Request for Multi-Part Names

[Guardian54]

In the gameplay videos I saw by "History Guy Gaming" on YouTube, I was shocked to see that John Paul Jones was simply "John Paul" in the game. I learnt that this is technically historically correct, as he added "Jones" to his name later to evade law enforcement and was named "John Paul" at birth. Perhaps this could be added as an event in the campaign following his career!

I understand middle names are a thing in Western Europe and usually omitted from display, BUT there are still numerous admirals in history with spaces in their first or last names. So I inquired on Discord about multi-part names and was informed that multi-part names were not yet supported. I will now show some exhibits on why it should be supported

Here is a list of some notable naval figures whose names are often stated in full. I have taken some liberties abbreviating slightly, but still present my case well enough. Where the spaces are for what are likely to be classified as middle names, I have made note:

Jean-Baptiste du Casse (French Navy 1686-1714)--A timeline expansion would be good for DLCs as this is still strict Age of Sail (1677 Royal Navy gun-based rating system established to 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars), and his last name is "du Casse" which has a space... and suggests to me that his nickname among players would be "duckbutt" and any campaign featuring him likely to be nicknamed the same... so maybe not include him. But Jean-Baptiste is a VERY common French name, so hyphenated first names when?

René Trouin, Sieur du Gué, usually called René Duguay-Trouin (French Navy 1690-1736)--Given his last name was used for a class of cruisers, I do not think it is reasonable to not include it in full, with the hyphen

Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville (French Navy 1758-1804)--Even if you abbreviate the rest, his first name is still most definitely "Louis-René"!

Louis-Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse (French Navy 1778-1797)

Armand Blanquet du Chayla (French Navy 1770?-1803)--this is a spaced last name, and probably a middle name.

Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve--May be spelt "Pierre Charles Silvestre de Villeneuve" or "Pierre-Charles Villeneuve" but the point remains.

These are cited from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Navy

Now for British officers there was really only one big name in this period with multiple names, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Royal_Navy_admirals_(1707–current) we have:

George Brydges Rodney (middle name) (RN 1732-1792)--The other name the Nelson-class battleships drew from seems slightly important to me.

And then you get the massed spaced names of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Spanish_admirals

Obviously, for a good Age of Sail experience you also need (in DLC) to cover big names like Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (counts as a middle name methinks) and Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (middle name, but also a spaced last name)

.

In conclusion, it astonishes me to hear that there may not be coding that allows for spaced/hyphenated first and last names for officers in the game, considering how many notable officers had such names.

Please comment or upvote if you like the suggestion of adding spaced and hyphenated first/last names into the game. It would certainly be less radical an in-game idea than recruiting an officer named "Destructor Maximus" as I saw on gameplay videos.

[WilliamTheIII]

5 hours ago, Guardian54 said:

In the gameplay videos I saw by "History Guy Gaming" on YouTube, I was shocked to see that John Paul Jones was simply "John Paul" in the game.

On the character selection, his name is JPJ however, the Jones part doesn't actually seem to be showing up in game.

Most of the names you have stated are quite long and most likely will be way over the character limit which would result in only part of the name showing up. This is most likely one of the reasons why you cannot hyphenate or add a middle name. Also, as the officer you are adding into the game is fictional, there doesn't necessarily need to be a middle or hyphenated name as its made up (although it would be nice for more freedom). 

5 hours ago, Guardian54 said:

In conclusion, it astonishes me to hear that there may not be coding that allows for spaced/hyphenated first and last names for officers in the game, considering how many notable officers had such names.

Although many notable figures did use long names, most records of the time would not have included the full name. According to the British National Archives, the only information relating to their name displayed that of their first name. This practice seemed to continue until the late 19th Century and was stated as being quite "basic".

5 hours ago, Guardian54 said:

It would certainly be less radical an in-game idea than recruiting an officer named "Destructor Maximus" as I saw on gameplay videos.

It would be certainly more immersive to have time appropriate names, but I feel that this name has as much right to be in the game as having hyphenated and spaced names.

[Guardian54]

3 hours ago, WilliamTheIII said:

Also, as the officer you are adding into the game is fictional, there doesn't necessarily need to be a middle or hyphenated name as its made up (although it would be nice for more freedom). 

I'm intending to name him for my YouTube channel. The problem is that it's three words, totalling 16 characters counting all spaces (no hyphens).

If you can have an officer with the last name Wilburforce or similar in the game (I seem to recall one such from History Guy Gaming's videos) then most first names would push him well over that character count.

3 hours ago, WilliamTheIII said:

quite long and most likely will be way over the character limit

"René Duguay-Trouin" (4 + 7+1+6 = 18 characters counting hyphen) does not strike me as a longer name than, say, "Alexander Elphinstone" (9 + 11 characters)) which is a perfectly reasonable British name

3 hours ago, WilliamTheIII said:

It would be certainly more immersive to have time appropriate names, but I feel that this name has as much right to be in the game as having hyphenated and spaced names.

I'm mentioning it as "you have already allowed historical accuracy in the names out the window, so why not allow people to include spaces and hyphens in their officers' names when that would actually be historical?"

I'd be willing to pay up extra when I order Admiral's Edition if I was able to name a character with spaces/hyphens in the names. If it's not possible to have a space, well I suppose I'll have to figure something out.

[Anthropoid]

There are some typos and wrong words used in some parts of the game's content. But given that probably no one involved in the project is a native English speaker (Ukrainian outfit right?), I'm actually very impressed by how few errors there are.

[WilliamTheIII]

Myself and @pandakraut are working to edit most of the stuff in the game. Chapter 3 for the US should be noticeably improved as we both spent a lot of time to edit the entire thing. On the side, I have been able to edit most of Chapter 2 for the British and have reworked a number of technologies, weapons, advice, etc in hopes of improving the game. If you see something that you would liked reworked in particular, please ping me here or on discord.

[Anthropoid]

Okay, I'll start keeping a list and when I get a handful or more I'll ping ya.

One thing that comes to mind immediately though . . . The info panes for ships have a column in a table named "Planking" which seems to be showing "armor" thickness labeled "Thinkness." I think that must have been "Thickness."