Commanders with duplicate names?
 

Has anyone else had commanders change their name to another commander of the same type? This has happened to me in at least 3 games, 2 SP and my current MP "PBEM" (mseh) game.

Both SP games were on the Windows client, but possibly on different machines. I can't remember if I took the save game to another computer, as I do this often and play from several different rigs.

In short, a commander of the same type as another will have his name changed to the other commander's name. In one SP game, it happened several times, resulting in at least 6 commanders with the same name.

This was happening when playing Ermor and Abysia. For Ermor, I'm sure it was happening to my Dark Elders. For Abysia I think it was happening to my demonbreds(?); it was whatever the most expensive sacred commander unit Abysia has.

Re: Commanders with duplicate names?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not sure. I have been irritated to find multiple commanders with identical names, but thought the program had simply pulled a duplicate out of the pool of available names for that nation / unit type. Seems like it's bound to happen, if you get enough commanders.

Might be that a commander changed names though - I wasn't paying that close attention.

However - this seems like a reason why the option to rename commanders should always be on by default.

At least - the player should be able to set the commander's name on the turn it was generated. This would allow customization of the names, without allowing the kind of gaming that people might do, with renaming commanders throughout the course of the game to throw off the information gained through spies and the like.

(Since right now, you might have two commanders of the same type; neither are in the Hall of Fame, so they can be renamed. After a battle with a human player, you rename the commanders, so that in the future, the opponent thinks that "Captain Q" has 7 awesome magic items, and "Captain Kangaroo" is a pushover. Therefore, the opponent avoids attacking a province where "Captain Q" is reported, even though it's actually Captain Kangaroo, still without impressive gear. I suspect this is the kind of cheap shot that Illwinter strives to minimize by making the default be that commanders can't be renamed. However - Renaming on commander creation only wouldn't be subject to the same cheesy exploit.)

Alternately - allowing the player to generate a straight ASCII text file for each nation containing the names _they_ want used for their commanders would be an option, as putting 200 names in would minimize the chances of name collisions, and also allow those players who want to add some personal 'flavor' to their nations to do so.

On the other paw - it'd let juvenile delinquents (and middle aged delinquents) to generate vile, disgusting names. There may also be a negative aspect. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Commanders with duplicate names?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">And you can't simply move the impressive gear to achieve the exact same effect? NEITHER of these commanders would have distinguishable names at all, if they weren't named anyway, since there would be about 30 different commanders bearing the exact same name.

Re: Commanders with duplicate names?
 

Is there a way to add names to the name pool? My Last game had entirely too many guys running around with the name Zwago....

gs

Re: Commanders with duplicate names?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">And you can't simply move the impressive gear to achieve the exact same effect? NEITHER of these commanders would have distinguishable names at all, if they weren't named anyway, since there would be about 30 different commanders bearing the exact same name. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well - to move the gear around, you'd have to either have the commanders in the same province, or both in provinces with labs. Not to mention that two commanders of the same type aren't necessarily interchangeable, especially mages with random magic paths (or empowerments).

Re: Commanders with duplicate names?
 

The request to be able to mod in new (and sometimes, to mod out old) names has been made. So far you can't do it.

I've never seen anyone change name, although it is always a bit confusing when a new recruit has the name of a commander you already have.

It'd be nice if duplicate-named folks got a non-duplicate second name assigned, so instead of getting "Pons" and then "Pons", you could at least get "Pons" and then "Pons Lars". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

PvK

Re: Commanders with duplicate names?
 

Three people I know well goes by the name Johan. In order to reduce the confusion they have been renamed using the 'r' key. They now goes by the names JK, Korea and Gribbling.

The swedish name base is probably too small. In the next patch it might be remedied, depending on how the election goes. Göran Persson has not put the name pool on the agenda of the Swedish Social Democrats, but you never know.

Re: Commanders with duplicate names?
 

That's pretty funny.

Re: Commanders with duplicate names?
 

Keep in mind that the problem I described below has commander names changing in the middle of the game. They don't enter the game with the same name as an existing commander; their name changes to the name of one of my other commanders!!

This has to be a bug, and I'm surprised I'm the only one who has encountered this, as it's happened in many of my games, including a PBEM game.

Re: Commanders with duplicate names?
 

Ok, well then that does sound like a new bug which you have been peculiarly cursed with for some reason. If you have the patience to do so, you might want to save your turn files each turn, so you can send evidence to Illwinter the next time it happens, so they can try to figure out why it happens and fix it.

As for duplicate names in real life, in my grade school we once had I think 5 Peter's in a class of about 50-60 kids. We used initials: Peter V, Peter M, Peter S, Peter G and ... Peter G... when we got two Peter G's, we had to use their full Last names. Hence my suggestion for adding second names to avoid duplicates. Epithets would also be fun. Already got a Pons? Your next Pons gets to be "Pons the Bloodthirsty" etc.

PvK

Re: Commanders with duplicate names?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">How about the ability to simply include a file of names that the game will load and automatically add to the pool? Then if you're doing a mod based on an established theme you could use names common to that theme.

gladestrider