Would you rename any of the existing factions?

[MadDjinn]

Yes I got your point. Although I find it funny google translate has words I wasn't able to find in a dictionary.

wrong dictionary used then. There are many of them, even per language.

 

[Acken]

wrong dictionary used then. There are many of them, even per language.

Thank you captain obvious !

"Eur" means nothing per sé either. It's just a chunk of the word "Europe".

Ultimately, as my closing statement on the subject, I'll say there's the fact words aren't born in the dictionary.

That's okay no need to keep explaining, I REALLY got you point. Dictionary statement wasn't related to your post though.

 

[Krajzen]

I would somehow rename either Panasian Cooperative or People's African Union because currently we have PAC and PAU

not to mention the fact that 'Panasian' faction isn't Panasian because it doesn't include India/Indonesia/Middle East/etc and 'just' China + Korea + Japan + Indochina??

Pan - Sinnic Consortium - PSC

alternatively we should use abbreviation PNC to descrive Panasian Cooperative to make it a bit distinctive.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

I would somehow rename either Panasian Cooperative or People's African Union because currently we have PAC and PAU

not to mention the fact that 'Panasian' faction isn't Panasian because it doesn't include India/Indonesia/Middle East/etc and 'just' China + Korea + Japan + Indochina??

Pan - Sinnic Consortium - PSC

alternatively we should use abbreviation PNC to descrive Panasian Cooperative to make it a bit distinctive.

"Pan Asian" is aspirational

Just like the PAU might not include all of Africa, or the SF all Slavs

 

[m15a]

I'm fine with the names. They suggest a variety of different backstories. Like, ARC sounds boring because it's a "boring" corporate entity.

Australis is a latin word meaning southern, I find nothing on stralis.

Could be wrong but meanwhile I'll wait for someone to show the definition.

etymology: poly- (Greek) + australis (Latin) -> Poly-Australis League -> Polystralia

That is one of many possible sensible etymologies of Polystralia.

 

[awesome]

wrong dictionary used then. There are many of them, even per language.

I once pulled the "gullible isn't in the dictionary" trick on an ex-girlfriend and she actually looked it up to prove me wrong...except, it really wasn't in that dictionary.

 

[Krajzen]

I once pulled the "gullible isn't in the dictionary" trick on an ex-girlfriend and she actually looked it up to prove me wrong...except, it really wasn't in that dictionary.

 

[m15a]

I once pulled the "gullible isn't in the dictionary" trick on an ex-girlfriend and she actually looked it up to prove me wrong...except, it really wasn't in that dictionary.

weird. gullible isn't in dictionary.com, either.

 

[Bliss Authority]

Polystralia is... odd. I'd expect something more like the Pacific Trade Union or the Oceanic Alliance.

I'd also complain about the African Union, except that the real African Union exists.

 

[poom3619]

As a person who lost an argument because my thick 1980's dictionary don't have definition for slang other is using and thereby miss his argument's point. I think thorough search on internet are much more reliable.

In-topic : I want to rename PAC (the Asian) to Cambodia or to depict hypothetical and non-serious head-canon where Daoming Sochua instead develop and lead Cambodian own seeding project and PAC's ship end up head into Saturn or face tragic end like that.

Actually, Few thing that can indicate player's nationality is just city and leader name which very likely can be changed by hand, and possibly a bit of reference in leader's quote. So you can just choose color and UA pair you like and then there are no trace of original nation.

 

[MadDjinn]

Polystralia is... odd. I'd expect something more like the Pacific Trade Union or the Oceanic Alliance.

I'd also complain about the African Union, except that the real African Union exists.

it does have a real name. If you look in the Diplomacy menu of any LP (and the Live stream Pete and I did definitely shows it) it says "Commonwealth of the Pacific".

 

[Westwall]

I was wondering about that. Wasn't sure if that was its official name or just a descriptor emphasizing Polystralia as a commonwealth in the Pacific.

 

[Bkeela]

What annoys me the most about the factions and names are they cling so tightly to old Earth. We're supposed to be BEYOND Earth now - not just physically, but culturally. How can I let my sci-fi imagination run wild playing factions that still cling to geographical realities of Earth? Why shoulld a Commonwealth of Oceania be relevant on a planet with no oceans? Why should a faction that is more alien than human still define itself as Slavic?

