Names

[Strager]

One of the big things I've seen in both of my playthroughs (at launch and again over the holidays) was the lack of unique names. I had hoped that this was simply something that didn't get completed at launch but now that we are looking at the second DLC and there hasn't been any word on this I wanted to bring it up to see if we can't get this adjusted for 1.5. (Yes I know this can be modded in - I'm not looking for a mod that adds this but an adjustment to the base game)

There both aren't enough name lists and the name lists that we have are too small.

I've seen cases where multiple planets (form different races) have the same name for example. Also I kept seeing the same handful of name being used for leaders and rulers. I'm totally fine with (and like) names being reused occasionally - some names are more common than others - what I don't like is seeing my ruler + 2 scientists a general and an admiral all having the same name.

Another thing that would help here is to "reserve" name lists so that the same list isn't used by more than one race. The players namelist certainly shouldn't be usable by the AI ever, and presuming there were more namelists the starting races should each get a reserved list. Whatever is left over than goes to emerging races.

I'm sure the community would be more than willing to help put together new lists and help come up with good names to add to the existing lists if this is an issue of time.

PS - Can we get the ability to name our heir with monarchs etc.?
PSS - Can you make it so that your ruler's name is added to the namelist so if you named yourself "Bob" at games start, "Bob" (II if a ruler) might show up as a future ruler or leader? It only makes sense that my people would name their kids after the ruler who took them to the stars!

 

[Strager]

Seriously? No one else finds this important?!

 

[tangled axile]

In terms of player-created stuff, there ARE mods that add various namelists - you can find a few in the mods forum, although most of them are like, themed around specific real-world cultures. Those are not my cup of tea, probably not what you're looking for either.

(e) Aside from that, like... no, I wouldn't actually agree that this is a worthwhile thing for them to work on?

Of course I agree with the substance of what you're saying - repetitiveness within namelists and overlap of namelists between empires can be annoying and non-immersive.

But... to really fix it in a satisfying way, IMO, they'd need to put in at least a dozen times as much work as they've already put towards namelists, and probably more like a hundred times, to get a really satisfying, immersive level of name-diversity across and within species.

Even if I'm off there, the amount of work they'd need to put in versus the payoff for it just does not seem worth it. I think I can safely say most players would prefer they work on other things (and, pds can correct me if I'm wrong here, but it's not like they have a dedicated conlang team who doesn't have anything else to work on other than inventing lots of different alien namesets).