Matrix Games Forums

For some reason a ship I just designed is given a random ship name instead of the custom name I gave it when I am looking at ships in the ship list. Any idea why this is?

Cruisers, Capital Ships and Carriers use personal names.

Which is the reason why I insist on making my combat ships anything but those types.

ORIGINAL: Plant

Cruisers, Capital Ships and Carriers use personal names.

Which is the reason why I insist on making my combat ships anything but those types.

Ok, this is REALLY stupid.

Not being able to use custom names for your ships just makes it hard to know which kinds of ships you are looking at.

ORIGINAL: Plant

Cruisers, Capital Ships and Carriers use personal names.

Which is the reason why I insist on making my combat ships anything but those types.

Not entirely correct, the only one you can not name out of those you mentioned are carriers, have a look in shipNames.txt.

Darkspire

Does that work?

If I write one name after the ship type, will it follow the same naming convention as escorts, frigates and destroyers?

ORIGINAL: Plant

Does that work?

If I write one name after the ship type, will it follow the same naming convention as escorts, frigates and destroyers?

Please clarify that statement, like WTF?

You have a list of ship types, you put the names after them and DW uses them instead of the very hard to keep track of names.

Example, my constructor entry:

ConstructionShip: Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor, Constructor

Darkspire

I think you have totally misunderstood what hardcoregamer was asking for.

Or I have, but since he responded to my reply as if I have answered his question, who knows.

ORIGINAL: Plant

I think you have totally misunderstood what hardcoregamer was asking for.

Or I have, but since he responded to my reply as if I have answered his question, who knows.

I was not replying to him, I was replying to your posts, the incorrect statement and the one with the somewhat strange phrasing of a question.

Darkspire

So you can't add an entry into the shipNames.txt file called "Carrier":" and then have the game use a custom name list?

Also I do know you can rename carriers, you just have to do it manually from the ship list or fleet list.

Actually I'm pretty sure you can, and I have for my game. I'm not at home right now to check, but I'm pretty sure it works.

But Darkspire I am replying to hardcoregamer.

Escorts, frigates and destroyers follow a differnt naming convention to cruisers, carriers and capital ships.
If you called your Escort "Akuma", all escorts are named Akuma 001, Akuma 002, Akuma 003.
If you named your Cruiser "Bakuma" all cruisers will be given random names like "Flight of Fancy" and "Manificent Hubris".

You however seem to be talking about changing the random names itself, which is the cause of our confusion.

ORIGINAL: Plant

But Darkspire I am replying to hardcoregamer.

Escorts, frigates and destroyers follow a differnt naming convention to cruisers, carriers and capital ships.
If you called your Escort "Akuma", all escorts are named Akuma 001, Akuma 002, Akuma 003.
If you named your Cruiser "Bakuma" all cruisers will be given random names like "Flight of Fancy" and "Manificent Hubris".

You however seem to be talking about changing the random names itself, which is the cause of our confusion.

I got it [:D]

He means he named a new design with a funky name like ShipKiller but when those ships are built they all have random names. Nailed it [:'(]

In which case in a round about fashion I was right, name the design what ever you want but if you do not want the random names then edit the shipNames.txt to change the names fr each class. Example:

A.You create an Escort design and name that design ShipKiller.
All further ships produced will have the design named ShipKiller but the name for the ship itself will be random.

B.You create an Escort design and name that design ShipKiller.
You edit the shipNames.txt and in the Escort section enter;

Escort: ShipKiller ShipKiller ShipKiller ShipKiller ShipKiller ShipKiller ShipKiller

All further ships produced will have the design named ShipKiller but the name for the ship itself will be ShipKiller.

Darkspire

Of course, it's somewhat less than ideal to have all ships named the exact same thing during the early hours of the game when you don't have 700 different ships of each class. Early on, when you still have the ability to grasp where every ship is, the name is actually kind of helpful. The best situation would be to have Cruiser 001, Cruiser 002, Cruiser 003, Cruiser 004, and so on. At least for me.

