Hi everyone!
Like all of you, I'm a true lover of galactic civilization since the second opus, and a fan of turn-based 4X games since my childhood who played at least half of all games released since (I'm not kidding). And GalCiv III looks soooo much like a good upgrade of GalCiv II that I had to support it.
However, I'm a bit worrying now that the "names your star" award, which is an EXCELLENT initiative IMHO, really, is going to give awkward results.
I mean, when I play a 4X, whether it is a spiritual heir of Master of Orion, Master of magic or Civ I, I want to be immersed in the universe of the game, and feel like a real galactic emperor, great wizard or king. I love to imagine great stories around my game, etc... and I fear that some names suggested are REALLY breaking the immersion.
Ok, GalCiv is not a "serious" 4X franchise. With distances between planets being roughly only a quarter of distances between stars, the galactic map is one of the least realistic one ever displayed in 4X games... But surprisingly, that give to the game a very special and unique atmosphere, that I love.
But I worry that some of the names accepted for stars will really ruin this nice athmosphere. I have nothing against strange name, and I find really fun Sci-fi/fantasy references (yeah, Cthulhu!), historical (Armstrong ^^), or smart joke (can't wait to see the dreaded "Imastar" finally accepted!). But really, that will be a PAIN to see stupid things like "IslandDog" or "Tassadarpaladin"... Really, was it too much to censor names that are obvious 2 or 3 words in English and don't sound like name at all? I'm maybe an old dumbass, yeah, but I hate that. Really. Also, I'm a bit skeptic about names like "THAILAND"...but I'll try to open my chakras and to be more tolerant...
I'm the only one that would call for just a bit more of censorship?
A document about it in the Founder's Vault is enough.
There really hasn't been a ton of them. The majority of those were possible copyright/trademark issues that we're not going to take a chance on. People spent good money on this, so very few wasted that by using something just plain silly.
I'm starting to feel less bothered by the whole weird named star.. though I do think it has the potential to lessen the immersive feel of the gaming universe. Still, I understand IslandDog's comment that Stardock isn't the kind of company that takes themselves too seriously. We've seen that over the years. So to let a few "out of place" names through isn't the end of the universe.
The humor ingame is part of galcivs appeal so keep it up
Better yet would be to have some sort of some event, dialogue, which cracks a joke about it, just to acknowledge the weirdness and move on. For example, a rare event might be for the assembly of planets to meet and vote on whether to allow strangely named stars.
I do not understand the idea that strange names will somehow break immersion. I mean, have you looked at the strange and wonderful town and other place names we have in reality? How can anything we come up with compare with "Intercourse, Pennsylvania"? It is my understanding that such place names occur in all geographies, cultures, and languages. I would very much expect to see the same naming trend in space.
True enough, as far as reality is concerned. Stars somewhere would probably be named after a corporation or what not. Still, some people (sometimes me, but not always) have an idea of what a space fantasy world is and I understand why they might not want names that don't fit their image of space opera.
No doubt you'll be able to rename stars/planets you don't like the name of or mod them out. Like you already can in GC2. I get the feeling they're trying to increase options rather than take them away.
MY IDEA: They should let the player decide. I mean, there should be an option to use or not user created names. What do you think?
Honestly, this is a good name for a star with a high sulfur content... heh heh heh
You realize that IslandDog is the screen name of an employee of Stardock, and does a great job. I cannot see why a name like that cannot be accepted. I'm sure if you donate 1 million dollars to an astronomer a year, he would let you name a star what ever you like and it would be historically recorded as such. Who knows, there might be stars named this way when we begin to travel space better.FYI, he wouldn't have any censoring on his star name. At least they do censor some names that go through, but IslandDog, I'd be glad to see... or even Tassadarpaladin.
Actually, it doesn't cost that much. My dad named a star after his fourth wife, Maria Euphemia. He isn't rich, and I'm betting he only spent a couple hundred bucks. And you are right about the naming of places being part and parcel of the people doing the naming. Look at any country and you will find many names that derive from historical events and contemporary individuals, families, and groups.
"Naming" a star is such a racket. It's like selling someone the brooklyn bridge, the people accepting the money to 'name' your star don't own it.
I'd like to second the request for the rejected names, that might be amusing...
Also, please tell me someone submitted Ringo!
Can they be edited into something a little more appropriate rather than be cut entirely?
SmellyFart453 becomes ---->
Malodorous Miasma 453
Fetid Zephyr 453
Mephitic Effluvium 453
Well, I didn't say it was legit. But it is a nice gift for your sweetie. It even came with an official looking certificate and a map of where to find the star. Just head for Sirius, turn left a gazillion miles. Unfortunately, my dad has never followed a map nor asked for directions in his life.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P0OSA8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Actually you can name a star for about 60 bucks, and you get a cool stuffed animal to boot. But as charon2112 stated I doubt it would hold much weight to anyone who lived in or near that system.
He did this like 40 years ago. No idea what it really cost him.
For you guys that missed out on Imastar. I suspect Imastar2 is available.
--David
There are a number of names there which I think should have been rejected:
050313 asag
101010
127dot0dot0dot1
Almost Mathieu
ATMO
Awesomnius
BraveNewWorld
Cheesemonger
Just to point out a few. I think they're horribly immersion destroying names and simply do not fit.
I know we can remove them ourselves... but I think it's kind of sad that they're forcing names like that on everyone. I'm sure it's going to annoy a lot of people.
If they maybe added a "Use Silly Star Names" option, then had all those bad names under there, that wouldn't be as bad. Because people would have to opt in to seeing them.
As long as it's not profane idc its someone's fun and right to name something they paid for. So quit caring about it when you can change it the moment you see it, or upload a modd that will most assuredly be made.
Star names will go through another review before being entered into the final game, so if it's something that slipped through you still have time to change it.....for now.
So, will the silly and completely out of place star names be removed then?
So is Island Dog a silly name because really what Island is a Dog
Personally, it remains to be seen how much this bothers me.
One solution that I would prefer would be simply a UI toggle when you see a star name that bothers you that allows you to rename it (either from the random pool of star names, or your own name) along with an option to "no longer display this star name" so that that particular name is never inserted into your randomly generated galaxies ever again.
I would hope that it's not 'all or nothing' where you either have the full list or none without having to edit .xml files to get rid of the ones that you don't like...
One additional option, via Steam, may be to allow players to "subscribe" to a list of frequently disliked names, so that they don't have to de-list them all themselves (similar to the "Adblock Plus" Firefox plugin) - that would be great...
-tid242
ps: for the record, I would rename my "IslandDog" star to "IslandSuperHotDog" instead, as it sounds MUCH more spacelike and awesome..
In all seriousness though, there are some names on the big list that I, personally, think are silly (I don't think specifically fingering them is necessary) - but I don't really like the idea of the name police forcing lots of people to rename their entries either. Leaving it somehow user-controlled is something that I'm a strong advocate of...
I think this is really a cross that bridge when we come to it issue. I have a feeling that there will not be any offensive, and very few silly star names after the Stardock guys go through them. It does kind of cheapen the reward of getting to name a star if there is an option to just turn off all the custom names. I'm also sure someone will create a serious star-names mod that will weed out any that they find too out of character.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
