Special unit names?

Fazdaar · March 29, 2003, 13:08

Sometimes, when I'm playing around in the DW, I can create a unit with a wierd name, like Shock Troops, Dragon, or Deathsphere. Does anyone know how these I get these names on my units?

Patashu · March 29, 2003, 16:54

yep. click rename, type in what you want it to be called, click apply and build it. fun fun fun.

Fazdaar · March 29, 2003, 16:55

No, its not me renaming the units. Its in the DW, sometime I can change the name of the unit by changing the reactor, or its weapon value, or other stuff. Does anyone know how this happens?

Patashu · March 29, 2003, 17:02

yup, go into the alpha.txt or alphax.txt file in the main folder. scroll down to the part where it says #CHASSIS . right below it are the names it gives to each chassis when you're making units depending on what it's focused on along with some other things relating to chassises.

Googlie · March 29, 2003, 21:11

One of the best I've seen was vreated by RedFred

he built a defensive infantry probe, and called it 'Stumpy'

Now that's a name we see in many players' vocabulary, thanks to RF

(and he has some great placenames too, carried over from his Civ II days:

Boring Spot
Nowhere Bay
NoNuts
etc)

G.

Alinestra Covelia · March 30, 2003, 00:56

I build those too! RedFred and I must think alike

I call my probe garrisons "Probe Garrisons'. Because they are... erm... probe garrisons.

*looks around*

*wanders away, embarrassed*

Mr. President · March 30, 2003, 03:23

I colorfully rename Planet Busters "Crimson Sunrise Planet Buster" and Conventional Missiles one of "Zarathustra" or "Deathbringer". Not much else other than that. Oh, I also name lots of landmarks like "Sea of Dreams", "Green Mountain", and "River Acheron".

Flubber · March 30, 2003, 04:08

Quote:

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
I build those too! RedFred and I must think alike

I call my probe garrisons "Probe Garrisons'. Because they are... erm... probe garrisons.

*looks around*

*wanders away, embarrassed*

Well . . I try to be a bit more inventive in my naming-- infantry probes get names like

slow cop
mall cop
bond with a limp
commissionaire

Patashu · March 30, 2003, 04:20

I call infantry probes...Probe Teams. inventive, eh?

spartak · March 30, 2003, 13:56

How about calling them mildred?

Uchuu-kun[SM42] · March 30, 2003, 16:43

Hmm. What specific armour / chassis / weapon combos give "special" unit names?

Patashu · March 30, 2003, 16:49

-Any- combination will give it a "special" name, really.

Uchuu-kun[SM42] · March 30, 2003, 17:34

Nah, I mean something like the "Deathsphere" or "Dragon" mentioned in Post #1.

Alinestra Covelia · March 30, 2003, 19:33

My brother calls the Civ2 Spy unit "Spee". He insists that's her name so you can get Veteran Spee the Spy.

knowhow2 · March 30, 2003, 21:24

Well my favourite unitsstill are xxx-gas noodles - which I rename:

Killalots - geno 4-13

also, best defenders: The Royal Guards

Mongoose · March 30, 2003, 21:55

I name choppers equipped with the Dissociative Wave ability Typhoons.

Alinestra Covelia · March 31, 2003, 00:07

I like renaming landmarks and bases, personally. One PBEM game I played with Misotu, she was playing as the Uni and built the Uni base "Climactic Research Station".

This is a spelling mistake (I think) since "climactic" means "of or pertaining to a climax" and I don't think the Provost's good scientists were spending taxpayer's money on researching climaxes. Much more likely they were researching the climate, in which case the word they want is "climatic" (no 'C').

I pointed this out to Misotu, who then proceeded to email me back telling me that my name ALINESTRA COVELIA was an anagram of VAIN CLITORAL EASE and then renamed her base Vain Ease Research Base.

I responded by naming two landmarks near our contiguous border CHEEKY WEE and DEVIL and she immediately named a counterlandmark *SNIGGER*.

When RedFred and Googlie (our rivals in this game) probed my faction and saw my map, the initial reaction must have been something worth seeing.

Mr. President · March 31, 2003, 00:18

That's the real fun of PBEM.

Uchuu-kun[SM42] · March 31, 2003, 01:08

Anagrams are fun. Especially sexual ones.

Googlie · March 31, 2003, 01:13

Ah, yes - I remember that game (whatever happened to it - did you and Mis trounce us? - or did it die when Mis returned to the UK)

I do recall that it spawned a week or two of anagrammatical hilarity

G.

MariOne · March 31, 2003, 09:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
This is a spelling mistake (I think) since "climactic" means "of or pertaining to a climax" and I don't think the Provost's good scientists were spending taxpayer's money on researching climaxes

You know, "climax" is not *necessarily* related to sex...

Maybe Zak's men were just investigating the rythms of the new planet and environment...

MariOne · March 31, 2003, 09:34

Regarding infantry armored probes, I also try to rename them, although not being native english limits my imagination a bit.

