2.how about "Wasabi"?

That'd be cool. "Captain, we're being hailed!", and a bunch of aliens appear on screen, screaming "WASAAAAAABI!!". Close encounter!

Just an idea (not in the beta so apologies if this is already possible)


Could we have a system where I could type in a huge list of posible names for individual ships that the game could then autoassign for me.

So to use the Iain M Banks culture universe, I could create a class of ships Called the ROU "pyscopath class"

then the game would automatically give each ship of that class a unique name from my pre defined list, So I could have the "pyscopath class" Frank exchange of views etc.


I just think this would give a great feelign of individuality/personality to my ships without having to do lots of micromanagement, after all real world ships always have names never just a boring old ident number!


please make my culture dreams come true...

I too like to name my ships, all though I only did it in one game and that was Starwars Rebellion, had like 450+ ships all with its own name, the last names I just closed my eyes and types something on the keyboard, if it sounded good I used it, worked pretty good

Ummmn for the SG1 fans out there my latest superdestroyer is always....

'The O'Neil'

Had a Drakhri last night. The Drakhri is armed with dual light emitting rays that cause material and flesh to slag. We obtained this technology by exploiting the craft that landed on our planet a while back. The creatures inside provided an almost pleasing diversion to normal hunts once we rounded them up and placed them on our preserves. They had obtained a rudimentary understanding of our speech, but after mortally offending our leader Straykat they had to become a light, if not game, well a sporting lunch shall we see.

Further on we developed the Hhriss heavy small hulled class to combat the increasing incursions into our personal space. Armed with our own rock hurling technology the interlopers soon came to fear them especially when they were operating in the katpack schemes of attack developed by our great Kat Lord Suralle.

Further developments were delayed as I was personally invited to a light lunch at his greatnesses largest hunting preserve, there seems to be a new type of lizard with a very delectable skin that practically peels right off when smoked.

posted with permission from his most exalted Kat Lord,
Ira Dumas, KHD.,KPPD.
Lead Scientist for Kat Craft Development.

Not that it really has a bearing on the AI, but I like to name my ships (and now I finally can design them - maybe) in such a way that the enemy underestimates thier capability and perhaps even is laughing too hard to take the first move.

For example a pink battlecruiser called the "Fluffy Bunny Slipper" class. Or a defender called the "Koombaya" class. Or maybe even an attack destroyer called the "UN Security Council" class.

Is anyone else here old enough to remember the "Yamamoto" from that cartoon? I think the show was called "Battleship Earth" or something like that. Of course, if you are old enough to remember the original Yamamoto (the REAL one) then I shall bow deeply in greatest respect. Anyway, Yamamoto might be a cool name for a super-capital ship class.

I like Doc J's idea. I like ludicrous juxtapositions. I think they are funny if a little cheesy. The names generally depend on my mood at the time but they might be:
BB: Underpants Mk. BVD
CA: Mouse Mk. SqueakII
DE: Dimunitive
Fighter: Commodious
Sometimes I name after food too. It is hard to name individual ships with this system though. Unless you have a Thesaurus.

Something like "Destroyer of Evil Souls" or "Purifier" for good (but not dumb) civs and "Eraser" or "Xenocider" for evil ones.

For my ships, I don't always change the default names, but when I do I get righteous - Defender, Fortitude, Excelsior... maybe this time I'll use a different theme - these are all good ideas (although the ones that look like variable names I'll stay away from).

In GalCiv 1 it was crucial to take the time to name Starbases - impossible to tell which one was Starbase 1102...

I keep it simple:
CA known as Cruiser, Armored or better known as Heavy Crusier
EAS the faction it belongs to, in this case Earth Alliance Ship (optional)
2247 or Mk.IV or Mk.4 represents version

so:
EAS-CA2247
in a way it's like slinky at above post, like this:
EAS-CCA2260 Command Cruiser
DHE2236 Heavy Escort Destroyer (w/o tag)

When I play as the terrans I intend to use classes of us submarines i.e. los angeles class, ohio class, seawolf class (only three of these though), virginia class, etc.

Other races I will probably use some of the greek and roman gods as classes.

I am thinking because of fleets I like the idea of food names. Kind of like ingredients:

Bacon, lettuce, tomato
Ham, turkey club
pepperoni, mushroom, b olive pizza
strawberry, banana, peanut butter smothie
etc.

Kidding... well sort of. I like mean sounding names venom, razor, harbinger, spike... Or my kids names and I have 6 plus nicknames and assorted friends which gets me most of the way through a game. Nothing like the dread destroyer Kate kicking @#$!

As you would suspect I am also a judo player so I like to name my ships after techniques:

Shimewaza, O Soto Gari, Na waza, Nagewaza, Uchi-mata, Soto Makikomi, Seoi-nage, Ouchi-gari, Hadaka Jime, Sankaku jime

I will class them by type throws, chokes, arm bars, pins. Like on the mats my enemies must watch out for my mighty Soto Makikomi or else boom, and some one is picking up the pieces.

Someone said something about "immersion". I think that's why we name our ships--a strategy game like this really has a "role playing" element if you will. The role is that of Galactic Commander, but if you take it seriously, you design and name your ships carefully to keep within that role--even if no one else will ever hear of or see your ship names (as in singleplayer games).

