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Naming scheme for your ships! (0.24 edition)


mangekyou-sama

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My purpose-built ships I name by reference to what mission they do. My Kethane infrastructure craft all have the name "Second Wind" followed by roman numerals for the order they were launched. If I can't think of a poetic name for it, I'll usually give a ship an acrostic like "Microwave Transmission Satellite I" shortened to MTS I.

I'm trying to get into bigger, fancier ships in the style of sci-fi where they are named like ocean vessels. My (currently underpowered) Minmus C/SM and lander is called the SCS Santa Maria, the prefix standing for "Space Corps Ship." I have yet to make a custom flag for the organization I call the Entente Space Corps, but I have a design in mind. ;)

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My projects are in alphabetical order, and in a Latin dictionary I just take the first animal name that pops up, and then just number them.

So there's the Aquila I, II, III, IV, the Ballaena series, Cammarus, Dammula, Ebulum (like that name), Favilla (Flaming SSTO, no animal name), Grus.

Never got further than those after starting a new save, but the system does generate some cool names.

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In my current save, everything must have German(ic) names:

Lifters: named after ancient ranged weapons; Pfeil, Wurfspeer, Bolzen and the like

Scientific probes (including rovers): like NASA missions, only that in german everthing becomes one single word, resulting in things like Orbitstrahlungsstärkemessvehikel

Manned missions: corrupted forms of germanic deities; Njördr (Njörðr), Lofm (Lofn), Sign (Sigyn)

Stations: abstract concepts: Freiheit, Erleuchtung; station modules named after German (in the broader sense) scientists and researchers: Leibniz, Humboldt, Planck

On a case-to-case basis the name might deviate from this sheme.

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For my naming convention I start off in a test save with designing the ship. In there I'll create a ship like Duna lander #1a then hyperedit it to Duna and test it.

Then if it doesn't work as planned or I decide to add more stuff to it I'll add it to the ship and rename it Duna lander #1b, repeating with #1c, #1d as I edit it further.

If I find some fatal flaw in it that makes me start afresh (or I want to redesign it from scratch), then I'll call it Duna lander #2a, then follow the same steps as above. Once I have a working ship, I transfer that to my "career" game, thus saving the risk of getting to another planet and realising something hasn't worked as planned, and also saving the main save from a cluttered up list of ships.

But overall, I usually name ships after what they're designed to do.

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If it's a generic ship, then it just utilises its class name e.g. Lunar EXT 1 (a one-man Mun/Minmus lander). However, if the ship is more significant, such as an interplanetary cruiser, then my method would be this:

First ship of the class takes the class name, registry involves a shortened class name plus numbers that say the ship is the nth ship to be constructed. One such example would be this:

Venturer VNT-050

Special ships get an additional letter on the end of the registry (much like the various Enterprises from Star Trek), such as:

Libra LBR-030-B

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Mine are pretty much just random names based on what they do or look like.

So I have Bubble Sat 2, Pancake Sat, Space Station One, Fuel station 1, station part lifter, heavy lifter,

Version numbers are a disaster and need sorting out tho.

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I usually do it as:

First word: [Planet Objective]

One of three for size: Minimus, Medial, or Mammoth

Last word: [What type of rocket] such as rover, rocket, SSTO, et cetera.

I have only ever used this formula twice and are lying to you.

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I usually do it as:

First word: [Planet Objective]

One of three for size: Minimus, Medial, or Mammoth

Last word: [What type of rocket] such as rover, rocket, SSTO, et cetera.

I have only ever used this formula twice and are lying to you.

All aboard the Minimus Minimus Manned Probe!

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Its cool to see how everyone posting in this thread does their naming. Over the long haul, I tend to use a variety of names for ships and other vehicles (outside of KSP). Right now in KSP, I've tended to just name planes with whatever word comes to mind first. As for parts, yes I even name parts. My mod parts (so far fueled adapters) have names associated with another gaming company's products. I won't spoil it for those who might have the parts, but in general they deal with other games.

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Typically I use a numbering scheme to denote the various missions that I launch. Originally there were just three types of mission: 100-level for missions that orbit Kerbin, 200-level for missions that orbit or land on Mun/Minmus, and 300-level for Interplanetary craft. However, more recently I've been thinking of making a few changes, in particular I'd like to add a 400-level for interplanetary landings and a 500-level for manned IP missions. Might help for keeping things clear, particularly when there's a lot of stuff going on at once.

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When I name a space station, it's always abbreviated and ends with an S. (which stands, obviously, for station).

I have two stations orbiting Kerbin currently, which are:

K.S.S.: Kerbin Space Station

I.C.O.S.: International Communication Orbital Station

For landers and the like, they're usually the name of whatever they're landing on and then followed by Lander.

To that rule, they would be name like such, if they end with an 'n' or 'a', they are followed by an 'ar' or 'r', respectively:

Munar Lander

Dunar Lander

Minmus Lander

This also can apply to probes, although I don't use this algorithm outside of landers.

And all of my crafts excluding base pieces and stations are followed by its version. So it'd be a Mk. I, Mk. II, Mk. III and so on if I continue making better versions of the craft. For example:

Sparrow Mk. I, Falcon Mk. I (both fighter planes that I've made), Munar Lander Mk. I.

If I have different weights for crafts that have the same purpose, they'd have a specification abbreviation in front of their name.

So: LW (light-weight), MW(medium-weight), HW (heavy-weight)

For modules and the likes, it's formats as follows:

[name of main craft] [module name] Module(s)

Example:

I.C.O.S. Fuel Module

I say it's very easy to memorize from my perspective.

Edited by Lone K.
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It depends on where the ship originates. I'm playing an RP angle that my spaceplane engineers are in hot competition with my rocket engineers, so each craft is named based on which 'department' it's from. The Interplanetary Vehicles are all VAB based, and have Latin-sounding names (ex- Aletherium, Astrium) along with their development tag, IPV-#. The SPH projects get Greek nicknames, like the production version of my first ever experimental aircraft/SSTO, the Boreas Class (named after Greek god of the north wind).

Other inter-Kerbin vehicles and projects are usually purpose named ('Rescue Ship'), or are named after classics of music and literature (Auld Lang Syne Station, Scarbourough Training Facility)

Edited by Dynamo
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Most of mine are named something Pony-ish....

The Cloudsdale Space Station... Scootaloo Mini-Jet, The Rainbow Super Sonic Jet, The "Equestrian Sun", Applejack work horse ATV.

Then there are the boring stuff, "Kethane Probe One", "Munar Rover Alpha", "Station bravo"

I have an interplanetary ship (didnt make it past the Mun) called "The Verenda" which im told is Latin for awesome.

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Usually I have a primary name for the Series. Most off My spaceplanes are Called Falcon. Crappy but simple name.

After that its Roman numerals that is also fallowed by a letter if there are sub versions of that model. After that the craft migth have a uniqe name and after that some information about its capabilitys.

So My first Craft was the "Falcon I"

Then I made a series of craft.

Falcon II

Falcon III

Falcon IV

Well you get it.

Later crafts got uniqe names to and even some added information like STOL. STOL stands for Short Take-Off and Landing)

Falcon XIIIB Galaxy STOL

Falcon XIIIC Galaxy STOL

Falcon XIVA Cosmos

etc etc

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My naming scheme is simple.

SH-XXX = Shuttle craft type, usually attached to a rocket or capable of SSTO low orbits of 100KM or less.

SP-XXX = Space Plane SSTO, capable of orbit in a single stage, any orbit of up to 250km without refueling and possible interplanetary trips with refuel.

S-XXX = Also a space plane design, usually a test craft.

LSP-XXX = Light Space Plane, usually 1 or 2 man crew, no cargo, or VERY limited cargo capacity, but meets all the requirements of a space plane above.

R-XXX = Recon aircraft, for exploring Kerbin or test aerodynamic functions of something.

