https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3174439924

Hm I think a few other roles are misnamed too - like the "rocket artillery" role implies the use of unguided explosives, but it's actually using torpedoes, so maybe it should be called a "torpedo platform"

I decided to try to integrate my suggestions into a bigger review of the roles and ship sizes, with inspiration from contemporary naval designations, the smallest being patrol boats and cutters, which is used by the US Navy and Coast Guard, although you could also go with the Royal Navy term Launch for the smallest craft. "Scout", "Interceptor" and "Vanguard" sound too much like roles rather than ship sizes! Dreadnoughts were the capital ships of their day (they were WW1 era battleships) so it seemed contradictory to have both them and capital ships as mutually exclusive sizes

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3174458188

Thanks, your suggestion is better. I've tried to stay accurate to some extent, but other factors had to be considered too.

I'll try to explain a little bit how that worked, just for those interested.

I've always been a fan of accurate naming and classification in games.
What's funny is, I've never understood why misnaming stuff was so common.

Until I had to pick names for my own made up stuff :D

For Class names, I had to pick exactly 8 one-word names.
And those had to match and somehow "give a hint" of what is the flight model and purpose of any given ship.
Class system with flight changes were extreme compared to Vanilla, so naming in itself works as a kind of "assistance" in adapting to X.

That's why M1 was picked as Scout, to clearly indicate that this class should not be expected to fight, mine or have other major function.
( It can though, but that's something for players to find out )

Similiar thing with M2s and M3s - their flight and purpose was aircraft like, with M3s being the first fully combat capable ships ( with regard to general balancing, when fleets clash ).
From M4s, flight and capabilties were getting closer to naval. Corvettes were expected to be versatile, a first class of "naval ship", instead of aircraft.

I did have issues with picking names for M5 - M7s,
Dreadnought was selected as that size did not exist in Vanilla, and thats probably the first class capable of mounting M7/experimental weaponry.


As for roles, there's a simple explanation.
Combat system requires players to recognize and remember Roles just from their codenames, mid-fight.

So, it was important to avoid similarities - and those that appear should be related ( Ca-BB / BB / Ca ).
Also, codenames had to be easy to follow and remember, ATs and RATs should be clear to notice as a "long range threat".

Similiar with Destroyer role - for players that don't care that much about military stuff, it looks like a clear indication of a threat.

Originally posted by LM13:

So, it was important to avoid similarities - and those that appear should be related ( Ca-BB / BB / Ca ).
Also, codenames had to be easy to follow and remember, ATs and RATs should be clear to notice as a "long range threat".

Unfortunately if you've played a lot of Hearts of Iron or similar games, you see Ca-BB and think "heavy cruiser battleship? Must have conventional guns!" 😂 and "anti-tank? Must be for penetrating armour"

If you need one word ship sizes, I can see Scout having some merit, but at the same time, it's definitely a role as well - last night I put the Scout package on my corvette, for example!

What about "shuttle"? That implies lack of military use like you said. Or possibly even M1 Pod and M2 Shuttle, for sci-fi connotations

Yeah, Shuttle would fit better, but it didnt feel like a right name at that time.
There are dumb things like "Scout Scout" or "Hauler Interceptor".

Still, Class system has been there for a year, while Roles are just very recent.
Had to pick some names back then, and dealing with gameplay code was time consuming enough to leave naming as it was.

Changes in last year were large enough, that current encyclopedia is almost obsolete.
The sad thing is, cosmetic stuff and adding information takes as long, or even longer, than coding mechanics.
(At least that's my experience with modding)

Could I join your team? I've worked on mod teams before that used Git, and I worked at Paradox for a year as a content designer where we used SVN

Xavorion was a personal project, so... there's no team.

I wouldn't mind it being a team project, but I'm done with modding - took ~3 years to get to this point.
I've got few bugs to fix, and encyclopedia to refresh, but that's it.

Class Upgrades was the last addition, kind of a bonus one since there were no content planned after 2.4.1
( It's just, those were really, really needed for gameplay )

i got no problem with destroyers. i am a X veteran and destroyers are the biggest ships there xD
and we have an irl mix up anyway
my problem is more the M naming xD when i see "M6" i automaticly think its a corvette, m7 a frigate and m1 a fckn carrier. my brain doesnt want to change from the X3 style :D


you are done with modding? is this information actual, because you named a fighting update or something like that. but sad to hear, one of the best mods i ever played

Originally posted by NovakhinSheppard:

i got no problem with destroyers. i am a X veteran and destroyers are the biggest ships there xD
and we have an irl mix up anyway
my problem is more the M naming xD when i see "M6" i automaticly think its a corvette, m7 a frigate and m1 a fckn carrier. my brain doesnt want to change from the X3 style :D


you are done with modding? is this information actual, because you named a fighting update or something like that. but sad to hear, one of the best mods i ever played

Yeah, since Final Content Update I'm done.

What appeared after that - those were fixes to stuff that really, really needed fixing - and I managed to spare a little bit of time to address that. ( In contrast to all other things that were planned, but had to be dropped )

About M names - yeah xD I could stick with original X classification, and confuse everyone except X players, or just go with size numbering.

And thanks, many, many thanks. I've spent a lot of time on game design here. It's really great when that stuff works for others.

Honour where honour is due

Your M classification did change from X3, but somehow i keep flying M6 or M7. i love that funfact Corvette to Cruiser, Frigate to Dreadnought and we are back at misnaming :D