Naming conventions for new systems

Hi all,

I am currently making numerous 'unknown' systems for the Unstable Space update to Torn Stars. I am wondering if anyone has ideas or suggestions regarding a naming convention that could be used to automatically name or designate planets and moons within 'unknown' systems.
Keep in mind that these stars would at least have a name from a star catalogue eg. HD3582 etc. and might also have some of the larger planets identified.

Any ideas, thoughts or suggestions on how to handle naming would be appreciated.

Well...

Famous scientists, sci-fi writers, etc ?

to explain a little better... I used this system in one of my P&P (pen & paper) Space RPG campaigns:

Main star: Some famous scientist
Secondary star: like main
Tertiary etc: like main
Planets: some less famous scientists
Moons: sci-fi writers
Rocks, etc rabble: Catalogue number depending on, orbit around what, time to orbit if any in months (standard, 30day month), orbit "roundness" 0 being round 9 highly elliptical (ie. Rock #32798 = Orbits around tertiary star, second planet, every 79 months, on quite elliptical orbit.)

I know that might be rather complex but for me it helped system creation a lot.

Well, that is a good idea. But I am thinking of a system that automatically names local planetary bodies. Meaning the computer just automatically and arbitrarily names the bodies according to a system in its' programming.

My initial idea is to use Greek letters, applied in order to first gas giants and planets in order of distance from the sun. Additionally the system's star name would be added as a prefix. So the closest Gas Giant to the sun would be called '3471 Gas Giant Alpha' (3471 being the numerical component of the star's catalogue name). The second closest Gas Giant would be '3471 Gas Giant Alpha' and so and so. Then moons around a gas giant would take the Gas Giant's greek letter designation and as a prefix, and would then receive a suffix to define, perhaps, it's distance from the gas giant or it's relative size compared to other moons (or even the order in which the sensors detected it. This would leave room for sensors picking up new planetoids and being able to assign a name to them without breaking the naming pattern). So the 'first' moon around 3471 Gas Giant Alpha would be called Alpha Moon One. The second moon could be Alpha Moon Two. We could also use chinese numerals for the prefix. yi, er san, shi etc.

Anyways, that is my current plan. It does mean we could end up with moons with names that are quite an uncomfortable mouthful. But, hey, they are not supposed to be beautiful. They are just meant to be temporary, computer assigned designations.

I think that if you're talking about emerging in a brand spanking new star system where you're seeing planets for the first time, I'd go with the straight catalogue name for the star, then use (or devise) some kind of classification system for planet types seen in a countless number of forms in sci fi shows or writing (a letter designation each for gas giants, rocky worlds, or planets with atmospheres, maybe even "class M" for earth type worlds...ya right). Anyway, you get the picture, some form of classification, then go with a convention for ordering them in their position outward from the primary. Then add another code in for the planet's diameter, mass or density (as a function of earth standard) and distance from primary (in AU). Car's have VINs which are complicated codes that tell you everything from body type, engine displacement, and assembly plant, to paint colour...all from a string of numbers and letters. Why not use this thinking for planets, too.

If RW is Rocky world, AW is an atmospheric world, and GG is gas giant, then you could emerge next to something like: GG 6228. That would be a gas giant, 6th planet out from the primary, twenty two times the size of earth and 8 AUs out. I'm just making this stuff off the top here, so I'm sure you smarter guys could come up with better particular codes, but I just thought I'd suggest something like that for starters.

Planets get named later on by a variety of conventions, and only when it seems important enough to people that they get named (remember how LV 426 in Alien went from being a numbered rock to 'Acheron' only after it got the interest of settlers?). I named most of the star systems and the planets in the MS, and believe me, I was reaching pretty far after awhile. Sometimes I tried to come up with good reasons, or tried to use some convention (different for each system), like one system had each planet named after a member of the crew of the ship that surveyed it. Sometimes I just got to names from jumbled letters. I might be cool for a player scouting a new system to be able to name things in that system, and for those names to stick for the duration of that particular player's game wouldn't it? Just a thought.

The only issue I see with number designations is playability. It gets pretty hard to remember if I wanted to be in orbit around HD337-M23-D or HD337-M45-J.

Granted, that without names, it is going to feel much more like you are exploring a new system. Is it possible to keep names clear enough for players to use?

On the topic of the player choosing names: All the geography has the "in pog code" name fixed when the map file is created. That name cannot be changed. What the game engine lets us do is load and unload translation files. So the player could choose a "theme" for a system, which would then load the translation file that matches that theme. But the player could never type in a name, and have that name show up. Which is why you don't get to type in the name of your ship in the Standard game. You just get to pick from a list of names.

Depending on how many systems there are, a plain code could work. I mean if theres 5 systems, i could easily remember the code for each system If there is 50, it might be harder.

For a pure catalog system though, all you need is one code, then add roman numerals for the planet number, then add a number if its a moon.

HXG-IIIm3 would be the third moon of the third planet of the HXG system. Simple, and tells what we need. In real life, a system might have a 100 digit serial number, each part describing location, velocity, vector, number and types of planets, type of star, minerals, if life forms are present, radiation hazards etc.. We don't need something that crazy. a three letter code would be fine.

as for proper names.. heck just google random words and pick stuff out you see on the page.

And there HAS to be a ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha system