For the first time in a long time, I spent a little time with SC last night. (I needed to check something with my joystick, and it was quicker and easier to update SC than to reinstall Flight Sim). The game is currently in Alpha 3.12.1, is still dreadfully optimised and glitchy AF.
There has been a lot of progress in places (there’s a fully-fledged prison system in place now, mining has been expanded beyond just planetary surfaces to hand mining in caves and orbital mining of asteroids, and the mining loop has been extended into ore refining as well, for example) and there’s significant improvements in places. Still, the there’s a long, long road to go before the release of a minimum viable product for the persistent universe component.
My fervent hope is still that Squadron 42 (the single player campaign story game being developed by CIG at the same time) sees the light of day within in the next 12-18 months, but I fear the covid work-from-home requirements that the developers have in place may delay that even more. Which is sad.
That said, in my wanderings last night I did discover that they are currently in the process of trialling the first iteration of a ship naming registry system. And two of ships I own are eligible.
Names must be unique and are issued on a first-come basis, contain standard letters and numbers only, can have spaces, no longer than 32 characters.
The two ships I can name are the Mercury Star Runner and the Carrack, and I need some name suggestions.
The Mercury Star Runner is a courier ship by Crusader Industries that is focused on quickly and discreetly delivering small payloads of goods or data. With features such as dedicated data storage computers and “smugglers’ holds”, the mercury made a name for itself delivering crucial information into the right hands.
It’s the Millennium Falcon of SC.
The Anvil Carrack is a multi-crew explorer that has more than earned its long-standing status as the go-to pathfinder for both military and civilian services. It is built as a single, self-sustaining ship that can make long-duration voyages through the roughest areas of space. It’s designed specifically for transiting jump points, dealing with extreme conditions in space and getting back home.
It’s the Prometheus-Rocinante-Firefly mashup of my dreams.
Naming opens at 8pm tonight and I’d like to try grab something good before they’re all gone. So any unique, interesting, creative, suitable suggestions would be appreciated. (And no, Shipy McShipface is not creative. Or unique, I believe).
Tried a couple of others that I’d thought of, and after about 7 got one to stick: Maximus Rex. Means “the big king” or “biggest king” and I sort of like it for this ship.
