Vokarya's Renaming Modmod

[Vokarya]

Anyone who has been reading the Transhuman Era and Tech Tree Discussion threads will probably know that I do not like certain tech names, and that I am quite happy to argue tech names with anyone. Since some tech names are apparently not going to change, and the general ethos of C2C is "if you don't like it, change it yourself", I created a modmod to fix this issue. This is a simple TXT file; unzip it and drop it in Caveman2Cosmos\Assets\XML\Text to rename these techs. The current list is 39 techs long. This is a completely cosmetic modmod and will not change any aspect of game play.

These are my principles of technology naming:

• Keep tech names short. One word is best, but two shorter words is better than one long one.
• Try to name technologies how the discoverer IN THAT ERA would name them. Modern, Transhuman, and Galactic techs can have long names. Prehistoric, Ancient, and Classical techs should have short names.
• Avoid too many adjectives, especially the adjectives Advanced, Ancient, and Modern. Better to show why these advances are advanced, ancient, or modern.

So, broken up by era, these are the tech names that I have renamed:

Prehistoric Era:

Spoiler :

Animal Riding -> Beast Riding -> Riding
Update: I still think Animal Riding is a clunky name, but I'm willing to withdraw Beast. I think just Riding is enough. I may be looking at this a bit more. I do agree that Horseback Riding is just too specific.

Camel Domestication -> Camel Raising
Canine Domestication -> Dog Raising
Elephant Domestication -> Elephant Raising
Equine Domestication -> Equine Raising
Livestock Domestication -> Livestock Raising
Megafauna Domestication -> Megafauna Raising
Poultry Domestication -> Poultry Raising
Grouping these seven because I made the same change. I think domestication is the wrong word for this time period and raising fits better. I kept Equine, Megafauna and Poultry because I really can't think of anything better without breaking these techs into too-small facets.

Composite Tools -> Hafting
I liked Hafting. I thought it was short and to the point. Composite is another anachronistic word.

Controlled Fire -> Fire Keeping
I think the word controlled can be replaced by something shorter. I still think there's a better word but I can't find it.

Hard-Hammer Percussion -> Stone Flaking
Soft-Hammer Percussion -> Stone Shaping
Three issues here, actually. Percussion strikes me as the wrong word for this time period (are they music techs?), the tech names don't tell you exactly what is being percussed (stone), and I think three words is too long a name for a Prehistoric-Era tech.

Heat Treatment -> Fire Hardening
Heat Treatment doesn't say much about what is being treated.

Megalith Construction -> Megaliths
Are megaliths going to appear any other way than construction? This just struck me as an unnecessary second word.

Nomadic Lifestyle -> Nomadic Life
I shortened the name, that's all.

Oral Tradition -> Storytelling
Oral Tradition is what the anthropologists will call it later. Storytelling is what you call it now.

Ancient Era:

Spoiler :

Apiculture -> Beekeeping
Fungiculture -> Mushroom Farming
Sericulture -> Silk Farming
I don't really like the "culture" names, as I think they belong to a much later era. The idea here is to go with something simpler.

Military Training -> War Training
I think the Ancient Era has warriors, not true soldiers. I think there is room for a Classical-Era tech that involves the standardization of the legions.

Sacrifice Cult -> Sacrifice Rites
The word cult suggests something that is set apart from the ordinary populace. Sacrifices are more of public rites in this time period, so that's the word I went with.

Salt Processing -> Salt Making
I thought Processing was another too-complex word, so I swapped in a simpler one.

Sedentary Lifestyle -> Sedentary Life
Like Nomadic Life, I shortened this one.

Classical Era:

Spoiler :

Ancient Ballistics -> War Engines
Ancient Medicine -> Physik
I really want to avoid the word Ancient when naming technologies. How do the people of that era know that they are ancient? I swapped in some names that better fit the time period.

Canal Systems -> Canals
I dropped a word I thought was unnecessary.

Medieval Era:

Spoiler :

Armored Cavalry -> Barding
This one is just a fun name change. Armored Cavalry is a little too long and kind of clunky. There's a perfectly good other name available.

Commercial Whaling -> Whaling
This is what spawned this whole project. I utterly HATE this name change. I think the extra adjective is completely unnecessary and wrecks a perfectly good tech name.

Fundamentalism -> Holy War
Fundamentalism is a 20th-century phenomenon. I tried out Fanaticism before settling on Holy War, which I feel fits the events better.