MS-X = Mapping Satellite.

XXXSta-X = Space Station, the first 3 letters are the first three letters of the planet it orbits, Ker= Kerbin, Mun=Mun, Min=Minimus etc.

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Used to not have any naming system at all. Working on fixing that for my mainstay craft, which I plan on very seldom changing, and using them as the backbone for missions, so right now I'm doing a TON of designing, but once I round out my fleet, I'll be doing far more flying than anything since I'll already have some basic designs down.

I generally try to name things after stars in our real world, but if I can't happen to find one I like, I'll just use one I made up that sounds like it may be legitimate, or I find an animal I'm particularly fond of.

This name is then applied to a series of crafts, a "family", if you will, which will have I's II's and III's and so forth assigned to them based on size/use. Then, I will append to the end of the Roman Numeral a sub-reference designator, based on a single letter which is derived from the most notable special feature on the craft.

I will then test this and make minor edits to the craft design until it works well. Once it has the numbers (Delta-V is enough according to KER in-editor) and it passes some basic flight tests (these vary on a per-ship type basis. Rockets must achieve orbit with some payload, usually a fuel tank, whereas landers simply need to hover around the KSC, where still unmanned probes may only need to do a test-engine fire or solar power test), the craft will then be saved with an ! next to the name to put it in first in the list of all the craft, so I know that it's a proven, tested design, ready for repeated re-use.

If I happen to make a major edit at a later date, or build a craft from the ground-up in such a way that it is nearly identical, visually and functionally, to a previous version, a special word may be appended to the end of the name, past the single-letter sub-reference designator, to remind that it is not the original iteration of this exact craft.

Also, craft with no special features outside of their outlined purposes and criteria are not given a special sub-reference designator. For example, a 3-seat OTV would not get a sub-ref, because an OTV of that size is expected to carry at least so many crew. However, if the OTV happened to have a different propulsion system than standard bi-propellant engines, for example Ion, Nuclear, or Monopropellant, it may be given a sub-reference. The same goes to modified craft with special purposes.

One of the more popular ones I've come up with is the Betelgeuse series..

We had the..

Betelgeuse-I

Betelgeuse-I Delta

Betelgeuse-II

Betelgeuse-M

Betelgeuse-III Gamma

Betelgeuse-V

Betelgeuse-X

Though, this series is a bit messed up, as the Betelgeuse-I is actually quite larger than the Betelgeuse-II will be, and the Betelgeuse-III Gamma never had a "non-gamma" version, and is basically just a REALLY optimized Betelgeuse-I Delta. Also, the Betelgeuse-M is basically just going to be a re-useable version of the Betelgeuse-II

I don't know, it made sense in my head, don't judge me.

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Wow, some diversity here. I tend to restart my game from time to time (still mod-hopping). When I started playing in 0.19 I named my ships after planets, got the idea from the Mercury program, so I named my first series of manned rockets the Moho series. That lasted all of a couple hours.

My spaceplanes tend to get the name X# or X## where # is a number, starting with 1 and lasting until I get board, after which I name them after flying creatures, partially based on how they look or how large they are. Bumblebee, Dragonfly, Gnat, Phoenix, Cardinal, etc.

The only system I've really stuck with is my class designations for manned craft, which show up as acronyms in the name. the classes:

Meteorite - Less than 20 tons in LKO (small spaceplanes)

Comet - 20-50 tons in LKO (Large spaceplanes and smaller staged craft)

Asteroid - 50-200 tons in LKO (small starships and large tugs or transfer stages)

Satellite - >200 tons, my newest concoctions. I have a starship right now that fully assembled (2 deployable spaceplanes, 7 orange tanks, tug, probes, lander) is over 400 tons with a delta-v of around 9000 :)

My starships follow: KSS name SS1001

KSS (Kerbin StarShip)

SS/AS/CS (Class designation)

1000 + which order it was launched in.

Works well for my sci-fi ish game.

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