[WIP] Historic Crew Names

[LukeFF]

Yeah, this will probably go down as the most tedious, time consuming mod in the history of SH4. Anyways, I've become pretty peeved at some of the ridiculous names used for AI crewmen, so I've decided to do something about it. Using the comprehensive list of names of all American submariners lost during WWII (from here), commissioning crew lists, medal citations, etc., I am creating what will end up being a massive list of names the game can choose from. I'm not even through the letter B yet, but already I have over 60 surnames and first names compiled so far. Beyond the typical first names (tons of Johns, Charles and Georges), there are the others you just don't ever really hear, such as:

Hermas, Hollis, and General (yes, someone named their kid General )

and last names, including:

Beutelspacher, Boo, and Argersinger

This is going to take a long time to complete, but I vow to complete it. More news to come later.

[longdog499]

Great idea Luke.Who on earth thought up these names?I know you Americans come up with some pretty exotic ones sometimes but ' Alexander Wreford B Brighton' and 'Earle Teddy A Lander' ? COME ON! :rotfl:

[jdkbph]

I think the problem with the names might go a bit deeper than just the database.

A typical US/American name will either be...

<firstname> <lastname> or...
<firstname> <middleinitial> <lastname> or...
<firstname> <middlename> <lastname> or, somewhat rarely...
<firstinitial> <middlename> <lastname>

It's pretty obvious that first names and middle names come from the NormalUSNames list, while last names come from the Surnames list. Middle initials are apparently generated by the code (I don't see a list of middle initials anywhere).

I'm guessing somewhere in the real code is a sort of name building algorithm which randomly selects an entry from each of the lists and chains them together, based on a probability for inclusion for each name element (firstname, middlename, middleinitial, lastname). Apparently, the probability for first and last names being included is 1, while middle name and middle initial are both less than 1 but greater than 0.

As a result there is a possibility of generating a combination that looks like this:

<firstname> <middlename> <middleinitial> <lastname>

If this is so, it's probably because the process is missing a step. There should be a function to exclude middle name when middle initial is selected, and vice-versa.

Or at least that's how it looks to me. And if I'm right, unless we can find whatever controls the format for building a name from those lists you're editing, we're still going to end up with silly names upwards of (apparently) 25% of the time.

JD

[tater]

How is it the crew can have long names, but the player is limited to so few characters?

tater

[Sailor Steve]

Well done, LukeFF! JScones put something similar into SH3 Commander, but he was allowed to use Uboat.net's database of all known u-boatmen (at least I think that's what he said).

This will be good to see; I'm just glad it's you doing it and not me.:rotfl:

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Well done, LukeFF! JScones put something similar into SH3 Commander, but he was allowed to use Uboat.net's database of all known u-boatmen (at least I think that's what he said).

I obtained the names from www.ubootwaffe.net (with permission of course). 40,454 first names and 41,786 last names, meaning 1.7+ billion random crew name possibilities.

Note, in my list duplicate names were included to reflect commonality. I assume that will also be the case here? Otherwise Hermis will appear just as much as John.

One problem you may have to watch out for are created names being too long for the game display. In SH3Cmdr, I tested the resulting name to make sure that it wasn't longer than SH3's display width. Without such a test, long names may run the risk of appearing truncated. Not a biggy, just something to watch out for.

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by jdkbph

I think the problem with the names might go a bit deeper than just the database...

Yes, I wish there was a way to fix the issue of such lonnnnnng names being generated by the game. Of all the names I've come across so far in the loss list, only one or two names so far have four parts in it. I'll look into it, but I think it's something hardcoded.