Creating a City with custom name, but GM needs to moderate the name...

I was thinking about this and suggested it a few times to people on discord but what if we were allowed to give a custom name to the city we create, HOWEVER, it has to be moderated by a GM to see whether the name is:

1. Not just random troll name
2. Not full of slurs or other bad words you CERTAINLY wouldn't want to see?

Suggesting this mostly because (at least to my current knowledge) being unable to name the cities we create (or at least use custom names) is a bit disappointing, especially since in some cases it might be that the city was created by a coalition by players and they want to commemorate that moment with a unique name for their own piece of land.

To some it might seem pretty pointless to suggest, but I am sure to those who wish to rule a piece of land with their guild or a big bunch of friends, they wish to have a city they will always be able to point at and say, "That place, is our home." A pregen name is kinda...meh. Doesn't feel much like something of a player's but nothing more than something given.

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Sunboy

I agree with OP. We can choose our own character name, guild, ship and so on but not the city? Should not the same rules be applied for all naming?
Why do cities get special treatment?

Vhaeyne

Sunboy wrote: »

I agree with OP. We can choose our own character name, guild, ship and so on but not the city? Should not the same rules be applied for all naming?
Why do cities get special treatment?

Cities are different because they are a part of the map. Do you want to play a game that takes place in Verra or 4chan? I don't know about you but I don't want to run caravans from doge town to pepe shire. It is only cute for an evening tops.

Also I would bet a litter of my own blood that people would name towns after their guild. Which is totally not in the spirit of how nodes are intended to work.

Noaani

Conrad wrote: »

And, tbh, it would only be a lot of work initially.

Creating a system that increases the workload of your CS team at the launch of your product is probably not the best idea - they are already going to be swamped.

Conrad

Noaani wrote: »

Conrad wrote: »

And, tbh, it would only be a lot of work initially.

Creating a system that increases the workload of your CS team at the launch of your product is probably not the best idea - they are already going to be swamped.

Well varies how fast people get to a nameable level.

Conrad

Dygz wrote: »

Conrad wrote: »

Well, at least player suggestions would be great then.

I doubt it. Names will most likely be based on Steven's lore.

A bit of player suggestions wouldn't be bad, considering it's meant to be players that name the cities.

Tho, if it will work based on suggestions Baldur's Gate most likely won't be possible anymore due to copyright...unless players name a city as such doesn't count 🤣

Sunboy

Vhaeyne wrote: »

Sunboy wrote: »

I agree with OP. We can choose our own character name, guild, ship and so on but not the city? Should not the same rules be applied for all naming?
Why do cities get special treatment?

Cities are different because they are a part of the map. Do you want to play a game that takes place in Verra or 4chan? I don't know about you but I don't want to run caravans from doge town to pepe shire. It is only cute for an evening tops.

Also I would bet a litter of my own blood that people would name towns after their guild. Which is totally not in the spirit of how nodes are intended to work.

Because they are a Part of the map? Don’t tell me you spend more time looking at the map then player names. Giving the people a choice with moderation is the golden mean. A list with predetermined choices is too moderating.
I think it would be cool if a guild would be so influential as to get that power to name a whole city after them but guilds come and go and so does cities.
Much love ❤️

Noaani

Conrad wrote: »

Noaani wrote: »

Conrad wrote: »

And, tbh, it would only be a lot of work initially.

Creating a system that increases the workload of your CS team at the launch of your product is probably not the best idea - they are already going to be swamped.

Well varies how fast people get to a nameable level.

Not really.

CS time is tight from launch day for the first three months. Adding in hundreds of node name checks to that will only make things worse.

Dygz

It's because a player doesn't own a Node. A Node is shared by everyone on the server.
Steven is going to give us a range of names that match the lore and then the Mayors get to choose the names from those lists.
Again, that is a great compromise.

These posts of yours that state, "I want Steven to make MY game" are absurd. Steven is making his game; not yours.

Vhaeyne

Sunboy wrote: »

Because they are a Part of the map? Don’t tell me you spend more time looking at the map then player names. Giving the people a choice with moderation is the golden mean. A list with predetermined choices is too moderating.
I think it would be cool if a guild would be so influential as to get that power to name a whole city after them but guilds come and go and so does cities.
Much love ❤️

I don't like it when people name their characters non RP names too. I don't RP in MMOs at all because I see it as a inferior medium for the practice, but I do not like non RP names in MMOs. The just feel wrong.

I once played on a WOW:Classic RP server due to high pop and long wait times on the normal servers. I learned that you could report non RP names. To me that was the greatest feature I had ever seen. I must have reported an average of 20-30 people an hour for non RP names. I would have reported the name "Sunboy" in a millisecond. Nothing wrong with "Sunboy" as a forum name, but as a character name I would not like it.

I normally argue for player agency and against RP, but non RP names in MMOs is something I don't like. Because I can't draw the line at player names and guild names, I am drawing the line at town names.
Just my personally take on all this.<3

Ferni

Dygz wrote: »

It's because a player doesn't own a Node. A Node is shared by everyone on the server.

Basically this.

You or your guild are contributing to make a node grow but you nor your guild are going to own it. Even if your guild is the one that contributes the most and becomes one of the patron guild on the node, this node will still not be theirs.

What is going to happen if players from a node want to change the name again because the players who choosed the first name don't even play in that node anymore and they don't like it? Be able to choose a good lore friendly name from a list is good enough.

I feel like this suggestion could fit as a one time reward in a really high tier backer pack as the opportunity to add a node name to the node name list, but not in the game for all players.

Sunboy

Dygz wrote: »

It's because a player doesn't own a Node. A Node is shared by everyone on the server.

Owned is the wrong word her but rather controlled by the mayor. The mayor decide what buildings should be built. Close as it comes to ownership if you ask me.

