What do you call your ships?

USSRanger

Join Date 03/2007

What do you call your ships?

I'm just curious as to what you like to name your ships. Do you just give every ship of the same type a generic name. Do you ahve a unique name for each ship? Do you not bother at all? Trust me, I think this thread will prove more fascinating than it sounds...

Now, it may sound a bit anally retentive, but I like to give very ship I construct (unless its something like a troop ship that won't be around for very long anyway) its own unique name. Playing the Terrans, I would usually call my ships 'TNS *Namehere'. TNS stood for Terran Naval Ship, after an older game I play called Conquest: Forniter Wars, in which Terran vessels have the prefix TNS.

However, I switched to using TAS (which I assume stands for Terran Alliance Ship) after I saw 'TAS Explorer' and 'TAS Maker' in the second campaign mission.

I also give each ship type I create a class name. For example, the Sabre class corvette. For each new game I play, I would use whatever names I could think of for each class (resuing ones I had used in past games, or names of ships that had since been decomissioned or destroyed), starting with whatever the class name is (as such, my first Sabre class ship would always be the TAS Sabre). In the same vein, I usually call my inital survey ship TAS Earth, TAS Terra or TAS Sol.

So yea, in short, when I'm playing as the Terrans I give each ship I build or otherwise recieve a unique name with the prefix TAS. The first ship of each respective class takes on that classes' name. I was thinking of prefixing the names of my ships with ARS, ARV, ASV or ASS when I started playing the Altarians, but I lost interest in that when I found the tiny hull was messed up so nothing would attach to it properly.

What about you? How do you name your ships?

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Well I don't have a strict list or anything, I just think it wouldn't make sense to call a tiny ship 'TAS Titan' or a massive ship 'TAS Hornet'.

Also, I said medium ships generally get 'names of famous people like Patton, Moscow, Jupiter and Templar'. What I meant to say was that they get names of famous people like Patton, names of cities like Moscow, names of planets like Jupiter and themes/ideas like Templar or Endeavour.

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I play a custom,super-warrior,earth spin off race, modeled on the ancient Greeks.

With that in mind,flagship is always NSS HYPATIA (Literally, women of superior intellect).I believe thats fitting for a vessel outfitted with my best technology.

Her sister ships are DESSA ,ISEMI,and SOLON.(roamer ,to know,and wisdom.)

I have redone my survey ship to use a large hull version of the original terren vessel,thank you Kryro.And have made them updated medium cruisers that form the backbone of my fleet.

Their names are VIRAGO,NIKE,ATALANTA,DIANNE,ALEXIA, and THERON.

My heavily armed and armored Troop ships,which I use to bleed off extra population,so I have a substantial standing army,are named alike in convention.
NSS NIKEPHOROS ,NIKOMEDES,NIKESTRATOS,POLYNIKES,etc.,etc.

I only name ship types, not individual ships, for my custom super-warrior Earth spin-off race based on the Ancient Greek world: The Amazons.

As a result, my ship type names either harken to Greek mythology/history or to female references. Of the names you listed, I've used Virago (a vicious late-game defense craft), Atalanta (a scout craft with engines out the wazoo), and Dianna (large-hulled capital warship).

I've also used Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone as maxed-out beam, projectile, and missile warships, respectively; and Athena and Hera as well (large/huge capital warships, obviously).

I can't believe that I didn't think of Hypatia for a survey vessel; that's brilliant.

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I must agree that I wouldn't name a small ship the Titan unless I was in a weird mood or had been drinking but I think Hornet would be an appropriate name for a flag ship seeing as there was a carrier named USS Hornet in WWII. Now that I think of it I haven't used either of those two names ever....I will have to do so.

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General Pants

Join Date 08/2006

+19

UNLUCKY FOOLS!

There is a sailor's superstition about renaming ships... you don't do it. I don't know how far this extends... the Germans and Russians don't seem to care too much (not that either has spent much time on naval power, historically). I do wonder sometimes what counts as renaming... the submarine Corpus Christi was "renamed" "City of Corpus Christi," which is really more of a clarification than a renaming.

