I was watching a let's play of ES 1, and I noticed that the existing unique planets (eg: Auriga) have their own names, instead of following the format (eg: Leran III).



What I think would be nice would be to have each race have a unique name for their starting planet, so that way it can be mentioned in their origin story and backstory. If ES2 follows the format of ES1, then each race has a specific type of planet they start on anyway, so a specific name just sort of makes sense.



It would also be nice to be able to name your home planet when you're creating a race, just like you can name the race.

I think that would be really nice. Also, maybe planets with for example Wonders could sometimes be named to give a bit more flavour.

ZenTractor wrote:
I was watching a let's play of ES 1, and I noticed that the existing unique planets (eg: Auriga) have their own names, instead of following the format (eg: Leran III).



What I think would be nice would be to have each race have a unique name for their starting planet, so that way it can be mentioned in their origin story and backstory. If ES2 follows the format of ES1, then each race has a specific type of planet they start on anyway, so a specific name just sort of makes sense.



It would also be nice to be able to name your home planet when you're creating a race, just like you can name the race.

I completely agree. It would be interesting to see it taken a step further as well, with all planets in the home system named and pre-defined upon game start. It could be one additional layer in the game setup when creating a new faction.



The only problem I see it presenting is if the possibility exists of having more than one instance of the same faction occur in a game. ES was capable of this. The problem could probably be overcome by giving each faction a menu of planet names, much as Civ handles city names.



Frankly, I'd like to be able to rename planets in general as an in-game option.

Good idea. Better immersion.

A selection of home planet names for each faction would certainly be welcome, as it would be for their systems.

On a somewhat related note, with the hint that the order of planets in a system might be a little less random in ES2, I'd like to see home planets not always being the first planet. It doesn't matter at all for gameplay, but I feel it would improve immersion a little to not always have those lush terran and jungle planets in a spot that's probably too close to be a habitable zone.

If we're talking about immersion:



Gas giants typically form in the outer-reaches of a stellar system; the gasses having drifted away from their parent star while the heavier more-iron rich asteroids staying closer due to being heavier clumping together and forming terrestrial planets. That being said, things like gas giants forming close to stars doesn't make a whole lot of sense..



Also: renaming individual planets for those that wish to would be nice. Just default to the usual naming scheme for all worlds by default, and let players modify the ones they want to on a planet-by-planet basis.

Sheesh, enough already, just have a text file in the user save area called planet-names and you can enter as many names as your wish. I know my brother in law would probably name them all after ski locations around the world he has been to.

Yes, the most unique planets need to have their own names.

Varadhon wrote:
The only problem I see it presenting is if the possibility exists of having more than one instance of the same faction occur in a game. ES was capable of this. The problem could probably be overcome by giving each faction a menu of planet names, much as Civ handles city names.

That would work pretty well, I think. Get a list of 30 or so faction-themed names for planets that are assigned to the home system. That should cover multiple instances of a race in a game. It would help though if the star was given a regular name and all other factions just saw the system as Star I, Star II, etc until they've actually come in contact with that race.



I also wouldn't mind seeing the Solar System as the default UE start and I think equivalents for the other races would be an interesting game option. By all means, keep random starting systems, but the option to have a fair starting point that is also immersive would be very enjoyable.



I also wouldn't mind seeing the ability to change your leader's portrait. That could help with immersion too, so you don't run into 3 United Empires all run by the same Emperor.



On another note, why are the human factions the only ones that get faction names? Everyone else just seems to be Race Name. Humans get United Empire, Pilgrims, Sheredyn, and Vaulters.



Also, yes, please let us rename planets in game as well, but again I hope the old system name can be kept for opposing players until the area is re-explored.

That's not completely true. Yes gas giants do form at the outer reaches of solar systems, however they do not form there exclusively. There are in fact many gas giants known to the scientific community that orbit extremely close to their parent stars. In fact well ordered star systems like our own have been discovered to be an exception rather than the norm. On another note, while gas giants can be found orbiting very close to their parent stars, some orbit to close and their atmosphere is slowly stripped away by solar wind.

BlackBird1696 wrote:
That's not completely true. Yes gas giants do form at the outer reaches of solar systems, however they do not form there exclusively. There are in fact many gas giants known to the scientific community that orbit extremely close to their parent stars. In fact well ordered star systems like our own have been discovered to be an exception rather than the norm. On another note, while gas giants can be found orbiting very close to their parent stars, some orbit to close and their atmosphere is slowly stripped away by solar wind.

Most models on gas giant formation dictate that they must form sufficiently far from their host star to avoid being torn to shreds by the star's gravity as they form. These models also demonstrate how gravitational interactions between the forming planets, the accretion disk, and the host star can cause them to migrate inwards. At least one model shows that unusually massive accretion disks can give rise to gas giants that form close to their host stars.

[necro]



Some unique planets will have their own names (think major exploration discoveries, Auriga -- but not necessarily Auriga!), and starting planets will have their own set names.



[/necro]

Very cool. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.