Newcomer / Intro Why are all the ships named for snakes?

You start in a sidewinder, a type of snake.. to a cobra, viper, asp, diamondback, adder, python, anaconda..

Why all the snake names? Is there a significance to it all?
 

Yaffle

Volunteer Moderator
It's not explained anywhere, I think it even gets a reference in the Dark Wheel. The names date back to the 1984 original.

In general ship shape resembles the snake's head.
 
Hmm. Rutabaga sounds like it could be a name for Alliance battle cruiser. :D :p

"Hey, come join me i this CZ. Faragut and Rutabaga are fighting each other!"

"A what the what?"
 
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You start in a sidewinder, a type of snake.. to a cobra, viper, asp, diamondback, adder, python, anaconda..

Why all the snake names? Is there a significance to it all?

I especially like the T7 snake.

But no, there is no significance.
It is just an inherited design choice.
The old Elite games used the same convention.
 
This naming has been introduced in the classic ELITE game back in 1984 where most ships were named like snakes too. I can hardly remember the game manual which was some sort of a introdution to the flight trader, but I think it already mentioned most ships to be named like snakes but without any known reason.
 
Pic of the original ships (and stuff):

(Did you know that a Fer-de-Lance is a snake - don't ask me why there was a Gecko though.)

R7AX76a.jpg



Later version image.... (It's BIG):

CygIYsB.jpg


[arrrr]
 
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Hmm. Rutabaga sounds like it could be a name for Alliance battle cruiser. :D :p

"Hey, come join me i this CZ. Faragut and Rutabaga are fighting each other!"

"A what the what?"

Heh, heh. That would be a great troll. "Aliiance are finally getting ships! This is great! I've been waiting years for that! They're called what?...."

Pic of the original ships (and stuff):

(Did you know that a Fer-de-Lance is a snake - don't ask me why there was a Gecko though.)

http://i.imgur.com/R7AX76a.jpg


Later version image.... (It's BIG):



[arrrr]

Because Geckos are cool. Also Moray is not a snake, it's an eel.
 
The Cobra Mark III got its name from the concept of designing the ship to resemble
the head of a cobra snake. The asp names for the other ships were an expansion of
the original idea. Here's some more Elite Trivia I collected if anyone is interested.

Regards
 
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.................

Because Geckos are cool. Also Moray is not a snake, it's an eel.

It was actually called a Moray Star Boat, I believe it was supposed to be like that Thunderbirds plane that could be a submarine too and was developed to be space-worthy. However, yeah, a Moray is an eel but a lot of the different species have snake in their name, like Tidepool snake moray, Tiger Snake Moray, etc etc..... So I can see why they used Moray in hte name for a submarine-capable ship.



Moray Star Boat:
do32dAI.gif




( No Gecko snakes though are there? ... ;) )
 
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