Creature naming as additional types...

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snowdrop
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Creature naming as additional types...

Post by snowdrop » Sun May 13, 2012 14:38

A thing just occurred to me: Many of our units seem to have general, unpersonal, names. We have taken up this convention from BfW, and I have nothing against it.

What it leads to is us having cards that are names, for example, "Elvish Scout". In addition to a name many creatures will also have one or more subtypes. Due to how our creature template looks we have issues with fitting such text in the given space, as would be the case with longer creature names (which isn't necessarily a bad thing given we should prefer to use short names anyhow).

What about letting each creatures naming double as creature types as well? And then we would still have the smaller letters there for additional types if they're needed.

It would create many types, but that isn't a problem unless we use them all, so while it creates many in theory it doesn't do so in practice.

An example here would be that "Elvish" becomes a type and "Scout" another, both derived from the name "Elvish Scout" (Types are always single-worded and separated by space or whatever)

I think this could end up saving us plenty of space, and it also will, in many cases, eliminate the need for us to do what we do now: Explicitly state "Elf" as a subtype eventhough the cards name is "Elvish Scout".

Thoughts?
aspidites
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Re: Creature naming as additional types...

Post by aspidites » Sun May 13, 2012 20:48

Plenty of other games do this (albeit after the fact when inventing effects that apply to a subset of cards), so I suspect it would work.

It also reminds me of how naming works in Warzone 2100. That is, you are able to create new unit types, and those new units' names are derived from the components you build it with.

Another thought is that if we ever need a unique card, we could simply name it, giving the title afterward. For example, "Alyan, the Elvish Scout", or "Alyan, the Scout Commander" (ignoring for a second the horrible name).
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Re: Creature naming as additional types...

Post by snowdrop » Fri Jun 08, 2012 13:34

aspidites wrote:Plenty of other games do this (albeit after the fact when inventing effects that apply to a subset of cards), so I suspect it would work.
When it comes to CCG:s, I haven't seen anyone that does it, but am sure there are good examples of it. CCG convention is to have a unique cardname and let that name fill no other function that usig it is an identifier and, in some cases, good fluff.
It also reminds me of how naming works in Warzone 2100. That is, you are able to create new unit types, and those new units' names are derived from the components you build it with.
We won't be as coherent with that, mainly because there won't be that many relations and we're dealing with creatures instead of modells, but I like the thought and it's nice when there are such connections.
Another thought is that if we ever need a unique card, we could simply name it, giving the title afterward. For example, "Alyan, the Elvish Scout", or "Alyan, the Scout Commander" (ignoring for a second the horrible name).
The way I suggested it any and words in the name of creature card title field will also double as subtypes. Using your example that would give us Alyan, the, Elvish, Scout as subtypes, meaning that card would have 4 of them in theory. In practice though, the number of subtypes is pretty much determined by other cards referencing/somehow using Alyan's subtypes. For example, if there is no card that somehow effects "scouts" then it doesn't really matter much that Alyan is a scout, does it? ;)

So, the strange result of my suggestion is that we will in some cases end up with subtypes that are of the nature "the" or "Alyan": Clearly we won't ever use "the" as a subtype ever in the game, so it is one just in theory but not in practice. "Alyan" could be used as a subtype, but it probably also won't be since it is a personal name.

What remains is "Elvish" and "Scout" that would have practical usage, but this isn't a bad thing as it still saves room in plenty of examples and adds nothing in print that wouldn't be there anyway.
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