Author Topic: Thematic names?  (Read 11843 times)

Offline x4000

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Thematic names?
« on: December 19, 2016, 12:17:04 pm »
When you say thematic planet names, what sort of thing do you consider thematic or non-thematic?

I'm guessing that calling the planet "Mr Leet's Awesome Planet" is likely to get the non-thematic label, while "New Murdoch" is probably a fairly safe thematic, but whereabouts is the dividing line?

Honestly it's one of those "we know it when we see it" things.  It's super hard to generalize about creative content like that.  I can tell you that if we think something is unthematic, we'll work with you and let you know.

To some extent: if you think it's thematic, you're probably right.  If you're not sure if it's thematic or not, then feel free to run it by us.  We don't bite. :)

Mainly the question to ask yourself is: "If I saw this planet name in one of my games, would I go 'somebody was goofing off with their planet name reward?'"  If the answer is yes, then that's probably not thematic. 

But there's a whole range of planet names where you might think "oh what a cool name!" and it's still thematic.  I can't think of the best examples right now, but something like "The Restaraunt At the end of the Universe" is pretty cool obviously, though copyrighted and only slightly relevant.  "Bob's Hole Of Murder" is probably not the best, but "Lord Tarkin's Murderhole" is probably okay or close.  I dunno, that's a toughie.  "Murderhole" and "Pit" and the like would be easily something that fit.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2016, 11:06:08 am by x4000 »
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Offline Lord Of Nothing

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2016, 01:01:48 pm »
Honestly it's one of those "we know it when we see it" things.  It's super hard to generalize about creative content like that.  I can tell you that if we think something is unthematic, we'll work with you and let you know.

To some extent: if you think it's thematic, you're probably right.  If you're not sure if it's thematic or not, then feel free to run it by us.  We don't bite. :)

Mainly the question to ask yourself is: "If I saw this planet name in one of my games, would I go 'somebody was goofing off with their planet name reward?'"  If the answer is yes, then that's probably not thematic. 

But there's a whole range of planet names where you might think "oh what a cool name!" and it's still thematic.  I can't think of the best examples right now, but something like "The Restaraunt At the end of the Universe" is pretty cool obviously, though copyrighted and only slightly relevant.  "Bob's Hole Of Murder" is probably not the best, but "Lord Tarkin's Murderhole" is probably okay or close.  I dunno, that's a toughie.  "Murderhole" and "Pit" and the like would be easily something that fit.

Okay, that makes sense, thank you.

Offline x4000

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2016, 01:05:01 pm »
I'm glad that jumble made sense. ;)
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Offline Tridus

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2016, 03:28:34 pm »
Make a mercenary group called: "Ships Keith needs to nerf". See what happens. ;)

Offline Draco18s

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2016, 03:47:11 pm »
Make a mercenary group called: "Ships Keith needs to nerf". See what happens. ;)

Ha!
I really think it should be "Kahuna Wants" (or "Kahuna Abuses") rather than "Keith Needs" but it did get a chuckle.

In terms of planet names, I'll probably submit "Sacrificial Victim" although I now need to go through and make a list of best ones (like "The Precise Nature Of The Catastrophe") and pick one appropriate for both a planet and the theme.

Offline NichG

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2016, 06:47:39 pm »
In terms of naming things, AI... Ever since I saw that reward level, I've been wanting to inflict an AI called 'backprop' or 'gradient descent' on everyone. Have to figure out what that means in terms of the AI traits and authoring tools though.

Offline Lord Of Nothing

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2016, 07:01:05 pm »
In terms of naming things, AI... Ever since I saw that reward level, I've been wanting to inflict an AI called 'backprop' or 'gradient descent' on everyone. Have to figure out what that means in terms of the AI traits and authoring tools though.

Now that is truly evil.

Offline carldong

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2016, 07:09:48 am »
In terms of naming things, AI... Ever since I saw that reward level, I've been wanting to inflict an AI called 'backprop' or 'gradient descent' on everyone. Have to figure out what that means in terms of the AI traits and authoring tools though.

AI Trait -- Stochastic Gradient Descent, make the AI decision making exponentially faster, but controls its ships terribly. Attack? INSTANT REINFORCEMENT. Fleet wipe? Reprisal RIGHT NOW! However, it takes 3 times more ships to beat you down due to inaccuracy.

OK, SGD doesn't really have that problem, in real life.

Offline YoukaiCountry

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2017, 01:21:48 pm »
Hmm, trying to come up with something for my planet name. I'm bad at this kind of thing!
I'd probably find it most fun to have something with Youkai in it, if it's possible for that to be thematic.
Actually, would simply 'Youkai' work?

Offline Draco18s

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2017, 01:41:51 pm »
Actually, would simply 'Youkai' work?

Seems fitting to me.

Offline NichG

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2017, 01:47:46 pm »
Went with Hekaregium for my planet name, which was a space station from a tabletop campaign a few years back.

Offline Draco18s

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2017, 02:23:46 pm »
I went with "Just Fine Till You Came Along" although I had a hard time picking that over "Sacrificial Victim" and "Hence the Fortress"

I might've gone with "Someone Else's Problem" if I felt like spending the moolah on Bronze Merc and making a merc squad named "Someone Else."  But I don't think I can justify the $70 right now.

Offline x4000

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2017, 04:06:10 pm »
Those are all hilarious and awesome. :)
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #13 on: January 04, 2017, 05:23:10 pm »
Those are all hilarious and awesome. :)

I made a short list from the Culture series, they were all really good.  The one I went with was slightly modified (original is "Fine Till..." rather than "Just Fine Till...") while I also had "Spare Parts" which was made up based on the craft named "Sanctioned Parts List." Though I did have a friend say something that made the top-five.  "Just a Smudge on the Sensor Screen." I was never quite happy with it, though. "Sensor Screen? Sensor Display? Sensors?"

Anyway, now to go submit an alt-planet-names list for the whole series over on AIC's board. ;)
« Last Edit: January 04, 2017, 05:33:04 pm by Draco18s »

Offline madcow

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Re: Thematic names?
« Reply #14 on: January 04, 2017, 06:45:36 pm »
If we want to change the name after we submit our questionnaire can we do that, if so how?

 

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