Unique Ship Identification Number

Not quite ship naming, but can be an avenue to it.

But by having the game assigning our ships a Unique Ship Identification Number(USIN), we can do all sorts of things with it.
A random USIN is assigned on purchase of a ship, AND on destruction/rebuy.

Here's a few quick examples;
1) ATC can use that, instead of our CMDR name to instruct us when docking.
2) Stats for that specific ship can be logged.
You can see how much profit for example you've made in that since buying it, or how many kills, systems discovered, etc etc.
3) We can more easily identify our stored ships from other stations, for example, if you had 2 Pythons stored at another base, which one do you want transferring? USIN can solve that to a degree. Though you do have to remember it. Lol
4) USIN could eventually be displayed on the ship itself, as a decal.
5) We could pay real money, to convert the USIN to a custom USIN or even name.
6) Bounties could eventually be assigned to USINs directly. Meaning no more suicidewinders. :) But this would mean USINs would need to be assigned from the server, and checked for current usage. Quite advanced.

That's about all I can think of.

It only has to consist of a collection of 4-5 numbers and letters.
It could follow a system, like Uk vehicle registration, but random is probably easier to develop.
A-BC-123 or whatever can make enough combinations to cover every player owned ship in ED.

Thoughts?

CMDR CosmicSpacehead
 
Last edited:
Using a Identifying number would work and (at least) will not cause FDev the headache that names do (in that somebody will have to vet the names, to make sure nothing offensive gets through).
 
Using a Identifying number would work and (at least) will not cause FDev the headache that names do (in that somebody will have to vet the names, to make sure nothing offensive gets through).

Yes, with a random registration generator, it would be quite easy to just blacklist the few rude words that can be created from it.

In addition, 6) was just a random idea i threw in there. I'm not entirely sure how that could possibly work, or why it would be good.
 
A Ship ID number would add to the game.
Most vehicles have some kind of registration, and stands to reason the space craft would also be easily identifiable via a transponder.

Add a Ship Name along side it and it is complete.
 
Combine this with the current minor faction proposal and you have a unique naming convention.

As an example, those pledged to SEPP would get SEPP-#### (or however many numbers are appropriate).

The numbers would be RNG with a duplicate check, and the faction acronym would prevent naming abuses, while displaying factional registry.

Unaligned ships would use the current system of the first three letters of the Commander's name.
 
Last edited:
Combine this with the current minor faction proposal and you have a unique naming convention.

As an example, those pledged to SEPP would get SEPP-#### (or however many numbers are appropriate).

The numbers would be RNG with a duplicate check, and the faction acronym would prevent naming abuses, while displaying factional registry.

Unaligned ships would use the current system of the first three letters of the Commander's name.

Oooh, combining 2 of my ideas.
Brilliant! Lol

:D

The only issue is using numbers only, would mean there would need to be atleast 8 digits. (99,999,999), assuming there are not more than 100 million player ships in ED.
Mixing letters and numbers works best due to added combinations.

So SEPP-ABC123 would yield more, with less.
If any digit could be a letter or number, and be 6 digits, you could get 2.1 billion unique IDs from it.
The faction tag, 'SEPP' in this case, can't be counted towards the unique ID, because it would be possible to change your personal faction.
While highly unlikely, you could end up with 2 identical IDs. Lol
 
Last edited:
Yes. This must surely happen when Commanders is released. FFE had ship registration numbers, which were simply a random sequence of two letters-hyphen-three numbers, giving 676,000 possible registrations. Surely ED will be more sophisticated, and include codes for location and date of ship manufacture, with some random letters and numbers. If this is implemented I can't imagine that FD will fail to pick up on the opportunity to sell custom registrations.
 
Not quite ship naming, but can be an avenue to it.
Basically your name first three letters is your identifier?
I do not see what gain there is from having a number on the ship, maybe a local name or such, so say you have 2 pythons, you could tag one, mining python, and the other combat python or similar.
 
I think is one of the sub-forums where thread necroing should be positively encouraged!
It should.

But only my ideas. :D

I don't mind necro'd ideas really. As long as they're still relevant.

This idea was one of my turbo lunch break ideas. I'm surprised it even made sense.

Although, on re-reading it, it has some flaws.

If your USIN was randomly regenerated each time you sold or lost your ship, then buying a custom one is pointless. Lol
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom