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Fix the Shuttle naming policy!

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
This was already being discussed here, but since it's technically been a month since the last post there, I guess I'm supposed to clutter the forum with another thread on the subject instead. :rolleyes:

The problem with the shuttle naming scheme is that currently shuttles are treated exactly as independent ships. This means that they are hard-coded to have the "USS" or "IKS" prefixes strapped onto their names, and are assigned their own full registry numbers.

I've been able to come up with a scheme of my own, sort of as a stopgap measure until they are able to fix how shuttles work and are classified.
  • Example: Mothership "USS Dire Phoenix, NX-102170"
    • Captain's Yacht: "USS Dire Phoenix-01, NX-102170-S"
    • Mk-8 Shuttle: "USS DIre Phoenix-02, NX-102170-S"
    • Delta Flyer: "USS Dire Phoenix-03, NX-102170-S"
    • etc, etc...

Here, I'm using a suffix to the name to designate shuttle number, and a "S" suffix to the registry number to designate shuttles (although I guess it should be obvious from looking at the thing). /sheenduh

However this has it's limitations too. First, we can't really give the shuttle a "nickname" like "Copernicus" or "Galileo", without making it look like "USS Copernicus" or "USS Galileo". The shuttle ID number should technically be attached to the registry number, but the registry number suffix only accepts letters. Likewise, in the name area, "/" is not a valid character (as in "USS Dire Phoenix/07"). In addition, in order to have a proper "scheme", you'd have to rename & re-register your shuttles every time you switched ships. This costs 4500 Merits per pop, and while I don't really see that as a huge issue, what I find even more annoying is the pain of going around and renaming all your shuttles to match your ship.

Hopefully what should happen whenever they're able to add shuttlebays, is that shuttlecraft will be classified as a separate type of object, and not lumped in with the other ships (I am however, now picturing a nightmare scenario where you go to the shuttle bay to select the shuttle you want to switch to, and see ALL of your ships on the list instead of just the shuttles). Along with the separate classification of small craft, hopefully we can get some different designation tags
  • Small Craft:
    • "Nick Name" (optional) - "Galileo", "Copernicus", "Betty", etc.
    • Shuttle ID designation (mandatory) - 1-2 digit number, "01", "12"
    • Mothership Name - (automatically updated from player's Active Ship)
    • Mothership Registry - (automatically updated from player's Active Ship)
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Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    The whole thing hinges on the devs being able to seperate them from the rest of the ships somehow. The big problem still being that ships aren't really objects. The ship is your skin in space thing makes what seems like a simple thing to change into a much harder thing to do. I do hope they can find a way to do out though.
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