How Often Do You Use ID Coding?

[Lord Dakier]

So I was in the process of renaming some ships and then I started to wonder.

How often do you use your ships ID codes.

I often use mine to identify what ship is where.

For example my capital ship will be;
C.M.A - 1st AF Frigate YF-98 - Hands of God" Panther

I use the AF to help me understand what department of Coatex Military Armaments the ship is in. AF stands for Assualt Fleet so as you can tell this ship will carry out sector wide attacks or skirmishes, after this we have the ships class Then, we have the ID code which is perhaps the most usefull. What I do is any ships homebased will look like this;
C.M.A - 1st AF Supplier YF-98 - Mercury

This basically tells me that this ship supplies my 1st Assualt Fleet but more directly so, it supplies the "Hands of God" Panther Class Frigate.

Doing this although may seem hard labour, so long as your not buying ships in bulk it is not too hard to keep everything neat and organised.

Does anyone else do something like this?

[Patholos]

I dont use it because for me it becomes just a wall of text.

I tend to rename ships like this: Shiptype 'Name/complex-#'

So for instance, my missile complex in herrons nebulae:

Baldric 'Herrons Nebulae-1' to 10

For Fighting ships:

Raptor 'Righteous Fury'

Havent set up a large enough fleet to start using support actively, but I'll look into what you've written here

[ctcc41]

I think giving your assets a designation becomes a necessity as your empire grows larger. Apart from running out of name ideas for ships its important to know exactly which ship performing what function needs to be replaced when you get a message that one in your 100+ fleet has been destroyed.

I name my ships Class.Number,Role.Homebase.Number,ShipType. So my 6th mammoth working as a warehouse at my 2nd equipment dock has the name;

TL.06.Store.EQD.02 Mammoth

Ships reserved for my personal use get names. Everything else can make do with a designation.

[Lord Dakier]

I like to name everything M7 upwards myslef. I'll give M6's a subname though or something not as cool.

[RicoOcho]

i name my M7's USS "City name" then a designator ex USS San Antonio USF 10-000...etc etc....

[Rednoahl]

I used to use codes quite a lot but started building stupidly big self sufficient complexes instead. I do think the interface is at fault for not showing the home-base of each ship and what it's job is. I hope ES have a better solution in the next game.

[RandomBandit]

big ships get normal names
small ships seldom get names. if they do it is just silly call-signs
transports get basic ID names with a system of basic symbols (I wrote it up somewhere around here)

[Dantrithor]

The first BigShip of each class or ships i personally use are called (in this particular game) "Kishiro I ShipName" shipname being the ship class name for capital ships (Yokohama, Osaka, Tokyo...) or random japanese name.

Fighters are not named, as CODEA carrier software automatically gives them a descriptive name.

Factory transports are given the names CLS/CAG software gives them in the first autonaming option.

ST/UT's are called ST-XX or UT-XX, XX being the number of the ship (01 to 99). Once at top level, they are renamed to UT-XX-A, so i can scroll through their homebase owned ship's list and find out who's still in need of some learning.

[Threesixtyci]

I generally just name transports, and based on what they do. MK3 start with MK3, and CAG's start with Home Based Sector's initials followed by CAG. I haven't played with the auto naming functions, yet, for CAG's

I don't bother making up names. Don't have the memory for it...

I generally have the filter set to ship class. What's annoying in early game is that hired TL's, won't show up if that filter is on. So, I have to turn it off, when I have a TL hired.

I have yet to play a game where I had enough combat ships to patrol. I've been jumping from start to start, lately. But whenever i do have the ships, I'll probably name them with Patrol-A and Patrol-D (Defend, Attack), followed by the sector's initials, or something.

[Lord Dakier]

Does no one use the ships actual ID signature then?

[Dantrithor]

Well, if you count CODEA marking which fighter is wingman of which one, i use it.

(things like, "ATF Scimitar YM3YK-21 W")

[brucewarren]

I thought they were just the space equivalent of number plates.

Do the numbers actually mean anything?

[Dantrithor]

XYYZZ-MM

X: Race
YY: Ship class (M5, M3, TM...)
ZZ-MM: ID. It's easy to spot what NPC ship belongs to what battlegroup seeing this, as most of them will have the same "ZZ" with different numbers in "MM". I think these ID's are assigned linearly.

[Lord Dakier]

I thought they were just the space equivalent of number plates.

Do the numbers actually mean anything?

No they dont but I'm just saying I use them to organise my fleet.

[brucewarren]

Thank you for that Dantrithor

I feel really stupid now.

Once you see it the pattern shouts out at you. But I never saw it
until you pointed it out

(We could really do with a Doh! smiley her)

[Carlo the Curious]

(We could really do with a Doh! smiley her)

(I didn't know it was there either until I looked)

[lordmuck]

I use this idea too my UT's are : ship make and UT1 - UT2 and so on
Mystral UT1

Fighters in a carrier
Carrier name for example Galleon 1 the fighters would then be Gal1AttG1S1= gallieon 1 attack group 1 ship 1 then Gal1AttG1S2 and so on
miners Caiman Miner 1 2 and so on..

though I think I really need to shorten some things down and renaming 40 M3s is a pain

[jlehtone]

"Gal1AttG1S1" -- too dense for my eyes. I would perhaps write it as "Gal-1-AttG1-S1".

No, I would not. S is redundant, unless your attack groups contain non-ship components.
Furthermore, 1, 2, .. 10, 11, .. does not sort nicely. 01, 02, .. 10, .. does.

Then, we have the ID code which is perhaps the most usefull.

ID code of what? The ship? Its homebase?

Can you sort by ID? Can you search by ID?


I do use sector indices. For example, Argon Prime is (1,3). "P0103e" prefix would indicate a patrol ship whose route is (Argon Prime; The Wall). Starting sector and "e" for "east". No route has more than two sectors, so they go either east or south.

[lordmuck]

I do use sector indices. For example, Argon Prime is (1,3). "P0103e" prefix would indicate a patrol ship whose route is (Argon Prime; The Wall). Starting sector and "e" for "east". No route has more than two sectors, so they go either east or south.

P0103e to me would be like chinese as I have not memorized the sector coords but I do of course see the sense you place in your namings

As I have not yet have the need for sector patrols and move fleets around where needed, I think more about naming my ships to the ship/carrier they are allocated to or defending or job type but as for giving a "sector ID" to these ships at least I think I would choose the first 3-4 letters of that sector, whom they are allocated to 1-2letters and if I use a uniform for wings ex 5 M3 ships only 01-05 so if one gets POOFED I know which and from which group.

[jlehtone]

Printed map with indices on it.

... so if one gets POOFED I know which and from which group.

Same reason guides the freighter naming. A name in log is all you've got to replace a lost ship by.