I can see a couple of problems with it. Firstly, it would mean scripting some names, which would interfere with the game's Unique Selling Point, namely that the entire universe is created procedurally and uniquely for each seed. Secondly, the way names were generated would have to be altered to create a situtation where some names were selected from a list while others were procedurally generated. Thirdly, it could well be immersion-breaking... Josh has said that the procedural generation of names will be set up to make characters from a given faction or area similar styles of name. It's fine if a human shuttle pilot says "Hi, I'm Dave", but when a squad of twenty-foot high armour-plated monsters are narmed Korvan the Majestic, Darek the Invincible, Arish the Mighty and Fred, it becomes a little more noticeable!You know, it might break immersion as a planet/ship/station name, but I would think as NPC names it could actually be feasible. Perhaps not in every game, but have them appear in the default seed (3827)? I don't see how the names of real people are likely to be that different from the names of NPCs, honestly. Is it really going to be a problem to have Zak Gordon (to steal a forum member's name) instead of Joe Brown asking you for help? Or are the naming standards going to be that massively different?
Post
Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:14 pm
#61