Does the game select names randomly from the list? If it is random, you could include a huge number of names and not be stuck with the same 30-odd that seem to be present at the moment.

How about a mod that would allow you to change the name of the star like you change the name of the planets... I don't understand why this was not implemented in the first place... I want to use Trekkie star names...

It'd also be damn nice if we could change planet names after colonization - all the planets look alike at first (other than # of slots), but if I wind up specializing a planet it'd be great to rename it to "Citadel" if it's my best place for building fleets, or "University" if I've made it into a research planet, etc.

You can change them after colonizing, anytime and as many times as you like! Just select the planet, and click on the name in the panel at the bottom, and the window comes up for you. I also like changing the names, but sometimes I get so "into" the land rush that I don't take the time right away.

You can't change planet names from the colony screen, though, and that's annoying.

Yes you can, Pnakotus, I have done it multiple times already.

You can? Is there an icon now? I stopped looking back in 1.0D

I have to thank the OP for giving me the inspiration to make a stars.txt based on StarCon2. Now if only I knew 500-odd stars was enough for large maps...

wow! a 2300AD player!

thanks for the hardword and will certainly give your mod a try.

I'm going to try some Fading Suns, maybe some Traveler names.

ZOMG! Someone else remembers Fading Suns?

Does the game select names randomly from the list? If it is random, you could include a huge number of names and not be stuck with the same 30-odd that seem to be present at the moment.

I'm not sure.  Would be nice to know how they are selected.  I'm trying to revise my list to cut down on the "AC +66:3955" type names and get more "real" star names with some flavor in the list.  Knowing how names are selected and what's the most individual stars possible on the largest map would help.

The Starcon list I made (but can't find hosting for, should probably just put it in the library) is almost entirely (greek character) (constellation name), so my maps are full of 'Alpha Pavonis' and 'Zeta Tucanae' with the occasional 'Procyon' or 'Rigel'. I much prefer it to the semi-random starnames in the original.

The starname selection is satisfyingly random, as I rarely see too many stars from the same constellation, or too many 'Alphas' or 'Epsilons'.

EDIT - Bah. I take it all back: I've done a series of quick scouts around a map, and the starname selection doesn't appear very random at all. It seems they just take the first x entries, then randomly assign them to stars. Now I need to randomise my stars.txt before I add it to the library.

Further, this implies that starnames toward the bottom of the list will only be seen on larger maps, and that's a shame. True-random selection would have been much nicer.

I've added v1.1 of my stars.txt (fully pre-randomised) to the library. As soon as it's approved everyone can try it and complain!

Bah. I take it all back: I've done a series of quick scouts around a map, and the starname selection doesn't appear very random at all. It seems they just take the first x entries, then randomly assign them to stars.

That's a shame - although, for the list I'm using, that means I can put the "regular" names at the top and then the "AC" and "DM" names at the bottom. That should help... I guess. Still, I'd rather the game was completely random in choosing names.

Yeah, I've put most of the stars a SC2 player would remember near the top, and all the stars I'd never even heard of at the bottom. It *is* a shame, though - I'm very interested to know if it really *isn't* random.