Naming Ships

[CW]

I name my ships totally for practical reasons. I tend to play psychic most of the time so hulls tend to get refitted a lot. Every ship and base has a prefix serial number followed by the class name, which is straight out of which ever .txt file I use at the time except for the colony ships.

Auxiliay ships (transports, tankers, space yards etc) have "A" prefix followed by 3 digits, bases have a "B" prefix and 3 digits, Colony ships have a "C" preix and 3 digits, Stellar manipulate ships have "S" prefix and 3 digits (only if I'm playing against the AI), and combatants have no letter and 4 digits.

My colony ships are simply named "Rock Colony XXXX", "Ice Colony XXXX" and Gas Colony XXXX" where XXXX is the build type and generation: ## for normal colonisers, QB## for quick-built low cost colonisers, and LC## for the premium high speed light cruiser colonisers.

Like this:

A054 Titanium
B023 Oxygen
C003 Ice Colony 03
C004 Rock Colony QB01
S003 Cesium
0276 Chlorine

Somewhat complicated, but makes sorting a lot easier on the ships screen.

[ June 27, 2002, 17:30: Message edited by: CW ]

[Growltigga]

Greetings all, The current Mrs GT has gone out briefly so I can get on the computer.

Naming ships? gosh, that is something I spend an awful lot of time doing. Being a military history buff and a royal navy buff to boot, my ship classes are varied and excellent.

My design name will generally follow a format where I use ship nomenclature, a code letter to identify specialised type of vessel and then class name itself, for example

"DDm Araguia" means Araguia class missile destroyer

"DDe Javelin" means Javelin class escort destroyer

"CLa Argo II" means Argo class assault cruiser, 2nd refit

"MFt Hispaniola x-bis" means Hispaniola class military transport Xiati war specialised refit"

With regard to class names, I have absolute stacks of naval history and therefore generally enough class names to do pretty much anything....

Personal preferences are mythological names so you will always find "CLa Achilles, CLa Agamemnon, CLa Menelaus" etc in my fleets.

Oops, Grendel is coming back so I better go

Sayonara

[Tenryu]

For class names I use abreviatioms. I start with something like "ES Mk 1a" or "ES Scout Mk 1a". Upgrades are easy, I just change the Last letter. If I want very different equipment I change the Last 2 entries , "ES Mk 2a". I have created a seperate names file for myself so I can point and click a lot of this in rather then type it. Things like BSY Mk 1a = Base ship yard, ST Mk 1a = Small transport, PDB Mk 1a = Planetary defense base(weapon platform)

For specific ship names; I use Birds for ES, Fish for FG, sir names for DD, rivers for CL, Cities for CA, snakes for BC, states or countries for BB and DN, For Fighters I use Insect names, Mines are firecrackers or spider names, Sats are a mixed bag...Slinger ..Archerer, Big eye depending on what their main purpose is. For Carriers; CVL I use auto names ....Chevy, Ford, thunderbird, Bigger carriers I use Historical Battle names. Transports get girls names. SY ships get names of construction equipment. Mine and sat layers get names like "Mother Goose, Mother Hen, etc.

Bases are named after their planet, such as "Wolf III BSY 3"( the third ship yard base oriting Wolf 3) or "Epsilion V ODB 1"( the first Obital defense base orbiting Epsilion 5). This keeps them listed under their planet on the yard list, you need to use "X" for "10" if you build that high as the tenth gets listed after "1", so I use X1 for 11, XX5 for 25, etc. If you build more then 39, well, go figure it yourself, LOL!

it is interesting to see what the rest of you use. Some good ideas there.

[Taz-in-Space]

For individual ships I use short descriptive names like FG-Ab, DD-De, and CVL-Ac
FG-Ab = Frigate size Attack ship Version b
DD-De = Destroyer Defence ship Version e
CVL-Ac = Light Carrier Attack ship Version c

For those Non-Military ships: R Ark LRa, Xport Mb and SS WPc
R Ark-LRa = Rock Colony ship Longrange Version a
Xport-Mb = Transport ship Medium size Version b
SS WPc = Special Ship Warp point opener/closer Ver. c

For fleets: I name them by what they are to be used for...
First Attack Fleet,
<System name> Defence Fleet,
etc.

I've never given my ships special individual names...after all I'm the omnipotent ruler of an entire Empire!!

[Gryphin]

I was looking at my notes. When moving Populations or Units around I name the transports acordingly.
SAT Hydro = Hydrogen Breathers in Sattelite bays
CB Oxy = Oxygen breathers in Cargo Bays
SAT TT Armored CG = Armored troops and troops with Ground Cannon in Sat Bays

Note: I very seldom use actual cargo bays to move anything.

[ June 28, 2002, 19:09: Message edited by: The High Gryphin ]