I think I'll name my first sidewinder "Quality Guaranteed".
I just hope the character limit isn't too short. I've always liked the bizarre long ship names in novels by Ian Banks, M. John Harrison, and Alastair Reynolds. Names like "Nostalgia for Infinity," or "VFP Outstanding Contribution To The Historical Process." Those aren't my personal candidates, but something like that. You think they'll fit in the ship ID display?
Edit: Ninja'd by DanTheMan
One thing I had written down there were ship names in your books...
This is where I switch into rant mode. I have distinctive ship names and sometimes I've been taken to task for ripping off Iain Banks with these ship names because they're long and convoluted names. What I always say is that if anything was an inspiration, it was M. John Harrison, with The Centauri Device, where he had all these ships named after pre-Raphaelite paintings, or something. That's what I'm keying off from, basically. I know Banks was a fan of that book as well, so I think we are both keying off from the same source. God knows what Harrison was keying off from.
It's such a difficult thing because you can take the Navy tradition and name your space shuttles after famous ships.
Most of my ships are named after surrealist paintings and stuff like that. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to track down which ones are which. I do have tremendous problems with character names and ship names. I hate it when I've got a good flow, I'm writing well and suddenly I have to put a character name in and suddenly everything comes to a grinding halt because I'll spend two hours trying to find the right name for this bloke who comes in with a cup of tea and walks out of the room again. It's the same with spaceship names - I do change them a lot. Sometimes I hit on one that just feels right.
Considering we will be dying in the beginning quite often, do you give your new ship a new name, or you add a number to the name? Like "Nostromo XVIII"![]()
This thread inspired me to pick out some ship names, and nothing that's ever been in any sci-fi book, TV or movie I'm aware of.
So that's one solution to the unique vs. multiple name problem. Just pick a unique name that nobody else is likely to think of, and it doesn't matter what anyone else does. It only matters if you're trying to be the only person in the game flying the "Enterprise," "Serenity," or "Nostromo."
Be creative! I understand wanting to honor and represent your favorite sci-fi influences, but since none of these ships look remotely like anything outside the Elite universe anyway, then maybe it's better to create your own names? Just a thought.
And again, that's why I hope FD gives us long enough text fields for the ship name. It's just a short ASCII string after all. It takes nothing in data transfer or storage, and it's just a question of whether they can design the cockpit HUD to display longer names. Give us long names!
For the inevitable ship deaths, I'm just going with one name per ship model. No Roman numerals afterwards, because that will get ridiculous on a ship that gets killed often. And I plan for my ship to get killed, often...
Why you gotta cramp my style like that?![]()
Fine! I will go with "A ship called Wanda" instead.
My own ship will be named after my rather small yacht, it has a "small" name; "Starlet" so hopefully people wont be expecting the response they will get if they DO decide to try to fire upon me![]()
I agree with Cosmo Bozo, about NOT making ship names unique.
This time next year I don't want to spend half an hour trying to name my ship, with numbers and X's.... If we could avoid this I'd be truly grateful.
Unique Commander names should be enough. (even then I like the idea of obligatory surnames so people can have common first names.)
xXx_Krow_xXx
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Dynamo Hum is strangely appropriateI've been making a list from Frank Zappa's catalogue
Yellow Shark
Thing Fish
Packard Goose
And of course the inevitable
Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny![]()
Great album, is that! <wanders away, singing> Hey there, people, I'm Bobby Brown...'Sheik Yerbouti' should also be considered as a ship name.