I’ve created a new release of the “NameStuff” mod for Supreme Commander Forged Alliance, now titled “Name All The Things“. So no, this is not a post where I rant about good variable naming 🙂
The mod automatically sets names for your units, which can change based on their status. For instance, damage can cause a unit to be labeled “angry”, while idle units can be labeled “lazy” or “useless”. These names are visible to you, and to the people you are playing with. It is a so called UI-mod, which means you can have it enabled for yourself, without other players in the game having it or needing to enable it as well.
The mod was created in 2014 by Sheeo, at least if the details in the mod info file are correct. Going on other clearly incorrect information, that might well not be the case. Anyway, the credits for creating this mod do not go to me, and the original author has my thanks for creating this fun mod.
New features in Name All The Things 2.0.0
- All texts are now configurable at the top of the file
- Out of fuel units will be “hungry”
- Workers and non-workers now have different IDLE messages
- You can now set special names that only show up for UEF units
Furthermore, the mod does now have an icon and a README. The code also got cleaned up a bit, so it should now be easier to understand and modify further.
The default list of “base-names” got changed to those of my FAF friends, or names otherwise funny to them. Many of the other name parts also got changed, for instance a full health unit will no longer be “happy unit” but rather “such a unit”.
You can get the new version here. I’d like to get it into the FAF mod vault, unfortunately that thing still is ALL of the broken.
What is up next?
When doing a game with thousands of units, the mod can cause some lag. An obvious solution for this is to only give names to the oldest 500ish units alive. I had a go at implementing this, though found it’s harder to do than I expected.
Some other ideas
- Make it easier to configure the mod. Ideally in the game/lobby, else via config files (so no more lua editing)
- Name buildings
- Hold veterancy into account (Idea by Such a Figaro)
- Do something with ACU names
- Special names for hover tanks and arty “Such Floaty”, “Floaty Crap”, etc
From my point of view the code interacts with black boxes and is next to impossible to test. If someone can point me to where I can find the actual interface definition of unit, that’d be much appreciated. Knowing which information is available is of course very helpful when looking for cool new things that this mod could do.
Your ideas and suggestions are welcome. Got new prefixes to add or have a great new feature in mind, please share your ideas. If you have code modifications, you can submit them as a patch.
Screenshots
