Name Generators Progress Rapport

So this month haven't been much regular hobby but loads of work for hobby/blog indirect. Some time before I started working on my quotes generator (seen in sidebar, now up 76 different quotes) I started collecting data for a goblin namegen. And continued but this month I thought I might ass well start trying to get something working code wise for the blog. Easier said than done. I have no real knowledge in coding more than from algebra in school. But I have always found it intriguing, so have tried to teach my self. I have taken some pictures of the different steps done this month to spice it up a bit, if you look closely you might see some hints of features comming. My first guess of eta was easter, but got across one big problem so next guess is christmas if I don't have any reader whom can give me a hand with one of the hiccups I have at the moment. Then it might come closer but don't want to get my hopes up since I work on trail and error, so it goes slow and I don't want to be burned out on the project and not get it finished.

So I started quite a while ago to just collect names from different material I could find: Rulebooks, old supplements, timelines, black library books and novels.  Skarsnik was a gold mine, and I really enjoyed it would be nice if there where more goblin centric books or at least green skin centered books out there or to come. Where really hoping for Forge World Black Fire Pass but that got put of till end of Horus Heresy so end of time as we know it probably.

So as the list grew I broke the names that seamed fit down in two as most do, I would wager that the fluff department already have a goblin name generator but don't think there is a point of mailing them and asking if I could have a copy of the data to use for my goblin army.

When I had collected a bunch I started writing a formula for randomly adding combining first parts and second parts together and adding titles. As you can see in the circle thats the scroll bar for the formula and down in the corner is the result... The title code got a bit out of hand. I really liked the ogre kingdoms name generator that was up on games-workshops website for a while and their fluff of big names and really big names. So I let that influence my goblin titles.



So there are three list of titles:
the adjective like (Big Nose, Wart finger etc.),
verb like (Back stabber, corps prodder etc.) and
the The list (da Noiseless, the Flatulent etc.)
So most goblins get one from the first list and some gets their from the second or third. Not all Goblins need (or deserve) titles and then there are the achievers that not only get one but two and then there are the over achievers, I tried to reflect these different types in the formula.

But there is only so much an excel sheet can do.
When I decided to try to export all my data to write something javascript based to view it on the blog I managed to write a formula that I think may have make the calculations to loop so my computer (which is usually are quite capable) freezed up and crashed. So after some more googling and failed attempt I decided to write a script outside doing most of the work.

I started to google for applescript to learn how to write a script that would help me extract the data and format it the way I wanted. It worked better than expected and was really satisfying to watch it run and do all the work. Sadly I didn't manage to extend the window so you could see the code in full, but I guess not that many appreciate to look at formulas as much as me. I think it's the mathematician in me that somehow find that a nice formula is a bit like modern art.

Anyway, so I tried to zoom out to give an over view of the out put of the script but yeah it's not even close too half of the out put I got by running it a couple of times.

Zoomed in. So this is some of the first halfs. In closed in ""; for the js. I hade some problem with that since the script I wrote was affected by the symbols so couldn't tell it to write them. I solved it by telling it to fetch them from the document and bind them in a variable then simply copy paste.

So now I have started to sort the names for the ability to ad more customisation. Without having to rewrite the same things several times in the code.

I checked browser history and I usually can go through quite a lot of links when looking through the internet for inspiration pics.  But think it was something like 2000 entries in history this month for coding. I haven't compared that to any other months internet use but it feels a lot, and it felt like I was looking up stuff constantly trying to figure out how java script works in conjunction with htlm5. Both by them self seems quite easy but I have more hassle working them together with how to adress different stuff so both codes understands what is supposed to happen.

Here is  some of the code for the site so far.

At the moment the things that works are Goblin and Old School Goblin (both with the option to turn of titles) and Snotling name generator.

The Old School Goblin names are from the c12 goblin series flyers from 1983.
I didn't divide them only randomising between one of the names and one of the titles. This one was never in the original plan, but it just felt like a waste to not make anything out of the collected data since it didn't really fit in with the more modern names.

Yeah if you haven't seen it yet spoiler: I'll also add Ogre Kingdoms, Lizardmen, Skaven and Daemon of Chaos Name Generators for you who haven't found your way to Morks path yet.

So a question for any readers experienced or gifted in coding: I'm trying to dynamically generate the different forms needed for different generators. When I use: document.createElement("input") as childnode assigned attribute typ=radio it works as you can see in last picture but the problem is, the two options doesn't realised they are linked even tho I tried to add a form label. So they are not linked and work as two separate radio forms resulting in that both can be selected, which in turn removes the functionality of being a radio button instead of a checkbox. 

Is there a way of fixing this?(Fixed it by assigning them the same name attribute.) I also have trouble removing child nodes but haven't looked in to that as much yet so I will probably find out how if I just do some more research. 

If you have any helpful tips or suggestion please feel free to drop a comment below or hit me up on twitter or send me an email through the contact page.