Buzzles Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 :-) Love Gollops. Suggests a sort of HG Wells tripod thing going across the countryside to me. I was going for a cheeky homage to the original creators of UFO/Xcom, but that works too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thothkins Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 oh yeah I got the connection, but pictured what a Gollop might look like in a rare moment of multitasking :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Caine Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I thinnk we're missing a key element here. Not only do we need drone names that are proper "sciency" names, but they should be names that are in keeping with the period that the game is set, i.e. the 1970's. Now, what sort of names were robots given in the 1970s? Well, quick search of wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_robots_and_androids#1970s) shows us that fictional robots tended to have names which described their functionality, shortened to anacronyms. In fact, anacronym-type names are quite common among robots (http://www.used-robots.com/robot-education.php?page=robot+timeline). So, for example, the Small Calculating Analysis and Neutralization drone (S.C.A.N.) could be followed by the Medium Autonomus Supression/Termination drone (M.A.S.T) and finally the Large Enhanced Tactical Hunt-Assault-Liquidate drone (L.E.T.H.A.L) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thothkins Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Pointless Acronyms In Nomenclature springs to mind :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The New Romance Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Plus, as Xenonauts is an international organization, the names might not necessarily be English. Imagine several Japanes Xenonauts encountered a new alien race first and named it "Kami" or "Yokai", or a German serviceman telling his comrades back home at the base of a "Stachelteufel" - those might be names that stick, even if they'd be pronounced funnily by foreign speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingdisc Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Thinking about these names - unless you are going to argue that the name is a translation from the alien language somehow - then names like Dominator, Harridan, Vindicator, Enforcer or even things like war drone don't do it for me (they sound like names the creators might have given them, not what the victims would call them). More likely the names are based on what humans refer to them as, be they civilian, xenonauts or scientists. I think the names need to either: relate to how they are used against earth. Xenonauts would be collating information on the nature of the threat so it seems quite natural that their name is linked to how they are seen to operate. e.g. "Terror drone" might work here (analysts note that these drone are used to terrorise populations) or "Hunter drone" (large number of reported incidents of specific individuals hunted down with these plateforms). relate to how they look or sound. Hornet might work (sounds like a hornet, or how it drones as it moves). What about how they look? "Gun plateform", "Killer disc", "Glinter", "Flasher"? relate to squaddie slang. "flying sourcer", "tin can", "box of tricks", "death in a disc", "blimp", "bloody blimp" I am not sure I've got any bright ideas, but I do feel that the names should fit into one of the three categories above. On a completely different note, Chris, if you are launching next wednesday it might be worth changing the metadata on the main forum page so that the search engines pick it up. Currently if you search for "xenonauts forum" then google (co.uk) returns a link to the forum on the old website as a subcategory of the first item, and the actual forums as the third item. Neither Yahoo nor Bing return a link to the forum page at all. I am not sure what is involved but I imagine that having xenonauts and forum in the metadata for this page would help a lot (currently it just has goldhawk interactive). I imagine that once kickstarter kickstarts, that the forums will be one of the first places people look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 We already have Ceasans, Sebillians, and Androns as alien races. Those don't really fit in any of your categories so why should these specific drones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar Pancakes Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Generally, things also recieve a nickname based upon their purpose and ascetics. Example: I've taken to calling the Cyber-disk the Giant Killer Frisbee of Doom. Chrysalids...on the other hand, have been dubed OMFGKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLIT... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceVamp Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Plus, as Xenonauts is an international organization, the names might not necessarily be English. Imagine several Japanes Xenonauts encountered a new alien race first and named it "Kami" or "Yokai", I don't see japanese calling the aliens god/spirit, when they know they are facing aliens. However common Yokai names could be done. Wanyudo for the drones f.ex. Karasu-tengu could fit a flying MC alien. Akaname could be a derogatory name for Sebillians. Bakemono or Oni with a describing prefix are a bit more general. I agree that having names that humans would make up, makes sense. But it doesn't make it fun, or good necessarily. And like some are pointing out, we use strange names for the species themselves, and as such there is no real issue with naming the drones in accordance with what the aliens have named them or use them for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thothkins Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Chrysalids...on the other hand, have been dubed OMFGKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLITKILLIT... Or in the dialect of the ancients who lived in my country "RUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAY" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stx Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Or in the dialect of the ancients who lived in my country "RUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAYRUNAWAY" That was also in my country, until I discovered that Chrysalids could not pinch my soldiers if my soldiers were 1 level above in a flying suit. Then they became "Piece of Cake"... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thothkins Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Didn't you always worry that this was going to be the game where they used those powerful legs to jump up? ...just me and the rest of my therapy group then... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar Pancakes Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Nah. That's when you start shouting KILL IT WITH FIRE hmmm...why didn't X-COM ever start using Molotovs against them...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The New Romance Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 I don't see japanese calling the aliens god/spirit, when they know they are facing aliens. However common Yokai names could be done. Wanyudo for the drones f.ex. Karasu-tengu could fit a flying MC alien. Akaname could be a derogatory name for Sebillians. Bakemono or Oni with a describing prefix are a bit more general. Of course, you're right. I'm not any good at Japanese, however, so that's what I came up with as an example. Kami is a little off, that's true - sorry to any Japanese here (or people that know the language). The stuff that you offered is much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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