Topic: What Shipname descriptions do you use? (Read 4518 times)

Atrahasis · « **on:** October 11, 2003, 10:09:13 pm »

The standard SFB/SFC shipname description is usually 2-4 letters, like CA or BC or DD or whatnot. However, with some shiplist variations I've made, I use the names of the actual ships themselves, like F-Ent for an Enterprise-class ship. I've found this to be useful because if this class gets small upgrades down the road, I can just add a "+" or even a "-1". For example, the first subtype of this class would be called "F-Ent-1" which uses only 5 characters not inlcuding the "F". The shipname descriptions can handle up to 6 characters. I've found this system to be especially useful to decribe FASA ships, which almost always have 3-5 or even more sub-type variations. So, for example, a Mark I Loknar would be "F-Lok-1", a Mark 2 would be "F-Lok-2", etc.

What system do you use?

Captain Ron · « **Reply #1 on:** October 11, 2003, 10:48:05 pm »

Depends...

On some types the more generic ones I use
* (race) xx (class) vvv (era) #(number, like if more than one it can be a colour too like in your stormbirds)

for customs it is more of a
* (race) n (name of ship)

some times for a custom I convert to a more generic version
*(race) xx (class) n (name) vvv (era, because i have been know to covert them a bit)

Atrahasis · « **Reply #2 on:** October 11, 2003, 11:24:46 pm »

BTW, come support my effort to add something new to the game via a new patch, at the General Forum. Read my post and see if you agree, and feel free to support.

http://208.57.228.4/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB1&Number=188547&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=&vc=

ActiveX · « **Reply #3 on:** October 11, 2003, 11:29:38 pm »

I'm still developing my system...

Does anyone know if you can edit the tags that represent a vessel's class in a hex in the Dyna?

Like you see a lil blue CA in the hex next to you, know if that can be changed?

To add more maybe?

Captain Ron · « **Reply #4 on:** October 12, 2003, 02:56:52 am »

A year or two ago I could have answered you for sure Active X. Unfort I have not played with anything but the models used in Single player now for over 2 years. I do not believe that it can be done as the blue is in the game code if I remember right.

ActiveX · « **Reply #5 on:** October 12, 2003, 03:25:27 am »

No no...hehe...

Im talking about expanding the BB, DN, CA, CL, FF, monikers to include others...

Like DD, BCH, FB, etc...

Im not worried about color...

Clark Kent · « **Reply #6 on:** October 12, 2003, 11:26:27 am »

As long as we're on this topic, I never did figure out how to make ships I add to the game show up in campaign mode, or simply to show up in the vessel library properly, or show a name other than ???. Is there an easy way to do this?
CK

Rogue · « **Reply #7 on:** October 12, 2003, 11:49:03 am »

Quote:

As long as we're on this topic, I never did figure out how to make ships I add to the game show up in campaign mode, or simply to show up in the vessel library properly, or show a name other than ???. Is there an easy way to do this?
CK

To get your ships to show up in campaign mode you have to copy the shiplist you want to use into the MetaAssets folder. That contains the Shiplist that is used for campaign play. Skirmish has its own seperate Shiplist in the specs folder.

The files you want for ship names are found in the strings folder. Shipnames.txt lists the names to draw upon during a battle. Strings.txt contains the names of the vessels in the vessel library. However these are incoded in hex and you will have to get a copy from someone who has converted them to text files. You can find an unmodded version with a little effort by searching the forum or Google. Or one of us would be happy to forward you a copy. Once you get a copy or if you know how to convert the original from hex to text you can see the format they use in those files. Pretty easy to figure out.

Core · « **Reply #9 on:** October 12, 2003, 12:53:43 pm »

whell i found out that sfcop can suport very long desegnations not shure abult sfc or sfc3 for exapel ive used the origenal names from the clases and it worcked like EXCALIBUR SOVERING PREMENITIONS you get the pic

Parislord · « **Reply #10 on:** October 12, 2003, 08:09:22 pm »

For my multi-era mod, I like to use the std. naval tags for the TOS ships (CA, DD, etc.) since all ships are classified "Starship class" in cannon TOS, and specific class names for TMP-era and beyond (Enterprise class, Excelsior class, Galaxy class, etc.). I use five eras tied to given date ranges: TOS, TMP, TMG (transitional TMP/TNG), TNG and PV (Post Voyager)...

Atrahasis · « **Reply #11 on:** October 12, 2003, 08:12:52 pm »

The standard naval tags are very limited though, especially when you have many destroyer or light cruiser classes for instance, and across different eras.

