Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.

Naming and Text Generation

Xconq can generate names for sides, units, and geographical features. Although most naming happens during game setup, names may be assigned throughout the course of a game, both automatically and by player request.

Naming Sides

Side naming is special, because several different but related names have to be produced. The use of a side library is a way to gain finer control over side names and their associated plural and possessive variations than one would have through the use of a side-namer.

GlobalVariable: side-library side-info...

This variable is a weighted list of groups of side properties, each of which may be used to fill in a side.

The form of each side name entry is basically a subset of the side's properties:

([ weight ] ... (name <name>) ... (color <colors>) ...)

Each entry can include as many or as few of the attributes as desired; any missing will be filled in from the usual defaults. The optional weight is a number that adjusts the probability of selection of the given side name set; it defaults to 1, and the probability is scaled according to the sum of the weights for all the sides listed. If any property value is a namer, then the namer will be run. (Note that if multiple namers are specified, they cannot be guaranteed to coordinate with each other, so you can end up with a side noun that is inappropriate for its corresponding side name.)

GlobalVariable: side-color-library side-info...

This variable is a weighted list of side color schemes, each of which may be used to fill in a side's color scheme. The values from this list are only used if the entry from side-library does not supply a color scheme.

Namers

Since one of the purposes of naming is to identify objects uniquely, any name generator should be able to maintain some memory as to what has been generated already. The objects that do this are namers.

Form: namer symbol/id method

This form defines an instance of a namer, with either the symbolic name or numeric id. If either matches the name or id of an existing namer, then the old namer will be overwritten, otherwise a new one will be created. The method must be one of the naming methods listed below.

GlobalVariable: default-namer str

This namer may be used when another namer can no longer produce names, such as a random namer that exhausts its list of possibilities. At present, it is used only with the junky and random naming methods (presumably the grammar is inexhaustible!).

Naming Methods

As with general synthesis, Xconq has a number of naming methods available.

NamingMethod: random names ...

This method picks a name from the given list of names and removes that name from the list.

NamingMethod: junky

This method produces a gobbledy-gook name, very techy-looking.

NamingMethod: in-order names ...

This method pulls names from a list in the order that they appear.

NamingMethod: grammar root max-length rules...

This method defines a grammar, where root is the root symbol, max-length is a limit on the length of the generated names (in characters), and rules is a list of rules of the form

(symbol rule-body)

The rule-body can have the following forms:

(rule-body rule-body ...)
(or [ weight ] rule-body [ weight ] rule-body ...)
(capitalize rule-body)
(reject rule-body string-or-sym ...)
symbol
string

The generation process for or works by substituting one of the rule's alternatives for the symbol. The probability of an alternative being selected is arrived at by adding up the optional weights weight (assuming missing weights to be 1), and choosing with a probability of the weight divided by the total sum of weights. Thus the weights need not add up to any particular value.

If the list is not prefixed by any of the special symbols, then each rule body in the list is expanded, and the results concatenated.

Strings and symbols that are not terminals get used directly. If a symbol in the rule's chosen expansion does not appear as the lefthand side in any rule, then it will be handled as a string, otherwise it will be expanded in turn. If the symbol matches a namer's name, then that namer will be run and its result incorporated.

GlobalConstant: or

This designates a list of alternatives.

Symbol: capitalize

Directs capitalization of the result generated by the rule body.

Symbol: reject

A rule body headed by reject includes a list of substrings that should not appear in a generated name; this is a convenient way to filter out particularly unlovely results. This works by retrying generation if one of the listed strings appears in the name generated by the rule body in the form.

Notices and Narratives

GlobalVariable: action-notices patterns

This variable is a list of patterns that an interface may use to generate textual notices of unit actions. Defaults to ().

GlobalVariable: action-movies patterns

This variable is similar, but instead of generating text, the result of a match is a designation of a movie (an animation or sound). Defaults to ().

GlobalVariable: event-notices patterns

This variable is a list of patterns that an interface may use to generate textual notices of historical events. Defaults to ().

GlobalVariable: event-narratives patterns

This variable is similar, but its text is in the past tense. Defaults to ().

GlobalVariable: event-movies patterns

This variable is similar, but instead of generating text, the result of a match is a designation of a movie (an animation or sound). Defaults to ().


Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.