A PT-1-1 gets usually named "Counter", as it provides Counter-Intelligence but it's anyway a low-level home-based bureaucrat and I imagine it sitting at a counter waiting for events to happen.
A PT-2-1 gets instead named "Tight", as in its picture it looks like wearing a grey elegant suit, and it provides a "tighter" lock against outside nasty aggressors of different kinds.

Sometimes I use different names, or I design PT-3t-1 calling them "Transplants"

I like the way Fist (usually playing Uni and calling himself Archmage) calls armored probes: Archivists.

I sometime call Clean Police scouts as "Bobbies".
Or when I had to design DropMarine units for a custom specific task, I called them "Seals".

When I'm a bit inferior in air defense, I prefer to recur to cheap units (scout patrols, eventually AAA) as expendable "Chaff" (eventually upgraded to Clean for mere 20ec) to absorb enemy aviation attacck turns, and sometimes I like to terrorise 13-1-Jets/Choppers with cheap 1-1-1 SAM "Spotters"

___
Apart for convenience in telling similar units which would have long combinations, I tend to leave the game names: they's more self-explanatory in case I have to remember which one had or lacked that added ability, and to a skilled opponent changing the name wouldn't hide the real unit nature anyway.

MariOne · March 31, 2003, 09:39

Regarding bases and landmarks, I quote once again JAM's gem.

When conquering "Virgin Soil" gaian base, he renames it "Soiled Virgin"

He's very imaginative with conquest renaming puns

Also, it was very funny to see how he labels the PB lakes and craters

Alinestra Covelia · March 31, 2003, 11:56

Quote:

Originally posted by Googlie

Ah, yes - I remember that game (whatever happened to it - did you and Mis trounce us? - or did it die when Mis returned to the UK)

In the end, I remember you stormed one of my bases with a cleverly hidden transport full of marine soldiers, and then you were surprised to discover that TechSteal had been deactivated for this game.

Mis's intelligence agency then worked overtime on your bases, and discovered that you and RedFred were building specialized needlejets with chemical weapons of mass destruction. We gave you a few half hearted resolutions to disarm or be clobbered and then clobbered you anyway. I remember I had the Cloudbase Academy and the Cyborg Factory in that game (courtesy of Mis's generous scientists) so the resultant chopper attack was fairly one sided.

Mis did worry at one point about whether or not the Gaians (played by Googlie) would be able to get a nerve gas needlejet off the ground. Eventually I just had to take all my units out of the cities I'd captured and then send my choppers on a certain death bombing mission (not enough fuel) until we were sure we'd destroyed that single nerve gas needle.

At that point, Googlie and RedFred signed a surrender pact with Misotu which pretty much meant that the game was over.

It was an interesting experience. I was fighting blind because I hadn't managed to probe a single person, and Misotu was basically examining the defences of each city and then telling me what was in them so I could plan an attack using my sizeable Hive forces.

The most scary part was when Mis had declared the time ripe for invading Googlie, and on the very next turn, I had lost a reasonably well defended base to Googlie's Viking Squad!

I miss PBEMs. It's more than time for me to play another.

Uchuu-kun[SM42] · March 31, 2003, 14:17

I keep renaming little one-tile islands after the islands in the Monkey Island series. Oh, and naming major landmarks and such for faction leaders.

Fido Dido · March 31, 2003, 16:01

I made a Psi-Psi-4 (I think. may have been 13r-8r-4, or whatever it is..), and named them "Native Life Defence". Damn handy against worms and such, especially as I usually have mag tubes everywhere.. Zip.. off they go to where they're needed.. Zip, and back again..

Patashu · March 31, 2003, 16:36

the resonance weapons are 6r and 12r, and a unit with 4 movement is the foil, a sea unit, and in the sea there are no magtubes. it could be a hovertank with antigrav struts though.

Flubber · March 31, 2003, 17:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Fido Dido
I made a Psi-Psi-4 (I think. may have been 13r-8r-4, or whatever it is..), and named them "Native Life Defence". Damn handy against worms and such, especially as I usually have mag tubes everywhere.. Zip.. off they go to where they're needed.. Zip, and back again..

That seems to be an awfully expensive unit for killing natives. If you have magtubes, all you need are a couple of artillery units. They knock the stuffing out of native life. Give any native stack a barrage or two and your basic infantry scout can kill them( while being very green). Fungal towers are slightly tougher but simply give a couple of extra barrages

Second-- If staying at home, your unit is overkill. First off, no weapon and empath will be a better native killer and 6r empath will likely be cheaper as well ( need to do a DW check on that one). To have a unit with such high offensive and defensive capabilities is often a waste. Specialize more.

I generally assume I will be hitting natives before they hit me so I will have a couple of arty and a couple of sam empath rovers with maybe a single empath chopper. The cost of ALL of these combined are probably less than your super unit and they will take out natives even better

Flubber · March 31, 2003, 17:49

Oh and these units almost always get a "Wormkiller" type name-- Its not very creative but it is an apt description of their function.

Worm defense??-- I usually don't do that much. I figure if I have enough sensors about, I will see them coming

Alinestra Covelia · March 31, 2003, 21:24

i call my resonance noodles "Fungal DeTowerator"s. i use them to get rid of fungal towers.