Parislord · « **Reply #12 on:** October 13, 2003, 01:48:37 pm »

That's because those designations are not intended to represent discreet class types, but hull types (cruiser, destroyer, battleship). Strandard naval class designations are given via hull number (LHD-1 class, CVN-65 class, etc.). Thus LPD -6 (USS Duluth) is actually an LPD-4 (Austin) class Landing Platform Dock AWS.

cap'nzack · « **Reply #13 on:** October 13, 2003, 04:22:50 pm »

For the Federation, I usually do a two letter prefix dependent on class (CA for cruiser, FH for heavy frigate, DD for destroyer, etc) and two numbers for year of introduction. So for example the Constitution class would be CA-45, and the enterprise (TMP) refit would be CA-71. Works well for me.
As for the klinks and roms, I do a standard letter number combo, with suffix letters to indicate upgrades, i.e. D-7, D-7(D) for the drone cruiser, D-7(D)A for a drone cruiser upgrade and so forth.

cap'nzack · « **Reply #14 on:** October 13, 2003, 04:28:44 pm »

As an example, here are all the federation cruisers in my current shiplist;
CA-45 Constitution Class CA
CA-60 BonHomme Richard Class CA
CA-65 Archner Class CA
CA-70 Constitution II Class CA
CA-71 Enterprise Class CA
CA(D)-73 Endeavour Class Drone CA
CA(D)-80 Tikopai Class Drone CA
CA-93 Constellation Class CA

It seems like a logical progression.

cap'nzack · « **Reply #16 on:** October 13, 2003, 05:17:25 pm »

Frigates and heavy frigates;

FF-60 Burke Class FF
FF(D)-64 Locknar Class Drone Frigate
FF-73 Okinawa Class FF
FF(E)-74 Knox Class Escort FF
FH-58 Surya Class FH
FH-68 Coventry Class FH
FH-73 Avenger Class FH (as a side note, I have the Avenger and Miranda class CL being developed concurrently, the Avenger class being combat heavy and the Miranda being multi-purpose. As an example I have the roll bar weaponry on the Avenger being 2x2 Phg2 and the mirand being 2x2 ph3, all on the FARA firing arc)
FH-83 Soyuz Class FH (this was a toughie, looking at the ship I always wondered what those outrigger pods were, in my mind they make perfect Ph-A's and Ph-B's. I have my soyuz being a combat oriented phaser only ship thats kind of an energy hog. By the way, Atrahasis, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make this one! It would be beyond awesome I'm sure!)
Thats it, I see frigates as sort of disappearing by the early 24th century as starfleet moves to larger, multi-functional ships like the excelsior and the ambassador classes.

Steelviper33 · « **Reply #17 on:** October 13, 2003, 05:17:30 pm »

Heres what i do:

F-Constitution
F-Constitution+
F-Constitution2
R-Sineae
K-Vor'Cha

but i do think im gonna change it to something like this:

F-CH-Constitution
F-CH-Constitution+
F-CH-Constitution2
R-FF-Sineae
K-BC-Vor'Cha
E-1-Scimitar
E-BB-Scimitar

(E = Whatever Prime's prefix is)
(1 = Unique Ship ; My BB Scimitar is a very dumbed-down version)

Atrahasis · « **Reply #18 on:** October 13, 2003, 05:28:08 pm »

It certainly would be great if we could use as many letters as we want for the ship descriptions, but the fact is that it's better if you can keep them 4 letters or under, because the little ship ID bar in-game does not display more than 4 letters. So if all your Heavy Cruisers are called F-CH-XXX that little in-game bare doe snot tell you much. However, Zack has an interetsing method......you can know the type, and how modern a ship is, and allow for infinite variants (assuming there's no more than one variant introduced in a given year, but that's a safe assumption to make)......moreover it gets all that info in 4 characters, maybe 5 for special ship types. I like it!

cap'nzack · « **Reply #19 on:** October 13, 2003, 05:40:33 pm »

What I do as far as variants is as follows, here are all my varitations for the Miranda class CL
CL-73 Miranda Class CL
CL(D)-73 Miranda Class Drone CL
CL(T)-73 Miranda Class Troop transport
CL(M)-73 Miranda Class Minelayer

It seems pretty cool to me, I mean, no navy introduces 2 hull types in the same class in the same year, so it works nicely, plus it seems very 'offical' to me, as the U.S. navy, which I assume starfleet is based upon uses a similar system, with hull numbers being used instead of introduction year.