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There is a sailor's superstition about renaming ships... you don't do it.

Well, surely it has to make an exception for when your ship comes off of the production line as 'Wellington class 1701' right?

the submarine Corpus Christi was "renamed" "City of Corpus Christi,"

Yea, they didn't want to suffer from controversy over a weapon 'apparently' named for the body of Chirst. Of course, anyone with half a brain would have known that it was named for the city, but still, people (dumb people in particular) are easily offended.

there was a carrier named USS Hornet in WWII

As for the Hornet, well, maybe that was a bad example. You see, the only other place I has seen a ship called Hornet was in Star Trek: Armada (there I go again) where one of the names the game can randomly assign a Defiant class (Which is a small (but powerful) gunboat if you're unfamilar with Star Trek) ship is 'USS Hornet'.

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Ah yes Star Trek Armada I remember that game. Although I wasn't too familiar with the names assigned to the ships cause I always played as the Borg. Now that would be fun to do in GC2. Assimilate enemy ships and such.

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I name mine Shirley

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Depends on the size of the game. For tiny and small games that will be over in one evening, my ships are all just a bunch of components slapped on a basic hull. They also have very practical names like "Fast Colony" or "Missile Frigate."

For huge or gigantic games that I plan to play over a week (or several weeks,) I will spend more time designing and naming my ships. The names are still fairly random though. Like my current large game as the Thalans. I needed a cheap early ship to boost my military rating, so I made the "Rat Fighter." That later got replaced with a decent small fighter, but I wanted to pay a little homage to my early fighter, so I called it the "Rat Wing."

When I got to my medium hulls, I spent an hour or two playing around with the editor till I found something I liked and picked another random name "Tesla Snake." As I upgraded the ship I added a MkII, MkIII, etc...

A lot of names often include an animal of some sort depending on the sytle of ship. Small ships are more likely to have insect type names, where larger ships will vary more. For instance, my last gigantic game I had the "Rolling Thunder" class battleship.

In short, it depends on how much time I want to spend on it. Am I looking to exercise my brain with a quick strategy session, or express my creative side with elaborate ship designs. With the new template system in DA, I will probably start saving off templates for each race as I get around to playing as them. That way, even for those games when I don't want to spend an hour on ship design, I can still have decent templates. That fact that the AI will use them too, is just a nice side effect.

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I only name ship types not individual ships.
For the non-combat ships (e.g., colony, constructor, or survey) I list it's function and range and engines.
For my combat ships I list the hull size, weapons, defenses, and speed.
So under DL (I haven't tried DA yet):
M-B44-S18-28
Would be a medium hull ship with 2 doom rays (Beam offense 2*22=44), 2 ultimate invulnerability shields (Beam defense 2*9=18), and 4 hyperwarp III engines (speed 4*6+4=28).

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My first transport class was the Roger Young. The description read "shines the name..."

I know I'm being an uber-geek, but it is "Rodger Young".

Starship Troopers was the first SF novel I ever read, when I was 11. I cut my teeth reading the rest of Heinlein's stuff and I just bought a copy of "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" for my 15yr old son.

My colonizers are always the "Heinlein" class.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Trust me, I think this thread will prove more fascinating than it sounds...

Indeed.

I lean to "in character" names for hull classes, but leave automatic names in place until a given ship is pretty experienced.

When my fleets are finally decently large and strong, I sometimes give them names that describe their duties (e.g. Altair Watch). For general-purpose fleets, I'm lately favoring names in the style of Culture ships in Iain M. Banks' Culture novels (e.g. You Don't Want to Do That).

