Ship Name Formatting

[CoriW]

Hello, so recently I thought to myself, that because we don't have that tracking station ship filter quite yet, that it would be a good idea to come up with a sort of "format" to use while naming my ships so that I can quickly look through the names and figure out which one I need to switch to. This however is only really useful once I've accumulated enough ships, stations, satellites, rovers, etc.

Here's a C&P of my formatting list for different types of vessels and vehicles.

[B]Satellites -> BODY - TYPE - SAT - ALT - ###[/B]
BODY - MOH, EVE, GIL, KER, MUN, MIN, DUN, IKE, DRE, JOO, LAY, VAL, TYL, BOP, POL, EEL
TYPE - COM (Communication), MRK (Marker), KTN (Kethane), RLY (Relay), MAP (Mapping), TLS (Telescope)
ALT - SFC (Surface), 001K, 010K, 100K, 1_0K
### - 000, 001, 002 (Satellite ID for assigned Altitude)

[B]Space Stations -> BODY - NAME - SS - ALT - ###[/B]
BODY - BODY - MOH, EVE, GIL, KER, MUN, MIN, DUN, IKE, DRE, JOO, LAY, VAL, TYL, BOP, POL, EEL
NAME - (Space Station design name)
ALT - 001K, 010K, 100K, 1_0K
### - 000, 001, 002 (Space Station ID for assigned Altitude)

[B]Depots -> BODY - TYPE - DPT - ALT - ###[/B]
BODY - BODY - MOH, EVE, GIL, KER, MUN, MIN, DUN, IKE, DRE, JOO, LAY, VAL, TYL, BOP, POL, EEL
TYPE - RCS, FUEL, BOTH, KTHN, OXGN
ALT - SFC (Surface), 001K, 010K, 100K, 1_0K
### - 000, 001, 002 (Depot ID for assigned Body or Altitude)

[B]Rovers -> BODY - NAME - ROV - CMD - ###[/B]
BODY - BODY - MOH, EVE, GIL, KER, MUN, MIN, DUN, IKE, DRE, JOO, LAY, VAL, TYL, BOP, POL, EEL
NAME - (Rover design name, restricted to 6 characters)
CMD - K (Kerbal), P (Probe)
### - 000, 001, 002 (Rover ID for assigned Body)

[B]Bases -> BODY - NAME - BASE - ###[/B]
BODY - BODY - MOH, EVE, GIL, KER, MUN, MIN, DUN, IKE, DRE, JOO, LAY, VAL, TYL, BOP, POL, EEL
NAME - (Base design name, restricted to 6 characters)
### - 000, 001, 002 (Base ID for assigned Body)

[B]Ships -> BODY - NAME - TYPE - CMD - ###[/B]
BODY - BODY - MOH, EVE, GIL, KER, MUN, MIN, DUN, IKE, DRE, JOO, LAY, VAL, TYL, BOP, POL, EEL
NAME - (Ship design name, restricted to 6 characters)
TYPE - SHTL (Shuttle), LNDR (Lander), IPL (Interplanetary), TNKR (Tanker), FRTR (Freighter), TPRT (Transport)
CMD - K (Kerbal), P (Probe)
### - 000, 001, 002 (Ship ID for assigned Body)

So I was also kind of wondering, does anybody else use some sort of "format" for naming their ships? If so I'd love to hear about it.

Edited May 16, 2013 by CoriW

[Tristavius]

Indeed I do, though not as thorough as yours - I may need to update it!

[AAA] BBB-C D... (E...)

Where [A] is added on the few occasions I use a mod part (very rare for me); [KET] Kethane, [iSA] ISA Mapsat, etc

BBB is a 3 letter code for the craft type; SAT (Satellite), ROV (Rover), STA (Station), TUG (Tug), LAN (Lander) etc

C is either K (Kerbal controlled) or R (robot controlled)

D is the name if the of the vehicle, usually followed by Roman Numerals for the version number

E is the final destination of the craft

So for example

ROV-K Swordfish III (Eeloo) is a Kerbal controlled 'Swordfish' rover (3rd version) I'm currently dispatching to Eeloo

[iSA] SAT-R Cartographer II (Tylo) is an unmanned 'Cartographer' probe (2nd version) around Tylo, using one or more parts from the ISA Mapsat mod

[CoriW]

Indeed I do, though not as thorough as yours - I may need to update it!

[AAA] BBB-C D... (E...)

Where [A] is added on the few occasions I use a mod part (very rare for me); [KET] Kethane, [iSA] ISA Mapsat, etc

BBB is a 3 letter code for the craft type; SAT (Satellite), ROV (Rover), STA (Station), TUG (Tug), LAN (Lander) etc

C is either K (Kerbal controlled) or R (robot controlled)

D is the name if the of the vehicle, usually followed by Roman Numerals for the version number

E is the final destination of the craft

So for example

ROV-K Swordfish III (Eeloo) is a Kerbal controlled 'Swordfish' rover (3rd version) I'm currently dispatching to Eeloo

[iSA] SAT-R Cartographer II (Tylo) is an unmanned 'Cartographer' probe (2nd version) around Tylo, using one or more parts from the ISA Mapsat mod

Hmm, I like yours a lot, your right in some cases it's not as thorough as mine, but I think it does a very good job of being informative enough. I really like the roman numeral bit and how you also specify whether it is manned or unmanned, it also looks a lot cleaner and much less "technical" than mine does.

