Prioritized Vessel naming after the fact?

[Tokamak]

I'm coming back to KSP after a few years of not playing it, so I'm behind the times. Here's my problem

Whenever I dock a new module to my orbital station, the whole vessel's name and identity changes to become that of the new module I docked. So if I have "Station", and I launch and dock "Station Hab Section", the whole resulting craft is now identified as "Station Hab Section". 

This breaks contracts I've already entered into, because now the old station effectively doesn't exist, so contracts don't acknowledge that I have done whatever the task is with the original station.

I just found out about prioritized vessel naming, which seems like a solution to this problem *IF* you used it when you started. Now that my station is in orbit, is there any way to set the naming priority of a command part, to stop this problem? Or is the only solution to make sure that everything I ever dock with it has a lower priority manually set? Or to scrap and redo the station. Neither of these options is great. :I

 

As an aside, when two vessels do have the same naming priority, how does it actually determine which vessel gets priority when you dock? I never had this problem before, so clearly something about the new modules and the station is causing it to behave counter-intuitively.

 

I'd appreciate some help, if anyone is able to give it.

[Fraktal]

2 minutes ago, Tokamak said:

Now that my station is in orbit, is there any way to set the naming priority of a command part, to stop this problem?

You can set the priority mid-flight the same way you can set it in the VAB.

[Tokamak]

3 minutes ago, Fraktal said:

You can set the priority mid-flight the same way you can set it in the VAB.

There doesn't seem to be an option for that.

Edited May 17, 2020 by Tokamak

[Fraktal]

Rename Vessel is what you're looking for. It's the same window as Configure Vessel Naming in the VAB, it's just not intuitive from the name.

[Tokamak]

35 minutes ago, Fraktal said:

Rename Vessel is what you're looking for. It's the same window as Configure Vessel Naming in the VAB, it's just not intuitive from the name.

I hope I'm not being totally oblivious and irritating, but I still don't see any option for naming priority. The only UI elements are the name text field, buttons for vessel types, and cancel/accept buttons. I still don't see any option for naming priority...

 

 

[Fraktal]

Oh wow, you're right. I swear I remembered it being otherwise, but I just checked it myself.

[Tokamak]

Just now, Fraktal said:

Oh wow, you're right. I swear I remembered it being otherwise, but I just checked it myself.

Good to know I'm not crazy. Perhaps what you remember was added by a mod or something?

[Fraktal]

One idea I have at the moment: attach an OKTO core to the station with maximum naming priority. That's going to override the current name to whatever you name the OKTO as for as long as the OKTO stays attached.

[Tokamak]

52 minutes ago, Fraktal said:

One idea I have at the moment: attach an OKTO core to the station with maximum naming priority. That's going to override the current name to whatever you name the OKTO as for as long as the OKTO stays attached.

Not a terrible idea, actually. It won't fix existing broken mission requirements, but it ought to stabilize things for the future. Thanks for the suggestion; I'll try it.

[Tokamak]

I'm still having this problem. Ex: "Minerva Transport", labeled as a ship, is happily in orbit, and its command module has the default priority of 10. Along comes "supply supplement", labeled as a probe, whose command module has a naming priority of 7. "supply supplement" docks with Minerva. The combined craft is now named "supply supplement". And when I undock, now _both_ craft are named "supply supplement" and labeled as probes. 

Am I fundamentally missing something?