Naming Conventions: Clips and Magazines.

This is really trivial, I mean really really trivial, but it's annoying once you know the difference and I suspect some of the military types will agree on using the correct nomenclature where possible.

In short, all the ballistic weapons in Xenonauts have magazines. Not clips. Ergo, the tooltips all have errors

Clips are things like this:

(.303 Stripper Clip for SMLE)

Whereas magazines refer to both things like this:

Which is your standard style external magazine, in this case the very common STANAG as used by the M16 family.

AND

Where in the case of combat shotguns, they have internal magazines (aka the tube) as part of the gun under the barrel. Lots of sniper or hunting/sporting rifles often have internal magazines as well.

A good example of why the distinction in terminology is important can be shown with a good ol' C96:

This picture is showing the C96's internal magazine being loaded with a clip of bullets. Nifty eh?

Hollywood gets this all wrong all the time and is where most people learn the incorrect use from. The only time it's acceptable to use "clip" when referring to ammo is in a World War Two film in the context of "I'm out, someone give me a clip!" or something similar.

I think it would be very nice if the correct term could be used, if not in the code then at least in the tooltips where everyone can see them.

I did say it was trivial though, but if you didn't know the distinction, you do now and it will bug you

Good clarification! It is interesting how easily popular media can impart the wrong association with a term.

I'm a 14-year veteran of this, that and the other. (Ok, fine - 1 year stuff, 1 year bodyguard, 10.9 years Navy, 1 year LEO) Been shooting guns for who knows how long.

And I'm perfectly fine with calling magazines clips. If anything it'll just perpetuate the Hollywood thing, which is fine, in fact it helps those of us with experience so we can more easily differentiate between someone who knows and someone who doesn't.

I'm a 14-year veteran of this, that and the other. (Ok, fine - 1 year stuff, 1 year bodyguard, 10.9 years Navy, 1 year LEO) Been shooting guns for who knows how long.

And I'm perfectly fine with calling magazines clips. If anything it'll just perpetuate the Hollywood thing, which is fine, in fact it helps those of us with experience so we can more easily differentiate between someone who knows and someone who doesn't.

I bet you balk when you see "trained professional" characters (ie, Police, Army etc..) in films with their finger on the trigger at all times though

I understand the difference I just don't really care about which term is used.

I imagine most people who don't know the difference also don't care.

I am with Buzzles that the right term should be used for those reasons.

People who don't know or care which is correct won't mind while the people who do care will find it annoying.

Therefore using the proper term has a lower general annoyance factor.

Also, "magazine" sounds cooler than "clip", plus I guess it's easier to understand for non-English native speakers who play the game, as magazine in various forms is present in a lot of languages, whereas clip (as a weapon loading implement) isn't. For example, in German a magazine is "Magazin", whereas clip is "Ladestreifen", which no one playing the game in English will guess (and think more of the things around toast packages which are called "clip" here). In Polish, magazine would be "magazinek", whereas clip is "ladownik", same for a lot of other (at least European) languages.

Makes it easier to understand the game if your English skills aren't that good.

I didn't know the difference, and I'd put that down to what The New Romance said. In Swedish a clip would be "Laddram" while magazine would be "Magasin", and during my time in the army no one ever said "laddram" but you'd hear "clip" everywhere when refering to magazines. In games, movies, shows, what have you. I simply assumed the two were one and the same.

That said, it doesn't bother me. I know the difference now, and I don't care overly much.

I applaud your attempt to educate the unwashed masses. Don't think it's going to have much of an effect, though. =P

I bet you balk when you see "trained professional" characters (ie, Police, Army etc..) in films with their finger on the trigger at all times though

I actually prefer elite soldiers standing out in the open, firing a machine gun from the hip. That's totally elite! Like, totally, y'know?

I refuse to rename it mostly as a mild form of trolling. Also I can't be bothered.

I refuse to rename it mostly as a mild form of trolling. Also I can't be bothered.

*shakes fist*

Don't feed the mild troll

Oh, that was easier than I thought.

Took all of two minutes to update the tooltips in strings.xml

I refuse to rename it mostly as a mild form of trolling. Also I can't be bothered.

Hi. I have ~14 years experience with these damn things. I support you in your "Not Bother" stance on this issue.

I bet you balk when you see "trained professional" characters (ie, Police, Army etc..) in films with their finger on the trigger at all times though

Meh. I'm cool with stuff not being realistic half the time, as long as it's not ...crazy. Irl most work that people make movies about takes tons of people and is really bloody boring 90% of the time.

To put it in perspective (not that I have first-hand knowledge, I don't), putting one missile through one house in Pakistan probably involves hundreds of people working on stuff. Not continuously, but off and on, on the same type of cases. Most of those people find their work very boring after a few years. The one guy who pulls the trigger is probably complaining about overtime right now, either too much or not enough.

I support the change to Magazines where appropriate. I'm consistently shocked with how many games, movies etc still get it wrong, given that Clips vs Magazines is practically an internet meme at this point.

I refuse to rename it mostly as a mild form of trolling. Also I can't be bothered.

I will pay 10 dollars for DLC that alters the game to correctly refer to them as "magazines".

Not even joking.

Well then somebody will make a mod that will do absolutely nothing but change the names. What's really annoying is I know most people use it wrong and the differences, I just usually forget which one is which.

I will pay 10 dollars for DLC that alters the game to correctly refer to them as "magazines".

Oh, I can do that.

It's a single search&replace operation on the one file / table that contains all the game text.

And Chris is an evil man. =P

Oh, I can do that.

It's a single search&replace operation on the one file / table that contains all the game text.

And Chris is an evil man. =P

As I'm tinkering again with strings.xml, I might as well ask:

Chris: As you couldn't be bothered to do all the changes, if I went and did the changes then uploaded a corrected version, could/would you use that instead?

Edit:

Probably best done in beta when all the content is in.

In short, all the ballistic weapons in Xenonauts have magazines. Not clips. Ergo, the tooltips all have errors

Alternate suggestion: Have Xenonauts equip Lee-Enfields and SKS as their starter weapons.

Reason 1: Because we can.

Reason 2: Rule of Cool.

Reason 3: Stripper clips.

Alternate suggestion: Have Xenonauts equip Lee-Enfields and SKS as their starter weapons.

Reason 1: Because we can.

Reason 2: Rule of Cool.

Reason 3: Stripper clips.

WWI total conversion mod go!