I agree wholeheartedly on the apostrophe thing. It's overdone and painful to read. When I see imaginary words with apostrophes in them, my eyes try to jump out of their sockets in an attempt to drag my brain with them to their doom.

Okay, maybe not, but I still prefer not to use them. I originally had several terms in Revenant that used apostrophes, but I got to the point where I'd look at them and go, "Why'? Why am I doing this?"

There are plenty of other things to do. Accents, dashes, etcetera. Or the symbol to make a vowel nasalized, though I can't figure out what that is on the keyboard.

Don't you hold in the option key and hit a vowel, then hit it again to get the actual letter... î, é, ü. Or is that not what your talking about?

The apostrophe thing isn't bad when it's not overused in a work and there's good reason and usage behind it. If they're just throwing scrabble letters onto a board and then using those syllables with randomly inserted apostrophes, then that's pretty annoying. If the words actually have some thought and conventions behind them, like how the Polaris do their caste system for naming (Mu'Randa, Bis'Andreya), then it's not bad at all. I personally tried other punctuation as opposed to the apostrophe, but it both looked a little weird and didn't quite indicate the kind of slight, barely perceptible pause the names were supposed to have... that and I didn't want to hear someone refer to one of my main characters in my novel as "Vera Dash Shan". That actually happened when I tried dashes. <_<

And since I mention her, she so far has the only name in my novel with an apostrophe, though the characters just refer to her by the first segment. Just a piece of trivia.

Some other symbols I've tried include " : ; . / | ~ ^ * _ and = Just look how weird it looks with those symbols: Mu"Randa, Mu:Randa, Mu;Randa, Mu.Randa, Mu/Randa, Mu|Randa, Mu~Randa, Mu^Randa, Mu*Randa, Mu_Randa, and Mu=Randa.

Mu equals Randa. Ha.

I like dashes, personally, although my characters are usually nameless or have names like Sunan Klahan and Cairbre Ottokar, which are basically just mixed ethnic names that I think sound cool.

This post has been edited by Crusader Alpha : 27 January 2008 - 11:14 PM

Putting apostrophes in names is silly unless there is a long-form name that is being abbreviated.

However, putting a glottal stop in a name, and perhaps indicating it by use of an ʻokina, is something else.

Wow, if I'm reading and understanding those articles right, that's what I've been doing (or trying to do). Thanks Trowel, now when someone asks me why I used apostrophes or how to pronounce the names, I can actually sound like I know what I'm talking about now, instead of the somewhat vague description I've been using, since I didn't know the terms (or knew the terms existed).

Edit: Slow, connection trouble related double post. Please disregard.

This post has been edited by JoshTigerheart : 28 January 2008 - 12:51 PM

mmm, so this what I've missed!

:chuckles: Welcome back, zhouj.

HOLY CRAP. Where the hell have you been Zhou?

Just been around with school and stuff. PM me your AIM sn; old one doesn't seem to work.

@yellow_13, on Jan 27 2008, 10:18 AM, said in Revenant:

Hate to do this but the F/A-18A - F is a US Navy Aircraft. (Sorry saying that the air force used it just bothered me) But I do agree that if you want to have a ship name from a western earth culture you should designate it with letters like F/A for fighter attack. But as for the naming of the Polaris ships like Aether said, needs to be translated but also there is a diffrence in culture between the polaris and federation, and it is easily seen in the ship naming. Since the polaris hate bureaucracy. (They said that in a misson once, I dont remember when) And the federation is full of it. Thereforce Culture = How ships are named. So if there was a western culture in Revenant go for more numbered and lettered names like F/A-?? and ect. As for a more eastern culture go for more natural names like in japanese culture. So a Tsunami Class carrier would be appropriate.

I didn't notice this post before.

There actually is a UNE ship called the Tsunami. As per the naming scheme, a lot of the major space-fairing cultures are Asain--specifically the Chinese and Japanese. China's military contributions to humanity are vital in the future. India also plays a major role in terms of general population as well...

We're in the process of setting up a website for Revenant right now. As such, I'm going to compile a progress log. How many of you would prefer an offsite progress log vs one here on the dev boards?

If you need a web designer... <.<

@verb, on Feb 10 2008, 02:53 AM, said in Revenant:

There actually is a UNE ship called the Tsunami. As per the naming scheme, a lot of the major space-fairing cultures are Asain--specifically the Chinese and Japanese. China's military contributions to humanity are vital in the future. India also plays a major role in terms of general population as well...

We're in the process of setting up a website for Revenant right now. As such, I'm going to compile a progress log. How many of you would prefer an offsite progress log vs one here on the dev boards?

Asians... wait, don't tell me you're going to grab words from the Japanese, Chinese, and Indians. And for weapons, well... That's interesting.

A progress log on the boards would be fine. I mean, I chose to make a progress log here because I didn't like having to log into Freewebs and edit my information from there. The boards are much easier to post your progress on Revenant on. However, it's your choice.

And I just read Yellow_13's post. Wow. I have never thought of that. Thanks for the information.

@joshtigerheart, on Jan 27 2008, 10:50 PM, said in Revenant:

The apostrophe thing isn't bad when it's not overused in a work and there's good reason and usage behind it. If they're just throwing scrabble letters onto a board and then using those syllables with randomly inserted apostrophes, then that's pretty annoying. If the words actually have some thought and conventions behind them, like how the Polaris do their caste system for naming (Mu'Randa, Bis'Andreya), then it's not bad at all.

I agree, to an extent. Normally I would fully agree, but the fact of the matter is that soooooooooooooooooooo many science fiction universes have used them that they've become more cliche than skydiving on a list of things to do before you die.

@king_of_manticores, on Feb 10 2008, 10:32 AM, said in Revenant:

Asians... wait, don't tell me you're going to grab words from the Japanese, Chinese, and Indians. And for weapons, well... That's interesting.

I am blown away by this plugin. :blink: Will there be more renegade ships? And are the weapon fire rates going to make sense this time? Unlike some of Escape Velocity Nova's weapons. I'm looking at you light blaster turrets <_<

I know this is an awfully old topic but can anyone confirm continued progress on this TC as I REALLY wan see it when it's done?

AWESOME! Everything I've seen has been awesome.

@1purevengeance1, on Apr 26 2008, 10:17 PM, said in Revenant:

I know this is an awfully old topic but can anyone confirm continued progress on this TC as I REALLY wan see it when it's done?

AWESOME! Everything I've seen has been awesome.

Worry not! Progress has been made. Expect major updates over the summer.