Naming of (sub) planets

[Thargoid]

As some of you may have seen, I've been playing around with some new trunk OXPs. This includes one which adds the (non-main) planets and moons that can be OXP-added to systems to the advanced space compass.

I've now got a version that works nicely with Cim's Talkative Space Compass, but it raises a little issue, namely how to refer to the sub-planets and moons? I have a couple of ideas, but before I issue the revised version of this OXP I thought I'd throw the question out for additional thoughts.

At the moment they just say "Minor planet" and "Moon", with a "P" or "M" on the ASC respectively. But as all planets and moons currently get the same name it's a bit boring and not as clear as it might be.

So thoughts please?

[Cody]

Interesting... I've no idea what's possible with ASC icons, but a half-filled-in circle would maybe suit for a moon icon, and the main planet icon could maybe have a dot in the middle for sub-planets. Is that do-able (or indeed, sensible)? As for 'naming' OXP-induced planets/moons... that's something to ponder.

[Thargoid]

Circles are difficult to do, as it's done via a grid-type system. I might try a crescent, but I'm not sure it would look good. The ASC already has the main planet on it (a square), so for sub-planets a modified square may work (not with a dot - again it'd be too small to see).

It was more how to name the planets/moons for the talkative compass especially that is more the question. All of the planets and all of the moons would have the same ASC icons - doing separate ones would be possible but maybe overkill.

[Cody]

The ASC already has the main planet on it (a square)

<scratches his head> A square? Has that changed? I thought the square was the main station?

[Thargoid]

Ok, so it's a circle

Don't blame me - I use a little netbook and they both look the same

[Shipbuilder]

With regard to the ASC what about acrosses i.e. + or X ?

Regarding the minor planet and moon issue what abount creating a list of new names. If this is the case and there are many new names required I'm sure that, as a forum, we can come up with a sufficient number of names between us.

How many planets and moons are we talking about ?

[Cody]

Ok, so it's a circle ... I use a little netbook and they both look the same

Phew... you had me wondering. I maintain my brother's tiny netbook, and I hate it (or my eyesight does, anyway).

Naming is tricky for the talkative compass - I can only suggest alpha, beta, etc (or something similar).

[Commander McLane]

With regard to the ASC what about acrosses i.e. + or X ?

I'd advise against this idea. Cross-type shapes, including '+' and 'X', should be reserved as generic target markers, wherever an OXP doesn't want to come up with a fancy abbreviation or a small graphic. X marks the spot.

[Cmd. Cheyd]

Seeing as most moons and planets in our system are named for dieties, may I humbly submit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deities.

[JazHaz]

I think the best way to name sub planets would be the the system name plus a letter between a-z, eg Lave-a is the main planet, Lave-b, Lave-c are sub planets. Moons could be numbers after, eg the Moon of Lave-a is Lave-a1.

The ASC icon doesn't need to change, it could just be the current planet (circle) icon.

[Svengali]

A source for names could be the [wiki]Planet_Scanner[/wiki]. I've only noticed it while cleaning up the WIKI a while ago, but maybe it gives some inspiration.

[Smivs]

Maybe we could name them after Eddie Stobart trucks

[Commander McLane]

A source for names could be the [wiki]Planet_Scanner[/wiki]. I've only noticed it while cleaning up the WIKI a while ago, but maybe it gives some inspiration.

It should be noted that the Planet Scanner project itself—if it ever went so far as to being a project—seems to be dead. As far as I can see nothing has happened with it since 2009, and—contrary to what the link may suggest—there never was any debate about it here on the BB.

[Thargoid]

Based on the suggestions and thoughts so far (keep 'em coming!) my thinking is to set the planets using the greek alphabet. So they would be named "<system name> <Alpha, Beta, Gamma etc>" from the sun outward. The exception would be the main planet, which would probably be "<system name> Prime".

For the moons, those I'm pondering being a little less routine and boring, using groups of names along the lines suggested here. I like the idea of Cheyd's deities (different groups being from different pantheons), plus perhaps things like Russian Presidents for the commie systems and suitably chaotic names for anarchies.

To enable working with other OXPs, I'll also set the .name property for the planets/moons to their new names, but only do renaming if .name doesn't currently exist. That way if another OXP does set it (for example things like the Tianve pulsar) then it won't get renamed.

[PhantorGorth]

The Alpha, Beta idea is ok except for that the "System Name" is really the main planet name. This is evidenced by the planet descriptions. E.g "The world Leleer is very noted for ..." and "The planet Rabedira is well known for ...", etc.

So maybe the systems need names as well. After all we are on Earth in the system Sol. Though they may have boring names like "HD174212".

But none of that helps with Planet and Moon names. I suggest that a new random name algorithm be written to give names such as "Minos", "Galfon", etc for the Planets ( I am up for doing that if you want) mixed with some list based names and that the moons would be PlanetName-a, PlanetName-b, etc again mixed with some list based names.

The list of names would need to be very long to prevent too much repetition. Deities names but those that have already been used for our solar system's planets and moons should only be used with a prefix (see below). Lists of famous people's surnames (excluding the notorious, we don't want planet "Pol Pot", "Mengele", etc). Also a random selection of non-famous surnames for imaginary future famous people. A list of existing Earth countries and states for prefixing only.

All of these could be categorised for appropriate location use. Such as Smith (from Adam Smith) for a system with a Corporate main planet in it.

Sometimes a name could be purposely reused but prefixed with "New". Also surname based names could part of a phrase such as "Braben's Hope", "Bell's World" or "Jameson's Refuge", etc

The list could also include a handful of non-surname phrases such as "Last Stand", "Hell's Gate", "Don't Bother"