I understand that NPC names are randomly generated...
- Thread starter pctechnik
- Start date
Call me when this guy starts grinding Imperial and Federal rep.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CPuly_BqOw
NPC names of ship pilots are not "randomly generated", they are saved intact in a database of names as a single name and randomly picked off the list."Robert Thompson" is one of those names. This is different to how the names of SLF pilots and space station factional officials are generated, which are assembled from two lists of first and last names.
And I'm afraid I'm not entirely certain which "Robert Thompson" you're objecting to. Wikipedia lists 40 famous people with that name. And it's entirely possible that someone named Robert Thompson, unrelated to any of those 40 people, paid FD £40 during the kickstarter to get their name added to the database.
And I'm afraid I'm not entirely certain which "Robert Thompson" you're objecting to. Wikipedia lists 40 famous people with that name. And it's entirely possible that someone named Robert Thompson, unrelated to any of those 40 people, paid FD £40 during the kickstarter to get their name added to the database.
Maybe it's the Azure Mongor ship name. That is somewhat weird but not as bad as some.
There is the Robert Thompson that murdered some kids in the 90's but, well "Robert Thompson" is a ridiculously common name. Google John Smith and you will find a ton of them, some of them not great human beings either.
There is the Robert Thompson that murdered some kids in the 90's but, well "Robert Thompson" is a ridiculously common name. Google John Smith and you will find a ton of them, some of them not great human beings either.
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If I was OP, I'd sure feel silly now, having been outed as mixing up the ship name for the people name.
But to be fair, some of the people names are dumb because apparently naming an npc in the game was a Kickstarter reward so sometimes you'll come across something like hyper bill and so on.
But to be fair, some of the people names are dumb because apparently naming an npc in the game was a Kickstarter reward so sometimes you'll come across something like hyper bill and so on.
This guy knows who I am referring to, regardless of how names are generated, some should simply be blacklisted.
Being faced with Robert Thompson and then this guy just a short while later. C'mon , you can do better.
NOT the wingman but my target.
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Info, lol
I'm not sure what you have problem with: the name, or inability to explode him
Not long ago someone else complained that he was forced to shoot pirates named after famous astronauts.
I understand some things might make some people uneasy, but there always will be someone upset about something.
In this case I say - shoot the pixels, embrace the catharsis and let it go.
Deleted member 110222
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I was attacked by Fudge and Fudge is my dog.
She looked at me the whole time it happened...
She looked at me the whole time it happened...
Give me a common name, like Robert Thompson, and I can prolly find someone with that name that is pretty evil. I am not sure what you expect from them. To blacklist a name that means nothing to most people seems a waste of time.
Terry Venables managed a lot of teams, which one upsets you? Or is it the England manager period that gets your goat?
Terry Venables - Wikipedia
I think a certain level of Kickstarter backers got their names in the npc pool also.
Someone on Reddit blew up Chris Roberts and posted a screenshot of it thinking frontier was having a go at him. I've never had a go at that sadly
Someone on Reddit blew up Chris Roberts and posted a screenshot of it thinking frontier was having a go at him. I've never had a go at that sadly
It's sad that some names achieve such a notoriety that it's hard to disassociate their legacy when they're seen out of context, but it's just a combination of a common forename and a common surname. The subsequent appearance of the second name is unfortunate and will have given a confirmation bias to the earlier encounter, but I doubt there's anything sinister afoot. Whether it was added manually or generated through string manipulation we'll likely never know its provenance. While there's a small possibility it was put there as a deliberate reference to the convicted killer, the odds are much higher that it wasn't. Even if FD were minded to filter out names that matched notorious real-life individuals, the technical challenge would be enormous and require constant update and maintenance.
On a technical note, having played the game since before the backer NPC names went live, I have a strong suspicion that as well as the full versions of registered names some "firtname/lastname" mixing-and-matching may also have been used. This is a possibility that was talked about in the early design, but as far as I know was never officially adopted or rejected. One of my NPC names is my wife's, and while her first name isn't astonishingly rare it's unusual enough that I notice it when it pops up in the game. In five years I've only seen the full name three times, but I've lost count of the number of times I've seen her first name in conjunction with other surnames. And our own surname, while not nearly as uncommon, seems to pop up all over the place including a fair number of stations that I definitely didn't pay to name. I suspect FD may have seeded the RNG name algorithm with some separated backer names as well as the more obvious dedications to authors, movie directors, astronauts and scientists etc.
But of course all that could just be confirmation bias too.
Personally I miss the pop culture alpha NPC names. Whatever happened to Bat-Crazy Roy, Daisy Hal, Cat Jones and the others?
On a technical note, having played the game since before the backer NPC names went live, I have a strong suspicion that as well as the full versions of registered names some "firtname/lastname" mixing-and-matching may also have been used. This is a possibility that was talked about in the early design, but as far as I know was never officially adopted or rejected. One of my NPC names is my wife's, and while her first name isn't astonishingly rare it's unusual enough that I notice it when it pops up in the game. In five years I've only seen the full name three times, but I've lost count of the number of times I've seen her first name in conjunction with other surnames. And our own surname, while not nearly as uncommon, seems to pop up all over the place including a fair number of stations that I definitely didn't pay to name. I suspect FD may have seeded the RNG name algorithm with some separated backer names as well as the more obvious dedications to authors, movie directors, astronauts and scientists etc.
But of course all that could just be confirmation bias too.
Personally I miss the pop culture alpha NPC names. Whatever happened to Bat-Crazy Roy, Daisy Hal, Cat Jones and the others?
Ok, I do understand that many players are not aware of the story, but I am sure that most would agree that this is shocking to most humans, perhaps not the most shocking and I am not trying to size up atrocities, but my point is that simple safeguards against such occurrences, both of which occurred on Christmas Day (my grievance is not with what day it fell on - and for the record, not that one got away) could and should be a possibility. Whether choose to act upon a request to blacklist is an entirely different discussion.
I personally feel they should, and certainly have the means to do so.
I personally feel they should, and certainly have the means to do so.
I am certainly aware, I am just not triggered by the name. In fact, when I see the name Chris Roberts, I think of the nice old man down the street that fixed my bicycle when I was 8, who's lawn I used to mow when I was a teen, and another Chris Roberts the game developer that created the Wing Commander series of games and is now working on the seemingly never gonna be done Star Citizen. Not some kid killer. If the name was not generated randomly, I would lay odds that Cris Roberts the game designer, and business rival, is who they had in mind.
Venables is more rare but come on, it's the name of someone you get to kill. Let it be cathartic and move on.
Venables is more rare but come on, it's the name of someone you get to kill. Let it be cathartic and move on.
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Deleted member 182079
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I did have a "whoa dude!" moment a while back when I ran (or rather they ran into me) NPC Tocci (check out Isinona's Youtube clip with the same name). True story.