The issue I think with the lore and naming conventions of the game - at least from what I've picked up from the streaming videos, is that many people involved with the game have had input. Instead of the vision of one person, perhaps cultured in science fiction and philosophy (Brian Reynolds for example) we've probably had everyone including the Firaxis janitor sitting around the plush conference table suggesting ideas. As a result, I feel the story and atmosphere are generic.

Having played Civilization IV to death, and having skipped Civilization V, I'm desperate for a new TBS game, so it probably won't matter in the end, but it would have been nice had there been the attention to detail and cool story and lore that games like StarCraft, and of course Alpha Centauri, have in spades.

 

[warpyg]

What annoys me the most about the factions and names are they cling so tightly to old Earth. We're supposed to be BEYOND Earth now - not just physically, but culturally. How can I let my sci-fi imagination run wild playing factions that still cling to geographical realities of Earth? Why shoulld a Commonwealth of Oceania be relevant on a planet with no oceans? Why should a faction that is more alien than human still define itself as Slavic?

The issue I think with the lore and naming conventions of the game - at least from what I've picked up from the streaming videos, is that many people involved with the game have had input. Instead of the vision of one person, perhaps cultured in science fiction and philosophy (Brian Reynolds for example) we've probably had everyone including the Firaxis janitor sitting around the plush conference table suggesting ideas. As a result, I feel the story and atmosphere are generic.

Having played Civilization IV to death, and having skipped Civilization V, I'm desperate for a new TBS game, so it probably won't matter in the end, but it would have been nice had there been the attention to detail and cool story and lore that games like StarCraft, and of course Alpha Centauri, have in spades.

If you skipped Civ V, because yo didn't like it, then you might not like BE either! Similar mechanics, 1UPT, etc. Just saying...

 

[Bkeela]

If you skipped Civ V, because yo didn't like it, then you might not like BE either! Similar mechanics, 1UPT, etc. Just saying...

When Civ V came out I was still fully immersed in Civ IV. I wasn't ready to move on, then there was talk of poor AI etc, so I didn't bother with it. In the past I went from Colonization to SMAC, skipping Civ II, and from SMAC to Civ IV, skipping Civ III. I have no doubt the game will be very fun and deep when it comes to mechanics.

 

[Westwall]

What annoys me the most about the factions and names are they cling so tightly to old Earth. We're supposed to be BEYOND Earth now - not just physically, but culturally. How can I let my sci-fi imagination run wild playing factions that still cling to geographical realities of Earth?

That's probably how it would happen though. Old Earth ties aren't immediately severed just because you move off-world. If anything, I can imagine a lot of people, especially those aligned with Purity, clinging to old loyalties out of reverence for the past and where we came from. It'd probably be a while before the colonists started coming into their own.

 

[awesome]

What annoys me the most about the factions and names are they cling so tightly to old Earth. We're supposed to be BEYOND Earth now - not just physically, but culturally.

i actually prefer these names over the types that they had in alpha centauri. i like that the people's african union is doing this and not gaia's step-daughters. not only does gaia's step-daughters sound stupid (like quite a few of the other faction names did, and polystralia is really the only one in this game that has that problem and that's apparently not even its real name), but it's much more immersion-building when the factions are named things that actually make sense.
plus, some of the names, like the cyborgs, wouldn't really work this time around.

 

[poom3619]

I guess it's quite a way to make Nationalism, Racism and many things to space. SMAC's backstory said that factions and it's member are being made few days or hours before Planetfall, and these faction's population united with ideology (or they happen to left in the same room with Miriam )

While CivBE is each nation-state, each international and a corporation crew their own ship. So they would be instead united with an faction's objective... or not.

 

[MadDjinn]

I guess it's quite a way to make Nationalism, Racism and many things to space. SMAC's backstory said that factions and it's member are being made few days or hours before Planetfall, and these faction's population united with ideology (or they happen to left in the same room with Miriam )

While CivBE is each nation-state, each international and a corporation crew their own ship. So they would be instead united with an faction's objective... or not.

yeah, this is more believable.

X country/nation/whatever launches settlers to a new world for the first time. Why would they randomly start changing their names just because they landed on a new world?

 

[Teproc]

While it's not really renaming a faction, it' annoys me a little that Elodie says "Franco-Iberia vous salue" in her first greetings. It should probably be "La Franco-Ibérie vous salue". I might rename it that way, because "Franco-Iberia" doesn't make sense in French (not sure if it does in Spanish).