Help us out naming the ship classes!

[echo2361]

Having now watched the video I understand your previous concerns about sizes with regard to calling things frigates/cruisers/battleships/etc. Combat looks more like two carriers (the flagships) meeting in space and deploying their squadrons and other craft to fight each other. Carriers don't carry around cruisers and battleships so I like the new direction the names are taking to reflect the fact that they are more like strikecraft than their own, independent starships.

My suggestion for the new fourth slot name would be "Gunboats". Gunboats are heavily armed ships with small crews that can deal damage if they get in close but can be overwhelmed as well. The name isn't just limited to naval warfare either. Gunboats show up in sci-fi contexts as well. Take Star Wars for example where you can see the Empire using "Assault Gunboats" in the old TIE fighter games.

*Edit: I've just had a thought that if people don't like the idea of using the word "boat" to describe a starship I suppose "Gunships" would work equally as well*

Also, one little thing bugs me about the name "Light Assault" and that is that is seems to be missing a word. Light assault what? Light assault rifles? Light assault flowers? The last one is a joke but hopefully you see my point. I would suggest calling them "Light Assault Craft" or LACs for short. It just sounds like a more complete name to me.

[Histidine]

Hooray! Today we end the tyranny of wet-navy ship classes in space sci-fi!

...Ahem.

Concerning the names, I have a few things to say:

1) Ultra-obscure names like Poniard and Garron (I honestly thought those were made-up words at first) are terrible for something that's supposed to convey purpose instantly. (Needless to say, invented terms without an obvious etymology are even worse). Stay away from them.

2) I'm going to disagree with chemical_art here: Aegis and Sentinel work well; they have existing real-world meanings and connotations that communicate their ingame role well.

Predator: goes after things and eats them
Sentinel: watches over things
Aegis: Athena's shield

3) As per #2, I'd recommend using agent nouns and names of objects with an appropriate connotational relationship, except that they tend to use up words that could have been used for names of ship classes instead (e.g. Aegis would be the perfect name for, say, a defensive cruiser class) - and for the same reason, they often don't convey size very well.

I'll probably hold off on suggesting names till I can get home and watch the combat video, though.

[x4000]

All right, you guys have been suuuper helpful with these last three posts!  I was really tempted by Gunship, but I think that is a little bit nonspecific.  Here's the names I'm going to use, at least for now, unless there are better suggestions.  But I'm getting really happy with these:

- Interceptor
- Light Assault Craft
- Bomber
- Predator (yeah, I moved back to using this, but in a different slot.  This is a "big scary" all-purpose ship, and so having it be named that is frankly appropriate, I think).
- Claymore (yay!  Going with the idea of flak and hitting the little guys, this is a clear indication of what these are.  I think this one's a winner).

[Histidine]

Right, now that I've watched the video (and failed to glean anything relevant to this thread from it  ) I'll just throw out the ideas I had:

• (no change)
• Cutter (probably implies too much speed?),  Heavy Fighter, Brawler
• Monitor (this one is kinda obscure though),  Aggressor, Spear, Gunboat
• Knight, Lineship ... though Cruiser is honestly perfect
• Phalanx, Defender, Guardian/Guardship, Waller

(There would be more, but I took out anything already suggested)

[chemical_art]

Claymore? That huge sword that was so huge and unwieldy it was only useful in destroying slow opponents? ok.

[chemical_art]

Right, now that I've watched the video (and failed to glean anything relevant to this thread from it  ) I'll just throw out the ideas I had:

• (no change)
• Cutter (probably implies too much speed?),  Heavy Fighter, Brawler
• Monitor (this one is kinda obscure though),  Aggressor, Spear, Gunboat
• Knight, Lineship ... though Cruiser is honestly perfect
• Phalanx, Defender, Guardian/Guardship, Waller

(There would be more, but I took out anything already suggested)

I like all these names.

[x4000]

- Interceptor
- Cutter
- Monitor
- Predator
- Claymore

Ooh, yeah, Cutter and Monitor are much better.  I still prefer Predator over the others suggested there, and Claymore.  Claymore is a large sword, yes, but in more recent military meaning it is also a large antipersonnel mine.  The sense I'm using it in is in the latter.

[tigersfan]

Claymore? That huge sword that was so huge and unwieldy it was only useful in destroying slow opponents? ok.

When I think of Claymore, actually, I think of the Claymore mines, which are anti-personnel mines which are effective at taking out soft targets in large numbers, but fairly useless against armored targets.

Edit: Ninja'd by the master...

[topper]

- Interceptor
- Cutter
- Monitor
- Predator
- Claymore

Ooh, yeah, Cutter and Monitor are much better.  I still prefer Predator over the others suggested there, and Claymore.  Claymore is a large sword, yes, but in more recent military meaning it is also a large antipersonnel mine.  The sense I'm using it in is in the latter.

They all sound good. I think something storm related would sound nice for the flak type ship. (Tempest, Storm, Monsoon)

[x4000]

It's thematic, but I think I'm going to stick with claymore for now -- it sounds more military, like the others, and for people familiar with the mines, it makes sense.  And if someone thinks the sword... well, that's not the end of the world, since these are the largest ship that isn't a flagship.

[Coppermantis]

I like Monitor a lot.

[x4000]

Me too, that was a killer suggestion.

[echo2361]

- Interceptor
- Cutter
- Monitor
- Predator
- Claymore

Ooh, yeah, Cutter and Monitor are much better.  I still prefer Predator over the others suggested there, and Claymore.  Claymore is a large sword, yes, but in more recent military meaning it is also a large antipersonnel mine.  The sense I'm using it in is in the latter.

I'm not sure about the name Cutter to be honest. When I think of a cutter I think of a small, unarmed ship that is housed by a large ship and used to transport people between ships or to land. I know the Coast Guard operates some lightly armed cutters, but they aren't warships. If anything the name cutter would make more sense for interceptors since it suggests a small, lightly-armed ship that is fast and nimble and constantly turning and cutting through enemy formations.

I like the name Monitor, but it seems odd to be used on third smallest ship in the game. Monitors are historically modest sized warships, not things carried or launched by another ship. If I heard about a ship that could launch squadrons of monitors, I would imagine something quite a bit larger than the flagship as it is in the game. That may just be my prior knowledge of naval history talking though so I suppose the name wouldn't confuse everyone.

If I may suggest a more radical shakeup to the list at this point, I am a big fan of the name Claymore. I also like seeing consistent naming conventions with ships so why not name all the classes after swords/blades? For example we could have something like this:

Dagger: small, very fast weapon
Cutlass: bigger than a dagger but still pretty fast and it packs a bigger punch
Rapier: bigger than the previous two, intended for strong thrusting attacks against larger targets but can be overwhelmed by swarming smaller foes
Broadsword: a heavy weapon with quite a punch, but slow to swing with so it suggests a "low rate of fire"
Claymore: works well for me, especially with the double meaning relating to the anti-personnel mine

There are plenty of other nice sword names to if some of the above don't quite cut it. Scimitars, long swords, short swords, falchions. I suppose the naming convention doesn't even have to be restricted to just swords. Since we already have Lancers in the game, why not Scythes?

[x4000]

Definitely not a fan of the swords approach.  Right now I've just put in all the new names for the ships, and I plan to stick with them unless something dramatically better comes along.  Or unless over time we find something better (I don't plan on jolting around the names repeatedly, anyway).

[madcow]

Darn looks like I'm too late to this thread to suggest face puncher/face smasher!