Renaissance Era:

Spoiler :

Wildlife Conservation -> Conservation
I don't think the extra adjective is necessary. What else is going to be conserved in a way that requires an entire technology?

Industrial Era:

Spoiler :

Advanced Metallurgy -> Materials Science
Again, I'm not a big fan of the word Advanced in technology names.

Agricultural Engineering -> Industrial Farming
I also could go with Mechanized Farming. Agricultural Engineering suggests computers and GM crops.

Modern Physics -> Particle Physics
I wanted to get rid of the word Modern and swap in something that reflects why the physics are different from previous eras.

Motorized Transportation -> Automobile
A much shorter word is available, and I don't think it loses anything by swapping.

Semi-Automatic Weapons -> Repeating Weapons
I think Semi-Automatic Weapons is clunkier, and I think this change gives the appropriate feel. The Cho-ko-nu isn't prevalent enough to count.

Modern Era:

Spoiler :

Advanced Rocketry -> Ballistic Rocketry
Removing the word Advanced for something more descriptive.

Modern Health Care -> Clinical Medicine
Modern Sports ->Professional Sports
Removing the word Modern for something more descriptive.

Transhuman Era:

Spoiler :

Genomic Encyclopedia -> Genome Encyclopedia
I thought this was an unnecessary change, and Genome sounds fine as an adjective. Genomic sounds like metallic and implies that the encyclopedia is somehow written on the genes, not about them.

Galactic Era:
Nothing for the moment - waiting to see how this shakes out.


To do (the ones I want to fix, but haven't gone hunting for better names yet):

Spoiler :

Simple Wood Working
Agricultural Tools
Representative Democracy
Modern Sanitation
Astro Environmental Systems
Modern Seismology
Modern Warfare
and probably more to come once the Transhuman/Galactic Eras shake out.

Change log:

Spoiler :

29-6-12: Changed Beast Riding to Riding.

So let me know if you like any of these changes, or hate them. I'm trying to do something similar for buildings (mostly to remove unnecessary "The"'s from wonder names), but that is rather hit-or-miss.

 

[GiuseppeIII]

Will probably use this. Thanks

 

[Hydromancerx]

@Vokarya

So yeah, SO had me review these if we wanted to add them to the core, and surprisingly I am opposed to every one of them! This is fine as a modmod but don't expect them in the core. The top 5 that that really stood out too me.

1. The "cultures" being changed. If we can have Agriculture why the heck can't we have the proper names for those disciplines. All your doing is dumbing down the names.

2. Barding? Really? That has nothing to do with Armored Cavalry.

3. Conservation could be "Water Conservation", "Energy Conservation", "Historical Landmark Conservation" even "Money Conservation"! That's why Wildlife was put there.

4. There are more types of Motorized Transportation than the Automobile. What about Motocycles? Motor Boats? etc. Its not all about cars here.

5. Beast Riding? Um no. Makes its sound like its some mythical creature.

I have plenty more complaints but since this is a modmod it don't really matter since you can do what you want. Just voicing why they are not in the core.

 

[Vokarya]

1. The "cultures" being changed. If we can have Agriculture why the heck can't we have the proper names for those disciplines. All your doing is dumbing down the names.

I think Agriculture is a well-worn word that works for a technology. Probably this is vanilla Civ 4 experience. I always have to do double-takes at Apiculture and Sericulture. Those two names are hard to understand, so I wanted something that I could understand at a glance.

2. Barding? Really? That has nothing to do with Armored Cavalry.

Barding is a term for horse armor. This is one name that I am admittedly not completely sure of, but armored cavalry is older than the Medieval Era. I wish there was a better name for "shock cavalry".

3. Conservation could be "Water Conservation", "Energy Conservation", "Historical Landmark Conservation" even "Money Conservation"! That's why Wildlife was put there.

Water Conservation and Energy Conservation are already covered by Ecology, Recycling and later techs. The others sound like concepts that could happen at any time, or are just too narrow for a tech.

4. There are more types of Motorized Transportation than the Automobile. What about Motocycles? Motor Boats? etc. Its not all about cars here.

I'm willing to accept some ambiguity in tech naming in favor of keeping the name short and to the point. A lot of tech names strike me as do not allow any assumptions, and I'm in favor of trying to balance the need for precision with the need to keep names short and to the point. If you go back to vanilla BTS, the longest tech names are Scientific Method, Advanced Flight and Superconductors. I would like to keep to that example as closely as possible.

