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For those who aren't familiar with the naming convetions, most of the equipment from these countries is something like "Type 86" where the number is the year it was identified by the outside world. This creates two oddities. First, there are sometimes 3 or 4 of "Type X". For example, there is a Type 83 APC, Type 83 towed Artillery, Type 83 SP artillery and a Type 83 MLRS all from China. Second, the game uses short forms of the names when picking units. A battalion of F-15 Eagles once deployed might be named "13th Interceptor". When selected, we would show "13th Int F-15". With all the Chinese stuff every unit is "8th Inf Type" since it only takes the first word. We can't take two words as it would make the field too long and even then, Type 83 in artillery could be one of 3 different things.

We've been considering changing all the Chinese Type XX to C-XX and the Japanese to J-XX. Any comments?

I dont have any problem with it.Seems simple and sensible enough.

Makes sense. Would definately help people not familiar with the equipment.

Im fine with it

Sensible enough.

Sounds good to me

Oooooh, almost sounds like a consensus

Of course this idea wouldn't eliminate all possible confusion, since as Chris mentions there are "Type XX" in different classes (tanks/arty/etc) and some countries actually have equipment that already starts with a "C" or "J", but it should help a bit.

Since most scenarios only give each region a single "equipment region", it won't happen often that you'll find Chinese & Japanese & European etc in the same production list; however trades between players and equipment on the world market could come from another region, making the difference between a Chinese "Type XX Tank" and a Japanese "Type XX Tank" more important.

I don't think this will offend purists too much anyways, since the "Type XX" designation is generally a western-nato descriptor; not what the source country itself uses.

-- George.