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I use the same generic naming convention for every game I play to keep myself from getting confused. Tiny with no support or engines = Interceptor. Tiny + engines & support = Fighter. Small = Frigate. Medium with sensors, engines, and support = Lt. Cruiser. Medium without all that but packed with guns & defenses = Hv. Cruiser. Large = Battleship. Huge = Titan. I don't name individual ships unless they've been around for awhile or are Large or Huge. Then when they get blowed up I gather the family and we hold a service.

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Tiny with no support or engines = Interceptor.

Ahhh, these are what I name 'Widowmaker', for obvious reasons.

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Quote from 'General Pants'
"There is a sailor's superstition about renaming ships... you don't do it. I don't know how far this extends... the Germans and Russians don't seem to care too much (not that either has spent much time on naval power, historically)."

Ahh so true General,the superstition lingers even today.

However as someone who spent his life at sea(Merchant Mariner),I can tell you that if you refused to get on a renamed vessel,...you'd be spending an awful lot of time on shore.

Companies buying out entire fleets ,routinely rename ships to reflect their own naming conventions,except Hollywood Marine,but then there is always one in the crowd.

And anyway shipyards often have 'generic hull' names for vessels under construction,which have nothing to do with the actual christening name.

btw,Ray Radlein thanks for the compliment!

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I will just start designing a ship and then think of a name that suits its look and possibly intended purpose. A fast, long, small hulled pointy ship? Dart. Many pointies? Claw (or Tiger's Claw for Wing Commander). Other names that have come up are the Space Tiger, Overture\Finale (for the last ship that I design in a game), Excalibur, Gladiator, Hammer, Goshawk, Stilleto, Dark Knight, Righteous (when I play ultra-good), Wasp, Nova\Super Nova, and then some other random names from sources such as Robotech, Battletech, Star Wars or any other source that I have seen\heard\read recently.

As for the upgrading, most ships for me start as -a1 and as they get upgraded go up (-a2, -a3, etc) unless I switch many of the components then it goes to -b1.

I usually only name ships fairly early (I can usually get out 5-10 ships that will destroy anything short of the Dread Lords, Peace Keepers, and Pirates). Then I will give them names, based on what I have them doing. Guardian and Defender protect the area around starbases. Pillager and Interdicter will take out freighters and transports\colony ships. Then I have general Star Destroyer names like Aggressor, Executor, Executioner, Dominator for my main ships that take on enemy fleets. And lastly if I send any ships to go after starbases or deep raid targets they are usuall Backfire, Assassin, or Garrote.

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General Pants

Join Date 08/2006

+19

"Tesla Snake."

Ahhh, these are what I name 'Widowmaker', for obvious reasons.

Me like! Another supercool name is "Hellbender." I didn't make this up, it is the common name of a species of giant salamander from the Appalachians.

BTW; In case anyone needs cool names in a hurry, I've been using British battleship names recently. The Battle of Jutland order of battle has a very good selection. There is a copy on WikiPedia for those of you too uncultured to have it memorized.

Companies buying out entire fleets ,routinely rename ships to reflect their own naming conventions [...]

Good point. Crazy fools... one wonders how many names the Exxon Valdez went through...

And anyway shipyards often have 'generic hull' names for vessels under construction,which have nothing to do with the actual christening name.

I did not know that!

Well, surely it has to make an exception for when your ship comes off of the production line as 'Wellington class 1701' right?

That falls under the heading of computer stupidity, and certainly couldn't count. That said, it is annoying when IGN announces your "first capital ship, the 'Succulent Weasel Class FF Mk IV 8675309'." Nothing inspires admiration in your allies, and fear in your enemies, like an automatically generated alphanumeric stream!