Dygz wrote: »

Steven is making his game; not yours.

He is making OUR game, komrade ❤️

Tyranthraxus

Yours truly has heard a lot of arguments both ways on this topic.

Ultimately? I'd have to stand in-support of keeping the naming-convention for cities as-is. As @Yuyukoyay pointed out, we're certain to find ourselves in something akin to Harrywood or Las Vages very quickly, otherwise.

We have enough already that we can custom-name; We don't need players spoiling maps for any RP'ers, or otherwise subtracting from the game environment in this manner.

I'm hoping for a better map of city names in-game than IRL Britain....

P.S. - Yes, these are real, though they're mostly buried amongst a bunch of normal names, on a full map.

mobtek

As long as I can name my Tavern The Tulnars Sack, I'm cool with a list to choose from for towns

Noaani

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

I'm hoping for a better map of city names in-game than IRL Britain....

I disagree entirely.

Look at the way Nether Wallop got it's name, for example. Wallop is a Nether is derived from two Old English words that when combined mean "valley of the spring water", or some such, and there are actually three towns in that same valley that have that word present. The word Nether is a bit more difficult to pin down, but it goes back to at least 1086, as it was the name given in the Domesday book. It is safe to say that language has changed since then, but that places name has not.

Westward Ho! was the name of a 1855 bestselling book that was set in the general area. The Earl of Portsmouth (amusingly named Isaac Newton Wallop) bought an estate in the area and built a town in order to capitalize on the book.

The towns hotel that he built was called the Westward Ho!-tel.

One of the four Jumps in the map above was named after the valley it is in (the Jump Valley), which in turn was apparently named by coal miners that had to jump a stream there to get to work.

Catbrain is a term that was used to denote a specific soil type, so it isn't surprising to see a place named after it.

This is why I disagree. While on the surface these names seem funny, many of them have fairly interesting reasons behind them. If the names in Ashes are half as interesting as these names, then the game would be better off.

Tyranthraxus

Noaani wrote: »

....While on the surface these names seem funny, many of them have fairly interesting reasons behind them. If the names in Ashes are half as interesting as these names, then the game would be better off.

While you make interesting (and enlightening!) points, I somehow don't see this coming about/evolving from letting video game players coming up with the cities' names.

bloodprophet

Noaani made a great point about the lore of the area being the cause of the names of the towns.
Like the town my parents live in was called Robbers Roost for all the obvious reasons 200 years ago.
The local lore of the place should have an effect on the name.

Noaani

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

Noaani wrote: »

....While on the surface these names seem funny, many of them have fairly interesting reasons behind them. If the names in Ashes are half as interesting as these names, then the game would be better off.

While you make interesting (and enlightening!) points, I somehow don't see this coming about/evolving from letting video game players coming up with the cities' names.

Oh, I am not suggesting that should be the case.

I am quite happy with the current situation where players pick from a list of names, I just hope that this list of names reflects a little of each node location.

If the actual town of a given node is near a stream, having names that involve stream, brook or or run would be fitting, whereas if the town is in the mountains, ridge, rock or peak would fit better.

It would be odd having a node named * Ridge if it is in a forest, or *field if it is in the mountains.

If the names are offered to players like this, then we have a better chance of node names being interesting.

I'd really like to see a node near a stream named * Brook or something similar, and then as that node is developed to a metropolis the stream is built over. People coming to it when it is a metropolis would ask "why is this named * Brook, when there is no stream or brook around here", and people that had been there a while can answer with "well, actually...".

I'd also like to see the other half of place names make some sense as well, and the best way to do this is to allow naming of geographic regions rather than just nodes.

Imagine there is an area with a node in a valley, a node on a hill, a node by a large river and a node in a large plain - all close together.

The valley node has access to * Valley, Vale, Basin, Gorge, Pass etc. The river node has access to River, Run, Stream, Bridge etc, the hill node has access to Ridge, Mine, Rock etc and the field one can be field, meadow, green etc.

Each of these has fairly general options associated with it, Iron Ridge, Springfield, etc, but there is also the option to name it after a character or event of note. In our case let's chose Steven and Noaani as the available options.

Let's assume the node on the plain levels up first, and opts to be called Stevenfield. Let's be honest, no one wants to live in Noaani Meadow.

This automatically names the general area as Steven.

When other nodes level up enough to be named, they still have the more general node options, but the options for the node on the hill no longer include Noaani, it can be Steven's Ridge, Stwvens Mine, Steven's Peak, Steven's Hill etc, or even Iron Ridge if they like.

Also, nodes that are not in that general area no longer have the option to use Stsven in their name, but have many, many other options to pick and generate the same naming scheme.

This way, we can have a cluster of nodes in a general area that we can all refer to as Stwven, or perhaps The Stevens, and if you are not in that area, you cant name your node that.

This is how I think node naming would be best implemented.

Khronus

I think the best solution for this idea is to simply let Intrepid design their world and name all of the nodes themselves. Since there is a finite amount of nodes and castles, the names can tie into the quests and the lore. If players are allowed to name the areas, then it would be too much to have quests and lore reference these cities.

If it turns out we get to name our own city I will name mine Epoch (time traveling ship from Chrono Trigger) OR BootyMcClappertonTown. Definitely one of those two options.

Nagash

The devs could just make a post, and everyone adds one name for a city, and then the devs pick around a 100, and the community votes on the rest

Yuyukoyay

Nagash wrote: »

The devs could just make a post, and everyone adds one name for a city, and then the devs pick around a 100, and the community votes on the rest

Well they could come up with 2 names themselves and the community gives 2 suggestions for each city. Then the one they like best is picked. That way the community has a chance to pick names and none of the zones are forced to be called Pi Pi Village.

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