Vessel / Launcher Naming Methods

[CoriW]

Hello,

So there is one problem which I've always had while playing Kerbal Space Program, which is that I struggle to name my ships. Part of me wants to get all technical and put the name down as what the ship is intended to do or be used for and another part of me wants to think of a cool name to give it, though I struggle to come up with good ones most of the time so I tend to stick to more technical names. The problem then becomes when you get multi-role ships where the name field just isn't big enough to even begin to summarize all of it's functionality! How on earth would you possibly summarize "Interplanetary Scientific Exploration and Communication Lander Mark 7" into a name field.. While some names may fit, they end up becoming very large and cluttered.

So recently, I've decided to come up with proper naming conventions for both ships / vessels, and launchers. This way I am able to summarize something like this for one of my heavy launchers..

"Stacked LF Stages, Five Engines, Four LF Boosters, Booster to Booster to Center Stack Crossfeed, 8000kN Maximum Combined Liftoff Thrust, Weight Capacity 80 Metric Tonnes, Version 7, Prototype 5, Identifier "Alpha""

into something much more condensed and easily readable, like this!

"StL58-LF4RDi-XH80-VII.5 "Alpha""

How do you decipher the above you may ask... Well, I've created a little something to make creating ship and launcher names, as well as deciphering them, easy!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1k1e6h_RfTJQInkiYPNFhqC3RN0nc9CiEQn27r2UGDl8/edit?usp=sharing

Notice anything in there that I missed for possible ship types or launcher setups? Let me know.

 

So anyways that's how I'm naming my ships, how do YOU name YOUR ships?

Edited April 23, 2019 by CoriW

[KerballingSmasher]

This is ridiculous, but I ask the guys on my Discord. More specifically, @KnightofKessler.

[Superfluous J]

I'm boring.

Orbit 1

Mun Lander 3

GooTempSat RELAY

Edited April 23, 2019 by 5thHorseman

[razark]

Class names are usually based on mission types (Orbiter, Lander, Station Core, Power Array, etc.).  Vessel names are usually named after specific missions (Orbiter I, Mun III, Station One, Lander Flight Test).  Mission names are also based on mission (LKO-1, Mun Orbit 1, Station One Launch, Crew Transport 2, LKO SS Construction 5).

I have, occasionally, deviated from this and gone with mythological names, names of WWII aircraft carriers, or phonetic alphabet.

 

I don't need to build the vehicle type/specs into the name, since I track everything through a web site I built, so I only need to click on the name/class/mission to bring up specifics such as cost/dv/mass/part counts, etc.

[CoriW]

28 minutes ago, razark said:

I don't need to build the vehicle type/specs into the name, since I track everything through a web site I built, so I only need to click on the name/class/mission to bring up specifics such as cost/dv/mass/part counts, etc.

Huh, well that's pretty neat. Any chance you got a screenshot of a sample of one of the vehicles on your website you could share? I'm intrigued, sounds like something I would do.

[razark]

38 minutes ago, CoriW said:

Huh, well that's pretty neat. Any chance you got a screenshot of a sample of one of the vehicles on your website you could share? I'm intrigued, sounds like something I would do.

I have some shots of an older iteration of it, but not a vehicle.  I'll try and get one up at some point when I get a free moment.

Spoiler

Hrm. Let's see if this works.

Spoiler

Class Report

Previous Class	Edit Class	Next Class
	Order Vessel
	Derivative Class

 

Taxi One
Type:	Spacecraft
Mass:	46575.00
Delta V:	4227.00
Stages:	3
Parts:	29
Cost:	28232.40

 

Seats
Crew:	2
Passengers:	4

 

Action Group Assignments
Group	Action

 

Vessels: 6
Name	Status
Taxi One A	No Longer Exists
Taxi One B	No Longer Exists
Taxi One C	No Longer Exists
Taxi One D	No Longer Exists
Taxi One E	No Longer Exists
Taxi One F	No Longer Exists

 

Images

Spoiler

Kerbal Vessel Report

Previous Vessel

Edit Vessel

Next Vessel

 

Taxi One C
Class:	Taxi One
Type:	Spacecraft
Status:	No Longer Exists

 

Conducted Missions: 1
Flight	Mission	Status	Science
11	Taxi C	Complete	0.00

 

Add Event

 

Images

Huh.  Cool.  It looks a little funny without the blue background, though.
(Of course, ignore the links in there.)

Edited April 23, 2019 by razark

[Xurkitree]

Most of my prototype vessels have this really basic name, just so that I can save it. The final version is the one where i once again spend long moments agonising over creating an elegant and meanigful name, like how i nickname my Pokemon.

[Vakarian]

Lol the names for my company is Pepis Air. Then we have:

- Basic B**** 1 - 8 (which was not able to get passed 20km).

- Toth Process Mk.1 - 8.

- Big Boi Rocket 1 and 2.

- Probe 1200km (for real this time) Mk. 1 - 4

- Moon Lander (this one works) manned and unmanned

- Prober 1900km Mk. 1

- Garrus Vakarian Space Station Mk. 1 and 2

- Moon Trip Adeu (adeu and a deu as in 2)

 

 

 

Tip: Name them after all time favorite game characters or celebrities or movies. Or friends? Parents? Lmao the "Mom Rocket"

[KerikBalm]

On 4/23/2019 at 3:20 AM, 5thHorseman said:

I'm boring.

Orbit 1

Mun Lander 3

GooTempSat RELAY

Mine are like Orbiter 1, Orbiter 2, relay 1, TempContract, etc.

Later I make designs that I reuse, like Low Orbit Rescue, High orbit rescue, Heavy SSTO, and then mk1, mk2 etc for smaller tweaks.

One of my heavy sstos I named the workhorse, because it was taking all of my payloads to orbit, even eve landers

[beomagi]

Most of what I do is space planes. Capability for me is often tied to how much dv it has after getting to orbit - so a lot of mine are named "sp-xxxx blahblah" where xxxx is the about of dv remaining and blahblah is a more conventional name.

like "sp-6100 podracer" would be a high dv space plane. "sp-3500 Kerbal Karrier" is a space plane with moderate dv for tourists etc.

A lot of my rockets have been based off sub assemblies recently. So a descriptive name suffices - "science set 2.5m" has all the science stuff and a container in a 2.5m bay for example.