Naming Conventions

Howdy all.

What kind of naming conventions do you follow with regards to ships, ship classes, fleets and planets?

From my current game, mine are as follows:

SHIP CLASSES:

Akula Series:

Apollo
Battle
Champion
Daedalus
Ephistos
Figaro
Gunner
Hunter

These are prefixed by the model, so the end product is, for example: Akula A 'Apollo'.

My baseline models are beam variants, so missile and railgun variants add a suffix. For example: Akula A/R 'Apollo' and Akula A/M 'Apollo'.

Burran Series:

Ajax
Bantam
Carnivore
Dakkar
Erros
Faust

Lamprey Series:

Attila
Bolt
Combo
Dark

Roc Series:

Anubis
Boa

SHIPS:

I use virtues, historical figures, characteristics and locations/landmarks as ship names. Examples include TCSS (Terran Commonwealth Space Ship) Alexander, TCSS Chivalrous, TCSS Bangalore, TCSS Andromeda, TCSS Justice etc.

PLANETS:

I usually name them after ideals, or I reuse Earth names.

Examples: New Paris, Roma, Ironheld, Polaris, New Moscow, Conquest, Victory etc.

FLEETS:

Two/three ship fleets invariably are given the designation TF (Taskforce) xx. I dig the phonetic alphabet, so I've got TFs Alpha, Beta, Charlie, Delta, Foxtrot, Echo etc. in action. Specialised TFs (assault, interception etc) are given a serial number. TF 101, 102, 103 etc. TF 201, 202, 203 etc.

The next administrative level is the fleet.

Examples:

Ramier Sector Fleet (1st Fleet) includes TF Juliet, TF Kilo, TF Papa, TF Charlie, TF 103 and TF 102.

Then there's New Roma Sector Fleet (2nd Fleet), the Kadolah Sector Fleeta and the Tyrannor Sector Fleet.

Believe it or not, one of my favorite things about 4x games is heavily personalising the armed forces of my chosen civilization.

Regards,
Malfael

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Franco fx

Join Date 04/2003

+59

I haven't gotten around to naming my planets yet but I recall some of the conventions used in GC!. Some of them were Bysantine.

I name ships in a way that keeps them in order. Prefix A=tiny B=small C=medium D=large E=Massive. This is followed by BS for beam ship GS for gun ship and MS for Missile ship. I have others for combined arms and work ships but you get the idea.

I use colors and numbers for fleets, Red1, Blue2, Yellow1, etc. I also name the starbases to keep track of them.

I am not hard and fast on ship naming and I might use whatever pops into my mind, like Builder Bob constructor.

Usually I use bugs for tiny, death wasp, fire mite, etc. Birds for small, Reptiles for Medium, Animals for large and Heros, Gods etc for Massive.

It does add to the fun but I am also anal about keeping track of stuff.

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While flavor is important, keeping the damn planet name and the function straight is more important to me.

PLANETS
Research I - planets that are small that I intent on specializing with research labs.
Econ I - good quality planets that I will build entertainment network, farm, and market
Tech Capital - a planet with good PQ (so the technological capital will be put to a good use)
War - planets close to enemy border.. lots of manufacture center for cranking out ships

Ships
Whatever name I can conjure up at the moment, though sometimes it will relate to their function.

Watcher
Teeth
Skyhawk

and i might put 3 pc 5 m to indicate the base speed being 3 pc and attack rating of 5 missile.

Skyhawk 2pc5m
Colony 3pc

doesn't look very nice.. but it saves you time.

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PT = tiny
FF = tiny with armor

DD = small

CA = medium

BB = large

SD = Massive

I also use several diff ways of sub naming such as PTM (missle), PTB (beam) or PTG (massdriver).
Then theres also, PTM Mk-1, would be a tiny hull with missles of a very early tech lvl.
I'm actually all over the place with names but thats my most common fashion, heh.

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digging up an old topic...

I like to use a double standard for my ship names.
Real-life like military aircraft style for hulls tiny to small; naval for medium to huge.

F= Fighter (high speed, low range, no defense, armed mainly with missiles; built to hunt and kill other ships in home or neighboring sectors)
A= Attack craft (slower, longer ranged, no defense, main weapon: mass drivers; built for deep strikes in neighboring sectors)
I= Interceptor (like F, but armed with beams)
S= Spy craft (good speed, extreme range, best sensors, no weapons; an early warning craft)

Since i like to roleplay the game, sometimes i go for a slightly modified system, using Russian style naming.

MiG= F
Yak= I
Su= A
An= S

Examples:
F-02B 'Dancer', MiG-24D 'Zaslon'
(F/MiG= Fighter, 02/24= version, B/D=modified, 'Dancer'/'Zaslon'=nickname)

Bigger ships:

CR=Corvette. A medium hull, light defense, varied weaponry. Good range, medium speed; built to be the workhorse of the fleet.
FR= Frigate. Medium hull, more specialized weaponry than the Corvette.
C= Cruiser. Large, slow, long ranged, heavily defended and armed with a variety of weapon systems. When you need a heavy hitter.
D= Dreadnought. Huge hull, 'nuff said.

For these, naming goes like this:
(Type) (Generation number) (Weapon type) (Class name)

Generation number= 'period' i designed the ship in. Usually I shift periods based on technology, such as a superior engine class discovery or a 'superweapon' like the 6-points damage missile become available.
Weapon type= B for Beam, D for Mass drivers and M for missiles.
Class name= I use small animal names for Corvettes and Frigates, important historic names for Cruisers and abstract names for Dreadnoughts. I usually name a class and then single ships based on affinity to class name, for C and superiors. First ship of the class to come out of the assembly line always gets the same name as its class.

Examples:
C-02B Julius Caesar class, "Caius Marius"
Named after Caesar's uncle and reformer of the Roman legion, the Caius Marius is built to withstand heavy damage and blast half an enemy fleet to smithereens with its heavy beam cannons.

D-09M Wrath class, 'Dies Irae'
A space fortress with missile tubes protruding from every screw.

Military Starbases get named after battles (others I do not bother to name).
Example:
Starbase 'Gaugamela'

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