Ship nicknames?

[johndramey]

So, been having an extended war with the Xeno and just now realized that one of my ships has 17XP. It's just a lowly Wolf Cruiser, but it's kicking ass out on the fringes and I'd like to give it a little more character. As such, why not have the game give a randomly assigned nickname to ships above a certain XP level? Maybe after 10 the game can just assign a nickname from a bank, and maybe we could just throw together a bank of names?

I originally thought it would be cool for us to be able to name them ourselves, but I think actually having a bank of names that the game can randomly choose from would be a little cooler in the "personality" sense. If we name them then we'll always see the same names over and over again, cause we'll naturally have our favorites. If there is a sufficiently large name bank then the chance of you seeing the same name in quick succession is pretty small, so it gives each veteran crew a little more character.

So... is this possible? If so, what do others think of this? The name could just simply pop up as:
Ship name nickname
or:
Nickname
Ship name

[contributor]

Good idea, would it make more sense though just to name them when they're christened? Perhaps a stock name would be inserted that could be changed if the player wanted. A ship name would be something like "FFV* Valiant: Wolf Cruiser" It would be important to have the class also displayed along with a name because you would want to know, is this the gun ship I just created, or one of my Templar Defenders with Torps, if you're not able to keep track of individual names.

I feel like this is not a game where you create so many ships that this feature would be annoying.

*FFV stand for "Federation Fleet Vessel." Just an idea. Other such acronyms approximating "HMS" or "USS" could be used.

[Brutus Aurelius]

How about IFV for Imperial Fleet Vessel? After all, we command the Empire.

[fallen]

Thanks for the suggestions. We are working on a naming scheme that will allow for differentiation.

The nickname idea is pretty awesome Reminds me of XCom

[Deleted]

May 23, 2014 5:36:40 GMT -5 Brutus Aurelius said:

How about IFV for Imperial Fleet Vessel? After all, we command the Empire.

Infantry Fighting Vehicle? lol.

Seeing as each faction has its own navy, it makes sense that each has its own vessel designation prefix. There is also a class prefix that would probably be overthinking it- like DDS for Destroyer, CVN for Nuclear fixed-wing carrier, SSBN for Sub-Surface Ballistic Nuclear, ect. But for each faction I was thinking:

Templar Vessel, Naval: TVN - or some variation. Exploration vessels might or might not be directly assigned to a navy, but are probably still Templar from what I've read.
Cadar Syndicate Vessel: CSV
Syndicate Vessel, DeValtos: SVD
Rychart Syndicate Ship: RSS
Thulun Naval Ship: TNS
Javat Naval Ship: JNS
Vessel, Steel Song: VSS

Interstellar Commerce Vessel (Star Trader) ICV: The modern blue water commercial vessels are registered in a similar way and adhere to an international body, though are still registered by their home nations.

[Officer Genious]

Well, Rychart is a Syndicate, not a House, but yeah, that'd be awesome.

[Deleted]

Sorry- went full retard again. Fixing and adding the others.

[johndramey]

May 23, 2014 9:11:50 GMT -5 fallen said:

Thanks for the suggestions. We are working on a naming scheme that will allow for differentiation.

The nickname idea is pretty awesome Reminds me of XCom

Exactly what I was thinking! Something really cool about Xcom's nickname system, I really enjoy having nicknames be a bit of a special thing.

However, dayan's idea of a nickname from construction is ok as well.

I could definitely see people complaining if they weren't allowed to rename their ships whatever they wanted, so maybe consider that as the primary idea instead of mine? However, I'd like it if there were a best-of-both-worlds solution. Possibly giving a ship a nickname from a pool and allowing the player to rename it if they wanted?

We could even draw up a list of names for each individual class of ship, fighter/cruiser/etc. It would be relatively easy, and could be a fun little community project. I think it would be ideal to stick with an idea like the NATO system of phonetic designation, that would give people a basic, flexible guideline and allow them to have as much fun as possible while keeping the system (relatively) clean. Obviously, we can all set the guidelines for the system:)

For those that don't know, NATO phonetic designations follow these basic rule (taken from here)

Aircraft
The first letter indicates the type of aircraft, like Bear for a bomber aircraft, or Fulcrum for a fighter aircraft.

F — fighter aircraft, also later ground attack aircraft: List of NATO reporting names for fighter aircraft
B — bomber aircraft: List of NATO reporting names for bomber aircraft
C — commercial aircraft and airliners, and cargo aircraft: List of NATO reporting names for transport aircraft
H — helicopters: List of NATO reporting names for helicopters
M — Miscellaneous; trainers, reconnaissance, seaplanes, tankers, AEW etc.: List of NATO reporting names for miscellaneous aircraft

So maybe we could have something similar, where;
F = Fighters
C = Cruisers
R = caRriers
N = traNsports
O = cOlonizers

and so on? I think this could be a really fun little community activity, add some character to an already pretty character filled 4X, and be fairly easy. We could just set up a Google document for name suggestions, have a couple people assigned as editors/proofreaders, and go to town!

[Deleted]

You made wn anagrwm for FRANCO. Coincidence? Dun dun duuunnnn.

[johndramey]

I tossed together a quick spreadsheet using google docs, so if anyone has ideas or what not then feel free to post them or add them to the spread sheet. I made some rough guidelines just from the top of my head and using the ships in the game currently, but anyone who wants to can make a case for switching designation.

Click here to see the spreadsheet.

Have fun!