How are NPC names generated?

MegaTimX

M
I ran into an NPC named "Squall Leonhart". An obvious reference to Final Fantasy 8. It made me wonder how names are generated. Did a programmer intentionally place an Easter egg in game or are NPC names modeled after player names?
I think this is too much of a coincidence to be a randomly generated name.
 

Deleted member 110222

D
I believe backers got to submit the names.

I once got interdicted by Fudge.

Fudge is my dog.
 

Trafalgar Law

Trafalgar Law
Most of them seem to be nods at tv/film/games/books etc. or just silly names eg. Spaghetti Monster. There may be some randomly generated names as well, but it seems to mostly choose from a large pool of general silliness/pop culture references and backer submitted names.
 
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Archvillain

Archvillain
Is there likely to be another chance to buy a name-contribution?

(I'd pay extra for a list of check-boxes for what roles the name can appear in, but I doubt the name engine is that delineated :) )
 

Guest104505

G
I once met a friend with a quite unique name as NPC and sent him an e-mail about this. He then confirmed to me that the Kickstarter backers have been allowed to feed names into the NPC name generation database. Someone also added "Steve Jobs" and "Eddie Eagle". ;)
 
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Sapyx

Sapyx
NPC names aren't randomly generated, they are picked form a very, very long list. The contents of the list were partly written by the Devs, partly supplied by early backers of the game.

There isn't even any randomizing element to mix up the components of their names. Thus, there's a "Steve jobs" but no capacity to generate a "Susan Jobs" or "Mike Jobs".

The list, however, isn't homogenous, but rather it's sorted by category. Thus, innocent traders have "innocent-sounding" and "sensible" names like "Mary Marshall". NPC Pirates, on the other hand, usually end up with the names down the weirder end of the spectrum. NPC bounty-hunters usually end up somewhere in the middle, or are a mixture of both.
 

Duedy

Duedy
Sapyx said:
The list, however, isn't homogenous, but rather it's sorted by category. Thus, innocent traders have "innocent-sounding" and "sensible" names like "Mary Marshall". NPC Pirates, on the other hand, usually end up with the names down the weirder end of the spectrum. NPC bounty-hunters usually end up somewhere in the middle, or are a mixture of both.
Click to expand...

So what category did Busty Nobra come from?
 
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Sapyx

Sapyx
That would be the "Hasty checking of the player-submitted names that didn't pick up on all the double entendres" category. There are a surprisingly large number of names in that category.
 

COOPER TTE

COOPER TTE
As well as backer submissions and FD inputs, other things are going on to add to the database.

I assume so because I recently met myself. My FD account name, not CMDR name, configured exactly as when I registered (I abbreviate parts of my name sometimes) making it very unlikely to be a random coincidence.

Basically, all your account names are belong to FD! 😲
 

Adept Geraden

Adept Geraden
I killed Richard Feynman (boo) and Vladimir Putin (yay).
Other names that spring to mind:
Jimi Hendrix
Beanbag (this one was dangerous)
Chris Braben
Plenty of other witty ones, some of which I screen captured for posterity.
 

Zieman

Zieman
metatheurgist said:
I was too serious with my name contribution. I wish I was more witty now. :(
Click to expand...
Ditto! [hotas]

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Sapyx said:
There isn't even any randomizing element to mix up the components of their names. Thus, there's a "Steve jobs" but no capacity to generate a "Susan Jobs" or "Mike Jobs".
Click to expand...

commanda2212 said:
Other names that spring to mind:
...
Chris Braben
Click to expand...
Looks like there is some mixing happening... :)
 

hunvagy

hunvagy
Yeah, lots of pop culture references, and gaming references. If you recall the force shell video, Sir Reginald von Bartelsby is actually one of Tiny Tina's dolls from Borderlands 2 :D
 

anikaiful

anikaiful
I wonder if it's a coincidence or what, but among piratey NPCs there's a whole lot of Finns, but almost none amongst trader or BH sort of NPCs.
 
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