Real Star Names mod
Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 6:21 pm
2026 Edit: I've overhauled the entire file and (with the help of AI) brought the number of names up to over 2200.
The names in this mod are now drawn from three primary sources.
1. Proper names come from the International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) catalog, which standardizes traditional stellar nomenclature from cultures around the world — including Arabic, Greek, Latin, Chinese, Aboriginal Australian, and many others. These represent around 20% of the names included.
2. Bayer designations follow the classical system introduced by Johann Bayer in 1603, pairing a Greek letter with a constellation name to denote a star's approximate brightness rank within that constellation. These represent around 40% of the names included.
3. Flamsteed numbers come from John Flamsteed's 1712 catalog, which assigned sequential numbers to stars within each constellation based on their right ascension. These represent around 40% of the names included.
* Note that the name for a star may appear multiple times if it is referenced differently in each source. For instance, Betelgeuse appears three times - as Betelgeuse, as Alpha Orionis, and as 58 Orionis. In the interest of having as many names as possible, I allowed this duplication.
ORIGINAL POST: First thing I do in any game like this is replace the weird star names with "realistic" names. To that end, I'm sharing my SystemNames.txt file containing 1360 "real" star names. I usually play with 1000 systems max so it's more than enough for me; if there's demand, I'll try to close the gap and fill in 615 more names for maps with 2000 systems.
Install: locate your \Distant Worlds 2\data folder (if playing through Steam, right click the game in your library and select "Browse Local Files"), backup the existing SystemNames.txt file and copy the attached file in its place.
Edit: Updated file to remove the number prefixes from all names; de-duped and ended up with 1360 names.
The names in this mod are now drawn from three primary sources.
1. Proper names come from the International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) catalog, which standardizes traditional stellar nomenclature from cultures around the world — including Arabic, Greek, Latin, Chinese, Aboriginal Australian, and many others. These represent around 20% of the names included.
2. Bayer designations follow the classical system introduced by Johann Bayer in 1603, pairing a Greek letter with a constellation name to denote a star's approximate brightness rank within that constellation. These represent around 40% of the names included.
3. Flamsteed numbers come from John Flamsteed's 1712 catalog, which assigned sequential numbers to stars within each constellation based on their right ascension. These represent around 40% of the names included.
* Note that the name for a star may appear multiple times if it is referenced differently in each source. For instance, Betelgeuse appears three times - as Betelgeuse, as Alpha Orionis, and as 58 Orionis. In the interest of having as many names as possible, I allowed this duplication.
ORIGINAL POST: First thing I do in any game like this is replace the weird star names with "realistic" names. To that end, I'm sharing my SystemNames.txt file containing 1360 "real" star names. I usually play with 1000 systems max so it's more than enough for me; if there's demand, I'll try to close the gap and fill in 615 more names for maps with 2000 systems.
Install: locate your \Distant Worlds 2\data folder (if playing through Steam, right click the game in your library and select "Browse Local Files"), backup the existing SystemNames.txt file and copy the attached file in its place.
Edit: Updated file to remove the number prefixes from all names; de-duped and ended up with 1360 names.