Fleet Naming Strategies

[justjake73]

In replay to Puke:

You...can't.

Where did the the thought come from? You can only retrofit within the same ship size. Unless someone has been doing some ultra-heavy modding.

[Saxon]

The good fleets, with experience get outrageous names, like “Defenders of Justice” or “Children of the Nova”. The fleets that are just for convenience take the default names. That way I know which is worth keeping at a glance.

In PBE, I like to give names to my ships that will upset my opponents, like former girlfriends of theirs. Childish? Probably. Fun? Certainly. Of course, this only works for people you know well.

[Quikngruvn]

My naming strategy depends on the type of game I play.

Solo: Warships are named "[Size] [Retrofit Level]", e.g. "Destoyer A" or "Battle Cruiser C". Other ships follow a similar scheme ("SWP B", "Colony R/D", etc.). Fleets keep the default names.

PBW: I've been using the names of rock songs for my ships. It keeps the other player's guessing (lessee... is a "Mudshovel" more advanced than an "Even Flow"?). Fleets are the same.

Quikngruvn

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"That which does not kill you will make you stronger." -- Nietzsche

[Saxon]

Yep, I also avoid putting names to ships that will give very much away to human players. Then again, if you were feeling nasty you could deliberately follow a simple system, then switch it around at a key point and hope they get over confident.

Oh, the Evenflow is clearly the superior ship, it obviously has advanced energy weapons while the Mudshovel still uses projectile weapons. :-)

[Antonin]

I name fleets that consist of 10 or fewer non-capital ships (destroyers, frigates, escorts) 'flotilla a,' 'flotilla b,' etc.

Combat fleets containing capital ships and preparing to operate outside my empire I name '1st Banner Fleet,' '2nd Banner Fleet,' etc. Sometimes, though, I'll call them "Tumen," after the Mongol military unit.

As for ships, I call escort/scout designs "Far Star," after Hober Mallow's ship in Asimov's Foundation novel (I think it was Mallow's ship).

Frigate classes are Type I, Type II, etc, after the German U-boat types of WWII. I name frigates individually, 'Z100,' Z101,' etc, with the first digit corresponding to the class type.

I name Destroyer classes after German cities, and individual ships after German U-boat commanders, ie, IKD Hardegan ("Imperial Klingon Destroyer Hardegan").

I name Light Cruiser classes after Japanese cities, and individual ships I give Japanese family names.

Cruiser classes get Russian city names, and individual ships get Russian family names.

With bigger ships I get more flexible, partly because there are fewer of them and partly because I usually wind up surrendering before the game gets far enough to think really big. (I'm a newbie - but having fun even while losing)

My tendency is to call battleship classes after organizations in the Dune novels (Face Dancer, etc) and name individual ships after individuals in the Dune or Foundation novels ("IKB Duke Leto").

Dreadnought classes are named after types of celestial bodies ("Comet," etc). Individual Dreadnoughts get named after actual celestial bodies ("Jupiter," "Phobos," etc).

I try to be consistent so I can tell the type of any ship at a glance. Also, it makes for great sounding "press bulletins":

"Today, according to the Ministry of Defence, a task force consisting of the heavy cruiser Kirov, light cruisers Abe and Matsuoka, and frigates Z502 and Z133 delivered a heavy blow against an enemy grouping in the Proxima system..."

But there is just so *much* you can play around with; close examination of a map of west Africa reveals a *lot* of cities whose names would make great ship names.

One thing I wish the game had is a way to create and use ship name text files the way we do ship design name files. As it is, I have to keep papers next to my keyboard with all my potential ship names printed out.

[capnq]

I like to use fleet names that remind me of the fleet's intended function, and fit the theme of the race I'm roleplaying.

For example, the Tiktsin, a plantlike race, give their defensive fleets names like "Bark 1", while an attack fleet might be "Thorn 2".

The felinoid Rrurrr would use "Claw 1" and "Fang 2" for the equivalent fleets, while the lobsterish Mi-Go use "Carapace 1" and "Claw 2".

In solo games, I usually use ship names that start with the same letter as the design type: The Rrurrr's first colony ship is the Cheetah class.

In multiplayer games, I start off the same way, then make up a rule for the pattern the next name in the series follows. The Rrurrr had defense ships called Doberman, Eagle, Falcon, Gorilla, Hound, Iguana, and Jackal in my first PBW game. I haven't picked a pattern for the Rrurrr's next game yet but it'll be something different.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[Dragonlord]

In solo games, I usually take the default names. In PBW games, it has not happened often to me yet that human players could see a fleet of mine long enough for me to worry, usually when they see it , it hits them the next turn
Nevertheless, when I started playing PBW I was paranoid about humans figuring out by the name of the ship type what the ship did. (for instance, in solo play a minelayer would be called "Minelayer".)
I found refuge in my native tongue, Dutch. I use Dutch slang to disguise a ship function, though I still usually call them by their function, especially non-combat ships.
This makes for some odd translations of for example a Point-Defense ship. And sometimes Dutch is too similar to english. (for example, guess what a "Garage" ship does). Also, in the PBW games that I just created (see other thread) or just started playing in, I have roughly the same opponents as in my first round of PBW games. So I guess the Dutch won't work anymore.

My attack ships: I have always used the "ravager.txt" file for this, cause I like to have attack classes like "Dominator" , "Conqueror" or "Abomination". Unfortunately too many AI races use the same txt file and they use up the available names way too fast. (they won't call an upgraded BLaster a BLaster II).
I use the roman numerals for upgrades until a human player has seen what a BLaster (x) ship is, then I change names.
I don't usually name ships individually.

At the end of my Last PBW game I started using fantasy names instead, borrowed from the Jordan and Tolkien books. So I'd have Gargoyle classes, Trollocs, Draconians and Myrrdaals. Bigger hull size means bigger monster name. My single baseship was called "Dark One".