Atrahasis · « **Reply #20 on:** October 13, 2003, 05:49:39 pm »

You know what? I wonder if even the dash is necessary.

cap'nzack · « **Reply #21 on:** October 13, 2003, 06:07:19 pm »

probably not, force of habit I guess. The only problem with my system is if you are into the X era (which I am not) is that you could loop the years. I tried to do a TNG shiplist once but lost interest. my heart is firmly rooted in the TOS/TMP era. What I theorized is that, in keeping with the 'touchy feely' vibe of TNG, the entire nomenclature of ship designation would change- cruisers, and battle cruisers (CA's and BC's) become 'large explorers' (EX(L)),light cruisers become small explorers, EX(S), battleships and dreadnaughts become 'large combatants' CB(L), and frigates, heavy frigates, destroyers and heavy destroyers become 'small combatants' CB(S). All the designations, in my mind at least, would change around 2330, which (and being no serious trekkie) would indicate a timeframe when fed-klingon hostilites ended for good.
Again take it all for a grain of salt, I don't really care if it is canon or not, it just seems to work in my eyes.
On a side note, what I'd really be interested in seeing is the whole timeframe of the game being pushed back by fifty years or so if we had the models (hint, hint). I think it would be really cool to get to the late era and see constitution's and D-7's arrive as superweapons. Just think, PLAYING the starfleet museum version of SFC. perty cool I'd say

Atrahasis · « **Reply #22 on:** October 13, 2003, 06:19:08 pm »

Yeah, it could loop in the 24th century, but then again, as you said, they might have different designations for ships altogether.

cap'nzack · « **Reply #23 on:** October 13, 2003, 07:16:07 pm »

Heres the list of all the fed designations and the ships I use;
BB-Battleship (excelsior, P81's x era cruiser)
DN-dreadnaught (Lord shtupps (or whatever) federation, P81's star empire)
BC-battlecruiser (decatur, andruils?, and the churchill)
CA-cruiser (ALL of atrahasis' connie varients, P81's enterprise, moonrakers constellation, and I forget whos' phase II enterprise)
CL-light cruiser (too many to name)
FH-heavy frigate (atras surya and coventry, and a modified P81 Miranda that I did myself to make it look more like the SOSF aveneger)
FF-frigate (atrahasis burke, duct tapes okinawa, P81's locknar)
DD-destroyer (atrahasis (see a theme here?) saladin and siva, andruils nagomo, ductapes deope (sp) bay)
DH-heavy destroyer(atras' detroyat, P81s' Baker)
RC-Research cruiser (P81's oberth and atras' Bonaventure)
CV-Carrier, slim pickins here, atras Coronado and I forget whos' TMP upgrade
EC-Escort (Remora, pardon me, I again forget, P81's Sol, slightly upsized using M6 editor)

and these are the varient codes;
(D) drone
(E) escort (I only use ADDs' on escorts, makes the game much more strategic I think)
(T) troop transport
(M) minelayer (I kinda made this one up, but it's an excellent support vessel, and alot of fun to start beaming out mines at a hapless enemy)
(H) hospital-don't know why I bother

I wanted to monkey around with the transports but I fear it would screw up the convoy escort and raid missions.

Atrahasis · « **Reply #24 on:** October 13, 2003, 07:19:52 pm »

You know, another aspect of this game that is lacking is mineSWEEPER capability. If we could somehow target mines with our drones like I think you can in SFB then you'd have minesweeping. Just send out a drone, watch the fireworks.

cap'nzack · « **Reply #25 on:** October 13, 2003, 07:28:53 pm »

I agree.
I like the idea of commanding support vessels but unfortunatly the game engine won't support it. I think it would be neat to command a transport trying to make it through a blockade without getting killed, or survive as part of a convoy with three enemy cruisers trying to get you. I sometimes tire of driving around in the 'tricked out dreadnaught'. Guess I'm just dreaming. What I think would be the coolest, and no one has modeled it yet is a RESCUE SHIP, right now I use the funkyass Azel class in my shiplist, which is way cool. But it's there more for flavor as it is very lightly armed, has no marines and a ton of shuttles. No missions that it can complete, however, it looks cool in screenshots!

Atrahasis · « **Reply #26 on:** October 13, 2003, 07:33:48 pm »

Yeah, support vessels would be cool to have at least one of in your 3-ship flotilla. Minesweepers, minelayers, rescue ships.....

Notice in my modelling I've been a great advocate of freighters and essentially Class-II support ships....gives things a much more interesting flavor than the "tricked out DN" like you mentioned.

cap'nzack · « **Reply #27 on:** October 13, 2003, 07:44:11 pm »

Right On!
When I use a three ship flotilla, which, by the way, I never do before reaching rear admiral rank, I use a capital ship, an escort with ADDs, and a general purpose destroyer or cruiser.
I'm a huge advocate of removing all ADDs from all ships except escorts. I think the introduction of ADDs pretty much whacks the balls off of any drone armed ship and I enjoy the game much more since getting rid of them all except for the escorts. The flip side, which is fun to play too, is that any ADDs armed vessel, and I usually make them verrrrry lightly armed, is near useless mano e mano against another ship. Removing ADDs' also makes carriers much, much more powerful, as they should be.
I like the idea of specialization, it adds a 'rock paper sizzors' aspect to the game that was lacking before.
I pretty much have it nailed with the feds, roms, and klinks, the other races I'm not that interested in. The klinks I followed the same guidelines as the feds and the rommies I up'ed the power across the board, they are HARD to kill now, which is the way I like it!

cap'nzack · « **Reply #28 on:** October 13, 2003, 07:46:28 pm »

can't believe I spelt scissors wrong,
goes to show you what a bottle of merlot will do!

