With a new edition on the horizon plus potential new players coming from the Animation and also a potential reshuffling of "Vanilla" lists I am reminded that I may be once again having to explain that Vanilla is what we call the faction when it uses all of the various flavours sub faction and thus a particularly un vanilla concept. Is there a better term we could start to use for these 'parent' factions? Secotials is a very handy term for the off shoots and that is very easy to explain. In my experience it easier to call them "non sectorial" to a newer player and it's only after some prolonged exposure to the online comunity that they begin to use Vanilla or be comfortable with Vanilla as the term.
I think Vanilla and Generic are community terms, not an official one. The problem being that, if there is an official name, it's either "faction" (which is confusing, since sectorials are presented as the parent faction more often than not, even in this forum I had a disagreement with our dear PsychoticStorm because he would consider all sectorials and vanilla as the faction, for example) or the faction's name. While I agree it's quite lackluster to call them "vanilla X" or "Generic X" when the sectorials have their own particular names, I think a unique name would deserve being unique in more ways than just having access to most sectorial units.
White Banner is Yu Jing, Military Orders is Panoceania? That's why we need a better term for non sectorial versions of the factions. I understand Vanilla isn't an official term and that it's community driven which is why I am here talking to the Community about using a different name.
It's really up to each of us to no longer say "Vanilla" to new people. I've been saying Faction and Sub-Faction for sectorals.
Actually I see nothing bad here. I like caramel taste better, but vanilla is ok. Plus this name is a stable slang. In many other games. May be it is wider, hobby slang. If to talk about renaming, there are several units, that need it more, but even with it I let it be.
It's vanilla, it's just the most basic form of a thing. It's just the baseline. I suppose we could just call it the "Cherry Picker's List" because you only choose the very best of what each faction has to offer.
I'd go with "Core Nomad" or something, but I don't see any problem with Vanilla either. Vanilla is great and in so much stuff. :)
The official term is "X" Generic list, for example PanOceania Generic list, so PanOceania faction has the Generic list and its sectorial lists. Vanilla as been already said is the unofficial community terminology. I do not think there has been in the past any demand for a more characterful naming for the generic list, I can suggest it, though for it to work it must be a universal term.
I suppose it could be Nation. PanOceania Nation, Yu Jing Nation, Ariadna Nation, ALEPH Nation, Nomad Nation, Haqqislam Nation, etc. I find Faction still works. It is just a matter of understanding the difference. Faction is the term for limited but access to all options. Sectorial is the term for more but limited options.
