[Freeciv-Dev] Compound City Names

[Erik Sigra <freeciv@xxxxxxx>]

Hi,
This has been discussed before but I think it is interesting enough to
be discussed again. Hopefully more elaborate this time.

The thing is, I want COMPOUND CITY NAMES in Freeciv. Anyone who has
played Transport Tycoon knows what it is and probably likes the
concept. Here are some examples:

data/nation/boer.ruleset
city_name_firstparts =
  "Kaap",
  "Middel",
  "Johannes",
  "Pietermaritz",
  "Lyden",
  "Vry",
  "Postmas",
  "Swellen",
  "Klerks",
  "Vanrhyns",
  "Erme",
  "Bloem",
  "Bitter",
  "Water",
  "Spring"
city_name_lastparts =
  "stad",
  "burg",
  "dam",
  "dorp",
  "fontein",
  "kloof",
  "bok"

data/nation/danish.ruleset:
city_name_firstparts =
  "År"
  "Køpen",
  "Silke",
  "Ny",
  "Gren",
  "Vording",
  "Godth",
  "Holste",
  "Blok",
  "Neks",
  "Rød",
  "Had"
  "Hirts",
  "Nørresund",
  "Oden",
  "Helsing",
  "Næst"
city_name_lastparts =
  "hus",
  "havn",
  "borg",
  "å",
  "by",
  "se",
  "holm",
  "ø",
  "bjerg",
  "ør",
  "købing",
  "ved",
  "sund"

data/nation/dutch.ruleset
city_name_firstparts =
  "Amster",  ;Amsterdam
  "Schie",   ;Schiedam
  "Haar",    ;Haarlem
  "Eind",    ;Eindhoven
  "Arn",     ;Arnhem
  "Amers",   ;Amersfoort
  "Maas",    ;Maastrich
  "Middel",  ;Middelburg
  "Til",     ;Tilburg
  "Emme",    ;Emmeloord
  "Willem"   ;Willemstad
  "Apel",    ;Apeldoorn
  "Drach",   ;Drachten
  "Vlaar",   ;Vlaardingen
  "Leu",     ;Leuwarden
  "Gron"     ;Groningen
city_name_lastparts =
  "dam",
  "lem",
  "hoven",
  "hem",
  "foort",
  "tricht",
  "burg",
  "loord",
  "stad",
  "doorn",
  "ten",
  "dingen",
  "warden",
  "ingen"

data/nation/german.ruleset
city_name_firstparts =
  "Frank",
  "Dresd",
  "Münch",
  "Berl",
  "Stett",
  "Schwer",
  "Müns",
  "Mühl",
  "Ham",
  "Wolfs",
  "Würz",
  "Alt",
  "Frei",
  "Magde",
  "Regens",
  "Mar",
  "Bam",
  "Heidel",
  "Hildes",
  "Nord",
  "Süd",
  "Ost",
  "West",
  "Ros",
  "Heil",
  "Frau",
  "Nörd",
  "Dieden",
  "Osna",
  "Schlett"
  "Saar",
  "Gelsen",
  "Neu"
  "Düssel",
  "Kloster",
  "Heinzen",
  "Fünf",
city_name_lastparts =
  "furt",
  "en",
  "in",
  "ter",
  "bach",
  "burg",
  "berg",
  "heim",
  "bronn",
  "enmarkt",
  "lingen",
  "hofen",
  "brück",
  "brücken",
  "kirchen",
  "gemümd",
  "stadt",
  "erode",
  "dorf"
city_name_incombinable =
  "Speyer",
  "Köln",
  "Worms"

data/nation/swedish.ruleset
city_name_firstparts =
  "Stock",
  "Hässle",
  "Upp",
  "Sollen",
  "Sig",
  "Norr",
  "Lin",
  "Jön",
  "Malm",
  "Birk",
  "Kristain",
  "Öster",
  "Göte",
  "Karl",
  "Söder",
  "Norr",
  "Ronne",
  "Öre",
  "Holm",
  "Helsing",
  "Å",
  "Mört",
  "Vi",
  "Vis",
  "Troll",
  "Pite",
  "Skellefte",
  "Ume",
  "Lule",
  "Lax"
city_name_lastparts =
  "holm",
  "sala",
  "tuna",
  "köping",
  "ö",
  "stad",
  "sund",
  "borg",
  "hamn",
  "tälje",
  "hult",
  "by",
  "bro",
  "gård",
  "fors",
  "bo",
  "berga",
  "lösa",
  "hättan",
  "å"
city_name_incombinable =
  "Falun",
  "Mora",
  "Orsa",
  "Växjö"

(I was gonna do English too but I thought 5 nations were enough
examples (although I'm ready to continue if someone fixes the coding
part
of it, which shouldn't be too complex.))

The reason I want compound city names is that I don't think it is
important to get exactly the names of the real cities. If I for
example want to play the Dutch I just want to get a Dutch "feeling".

Of course it could be optional and rulesets could have a list of full
city names as well. The setting could even be changed during the game
because it is only used when founding cities.

The combinations will not always be grammatically perfect, but that is
a minor issue. I think the overall good outweights it by far.

There could perhaps be a list of city names that can't be easily
obtained by comining firstpars and lastparts  (called
city_name_incominabe in the example). Randomizaion could be used to
decide if a city name should be suggested from that list or from
combination.

Erik Sigra