Atrahasis · « **Reply #29 on:** October 13, 2003, 07:51:16 pm »

I'm not a big fan of ADD's myself. You know, if we could get the L and R firing arcs to work in the game, we could spec out Fed ships with the appropriate number of 12-phaser saucers, which would be enough defense against missiles and drones and so we could forget about the ADD (which is not canon anyways, which is why I don't like it). But as it is now, since the L and R arcs do not work, then we can't really put 12 phasers on TMP saucers because that seriously unbalances the game because all 12 of them can fire drecitly fwd. The ones at the sides need to have L and R arcs so that they can't fire directly fwd. Why don't you give your support in the following Geenral Fourm thread and epxlain your issue with the ADD's and of how having more phasers with the L and R arcs would be a more interesting solution?

http://208.57.228.4/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB1&Number=188547&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

cap'nzack · « **Reply #30 on:** October 13, 2003, 08:06:00 pm »

Ok atra, at first I was a little confused but now it makes sense.
The L/R firing arcs should be at a 45 degree angle, I see now.
By the way I like your old idea of making TOS ships armed with ph2 and TMP ships armed with ph1s'. I've done this across the board and it makes the game much more interesting. Also, how do you feel about heavy photons? I don't use them much, in fact I only have 'em on moonrakers abbe class as a fire support cruiser. There doesn't seem to be a klink ship that fits them. Originally I used them on all TMP ships but it unbalanced the game too much.

Clark Kent · « **Reply #33 on:** October 14, 2003, 10:34:20 am »

I like the smaller ships for the most part, but have found that they don't last unless you keep pumping prestige into keeping them running. As such, I've ended up getting my own custom ship in game, I guess it would be classed as a BB because of it's BPV. Actually, to say this custom ship is tricked out is an understatment. In early mid and late era I can fly my frigates and DD or CL to my heart's content. I'm more of a miranda guy when it comes to vessels vs the connie, but come advanced era in OP, the game keeps pitting me up against x cruisers or even X frigates. I went up against a klingon X frigate in my fed DWV once, and it was a real wake up call. My weapons just didn't pack enough punch to get through his super reinforced shilding. He picked me apart with my by comparison weak shield and X phasers, and the only option I had left was to beat feet. Not to mention what the four AMDs did to my measly four fighters. I moved up from the DWV to a CLC, which I had hoped would work better for me (love that little ship), but instead I was just pitted against k-XCA's mission after mission. I fought fire with fire and got a F-XCA, which was good for a few missions. Then, it was my lone F-XCA vs 3 (not one, or two, but THREE!!) B-11Ks or 2 or 3 of their top CVs, I forget the designation. That's where the repair points really hit me- fixing that fancy expensive armor on the XCA. 1000 prestige to repair each mission, that's a reality check. As such, I limited my engagements to sticking it out only when a hex was about to chnge if I won. Eventually, I managed to build aenough points to buy my special ship, which I had actually added to the game not to use, but just to see in missions. 9226 prestige points, each of them well earned. The result is that I still get pitted against 3 B11ks at a time, but I now have the fire power to back it up, and a couple handy features that I can use to my advantage to keep them at a distance.
I simply couldn't find another way to do it.
On the other hand, in my custom skirmish missions, most of the ships in there are FFs or DDs or CLs. I haven't even touched the really big ones yet.
CK

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Topic: What Shipname descriptions do you use? (Read 4518 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

Atrahasis

Captain Ron

Atrahasis

ActiveX

Captain Ron

ActiveX

Clark Kent

Rogue

Clark Kent

Core

Parislord

Atrahasis

Parislord

cap'nzack

cap'nzack

Atrahasis

cap'nzack

Steelviper33

Atrahasis

cap'nzack

Atrahasis

cap'nzack

Atrahasis

cap'nzack

Atrahasis

cap'nzack

Atrahasis

cap'nzack

cap'nzack

Atrahasis

cap'nzack

MarianoDT

Atrahasis

Clark Kent

Topic: What Shipname descriptions do you use? (Read 4518 times)