Race Names

[Aigokeros]

Hi to everyone. Good to see this project revived.

Your game looks VERY good at the moment, you know... Only one concern comes into my mind (it is the same that was back in 2007 or 2008 when I saw the Horizon for the first time). This one is race names. Don't you find them rather elusive and having lack of charisma, I don't know...
Just hear it yourself: BAR-BECK, BAR-SIG, GAR-GAL, HAR-KAN, KAM-ZAK, KOR-TAHZ. It's rather like necromantic spell in Sumerian language...
By the way, as for languages... It is IMO the good source of ideas. Greek (Protoss, Psilon), Egyptian, Native Indian - unlimited space for fantasy.
I saw here the attempt to make them more alien-styled (Ascendancy-like) and I realize how difficult it is to invent alien names by the human brains... But nonetheless you should agree that memorable names are the important part of overall game success and longevity.

http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/02 ... and-races/

[Zaimat]

Thanks! We are trying our best.

About race names, like you said it's very tricky to make alien sounding names when as humans we really have no idea what that would be like. So it is very subjective.

From a design point of view I wanted Horizon to be closer to hard sci-fi and have a more immersive universe. I agree we want memorable names and easily distinguishable from each other on the other hand we don't want cheesy names/races.

The Barbeck and Barsig have some similarity (first syllable) so I think it's a candidate for changing and a few others we're on the fence with but for the most part we're pretty happy I think. The two-syllable (short) names or starting with the same letter I don't think are detrimental as long as they are different enough.

I would be curious to know which ones people really like, don't like or feel neutral and if any particular reason.. It will give me something to consider for any potential changes

[Aigokeros]

Well, I think it is important to get some "complex impression" when looking at the race as a whole, i.e. names, appearance, description, traits should match each other. For example, maybe for the female Matriarch race (Kamzak) you could choose a name with more vowels, probably three-syllable, while for the Chrystalline race (Har'kan) more "crispy" or "sparkling" name would suit... For the race of pure energy (Varaians) more "energetic"-sounding name - and so on.
From presenting names IMO more "complex feel" give Gargal, Kuntari and maybe Lezgoon.

Of course, think of all of this as of my deeply personal opinion, please don't take it as critics!
I sincerely wish you and your promising game all possible success and acceptance in worldwide TBS space strategy community! (to which I flatter myself hope to belong)

[Veneke]

I can honestly say that I never noticed that, though that could be because when I read the race names I include the following word. In other words, the Barbeck Council is rather more different to the Barsig Conglomerate than it would be if it was just Barbeck and Barsig. It's probably no harm to change them along the lines suggested above though as Aigokeros is correct, to call a matriarchal race 'Kamzak' is rather masculine and more than a little incongruous.

Har'kan, Kor'tahz, Kuntari and Varaian all sound fine to me, while most of the others are grand. Gargal, Tantik and Kamzak, however, might deserve another look over.

[Aigokeros]

And Kuntari now have the ambiguity in race description: how could coexist Emperor and republic?

[Veneke]

And Kuntari now have the ambiguity in race description: how could coexist Emperor and republic?

Although it does read a little oddly my understanding of it is that the governing body of the republic is made up of a number of lords and this emperor fellow who it implies is head of government. You could pretty easily explain it away by saying that the first emperor united the clans and gave each head of the clan a role in government, thus creating a republic with, curiously enough, an emperor at its head.

[Zaimat]

Thanks for pointing that out Aigokeros. It's a bit ambiguous like Veneke noted.

Although the current emperor united the clans and gave the lords some say he still holds most of the power. So in essence it's not a true republic so I'll strike that out.