Oolite Bulletins

Svengali wrote:

Hehe - funny. Since a few days Disembodied and I are already working on such a mechanism which will become part of CCL.

spara wrote:

Sounds like something to look forward to.

spara wrote:

Just started a new Jameson and this time I wanted to give my character a bit more depth. I quickly run out of ideas and started to look for some nice random character generators. I stumbled to http://www.random-generator.com and got more than I bargained for. Hudreds of generators from names to backgrounds and fantasy to scifi.

The Scorchin' Hot Pegasus
Slashing Eagle Gristle
Biarge's Hard-Kickin' Tiger Hide
Dunking Desert's Tongue Teaser
The Scorchin' Hot Worg
The Crunching Blinding Goblin
Grabbing Ailment's Secret Sauce

PhantorGorth wrote:

How are you doing names (where required)? Random sylables like Oolite does at the moment for passenger contracts or built from a bunch of first names, surnames or a mix of both? I also assume as part of CCL you can chose or override the parts of the character details as needed.

Svengali wrote:

PhantorGorth wrote:

How are you doing names (where required)? Random sylables like Oolite does at the moment for passenger contracts or built from a bunch of first names, surnames or a mix of both? I also assume as part of CCL you can chose or override the parts of the character details as needed.

I'd think all these random name generators are working somewhat similiar (mostly for performance reasons). Some arrays are holding words or parts of them and control patterns. We have combined the arrays in named sets (e.g. PirateInsult) and every set has its own control patterns. A OXP just calls a function which returns the generated output. If no pattern was specified it chooses a random pattern from the set. Every set holds 18 arrays of words or phrases.

The script simply replaces the numbers (1-9) in the pattern with content from the arrays. Switching between 1-9 and 10-18 is done via special char, so it would be possible to get even higher numbers of arrays, but 18 should be enough for most things. Some other special chars are giving patterns some more oompf, e.g. for displaying player.name or setting flags for the word processing. And when a word is picked from the arrays additional rules are applied before it replaces the number in the pattern. The rules are designed to work with english words (some exceptions are handled). The main goal is performance and it really looks promising. Creating a brew name takes 0.000474 s totalTime, with 0.00038 s javaScriptTime on my box.

Names are build from sylables. The script precreates 40 first names and 40 surnames and populates the corresponding array to be combined via pattern when a OXP requests it. It is possible to do this procedure on every docking to get fresh names. Adding a new set is on my list, but I doubt that it makes sense to give OXPs much more possibilities than defining the pattern (e.g. like defining the rules), because it should be usable inflight as well.

PhantorGorth wrote:

That's sounding great. Can you tell us what other "characteristics" that this is going to provide?

Patterns:
 Next word after . ! or ? is capitalized.
 + -> Forces capitalization.
 } -> Forces fields 1-9.
 { -> Forces fields 10-18.
 > -> Applies plural rules.
 < -> Applies singular rules.
 | -> Random plural.
 # -> Verb case 1. simple present
 _ -> Verb case 2. simple past
 ^ -> Verb case 3. past participle
 * -> Verb case 4. perfect
 @B -> player.bounty.
 @C -> player.name.
 @D -> player.ship.displayName.
 @F -> Random Firstname.
 @f -> Stored @F, else empty string.
 @I -> player.ship.name.
 @L -> player.legalStatus.
 @N -> Random Surname.
 @n -> Stored @N, else empty string.
 @P -> Current system.name.
 @R -> player.rank.
 @S -> Random system.name.
 @s -> Stored @S, else empty string.
 @T -> player.ship.target.displayName.
 a followed by vowel a,e,i,o,u -> an
 a followed by superlative -> the

Words:
 $ -> identifies verb (e.g. decide$).
 & -> identifies irregular noun or verb
      (e.g. &go$ or &bison).

Noun Plural Rules:
 & -> irregular, uses lookup table.
 otherwise:
   [^es]s -> unchanged
   fe -> replace with ves
   e -> word + s
   [^o]o,[^ei]x,es[s],[cs]h -> word + es
   [^aeiou]y -> replace with ies
   [^erf]f -> replace with ves
   [ei]x -> replace with ices
   else -> word + s;

Verb Rules:
 & -> irregular, uses lookup table.
   Can be combined with plural prefix.
     case 0 -> base form, e.g. go
     case 1 -> simple present, e.g. goes
     case 2 -> simple past, e.g. went
     case 3 -> past participle, e.g. gone
     case 4 -> singular: has gone
     case 4 -> plural: have gone
 otherwise:
   case 0 -> base form
   case 1 -> apply plural noun rules
   case 2 ->
     e -> word + d
     [^aeou]y -> replace with ied
     [aeioy]p -> word + ped
     [aeioy]b -> word + bed
     [^l]l -> word + led
     else -> word + ed
   case 3 ->
     e -> word + d
     [^aeou]y -> replace with ied
     [aeioy]p -> word + ped
     [aeioy]b -> word + bed
     [^l]l -> word + led
     else -> word + ed
   case 4 -> singular: has + case 3
   case 4 -> plural: have + case 3