I know this has probably been discussed many, many times before, but I think after almost 6 years of ED some serious thought should be given by the devs to naming planets.
I'm currently nipping around the bubble, looking for high-population systems and mapping earth-like worlds and water worlds for exploration cash. What I've noticed is that most don't have names; it's just a succession of uninspiring planet designations such as HIP 113430 C 4, HIP 112753 1, HIP 112002 2 etc. A quick look on EDDB confirms this - there are something like 1,300 inhabited earth-like worlds and the vast majority don't have names.
This is, of course, unrealistic. It plays into the usual criticism of ED being an ocean that is only a foot deep, and for me it breaks immersion slightly. Inhabited worlds would have names. I'm sure I'm not alone in loving ED for the feeling you get of being able to set off into the vast unknown, not just exploring deep space but also finding weird, wonderful and exotic parts of inhabited space.
I would suggest that with the launch of Odyssey, an opportunity arises to start fixing this. How about anyone who buys Odyssey by a certain date is entered into a draw to name one of the many un-named Earth-like worlds? You can guard against trolling by putting appropriate rules in place and by giving FDev the final say on submissions, so we're not left with places called Planety McPlanetface.
I'd even be happy with a separate competition that you pay to enter (which in turn gives Frontier another way of raising revenue). I think in this way, we're also not alienating any early kickstarter backers who paid good money to name things, because of course there's a whole world of difference between paying to name something and paying for a small chance to name something.
I know many people have suggested that the first person to explore, map or walk on a planet should have naming rights but I think a competition is probably a better way of doing it, as:
1. It doesn't exclude newer players, who have to travel quite far from the bubble to find unexplored systems.
2. We avoid the inevitable debate over who, exactly, has naming rights - the first person to find it, to map it, or to walk on it?
3. A competition doesn't exclude later giving people naming rights for finding it: if we're initially limited to populated planets (particularly populated Earth-like worlds) then explorers can still be given the right to name planets outside the bubble.
I'd be interested to know what others think.
I'm currently nipping around the bubble, looking for high-population systems and mapping earth-like worlds and water worlds for exploration cash. What I've noticed is that most don't have names; it's just a succession of uninspiring planet designations such as HIP 113430 C 4, HIP 112753 1, HIP 112002 2 etc. A quick look on EDDB confirms this - there are something like 1,300 inhabited earth-like worlds and the vast majority don't have names.
This is, of course, unrealistic. It plays into the usual criticism of ED being an ocean that is only a foot deep, and for me it breaks immersion slightly. Inhabited worlds would have names. I'm sure I'm not alone in loving ED for the feeling you get of being able to set off into the vast unknown, not just exploring deep space but also finding weird, wonderful and exotic parts of inhabited space.
I would suggest that with the launch of Odyssey, an opportunity arises to start fixing this. How about anyone who buys Odyssey by a certain date is entered into a draw to name one of the many un-named Earth-like worlds? You can guard against trolling by putting appropriate rules in place and by giving FDev the final say on submissions, so we're not left with places called Planety McPlanetface.
I'd even be happy with a separate competition that you pay to enter (which in turn gives Frontier another way of raising revenue). I think in this way, we're also not alienating any early kickstarter backers who paid good money to name things, because of course there's a whole world of difference between paying to name something and paying for a small chance to name something.
I know many people have suggested that the first person to explore, map or walk on a planet should have naming rights but I think a competition is probably a better way of doing it, as:
1. It doesn't exclude newer players, who have to travel quite far from the bubble to find unexplored systems.
2. We avoid the inevitable debate over who, exactly, has naming rights - the first person to find it, to map it, or to walk on it?
3. A competition doesn't exclude later giving people naming rights for finding it: if we're initially limited to populated planets (particularly populated Earth-like worlds) then explorers can still be given the right to name planets outside the bubble.
I'd be interested to know what others think.
