FreeOrion

Drek: Hmm, we aquired that list about 3 years ago (just looked at the game changelog). Never was told the source.

Pembroke: You realise what you're aiming for is similar to what they do with semantic, and syntactic programs that do all manner of strange things to language to try to get computers to use meaningful words.
Maybe the project should turn into a lexograhical analysis program.. Only difference is the results don't have to be in english...
j/k

I like this idea. I think it would give the galaxy a bit more flavor. Centuries after an successful campaign against an competing empire, you could still identify the systems you conquered from them by the sound of the planet names.

Each race might have a data file that contained the average length of star names (in syllables), a "first syllable" list, a "last syllable" list, and a series of "middle syllables", + common prefixes and suffixes... for example...

Average length: 3 (+/-1)
Prefix Occurance: 20%
Suffix Occurance: 10%

1st syllable:
Ra
Mut
Dar

Middle syllables:
pek
nok
kyk
luk

Last Syllables:
aya
ell
od

Prefixes:
Shoma
Vi


Example Results:
Mutnokod
Darkykaya
Shoma Raod
Darluknokell

Of course, these lists are quite short, and the program would have to check existing star names to make sure their were no overlaps. Also, one prefix could be designated as that race's word for "new" and thus might only be applied to existing star names.

Another idea: Whenever a player wins with a particular race, they could add a star name to that race's dictionary (ala "Spaceward Ho!"). Synchronization issues could be avoided in multiplayer games by having the name pulled from the local dictionaries for whichever computer was controlling the race that named a new star.

Excellent idea. But I think we already got names covered.

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Aww shucks...

I wouldn't give up on that idea. It's has more personality than just having a master list. Just remember it until we have races implemented.

I actually have a name generation engine coded for a game I was working on a while back. All you need to do is feed it some small phrases to construct the names from and it does the rest. The game was setup to name each planet individually, not give them numbers based on their star, and it had over 5000 planets. I can go and dig it up and see how modular I actually made it

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FreeOrion Programmer

I don't care too much about the system names so long as I can change them as I see fit, particularly those under my control.

As for default names, lets have as many scientist names ("Netwon") and even names of Sci-Fi authors ("Sagan") as possible. Mythical or near-mythical areas have a nice ring to their names too ("Colony of Avalon 5"). Description names would be nice as long as they are not overused (a whole cluster of such names will quickly lose their charm). Another would be to name planets after explorers and conquerors ("I graduated from the star academy at SunTzu 7"). We may run into copyright issues with Sci-Fi planets names, unfortunately, otherwise an "Arrakis" and an "Aiur" would be nice... Joke names should be in good taste.

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I am pretty sure Aiur is not copyrighted; did "Arrakis" appear on the title of a book for more than 20 years?

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Completely OT, Redbook, I like your signature a lot. I wonder about that too.

Thanks, the anime is absolutely hilarious...

If those names are not copyrighted. ^_^ It'll be great to see them on the game, especially if tagged with special planets.

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One think that Would be good for planet names if its not too much trouble for the programmers (although it probably is) is to have multiple names of systems.

Essentially, Having one name of the system for each player (at least each Human player)

So I would go to the diplomacy screen and say
'Please surrender [Target 12]'

The player that controlled the planet would see
'Please surrender [New K'lklack]'

You should then see Your names for all stars, including the ones you haven't explored yet.

You could rename systems so that they have the 'natives' name for them (which would be all your systems with a conquered population and all the systems of other empires you are in contact with).

Orion would not be on the list of star names but the 'Orion System' would be automatically renamed to that, for you, once you discovered it. (If we have an 'Orion system')

Could make things a little interesting in chat:

Player 1: Concentrate your forces at the Rigel system.
Player 2: Where's that?
Player 1: You know, the system we've fought over for the last ten turns?
Player 2: Not ringing any bells. Maybe I should put my fleet in Xenlon instead.
Player 1: Xenlon! Are you nuts? Do you want to drag the Gandugs into the war?

etc...

Why should chat be any different? You type $Rigel and he gets Xenlon displayed.

Multiple star names will just be confusing. After all, if you name a star Zadax-12, then the aliens better call it that. Otherwise you'll have to obliterate their homeworlds for calling it naything else.

This question has been raised before about multiple names, so each player can name them themselves. It is technically possible, but not going to happen:
1. Will add confusion
2. It's not how real politics work
If you want to name a planet, you must control it.