With mine I have trouble because I want to include like all the info I possibly can without running out of space for the name in the tracking station, as for mods I don't think I'd ever be able to list all the mods a ship uses because although I don't have a ton of mods I have enough that I'd run out of room pretty quick if I started listing them. xD

On the note of your system though I think I'm going to add the manned or unmanned specification to my formatting for Rovers and Ships, thanks for the idea!

[Tristavius]

Of course there's also a naming convention among the actual craft names as well... not one that makes sense, but just to give it something of a pattern...

My manned landers have been named after UK cities (usually ones I've lived in)... Aberdeen, Leicester, Oxford etc

My probes have had more descriptive names based on what they do... Cartographer, Surveyor, Pathfinder, Navigator etc

My manned mid-sized rovers have been named after dangerous fish... Barracuda, Piranha, Swordfish etc

My tugs and delivery craft have been named after large mammals (mostly bears)... Kodiak, Grizzly, Rhino etc

My motherships have been named more whimsically

My SSTO series has been named after 'spirits'... Banshee, Specter, Wraith etc

To be honest I've built so few unmanned landers or rovers I can't even remember what the hell I called them - I prefer to jump right into large manned crafts.

[CoriW]

Of course there's also a naming convention among the actual craft names as well... not one that makes sense, but just to give it something of a pattern...

My manned landers have been named after UK cities (usually ones I've lived in)... Aberdeen, Leicester, Oxford etc

My probes have had more descriptive names based on what they do... Cartographer, Surveyor, Pathfinder, Navigator etc

My manned mid-sized rovers have been named after dangerous fish... Barracuda, Piranha, Swordfish etc

My tugs and delivery craft have been named after large mammals (mostly bears)... Kodiak, Grizzly, Rhino etc

My motherships have been named more whimsically

My SSTO series has been named after 'spirits'... Banshee, Specter, Wraith etc

To be honest I've built so few unmanned landers or rovers I can't even remember what the hell I called them - I prefer to jump right into large manned crafts.

Whatever suits you best, right?

On a side note I'm like the complete opposite, I like to use probes whenever possible, I think it's primarily because I don't want to risk losing a Kerbal... I sort of have a rule about not losing or killing any of my Kerbals. Other than that I also use Deadly Reentry and a life support plugin (Ioncross Crew Support) so probes are much more practical for me than dealing with deadly fireballs, oxygen, and CO2 levels, but then again I also use the RemoteTech mod which can give probes their own challenges as well...

Man, I don't like to make things easy on myself do I...? xD

[bsalis]

I use symbols to record a flight log of where the craft has been. Otherwise I forget!!

Bodies...

Ѳ = Sun

á´ª = Moho

ÑŽ = Eve

ü = Gilly

ʘ = Kerbin

áµ¾ = Mun

Ô“ = Minmus

ÒŸ = Duna

ᶓ = Ike

á´• = Magic Boulder

ê = Dres

ä = Jool

δ = Laythe

Ѫ = Vall

Ѧ = Tylo

Ò¨ = Bop

ᶑ = Pol

â‚  = Eeloo

I then mark them up as needed. eg...

ҟÇ = Has landed on Duna

>ä = Destined for Jool

Here is an example. This spaceplane has been on a big tour...

[Tristavius]

I also don't like to lose Kerbals. So far the only deaths have been on kerbin itself... happy to say the only 'loss' I had what one stranded in EVA in a highly eccentric Duna orbit, but he was eventually rescued

But yeah, having to provide oxygen for the little buggers would make them much less... appealing.

[Tristavius]

I use symbols to record a flight log of where the craft has been. Otherwise I forget!!

Bodies...

Ѳ = Sun

á´ª = Moho

ÑŽ = Eve

ü = Gilly

ʘ = Kerbin

áµ¾ = Mun

Ô“ = Minmus

ÒŸ = Duna

ᶓ = Ike

á´• = Magic Boulder

ê = Dres

ä = Jool

δ = Laythe

Ѫ = Vall

Ѧ = Tylo

Ò¨ = Bop

ᶑ = Pol

â‚  = Eeloo

I then mark them up as needed. eg...

ҟÇ = Has landed on Duna

>ä = Destined for Jool

Here is an example. This spaceplane has been on a big tour...

Love it, but how on earth are you getting the symbols in question?

[bsalis]

Love it, but how on earth are you getting the symbols in question?

On a windows machine, start the Character Map program.

[CoriW]

I use symbols to record a flight log of where the craft has been. Otherwise I forget!!

Bodies...

Ѳ = Sun

á´ª = Moho

ÑŽ = Eve

ü = Gilly

ʘ = Kerbin

áµ¾ = Mun

Ô“ = Minmus

ÒŸ = Duna

ᶓ = Ike

á´• = Magic Boulder

ê = Dres

ä = Jool

δ = Laythe

Ѫ = Vall

Ѧ = Tylo

Ò¨ = Bop

ᶑ = Pol

â‚  = Eeloo

I then mark them up as needed. eg...

ҟÇ = Has landed on Duna

>ä = Destined for Jool

Here is an example. This spaceplane has been on a big tour...

Whoa that... Would confuse me if I ever used it myself.

Well, at least it would at first, I'm sure I'd get used to it after awhile, on the other hand your method takes up a lot less text space.

Hmm, your method just made me realize something about my own method... My method doesn't in any way record where the vessel or vehicle has been, only where it is assigned to at that particular moment in time... Although 95% of my vessels are intended to stay in one place (Satellites, Space Stations, Depots, Rovers, and Bases), the only ones that do interplanetary are the "Ships" and in those cases I have the "type" set to IPL (Interplanetary), though if they travel around too much I'd probably never be able to recall everywhere that it had been...

Cool method, thanks for sharing!