I just can't send my battlecruiser "Smelly Old Socks" to hunt down and destroy my enemy's battleship "Cheeseburger".

I am boring - I just use class names such as Fighter 008-008 for a hull 16 ship with 8 missile and 8 defenses.

After a while I rename just a few ships (or Pilots) mailnly with tennis players names.

Oughta switch to other sports soon... boxe. ski, track&field, ecc.

I use the names of gods of various religions (Roman, Greek, Norse etc) too. Other than that i use the names of ancient heros.
For transports I'm going to use the names of Roman emperors, and for science vessels great scientist (Pythargoras, Einstein). Scouts will be named after explorers. I'll also name ships after SF-series, it's funny to see the Battlestar Gallactica and the USS Enterprise fight against a drengin invasion force.

Surprised no one has mentioned the Larry Niven ship names, Lying Bastard and Hot Needle of Inquiry.

Just goes to show the possibilities are endless

Although no one may have mentioned his ships, his universe and races are not forgotten and I oew him much credit due, therefore Larry Niven will be honored as one of the co-Supreme Beings deified by the Kat Lords.

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large
Mate to Che-Rene

Long live the Kinz and may you earn a worthy name

Ummmn for the SG1 fans out there my latest superdestroyer is always.... 'The O'Neil'

Works for me

I tend to name my units after the classics

Pyro, Spectre, Storm, Thud, Diplomat, Goliath, Instigator, Raider, Leviathan, Phantom,Ececutioner, Vlkyrie, Avenger, etc

Is anyone else here old enough to remember the "Yamamoto" from that cartoon?

Yup. You're thinking of Star Blazers.

I love naming my ships. Scouts tend to have either sci-fi author's names or generic explorer-type names (Heinlein, Pournelle, Clarke, Asimov, Pathfinder, Trailblazer, Ranger, etc.) . Fighters are either Viper-# (offensive) or ARMD-# (defensive... a nod to Robotech.) Lighter ships have an American Navy theme (Yorktown, Lexington, Enterprise, Constitution, etc.) or a weapon-theme (Longsword, Tetsubo, Scimitar, Flamberge, Garrote, Gladius).
Medium offensive ships have a Greek-Roman theme (Xerxes, Apollo, Cerberus, Vulcan, Heracles, Ajax...) while medium defensive ships have a "defensive" theme (Sentinel, Protector, Angel, Marshall, Watchman, Guardian...).

Heavy ships have "concept" names (Avenger, Retribution, Immortal, Courageous, Vanguard, Steadfast...)

Could we have a system where I could type in a huge list of posible names for individual ships that the game could then autoassign for me.

That's a great idea! Is there any way to do it?

My turn.

Yes, I spend a LOT of time, naming ship classifications. And it's all about the immersion factor for me. And it's going to be so much more now for me with the ability to get in and really design the appearance of my ships.

So usually what I do, is give different qualifications to ships. Based upon the ships size etc...

So Fighters tend to get descriptive animal names for their class. Like X101 War Hawk. Or X102 Black Eagle, or X103 White Bear. And so on. Now for a game where fighters are going to matter, but they aren't large ships, I'll probably just start using human names, and classes. Or possibly go with something ala World War 2 Bombers. Because I love to name stuff.. so, you could have an X102 Black Eagle, but it's personal name is Black Betty. Or if I do go with a personal naming duo via the pilots name, it will probably either be formal. Like, X101 War Hawk would be renamed to. Lt. Spears, or Major Winters. And so on.

With actual capitol ships. I tend to go with city names, for smaller hulls, and then work my way up to the planets. But when we get to Battleships or higher, they start getting mythological names. Though I do try to use a general naming convention on them.

So my first battleship would probably be called BB-1 Apollo, where as my third of fourth design, would be BB-4 Thor. So that way if there are even larger hulls beyond Battleship, like Dreadnaughts.. I can same the names of the heads of various Pantheons. Odin, Zues, Ra.. and so on.

Then there are always individual ship names too... those usually get decided purely upon mood.

For some reason, the idea that I can name every boat in my fleet is a positive delight to me. I think that makes me almost unrecognizably nerdy, but I find that acceptable. I intend on using a typical naming convention if I am playing a non-terran race; you know, gods and daggers and stuff. For the Terrans and the Alterians, I think I am going to use a more realistic naming policy; I was thinking about finding a list of naval classifications and actual ship names from some military site.

That would be kinda fun, give it a more real feel.

I personally like 4x games to feel more like a space opera from a different perspective or a true epic, less like a game. Of course, the names need to fit into this. I generally use prefixes like UNS for the Earth Union (my terran faction in GC I - "United Navy Ship") and then names that somehow fit into the race/setting - so I wouldn't have an alien race name their ships "Washington" etc. Of course, this is always based on what currently comes to my mind at the moment.

For the classes, I usually base the names loosely on the ship's function - for example "Starfire" for a missile frigate, or "Behemoth" for, well, a dreadnought.

I just go on Star Wars and look up the names of Imperial ships (even if i'm playing as a good civ)... I'm old fashioned like that.

Theres just some appeal to having the Executor hunt down alien scum...