And on a personal note, I really like seeing a Scimitar Mk4 destroyer called Gladius 003. It gives me a certain bit of nostalgia to be reminded that the venerable old heap of junk that was the original Gladius class lived through pirates, space critters, aliens, and general wear and tear, ending up as an upgraded Scimitar. How nice wouldn't it be to see that with your capital ships? But since there doesn't seem to be an easy way to specify generational names for those classes, it's really hard to keep track of which of your ships that started out 20 years ago and which of them are brand new.

One thing I'm considering, by the way, is to simply throw in a few hundred entries with each their on numerical suffix. Cruiser 001, cruiser 002, cruiser 003, and so on. I haven't tested if the game accepts that many names and I haven't tested if it simply chooses a name at random regardless of it being in use, but if it works (and I suppose that's a big "if") then it would give descriptive and destinctive names, and making Excel do the legwork should be fairly easy.

And on a personal note, I really like seeing a Scimitar Mk4 destroyer called Gladius 003. It gives me a certain bit of nostalgia to be reminded that the venerable old heap of junk that was the original Gladius class lived through pirates, space critters, aliens, and general wear and tear, ending up as an upgraded Scimitar. How nice wouldn't it be to see that with your capital ships? But since there doesn't seem to be an easy way to specify generational names for those classes, it's really hard to keep track of which of your ships that started out 20 years ago and which of them are brand new.

If your design names end with Mk# then they increment when the designs are upgraded, using the single name like Escort and adding Mk# to it does indeed produce the results you describe, have been trying for many moons to get the amount of a class and the total amount of the current design added to the design screen in the amount column which would really make the process much easier.
Example:

Escort Mk7 - - - - - - 34 22

That would be that you have 34 escorts in your empire but only 22 are Mk7's

Darkspire

But that effect doesn't appear for cruisers and capital ships. For escorts, frigates and destroyers, that upgrading your ship to a Scimitar MK 4 is still named as Gladius 003 till the end of time. Whereas for cruisers and capital ship, it feels disconnected and impersonal unless you specifically remember names of your ships.

If you Excel it and if the names are in order as opposed to randomised, and you create a new design, the naming system still isn't the same as the names for cruisers and capital ships will not include the MK number.


It would be easiest if we asked that we can choose the naming convention for each of our ship roles.

It would be easiest if we asked that we can choose the naming convention for each of our ship roles.

If I am reading it right, you mean having the choice of whether to use numbers or not in the name of the ship built?
Is that not what can be done with the current shipNames.txt though?
If you edit the file then the names for the manufactured ships are taken from that incrementally, so it would more be the case that you want names based on the design level? Example:

Escort Mk1

Fred etc

Escort Mk2

Bert etc

Escort Mk3

Harry etc

Etc

Darkspire

With Escort, Frigate, Destroyers:

(Ship Design with a name of "Fred"): Fred 001, Fred 002, Fred 003
(Upgraded Design Mk2, newly built) : Fred Mk2 001, Fred Mk2 002, Fred Mk3 003

With Cruiser, Capital Ships, Carriers.

With shipNames.txt manipulation.
Example, my Cruiser entry:

Cruiser: Fred 001, Fred 002, Fred 003, ... , Fred 006

Fred 001, Fred 002, Fred 003
Fred 004, Fred 005, Fred 006

So even with shipNames.txt, you cannot achieve the same naming convention. Unless you explicetly change the shipNames.txt beforehand to follow the Mk numbers. Assuming the game does not select name at random. Whether it is desirable is another matter, but I see no reason why we cannot ask for the choice.

ORIGINAL: Plant

But that effect doesn't appear for cruisers and capital ships. For escorts, frigates and destroyers, that upgrading your ship to a Scimitar MK 4 is still named as Gladius 003 till the end of time. Whereas for cruisers and capital ship, it feels disconnected and impersonal unless you specifically remember names of your ships.

If you Excel it and if the names are in order as opposed to randomised, and you create a new design, the naming system still isn't the same as the names for cruisers and capital ships will not include the MK number.


It would be easiest if we asked that we can choose the naming convention for each of our ship roles.

I agree, the ShipNames.txt option isn't exactly perfect, since it leaves all your designs of a given class with the same base name. What it does achieve, however, is to disable all those fancy random names, make the chosen ship name descriptive, and make it somewhat possible to figure out when a ship was designed.