5. Beast Riding? Um no. Makes its sound like its some mythical creature.

I thought Beast covered the category as well as Animal (the "birds and the beasts") while still narrowing it a little, but I'm leaning towards dropping the first word completely and just keeping Riding. There are not many other things to ride until much later down the tech tree (yes, I know about amusement parks and motorcycles).

I have plenty more complaints but since this is a modmod it don't really matter since you can do what you want. Just voicing why they are not in the core.

That's fine. I just wanted to change some names that really bothered me.

 

[Hydromancerx]

1. A lack of vocabulary is not an excuse. Perhaps it will help you learn the word if it is used in a game.

5. As a zoology nerd the word "beast" urks me to no end. Especially when say using animal vs bird or bugs or something since bugs and birds ARE animals.

6. No hard feelings. I love most of your ideas when it comes to new techs or to tech tweaking but the naming I just don't agree with you with most of the time. I also don't understand why you have a problem with words like "Advanced" or "Modern".

 

[Vokarya]

1. A lack of vocabulary is not an excuse. Perhaps it will help you learn the word if it is used in a game.

It's not a lack of vocabulary for me -- I'm trying to watch the nuance of the name. Agriculture just works on a different level for me than the other culture techs, and I'm really not sure why.

5. As a zoology nerd the word "beast" urks me to no end. Especially when say using animal vs bird or bugs or something since bugs and birds ARE animals.

I'm actually going to go with just Riding. As I said, I don't think there is that much else to ride in that time period.

6. No hard feelings. I love most of your ideas when it comes to new techs or to tech tweaking but the naming I just don't agree with you with most of the time. I also don't understand why you have a problem with words like "Advanced" or "Modern".

The problem with I have with "Advanced" and "Modern" is that I think there may be better and more descriptive names available. I'd like to avoid the words "Ancient"/"Advanced"/"Modern" in favor of words that are more explicit and point out why the technology is advanced or modern. We had this discussion with the new Contemporary Vehicles technology. All "contemporary" means is "of its time", so technically any new vehicle is contemporary. (I commented that that word makes me think of 1950's cars with fins.) I think Smart Vehicles makes a better tech name because it's shorter and it gives a reason why this deserves a whole new technology; the vehicles are self-driving (there are probably other improvements, but I would prefer focusing on the greatest breakthrough). I'm trying to apply the philosophy of "Show, don't tell" to tech names, and with only two words (maybe three, but at that point I get suspicious if the tech is before the late Modern Era), the showing has to be crammed into one word. "Ancient" isn't going to look ancient at the time of discovery, and "modern" isn't going to look so "modern" when you get to the Galactic Era.

I think everyone has a different philosophy on tech naming. I've almost started to think of it as a kind of poetry. I'm trying to get the "feel" right for the time in which the tech is discovered.

 

[rightfuture]

Hi Vokarya,
Nice to finally have an opportunity to talk with you.
I am in full agreement that we can do better with naming.

Animal riding or riding does sounds better. Beast riding makes me think of the somewhat campy 80's movie 'beastmaster'. Those ideas are better fit with alt history eras, and fantasy what-if scenarios. Saber-tooth cat and Mammoth riding and all. I'm not opposed to C2C expanding options and possibilities in those alternate era's, right up to option to play East of Eden, a book series by Harry Harrison, type scenarios where extinct animals exist longer, right up to the possibility of Conan type worlds with great beasts like dinosaurs. I tend to prefer realism, and plausibility, but I think eventually C2C should be 'Optional'ly inclusive of all sorts of fictional alternatives, and alternate world possibilities. That would take time of course.

Advance, Modern, Contemporary are just simple adjectives and not good choices to distinguish names, it would be very nice to find more specific and descriptive names we can all agree on. As we are adding new techs, I flinch a bit on name choices as well.
For the most part I think we are all doing a good job.

I think Autonomous Vehicles is probably a better choice than Smart vehicle for example. Smart vehicles, may be be the best choice though, as vehicles equipped with motion sensors that can react to avoid accidents. Autonomous may describe vehicles that can truly drive themselves.
The argument should continue, until we settle on better answers.
I hope we will continue conversations like these, as we all have different ideas on what the names should be.

This type of naming adjustment needs to be a continuing, and ongoing discussion, where we keep working out what would be the best names and technology placement. I think that having this mod-mod thread highlights the need to have a dedicated C2C - Ongoing Naming discussion thread.