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[Saede Riordan]

Something interesting as a point of discussion came up in one of the channels I was in and I figured a poll of the larger community might be interesting.

Pros:
*Improves logistics since its easy to tell at a glance on scanner which ships are yours
*Adds immersion and occasionally interesting RP to things
*Its cool

Cons:
*Gives intel to enemies

Opinions, Yay or Nay on ship name prefixes and why?

[YoshiMoromuo]

Prefixes are an interesting concept, and only provide intel if the enemy understands your particular naming convention. I tend to use them myself. I actually use a combination of ship-class-specific prefixes and numerical registry now.

I blame my time in the Navy

[Merdaneth]

Since I have hundreds of ships, I use specific shipnames for specific fits. Additionally, I use prefixes as an RP tool.

As an RP tool it is pretty effective because it is very visible. I sometimes see enemies using the TES designation as well, only usually with some kind of insult attached to it, and often by non-RPers.

However, that shows people take notice of the prefix, and they remember it and associate it with a specific kind of faction (in this case the Amarr). To me that is excellent use of a small RP tool. You are building an image and therefore helping to build the world.

As for myself, I'd like to think that when people seem TES Silver Templar on scan, they know if they should run or not, because they know what they'll likely be facing. And if people are smart enough to realize that when they see TES Purple Templar that they are actually facing a different setup, all the more power to them!

[Boma Airaken]

I use them, just because I think ships that have names without a prefix seem kind of lame. Just a personal opinion thing.

[Casiella]

I name my ships, but every time I've been in a player org that proposed them, I've flat refused.

[Misan]

I've run them before, though right now I just have names with some symbolism for most of mine. Sometimes adding a tag makes it hard to fit certain names too. Might revisit the idea once I have my corp running again, but probably not, I don't like giving out free intel.

[Ulphus]

Ship names are more like a transponder really, and I don't consider them the same as a proper Name exactly.

I think having a consistent naming scheme helps the side with the best probers most.

In the past, if I have probing superiority, I use prefixes (or suffixes) so the scanners can identify who's blue from their scanners. This has been on a per fleet basis, and will sometimes change from engagement to engagement, and usually from day to day.

If you don't have probing superiority and you're not sure you want the engagement, it can be a good thing to alter your transponder to try to reduce how much you stand out, and if your enemy are using an obvious naming convention, replicating that can be interesting.

Being realistic, it is probably more of a placebo, so that the people in your fleet feel like they're doing something to improve their odds.

[Ken]

I ran with a w-space corp for several months that used a prefix to quickly id non-corp ships that came into our wormhole system.  Worked rather well in that setting because most neutrals/reds coming in would have no idea who lived there and thus couldn't come in with a copied prefix.

[Casiella]

I can see it making more sense in that setting.... until somebody with proper scouting comes in, sees the pattern, and duplicates it before their gang jumps through. But since it worked well, awesome!

[Boma Airaken]

Forgot to add a caveat. If I am on a roam, and not in an actual war, I always just use no prefixes and the most non-rp and ultra-offensive/toilet humor name I can find.

[Rok-Yuni]

while i know it is generally a bad idea, the vast majority of Yuni's ships are her name. It fit's the concept.

Rok's ones... generally i don't use a prefix, just name the ship something i think sounds cool or interesting.

[Mizhara]

I sometimes prefix, sometimes I don't. Depends on the organization I fly for and what character I'm on. Miz used to prefix her ships while in Du'uma Fiisi. We were small, we were fast and we didn't mind who could find us. If we were in local, we weren't hiding anyway.

I still don't use anything directly Miz related in names.

[Ember Vykos]

I always use some kind of naming convention for my ships though especially if I have multiple fits of the same hull. I also like to use prefixes. I really dont think they give out that much intel either. Anything on D-Scan that isnt in my immediate fleet is considered hostile till proven otherwise naming scheme or not.

If you jump into a system with a Thorax called RIA Angelsound then yeah its a given its you and I could easily pick out how many of your friends are probably in local, but if you have that same Thorax named greendildo and it vanishes from d-scan when you jump out of system its giving the same intel. Couple that with how many other ships vanished at the same time or if I had eyes on the gate you entered or left from and I have the same intel even if you dont have a prefix identifying your ships. If anything the lack of a prefix only means its a few seconds more until anyone else in local has a rough but somewhat accurate idea of your fleet makeup so I dont see much of a difference.

[Ken]

Forgot to add a caveat. If I am on a roam, and not in an actual war, I always just use no prefixes and the most non-rp and ultra-offensive/toilet humor name I can find.

Ha!  I flew a probe for quite a while that was named "Anal".  If it was a hull people used more often, I imagine the name would be somewhat commonplace...  Like "Katrina" for Hurricanes.

[Mithfindel]

My old Amarr character's faction ships do carry a HIMS (Her Imperial Majesty's Ship) prefix (non-faction or civilian ships are not worth such of a distinction). In Aseyakone we're currently having a few corp-owned ships which do carry hull numbers (e.g. FF###, CC###). As we're not at war, the ships currently carry "ASKO-" in front of the hull number as a prefix.