Heya guys,

I've been thinking about this for quite a while so I decided just to ask you guys: How would you name your skills? especially the elemental ones?

The options I came up with are:
Completely made up:
The Shin Megami Tensei series has always done this. Their fire, ice, elec and force(air) skills are called, respectively: agi, bufu, zio and zan. The best thing about naming your skills like this is that you can systematize your attacks. SMT for instance, to indicate that the spell targets all enemies they put ma- in front of the skill. So agi becomes maragi (slight exception), bufu becomes mabufu, zio become mazio and zan becomes mazan. Also to indicate that the spell is a stronger variation they just put -dyne behind the word. So agi become agidyne, bufu becomes bufudyne, etc. So the strongest mulit-target elec skill would be called Maziodyne and can be immediately recognized.

Pros: Systematization, names sound cooler
Cons: Takes some time to learn the moves

Final Fantasy:
Final fantasy does basically the same thing as the option above, but instead of made up words they use fire, water, ice and then proceed to call them fira and wateraga or fire II and water III. This option still gives you the ability to systematize your spells while keeping the function of the spells recognizable.

Pros: Systematization
Cons: Very typical for FF... looks very cliche.

Random Names:
I think everyone does this in the beginning. They give all their spells cool names that have nothing to do with each other. Example: they call their first fire skill Blaze, their stronger fire skill Inferno and their last Ragnarok. There is no systematization and you'll have to look at the description every time you want to use a spell to make sure you're using the right one.

Pros: Allows for cool names
Cons: Confusing as shit...

Foreign Language without Order:
Same thing as "random names" but with each word put in a translator...

Pros: Names are most likely cooler
Cons: Now you don't even know what element your spells are anymore...

Other:
Yeah... something else which you like better...

Pros:???
Cons:???


So yeah, please don't just vote, I'd like your opinions as well... What are you doing in your game? Also, please don't consider setting when answering this... I think everyone understands why Alter Alia opted for "Random Names", with names like Napalm and Shock Grenade... that's not what I'm asking.

Where's the straightforward naming option?  Like Fire 1, Fire 2, Fire 3 from FFVI or Blaze, Blazemore, Blazemost from DQ?

I'd opt for using the actual element/purpose of the skill as the skill name (ie- Fire, Sleep, Remedy, Heal) and tack on suffixes for variations on that (Firemore, Fireall, Healparty).  Really easy to learn and use (especially important with RM games as people aren't nearly as patient with them as commercial games).

This would be the FF option...

I think it's best to make your skill names unique. I'll give you an example: in Latin the word fire is ignis. You could use that as a magic spell that burns the enemy which is a elemental skill.

This is the Foreign Language option...

For DoaDV, I'm just sticking with names such as:

Skill Name/                 /Damage/Element/Enemies Affected
• Blessing - Description : -60 HP •Holy• (Single)
• Cross - Description : -150 HP •Holy• (Single)
• Repentance - Description : -300 HP •Holy• (Single)
• Holy Light - Description : -80 HP •Holy• (All)
• Ascension - Description : -170 HP •Holy• (All)
• Judgement - Description : -320 HP •Holy• (All)

My skill names may change in the future, but because I have nothing planned for now, these are the way they'll stay. Also, I was simply trying to find a name suiting for the appearance of the default battle animations for each elemental spell.

Say, I'm in favor of naming some buff skills with a deity prefix in it. As for offensive ones, I'd rather less use SMT/Final Fantasy/Evolution spell & item naming scheme (ex. in Evolution [Dreamcast ][/Dreamcast]: Min-Naolin ~ a heal-everyone item [Minna + some randomly named medicine)

I guess i say other, - mostly unique, but with some sense to it, and a few patterns- for example  the  tough male's charm spell might be "Flex," the  demure female's might be "Flirt," the harlot's might be "Flutter eyelashes" and the  effeminate guy's might be "Flounce."

Other.  Depends on my mood, mostly, but more often than not, I want the names to make an impression.

I'd probably only do the Fire/Fire2/Fire3 scheme if I were working with a limited amount of space like Square was with the first six or so Final Fantasy titles.

The third option is a bit deceptive, since the names aren't random. Blaze, Inferno and Ragnarok are three names commonly associated with fire. Between a Blaze and an Inferno, most anyone understands an Inferno is a little bit fiercer.

That said, I'd suggest the "FF method" as you call it, if only because Blazeall, Blazemore and Blazemost are such awesome skill names, you'd be a fool not to use them!

I personally think those are really dull names. I kind of liked the idea of the system in Rudra No Hihou, though I haven;t actually played the translted rom yet...

imo i like made up names the most. like when fire is something like Tsatvalus. it makes you sound cool when you use names like that when you talk about a game and someone who's never played the game will be like "uhhh....".

I feel made up can be good, but there should be some method to the madness. Do certain syllables have certain magical values (Like Rudra No Hihou's mantra system), is the spell name in an arcane language, does it include the name of the elemental god? Admittedly not every game has to have hyper-sensible names-, but it's a good idea to have some semblance of underlying structure to the spell names- for example, if you're going to have the level 1 fire spell be Tzatvalus, name the second-level Tzatvavnus and the third Tzatvarvin.  Sounding cool- great. Totaly confusing those who play your game- epic fail.
 I love the names for attacks in AAG but in some other cases names and descriptors make no sense whatsoever.or example,  I Was recently playing through Carpe Diem : The Living Flame, and one spell descriptor was  "Electrical smoke" while another was "Ion ice." WTF? The game is fun but  I don't get how electric smoke is possible...

Well, straightforward is good, but sometimes so are made-up names, especially in a setting where magic has a language all its own. Sometimes magic itself cannot be expressed by ordinary human speech... for example in "Flora Segunda" at least one spell is made up of nothing but symbols- such as spirals and wavy lines.  I Also remember a Sci-Fi story where scientists had found ways to talk to natural forces  or "Elementals" As they called them, but the language was extremely strange- for example talking to fire sounded something like crackling hisses.