Unit name style guide

[tripax]

I’m not sure where to post this: here, history, or modding. I’m interested in adding more unit names (as flavor) to the game. I’ve started a discussion in the modding forum about the larger project, and following are notes about unit name stylistic conventions. I do not intend to follow these perfectly, but usually will.

In game, unit names are not uniform. In my unit name mod, I would like to follow a style guide so that it is clear to me how to name units. Since many unit names are very long, this goal of these guidelines is making a clean, pleasant format for naming units and shortening unit names.

Currently in game, unit names need to be not longer than between 25 and 30 characters in order to fit on the screen (example here, Note that this depends on the words, as the font isn't monospace and it might change for different screen resolutions). So very long unit names need to be shortened - I will always shorten names longer than 33 characters, and usually those longer than 27. It is important that the state and unit type be recognizable before the name might be cut off, so in extreme circumstances strange rearrangements or abbreviations could be possible (I haven't found any examples of this). I propose that the longest form of the name possible be used. I propose that states be shortened to 2 character postal abbreviations using capital letters (ie Maine becomes ME).

Currently in the game, nicknames go in apostrophe's, " ' ". I will continue doing this when the nickname or commander's name comes at the end. Possessive names don't need apostrophes (example: "Morehead's AL Sharpshooters").

Currently in the game, most abbreviations of words such as brigade or cavalry are followed by a period (ie Bde. or Cav.), but not always (for instance "State Art" as light artillery in Alabama). I propose dropping periods in abbreviations (Company becomes Co and Co. becomes Co). In game, spaces are dropped between some abbreviations (with an exception). I propose putting in spaces in abbreviations. I also propose dropping some commas in unit names (so "1st Bty., WI Lt.Art." could be "1st Bty WI Lt Art" or "1st Bty, WI Lt Art"). I propose to follow abbreviations I find in game (below).

It is possible that multiple companies, battalions, or regiments are included in one name. Spaces between company/battalion/regiment letters or numbers can be dropped, commas used, and hyphens when more than 2 consecutive letters/numbers are used. So the "5th & 6th Missouri", a hardcoded unit which is a Missouri Brigade reinforcement, could be called the "5&6th Missouri".

In order to make sure the game doesn't affect game balance, it would be important that changes to unit names don't change how easy it is for human players (and Athena) to see opponent unit types in stacks. However, any change to unit names changes how that is experienced. In fact, I think it is fair that the unit type is relatively clear from unit name. As an example, the "1st North Carolina" is a sharpshooter unit, the "1st North Carolina Jr.Res" is a militia unit, the "1st North Carolina Volunteers" is an infantry regiment (model - so it is very unlikely that the "1st North Carolina Volunteers" would appear in a stack, since it would probably be named after the brigade of which it was a part. However, it isn't clear that the "1st North Carolina" is a sharpshooter unit from its name. Also, it is a battalion - it is also called the 9th battalion, presumably because 8 other battalions were created before it, but this was the 1st sharpshooter battalion. I propose, then, changing the name to "1st Battalion North Carolina Sharpshooters" (or, since this is 42 characters long, "1st Bat NC Sharpshooters").

If the unit type or state is clear, it isn't mentioned. So we can assume the "1st North Carolina" is infantry (conscript and regular come from the same name pool) and "'LA Fire Brigade' Zouaves" are clearly from Louisiana (Note that "3rd NY 'Syracuse Zouaves'" still needs the state, since not everyone will instantly know Syracuse is in New York). The order of words in names should be:
For regular infantry, cavalry, artillery, etc units: <# and State(s)> <Company(s) or Battalion(s)> <Commander/Nickname> <Unit Type> - example: "1st NC Hvy Bty A 'Clark'"
For units named primarily after their commander or a nickname <Company(s) or Battalion(s)> <Commander/Nickname> <State> <unit type> - example: "Cos A&B Searcy's MO Shrp Bat"
For Union Federal and multistate sharpshooter units (Birge's, 1st Berdan's, and 2nd Berdan's) split into companies: <Company Nickname/Commander> <State> <Company> <Unit Nickname> <Unit Type> "Dougherty's Shrp, OH Co H Birge's" and "NY Co A 1st Berdan's Shrp"

It seems weird that the company or even state would come first in some units but not in others, but to me this sounds best. Special legions, Zuoaves, sharpshooters, and militias may vary a little bit, but hopefully this system works.

Abbreviations will only be used for very long names (character count not greater than the upper 20s is the goal):
State Postal abbreviations will be used (MO for Missouri, ME for Maine, and LA for Louisiana are probably the least intuitive).
Inf - Infantry
Reg - Regiment
Bde - Brigade
Indep - Independent
Co - Company
Bty - Battery
Bat - Battalion
Lt - Light (or Lieutenant, but not in any model/unit names)
Hvy - Heavy Artillery (I follow the currently in game custom that "Lt Art" is needed to differentiate from light artillery, but "Hvy" is sufficient to indicate heavy artillery)
Cav - Cavalry
Eng - Engineer(s)
Sig - Signal
Sup - Supplies
Gd - Guard
Mil - Militia
Def - Defence
Trp - Troop
Res - Reserve(s)
Vol - Volunteer(s)
Shrp - Sharpshooter(s)

Most abbreviations can be made plural by adding "s" (Co becomes Cos), but this is not always necessary ("Sharpshooter Battalion" and "Sharpshooters Battalion" are interchangeable, so "Shrps" isn't necessary)

Place name abbreviations and other abbreviations are possible, too, such as "Ft" for "Fort", "St" for "Saint", "Jr" for "Junior"

[tripax]

A related issue is ordering of units in game. When you recruit units, the names come out of the name pool in the order that they are entered. I propose to follow the currently in game ordering where possible. So if a unit is first in game, it will usually be first in my mod. Beyond this, numbered units will usually come first, so the "1st MD Potomac Home Gd" comes before "William's MD Co Militia" and lower numbers come before higher. Some attempt will be made that named units will be in the order they were recruited, with units that played a large role having some priority as well. Units from the state where they are recruited will usually get priority over out of state units.

[tripax]

I am editing both the units database, which controls names for brigades and many stand-alone recruitable units, and the models database, which controls names for infantry units within brigades, as well as some aspects of names for some standalone units. For instance, you'll notice that the same unit will sometimes have slight variation in their names between the bottom-right hand menu containing information about the contents of a selected brigade/unit/division and the bottom menu containing information about the whole stack - this is because the two names differ slightly. In my mod, these will now usually match (for better or worse), with both mostly conforming to this style guide.