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I name my ships in a way that tells me immediately what they're fielding and how fast they are, which makes it easier to decide when to upgrade and what to focus on. My naming scheme is as follows:

Hull Type Attack# Defense# Speed# Extra

(all but hull and speed are optional)

So, a few examples:

Cg Const 5x + (A cargo constructor with speed 5. The + could be sensors, range, depending on what I can fit and is usually obvious based on the preceding design)

Sm B3 3x (An early fighter. Small, with beams, speed 3 and no frills)

Lg G30 PD12 7x + (A large battleship, with guns, point defense, speed 7 and probably some sensors)

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I'm quite like some ´wrote above and name my ships in a way so I know how they are equipped, like:

for fighters
(M) B4M10-S2 (10)

M for "Medium" or the according other firsta letters for the other side

Then B for beam + the amount then M for Massdriver and R for rocket (but so far I never used rocket weapons) afterwards the according defenses (Shield, Armor, Countermeasures-if used) and last but not least the speed.

Looks ugly but at least lets me see immediately what quality that ships is made off

For the rest of ships I just ad the speed in brackets to the type of ship so for instance "Transport (10)"
And I usually have early on a special cheap type of colony ships and constructers (made out of small hulls and no extra engines, so I can pump them out fast and cheaply) for which I usually add a "_c", so "Colony_c (1)"

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Hehe, Conquest: Frontier Wars, is a great game. And I name my ships after gods from various mythologies.

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It depends on the race for which I am playing as for the prefex of the ship names.These are usally the prefexes I use for each race.

Torians-TRN
Yor-ICO
Humans-USS
Iconians-ICN
Altarians-ALS
Drengin-KNO
Drath-DRA
Arceans-ATO
Korath-KRH
Krynn-KRN
Thalans-THN
Korx-KRX

I prefer USS over TAS because I personaly thick it sounds better. Anyway I usally name a ship with a name that I think would suit the race. I don't bother nameing ships that will only be around for a few turns like a constructor, colony ship or a troop transport.

If you have any suggestions on changes of these prefexes please let me know.

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Mine is pretty straightforward:

Tiny - Fighters FT
Small - Corvettes/Patrol Boats PB/CV
Medium - Frigates FR
Large - Destroyers DD
Huge - Battleships BB

As for equipment, my format is usually Primary Defense/Secondary Defense/Primary Weapons/Secondary Weapons, and then M(x) where the x is the current version of the ship. (Usually Marks 1-5 or so.)

For instance,

TA BB SPBM M4

is a Terran Alliance battleship that uses Shields as its primary defense, Point Defense as its secondary defense, Beam weapons as its primary weapons, and Missiles as its secondary weapons. The M4 indicates that it's the Mark IV version. (Using roman numerals ended up in me running out of space sometimes, so I used standard numbers.)

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Starbases are called 'Starbase x' based on how many starbases I have owned before it. continues even if a starbase is destoryed. For example, if I create three starbases during a game (Starbases 1, 2 and 3) and Starbase 3 is destoryed, the next starbase I build will be Starbase 4. This is again plagerised from Star Trek.

I use almost the same system for nameing my starbases. I always name my starbases with Roman Numerals like Starbase VI or Starbase XII. When a starbase gets destroyed though I try to rebuild the starbase that gets destroyed and keep the old starbase's name. When I build a starbase on a resource I call them Mining Outpost I,II,ect.

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Most People will stick to the Basics and name their ship according to their perpose.
Example: A ship with all weapons could be named 'Bombardment Frigate' whilest a ship with all defences and light weaponry might be named 'Blockage Frigate'.

also so ships are named by their shape. a ship might look like a scorpion so it could be named a 'Scorpion cruiser', a ship might look like a rectangle so it might be name 'The Brick'.

Ships can be named anything, i myself made an extremaly fast colony ship that can take 1B colonists... i named it 'StarGlazer'

your only limit is your imagination.

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I name my ships by hullsize followed by revision.

If it are special defense ships designed to combat a specific race, I put the defense in the middle: LD, MD, RD for laser defense, mass defense and rocket defense.

I sometimes develop special versions of utility chips like transports and constructors, like some very cheap constructors. They get prefixed by the purpose.

Example:
Small I
Small II
Small III
Small IV

Huge XI
Huge XII

Med LD V

Speed Transport II

Cheap Cons

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