Why Name Fleets?
by: Thurman Miller

Your need to ask why you want to name a fleet. I name mine so I can tell simply by right clicking on the fleet and to know exactly what was lost when I get messages like:

All communications with Fleet ## at (xxx,yyy) has been lost! or
Fleet ## was destroyed in a mine field at (xxx,yyy)

As for defaults, everyone will have different reasons for doing different things. Yours are just as valid as others, but I don't think the game could make any type of defaults (IMO too much work) I've experimented with the following approaches...

Only with thecomputer AI:

For warships:1280T6x840Sx2KA

This tells me it is armed with torpedoes that total 1280dp at a distance of 6, with 840 Shields and 2000 Armor. This way I only have to add it all up once and I can immediately see if this fleet can tackle an enemy fleet.

For Frieghters, I've used variations on:P->Taurus
this means dumping people on Planet TaurusTaurus->P->Corona
This means loading people at Taurus and dumping them on CoronaTaurus<->Corona
this means repetive load/unload between planets.

For colonizers, I've used:
C->TaurusThis means I plan on colonizing TaurusWC
This means a waiting colonizer (out where the enemy has been plastering me with mineral packets)For Mine LayersM800->Taurus This means laying 800 mines/yr near the planet Taurus.

I could go on, but basically I use naming of fleets for a number of things, but as Barry pointed out in a strategic post earlier, it can enter a whole new dimension when playing against human players.

I use them to speed the game up -> minimize looking things up or figuring out what things are.I'm interested in seeing other's responses as well.

Tman

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