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Originally posted by zhouj:
**Making names isn't hard but making names that sound right and are cohesive for an entire race is annoying.
**
Creating names (for systs, spobs, pers, etc.) that are meant to belong to the same culture or race is really much easier than you might think. I've gotten good results with the Coldstone Name Generator (available for free at (url="http://"http://www.beenox.com)")www.beenox.com)(/url) and a little planning. You can also use EV-Names with somewhat different results.
The first step is to select a set of letters and consonents that give the language the proper sound. For instance, for a reptilian alien race in Mille Terrae, I chose consonants that are formed only by the tongue. Specifically, I chose the following eight consonant sounds: s, th, l, z, sh, d, t, n. For a further snake-y flair, I doubled up the "s". I then matched them with four vowel sounds: a, i, e, u. To make sure that the "a" sound was pronounced "ah" instead of "ay", I doubled up the "a".
So the list of consonants and vowels was ultimately: ss, th, l, z, sh, d, t, n and aa, i, e, u.
Obviously, if your aliens have tusks or no tongues or whatever, your consonant and vowel choices will be different. A little experimentation goes a long way.
With that set in hand, open up one of the NameGenerator Files in ColdstoneNameGenerator's AddOns folder. Do a Save As... renaming the file and saving it back into the AddOns folder. Now edit the file, replacing characters between the (start) and (middle) with your chosen consonants, one per line. Place the vowels between (middle) and (end) and the consonants again between (end) and (stop). For added variety, you can include some blank lines in addition to your consonants. Close the file.
Now run ColdstoneNameGenerator, selecting your file in the pop-up. Generate as many syllables as you think you'll need. Save and Quit.
Now open the file you just made and create another NameGenerator File using the syllables you just made. Save As.. and run ColdstoneNameGenerator again, this time selecting your syllable File and start making alien names.
The generated names will all have a consistant sound and appearance in the mission texts, providing you with the illusion of an actual alien vocabulary. You can create multiple "languages" like this by just using different sets of consonants and vowels. That way, a player will be able to quickly intuit that a planet named Tessnaash is likely owned by a different race than one named Pulgok.
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Jon Potter
Thank you for your cooperation. Good night.
rusty.