UFO:Alien Invasion
Development => Design => Topic started by: Rodmar on October 29, 2015, 03:39:52 am
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Well, the best way of having what I wish is perhaps to do it...
I propose to provide the coders the needed data, i.e. the list of names for each of the 8 nations in the game, and the task is more complicated as I first thought during my holidays.
More precisely, it shouldn't be name lists per nation, but rather name lists per language, and percent lists per nation (i.e. what is needed to generate a national name).
Hence, we need three items:
- name lists sorted by languages (Mandarin, German, Turkic, ...): I let it to others. The game already includes several languages in its name list.
- lists of proportions of the population using different languages in each nation in the 2080s: that I'll work on.
- a demo program to generate name lists for each nation, given the two preceding items: I can provide an algorithm but I won't code.
Thus, when I'm over with those percent lists, I need assistance from a coder in order to write a testing program (with dummy name lists) so that the team may approve the system. It will be only a matter of reading a text file, applying some percentiles, and writing down a list of random first name+surname sets per nation.
Principles:
- The goal of all of this is to add a distinctive national flavor to the name sets of PHALANX employees who are sent by any of the 8 nations. It's true that the current system is credible only for the United America and the Greater European Union.
- However, a slight mix could be kept inside any nation, given it's three generations ahead of us.
- Names are linked to a man's maternal language.
- They are many languages spoken in each nation.
- There is recent immigration is all the nations, but some are more isolationist or xenophobic than others. As a consequence, a fraction of the nationals could bear extra-national names.
- In 2084, all the nations are developed, and thus, all the major languages have a chance based on their speaking population to have PHALANX employees. I mean that we don't forbid a language for the single reason that it's only spoken by peasants in the 2010s.
TODO list:
Step 1:
- to list the current countries (or parts of) integrated in the 2084 nations (any geopolitical map will do).
- to estimate the different major languages spoken in each country, along with the population speaking these maternal languages. Such websites like wikipaedia and http://www.ethnologue.com will be helpful.
- to aggregate and extrapolate those figures from the 2010s so that we have the language pattern (percents) of any 8 nations.
Step 2:
- to devise a text format to store those data. Either actual percents or a system akin to that used by the Warlords series (that's presumably optimized for some computing using loops).
- to chose the structures to be used in the code (e.g. nation.language ...)
- to devise an algorithm that computes the name of a given national, allowing for some diversity and mixed names.
Step3:
- to write as many name lists as there are major languages.
- to code a demo program that read the data (percent) file and the name list file.
The goal is for instance to have employees from the Asian Republic named as follow:
Mandarin first name + Mandarin name
Mandarin first name + Mandarin name
Mandarin first name + Mandarin name
Mandarin first name + Mandarin name
Korean first name + Korean name
Korean first name + Korean name
Japanese first name + Japanese name
Japanese first name + Japanese name
Tai first name + Tai name
...
Nepali first name + Mandarin name
Japanese first name + Korean name
Lao first name + Japanese name
....
English first name + Mandarin name
Hindu first name + Dravidian name
German first name + Spanish name
Please, tell me if this proposal might interest the team, and what changes you would have.
It will take time to collect and aggregate the data, however.
When is v2.6 scheduled to be out, by the way?
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When is v2.6 scheduled to be out, by the way?
Isn´t asking for an ETA one of our taboos? ;)
I recommend adding proposals like this one to our wiki.
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I take this answer for having more than a year, then.
I also understand that having this list of percents won't hurt the team, and that this (slow) work will be of some use one day or later.
I paste this on the wiki, but someone should revise my English thereafter.
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Do you mean this? (I'm not familiar in modifying a wiki, beside leaving a comment)
You should create a sourceforge.net account if you want to get write access to Git and join the team.
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Should go to http://ufoai.org/wiki/Proposals.
Because of spambots creating an account is hard ;), just send a pm to geever if you are interested.