Are there any mods for changing the way ships are named?

[invaderzim]

As cool as names like "Insidious Fist" or "Firestorm of Buvu Yagin" are, I'd much prefer my ships to be named more descriptively like "Explorer 001" or "Missile Boat 001". I noticed the AI does this for your custom designs, but not for AI-designed ships.

This is particularly important because of when I see a message like "Triumph of Andu is under attack from a pirate cruiser (Axe of Prukupea)!", I want to pay attention if it's the Triumph is a warship of some sort, but I really don't care if it's just an explorer.

Is there a mod or option somewhere for generic ship naming? An option to bulk rename ships would also be great. Renaming 30 ships one by one isn't fun.

[Canute0]

Look at the Game folder for "designs.txt" there are all ship names.

[invaderzim]

Oh neat thanks. But how do I enable numbering? When I design custom ships, I always get a name like "Frigate 001" or "Frigate 002". The great thing is that they are named in the order that you built them.

[Bebop Cola]

My understanding is that Destroyers and above warrant a "unique" name when you build them(finding them is another matter), but Frigates and below default to the generic name(Frigate 001). Colony ships also get unique names, as do some of the others, as I recall.

The point being, the smaller, more "expendable" ships, by default, get expendable names. Larger, more advanced ships get "hero" names. [:)]

[Shark7]

Why yes, yes there is: tm.asp?m=2467645

There is also an IJN version buried somewhere in that thread as well.

Does work better as part of a theme.

[invaderzim]

Thanks, took a look at your example and modified ShipNames.txt to look like this:

Code: Select all

Escort: Escort,
 Frigate: Frigate, 
 Destroyer: Destroyer,
 Cruiser: Cruiser,
 CapitalShip: Capital Ship,
 TroopTransport: Troop Transport,
 ResupplyShip: Resupply Ship,
 ExplorationShip: Explorer I, Explorer II, Explorer III, Explorer IV,  Explorer V
 SmallFreighter: Small Freighter,
 MediumFreighter: Medium Freighter,
 LargeFreighter: Large Freighter,
 ColonyShip: Colony Ship,
 PassengerShip: Passenger Ship,
 ConstructionShip: Constructor,
 GasMiningShip: Gas Miner,
 MiningShip: Miner,
 GasMiningStation:
 MiningStation:
 SmallSpacePort:
 MediumSpacePort:
 LargeSpacePort:
 ResortBase:
 GenericBase:

It turns out that if the computer runs out of custom names, it will revert to the default naming scheme. It doesn't do this if there's only one custom name though, not sure about the other variables. I wonder if there is a wildcard you could use so that you could do this instead:

Code: Select all

ExplorationShip: Explorer [01-99]

And cause the names "Explorer 01" to "Explorer 99" to be created.

[Shark7]

I've never actually built enough ships to run out of names with the RN Edition... [X(]

Still good little find you have there, would be a good bit of info to post into the modding forum. [;)]

[invaderzim]

aka- Akula

Larry Bond's Harpoon - Commander's Edition

Development Team Member

Done! It's at: tm.asp?m=3342439 I've increased the numbering to 99, which hopefully will be enough. User created designs should all have names like "Light Cruiser 001" instead which should make it easier to tell the difference between user designs and AI designs.

By the way, is there a way to make similar changes to the way ship designs are named? I'd prefer my escort designs to be named "Escort I", "Escort II" and so on instead of giving them names like Valencia and Agricento which don't tell me much.

I've noticed most non-military ships have names like "EX-1 Navigator", how do I edit these names?