Random City Name Chances

[Mercade]

During the livestream, Ed said that: when picking a name for your next city it makes a list of the next 10 available city names and randomises a name from that list of 10 with a linear distribution where the 1st name has 10x the probability of the 10th name. That leads to the following city name list probability distribution:

Name 1    10/55    18.2%
Name 2     9/55    16.4%
Name 3     8/55    14.5%
Name 4     7/55    12.7%
Name 5     6/55    10.9%
Name 6     5/55     9.1%
Name 7     4/55     7.3%
Name 8     3/55     5.5%
Name 9     2/55     3.6%
Name 10    1/55     1.8%

 

[Leyrann]

To add a bit: He also mentioned that civilizations that appear twice (for example Greek led by Pericles and by Gorgo) have different capitals, but draw from the same list. He also said that you shouldn't get into trouble with the names except "if you play a huge map with 2 civilizations that are both Greece", so apparently the lists are quite long.

 

[Olleus]

During the livestream, Ed said that: when picking a name for your next city it makes a list of the next 10 available city names and randomises a name from that list of 10 with a linear distribution where the 1st name has 10x the probability of the 10th name. That leads to the following city name list probability distribution:

Name 1    10/55    18.2%
Name 2     9/55    16.4%
Name 3     8/55    14.5%
Name 4     7/55    12.7%
Name 5     6/55    10.9%
Name 6     5/55     9.1%
Name 7     4/55     7.3%
Name 8     3/55     5.5%
Name 9     2/55     3.6%
Name 10    1/55     1.8%

That seems likely, but it is by no mean the only probability distribution that fits Ed's description

 

[Mercade]

That seems likely, but it is by no mean the only probability distribution that fits Ed's description

By all means propose another distribution that fits the description. The intention of the post was to give people an idea of how likely certain city names would be, e.g. it's not even a near 50% chance to get the #2 on the list.

 

[Furycrab]

I wonder what does happen if you do play the same civ on a map with 20+ cities.

Does the game start doing things like "New Sparta"?

 

[TeraHammer]

I like it that you now don't know for sure how many cities a civ at least has.

 

[joncnunn]

I wonder what does happen if you do play the same civ on a map with 20+ cities.

Does the game start doing things like "New Sparta"?

That was Civ IV.
For Civ V; if the list ran out it "borrowed" one from other lists.
Nothing is known for Civ VI, other than Ed Beach doubting it would ever occur with normal play.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

It might take randomly from other civs in (or not in) the game.

I wonder what does happen if you do play the same civ on a map with 20+ cities.

Does the game start doing things like "New Sparta"?

 

[Jaybe]

That was Civ IV.
For Civ V; if the list ran out it "borrowed" one from other lists.
Nothing is known for Civ VI, other than Ed Beach doubting it would ever occur with normal play.

Yet the current sampling of "normal" play is quite small compared to how it will be in another week or two.

 

[DJ_Tanner]

To add a bit: He also mentioned that civilizations that appear twice (for example Greek led by Pericles and by Gorgo) have different capitals, but draw from the same list. He also said that you shouldn't get into trouble with the names except "if you play a huge map with 2 civilizations that are both Greece", so apparently the lists are quite long.

The way he said it worked made it seem like, while they used the same cities on the list, the lists will be different. For example, it sounded like it works like for Pericles city 1 would be Mycenae and city 10 would be Ephsus while for Gorgo city 1 would be Ephsus and city 10 would be Mycenae

 

[Mercade]

The way he said it worked made it seem like, while they used the same cities on the list, the lists will be different. For example, it sounded like it works like for Pericles city 1 would be Mycenae and city 10 would be Ephsus while for Gorgo city 1 would be Ephsus and city 10 would be Mycenae

That's not really how I understood it. What I understood is that they draw from the same single list of names, but since they pick randomly, both civs would have different city names in a random sequence. If they'd draw from their own lists, then the same city name could be twice in one game, and that would be rather inconvenient.

 

[Lord Lakely]

Perikles and Gorgo would need to have different lists anyway, otherwise they wouldn't be able to found each other's capitals if the other isn't in the game. Aside from Athens/Sparta however, their lists are probably identical.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Perikles and Gorgo would need to have different lists anyway, otherwise they wouldn't be able to found each other's capitals if the other isn't in the game. Aside from Athens/Sparta however, their lists are probably identical.

No I think Athens / Sparta are in the Greek city list. But the capital is hardwired to the leader and not random.
So Pericles will (eventually) build Sparta unless someone else founds it first (which Gorgo will if she is in the game)

 

[need my speed]

That was Civ IV.
For Civ V; if the list ran out it "borrowed" one from other lists.
Nothing is known for Civ VI, other than Ed Beach doubting it would ever occur with normal play.

No, that was Civilization III. Civilization IV worked like Civilization V.