TL;DR I may have a way to meaningfully designate our ships, along the lines of NCC-1701 or -75.
I like labels—a lot. So, for some time now, I have been brainstorming ways to succinctly yet consistently identify my various loadouts within Elite: Dangerous, and—after drawing inspiration from Tri-Service aircraft designations—here is a system that I think could work.
Basically, each loadout is assigned a specific string of alphanumeric characters containing:
For example, TS-25B would be used to designate the first variant of a Sidewinder originally intended for trade-based missions, such as mining or smuggling. Similarly, the only difference between UL-400 and UX-400 would be pad size and—by extension—ship type: the former is a Clipper, while the latter is an Anaconda. Additional examples and explanations can be found in my logbook entry on INARA (which this post has copypastaed parts of).
The system still has room for expansion, of course: I would like to introduce secondary and tertiary roles, and to resolve the ambiguity problem mentioned in the footnotes. Anyway, please feel free to share your thoughts below!
1 While not—strictly speaking—a pad size, Panamax remains a useful way to differentiate the largest ship types.
2 Examples of ambiguous designations include CM-580 and EX-1100: the former could refer to either a Dropship or a Gunship, and the latter to either a Beluga or a Cutter. Such situations—while rare—are clear exceptions to the rule, and so pilots are encouraged to devise their own solutions.
I like labels—a lot. So, for some time now, I have been brainstorming ways to succinctly yet consistently identify my various loadouts within Elite: Dangerous, and—after drawing inspiration from Tri-Service aircraft designations—here is a system that I think could work.
Basically, each loadout is assigned a specific string of alphanumeric characters containing:
- A two-letter prefix, where the first letter (C, E, U, or T) represents primary role (respectively: Combat, Exploration, Multipurpose, or Trade), and the second one (S, M, L, or X) represents pad size (respectively: Small, Medium, Large, or Panamax1).
- A separating hyphen.
- A two-, three-, or four-digit stem, which equates to hull mass: this value is usually unique2, and so is often the most direct way to ascertain a loadout's ship type.
- An optional one-letter suffix, which is reserved for whenever a loadout undergoes variation: the original version would be A, the first variant B, the second one C, etc.
For example, TS-25B would be used to designate the first variant of a Sidewinder originally intended for trade-based missions, such as mining or smuggling. Similarly, the only difference between UL-400 and UX-400 would be pad size and—by extension—ship type: the former is a Clipper, while the latter is an Anaconda. Additional examples and explanations can be found in my logbook entry on INARA (which this post has copypastaed parts of).
The system still has room for expansion, of course: I would like to introduce secondary and tertiary roles, and to resolve the ambiguity problem mentioned in the footnotes. Anyway, please feel free to share your thoughts below!
1 While not—strictly speaking—a pad size, Panamax remains a useful way to differentiate the largest ship types.
2 Examples of ambiguous designations include CM-580 and EX-1100: the former could refer to either a Dropship or a Gunship, and the latter to either a Beluga or a Cutter. Such situations—while rare—are clear exceptions to the rule, and so pilots are encouraged to devise their own solutions.