More readable gun names #34547
More readable gun names #34547
Conversation
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I'm having trouble figuring out what the build error that was reported is. Is the C/C++ CI job broken currently? |
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Yes, if it's talking about ncurses. |
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Ah, thanks. |
| @@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ | |||
| "id": "recon_mech_laser", | |||
| "type": "GUN", | |||
| "reload_noise_volume": 2, | |||
| "name": "RMES marksman system", | |||
| "name": "RMES laer rifle", | |||
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| "name": "RMES laer rifle", | |
| "name": "RMES laser rifle", |
| "name": "RPG-7", | ||
| "name_plural": "RPG-7", | ||
| "description": "The emblematic RPG-7 launcher. Its simple, inexpensive, and reliable design made it a popular choice among armies and insurgent groups worldwide.", | ||
| "name": "RPG-7 grenade launcher", |
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| "name": "RPG-7 grenade launcher", | |
| "name": "RPG-7 rocket launcher", |
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I don't like this for several reasons. First, it adds a ton of work for translators, as they have to literally re-translate all names they already translated. |
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I could buy either insuring descriptions clearly state the weapon type, or have the weapon type appear in the info blocks, but it's redundant as hell to add "pistol" or "rifle" to every name. |
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This is a bad way to solve your problem. If item names are a problem for some players we may want an extended item names option. For weapons it should use standard strings for weapon type based on the weapon's use skill and possibly display caliber. That way translators won't have to translate marginally different strings for every item. |
Makes sense to me, although admittedly, the funny names for handmade items (like Louisville Slaughterer and the 2-Shot Special) aren't so important to provide descriptors for as factory-made guns, because (to my memory) they aren't randomly generated, so they only appear if the player has specifically built one, in which case the player surely knows what it is.
I think the Louisville Slaughterer is an ordinary baseball bat with homemade add-ons, not an improvised baseball bat. So in this case, I would opt for something like "flaming baseball bat".
Either would still require the player to read the info block to see what the item is. If redundancy is an issue, we could remove terms like "pistol" from the description, although that seems to me to have little benefit. I think @ymber's idea is interesting. Unfortunately, I don't think caliber can distinguish between rifles and pistols, and don't think skills can distinguish between assault rifles and sniper rifles. What would you guys think of adding a JSON field for a descriptor and then adding this string to the item name at run-time? This would save a lot of translation changes compared to this PR because there would only be a handful of distinct such names: "pistol", "revolver", "assault rifle", etc. |
| "name": "M72 LAW", | ||
| "name_plural": "M72 LAW", | ||
| "description": "A disposable light anti-tank rocket launcher. Once fired, it cannot be reloaded and must be disposed of.", | ||
| "name": "disposible rocket launcher", |
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Seems too generic to me. Different disposable rocket launchers may become available at some point (or even are already available), which would lead to confusion.
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I agree that it wouldn't be a good idea to have two different items with the same name, but I don't see what would be confusing about such a name as long as it describes only one thing.
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| "id": "gatling_mech_laser", | |||
| "type": "GUN", | |||
| "reload_noise_volume": 20, | |||
| "name": "CMES laser cannon", | |||
| "description": "This is the integral weapon system for the CMES exoskeleton mech-suit, a rotating-barrel active-cooled rapid-fire laser system, can spray death downrange with ease.", | |||
| "name": "laser cannon", | |||
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Might be good to keep such designations for fictional guns too, if someone ever decides to add some variety to them.
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I have a personal mod that adds the caliber on weapons names. It is much more compact than full weapon type name you are adding here. And some weapon names are already too long to be fully shown in many places. I also looked at adding this as a game option so that the json wouldn't need to be edited at all. It It mostly worked but weapons that accept multiple ammo types or non ammo ammo types made it look a bit bad. |
I think this is a major disconnect between our positions, it is IMO totally reasonable for players to have to read the info block to find out what items are the first time they see them. Once they find out what they are, the name is just a name, and it being terse is of utmost importance.
Yes this is likely necessary.
In principle this is ok as a default-off option, but the item name code is actually quite tricky to deal with and I don't see a benefit here worth risking breakage in that code. If you can find a way to do it that doesn't risk unintended side effects, ok, but I'm skeptical that it's worth pursuing. As for making various fictional weapon names generic, that is also not ok. Names are names, people don't call things "laser pistol", they name them. |
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Okay, I'll have trouble learning all the gun names, but I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles. Maybe I'll try to improve Generic Guns instead. |
Summary
SUMMARY: Content "More readable gun names"Purpose of change
I don't know a lot about guns, and I'm sure I'm not the only player who stares uncomprehendingly at jumbles of letters and numbers like "FN 1910 .380". It's annoying to have to read the description of an item to know what it is at the most basic level.
Describe the solution
I added a short low-jargon descriptor, like "pistol" or "carbine", to the end of most gun names. This makes it immediately clear that the item is a gun, and gives a sense of what kind of gun it is.
In the few cases where the descriptor uniquely identifies the gun, like "disposable rocket launcher" for the M72 LAW, I replaced the whole name with the descriptor, and moved the model name of the gun into the description.
I made other small name and description improvements while I was wading through the JSON.
Describe alternatives you've considered
I'd like to fix the bugs in the Generic Guns mod (e.g., blacklisted ammo being dropped by monsters) or even reduce the extreme variety of guns in the base game, but that's more difficult, and I think these name improvements will be nice to have in any case.
As mentioned earlier, I'm not much of a gun nut. Feel free to edit my descriptors if they can be improved. I would just caution against using less familiar terms like "personal defense weapon", since that would be somewhat counterproductive.