New City Name Generation for Freeciv

[sigra]

Did you get bored by the city names in Freeciv? Tired of always getting them in the same old order? Annoyed that a name you didn't like would be suggested again and again if you didn't use it? Maybe you have played Transport Tycoon and noticed that the city names were generated from random firstparts and lastparts? Or maybe you have even been playing Xconq with it's advanced grammar synthesis?

Now a patch is availible that ports that feature from Xconq to Freeciv! There are two naming methods:[list=1][*]grammar: This is the interesting method. You can define how names will be composed from common syllables and word parts. Grammar namers currently exists for English, German, Italian and Swedish. Thoose are used in the patch.[*]random: This is a lot like you know it from Freeciv. Just a list of real city names. It's actually the same list of city names that was included in Freeciv for that nation before. I just converted it to the new format. But there are some new features; the names come in random order, and a rejected name is rejected. It won't haunt you. Random namers are used for Babylonian, Finnish, Canadian and all other
nations not mentioned above.[/list=a]

Here is an example of the random namer for Babylonian cities (the ----
should be replaced with years limiting the time period of the state):

(namer cities_babyloinia_----_to_----
  (random Babylon Lagash Nippur Ur Kish Shuruppak Kisurra Cutha Adab
   Umma Akkad Eridu Larsa Borsippa Sippar Nineveh Ashur Calach
   Carcar Hamat Opis Cunaxa Arbela Nisibis Carrhae Seleucia
   Ctesiphon Sittace Orchoe Apamea
  )
)

The next example is a limited version of the grammar namer for Swedish
place names (the full version is too big to include here):

(namer swedish-limited
  (grammar name 100
    (name (or 16 mainpart
        1 (preword " " (capitalize mainpart))
   )
    )
    (mainpart (or 8 (prefix suffix)
                    (prefix middle suffix)
           2 (complete)
              )
    )
    (prefix (or svart blå grön gul röd brun vit alings ar bå back berg
  björ björne bjurs bjus bor borg brahe bräm brunns dal
  djurs eke emen fågel fält fin finn fogd fors frö furu
  gör göte glimminge gran gränges gryt halls halm han
  helsing hem hög horn hults hus 
            )
    )
    (suffix (or å åker åkra älv ås
  bäck bäcka backe baden berg berga björka borg bo böle
  bro bruk by byn
  dal dala dalen
  fält fjärd fors fred
  gård gården gärde gärdet gårda gåva
  haga hamn haninge hättan hed heden hem hög hult hus
     )
    )
    (middle (or å åkra by fors karle lek lycke mjöl näs sjö ström))
    (complete (or alfta bäcka bjus bjuv borlänge falun floda föglö
    gagnef glimminge gustavs habo hamra haninge hede
    höör huddinge idre ore orsa sälen särna skanör
    skövde solv svalöv sveg
        )
    )
    (preword (or nya gamla nedre stora lilla norra södra västra))
  )
)

Do you think this looks interesting? Perhaps you would like to create
a namer in your language? It could be used in both Xconq and Freeciv!
Here is a link to the documentation:
http://sources.redhat.com/xconq/manu...49.html#SEC233

Currently the latest version of the patch is
ftp://ftp.freeciv.org/pub/freeciv/in...mes-5.diff.bz2 .
Subscribing to freeciv-dev is recommended if you want to test it.
[This message has been edited by sigra (edited February 06, 2001).]

[CapTVK]

But the standard names still work I presume? Do you set an option in the server to activate this?
[This message has been edited by CapTVK (edited February 04, 2001).]

[tuma]

quote: Originally posted by CapTVK on 02-04-2001 07:22 PM But the standard names still work I presume? Do you set an option in the server to activate this? [This message has been edited by CapTVK (edited February 04, 2001).]

I suggest it will be a client-side option.

[Thue]

tip: use [code] tags to preserve indentation when posting code here at apolyton.

[sigra]

quote: Originally posted by CapTVK on 02-04-2001 07:22 PM But the standard names still work I presume? Do you set an option in the server to activate this?

In the submitted implementation, the standard names still work for 60 of the nations. For 4 of the nations they are replaced with grammar namers. If the maintainers say that preservation of all old city name lists is required for committing, I could make even thoose 4 nations use random namers with the old city list. Once it is in, the standard city lists could be replaced by grammar namers, but only if there is a strong opinion for such a change from people belonging to that nation in Real Life(TM).

In the long term there could be a more elaborate namer selection implementation. The nation files could have an entry like this, using
the table layout of the registry format:

city_namers = {"name",                      "file"
               "swedish-place-names",       "ng-swedish.g"
               "cities_sweden_1905_to",     "ng-cities_sweden_1905_to.g"
               .
               .
               .
               "cities_sweden_1660_to_1709", "ng-cities_sweden_1660_to_1709.g"
               .
               .
               .
}

And a runtime client setting to choose which of thoose you want your
suggestions from.
[This message has been edited by sigra (edited February 05, 2001).]