough to define them in a civ 5 context. Perfectly acceptable.

 

[cazaderonus]

...And this is why disasters like Civ5 Celts happen.

Lol, celts were a disaster ? I mean, aside the fact that as an AI they were weak ? I missed that memo

Never cared about city names, never will.

It would be a disaster if a lot of people cared. But it wasn't. Celts had a druidic flavor ,with wood based faith for early religion and faith fighter and it was enough to define them in a civ 5 context. Perfectly acceptable.

This ^

 

[Alphons Rodulfo]

So, in short, instead of Russian sounding names we would get a list of Greek sounding names. (Tanais and Pantikapaion actually were Greek colonies, by the way.) Tribe names might be a better idea, but I'm sure this will be picked up by a modder. (As for CiV there is an 'Egyptian city name' mod.)

Changing from Russian to Greek would be an improvement, because the names would at least be contemporary. But Pokrovka is not only wrong because it is Russian, it is wrong because it has almost nothing to do with Scythia. Pokrovka is the modern name of a modern town that happens to be located near an ancient Scythian burial site, which may or may not have been the place of a Scythian settlement.

Using tribe names seems like a huge improvement to me. For a nomadic people, the main encampement of a tribe would be very close to the concept of a city for an urbanized civ. Aren't say New Yorkers, Parisians or Moscovites actually sedentery tribes?

 

[Alphons Rodulfo]

Never cared about city names, never will.
This ^

Would you care if it was more obviuous to you that the city names were ridiculous? For example, if you are from the US of A, how would you feel if the capital was named "Pizza Hut", "Duckburg" or "Ciudad de México"?

 

[stealth_nsk]

Would you care if it was more obviuous to you that the city names were ridiculous? For example, if you are from the US of A, how would you feel if the capital was named "Pizza Hut", "Duckburg" or "Ciudad de México"?

There aren't many Scythians among civ players, at least I don't see Scythian as one the languages the game is translated to.

For me, as a Russian, it's funny to see "Pokrovka" as Scythian city, but not a problem. Probably other Russian (or another Slavic language) speakers are frustrated, I don't know.

 

[Manifold]

If thread was about a Paradox game, I would understand, but in Civ it's just not worth the effort.

You are right, so let us rename
1. the capital of Russia to Kyjiw,
2. the capital of france to Lutetia,
3. the capital of USA to Wall street,
4. the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzanz.

This changes are all correct in some way.

Lol, celts were a disaster ? I mean, aside the fact that as an AI they were weak ? I missed that memo

Never cared about city names, never will.
This ^

If you don´t care about city names it sounds that you also don´t care about Civs. Maybe Blue against Yellow with the capital Pink1 is okay for you?

I disagree to that, I want tp play Civilizations and not colors agains Bugs Bunny. The city names are very important. They are always visible on the main screen. I like atmospheric gameplay very much while I play the illusion to chance the way of history. That are Civ games for me.

And I like the idea of a Scythian civ very much espesially with an Amazon Queen.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I'm sure irate, offended Scythians everywhere will be protesting at Firaxis HQ any day now.

 

[Lord Lakely]

City Names should be historical whenever possible, but if there is no alternative (repeat: IF! there is NO! alternative), then the current/english names shouldn't be shunned. We still don't know the historical names of several Mesoamerican cites, should we shun them all too? Pretend El Mirador and La Venta and Cahokia don't exist because we don't know what they were called by the indigenous people who inhabited them?

The Scythian city list is... I have to say, it's weird to have slavic-sounding city names for a clearly non-slavic culture, but it's fine in my book because the alternative is not having Scythia in the game at all and I don't like that too much either.