Out of curiosity, I notice that some players choose a ship name for there character and some a pilot name, Ive always picked a ship name. Though I know you can pick what ever you want, whats the official server preference, pilot or ship for your name?
Depends if i'm feeling imaginative. If I use a ship name, I tend to speak like "Name: bla bla"
Snubs aren't typically named, though you can always use a callsign. Anything gunboat/transport size or larger is usually named and the speaking crew member RP'd the following way.
Crew member name: Blah blah, blah blah blah.
But yeah its kind of immersion breaking to see dreadnoughts named John or fighters with an LNS- prefix.
Yeah I agree on the capital ship named "John" lol
I was just kind of curious because I want to truly play this time instead of screwing around like I used to, like keep a diary in the diary forum area etc..
But I want to go through it with one pilot who eventually changes ships as he gets money or may join a faction. I want him to always be identified by his ship which would suggest a pilots name, but as you pointed out a capital ship named Fred is silly. I guess you could always bring your ship name with you as you change ships, or use both if there short with a . between them.
To elaborate on what Durandal said, I'll say this much:
Typically a snubcraft would use the "Pilot's" name, or a Callsign/codename.
Capital ships or Transport ships would be given a name, with a prefix (LNS-, RNC-,RNS-) before it in the case of military ships. Generally, just name your ships in a way that makes sense.
See my signature below for a good example.
If there was an official standpoint, itd be; "Follow the NPCs naming conventions."
I always figured that it was silly to have a name for a capital ship unless its named after a famous person - like the liner Queen Elizabeth II something like that.
I typically go with anything of up TO the size of a gunboat could just have a single pilot (or at most, two), and so just go by the handle or call sign of the pilot. So if my character name was Pete Mitchell, with a call sign of Maverick, what I might have would be: Fighter or Bomber - Maverick ; Gunboat - Lt. Pete Mitchell Freighter - Maverick OR Pete Mitchell.
Anything that's transport sized or full size cap ship should have an actual name. Transport ship - Pride of Cambridge Dessie - HMS-Purgatory
You COULD see a large combat vessel having a name - but it'd be of someone famous in Disco or Earth history, and they'd probably have a fleet designation. So you might see LN-George.Patton or RM-Erwin.Rommel.
Whether snub or cap, i ALWAYS name my ship by the ships name. i never put the name of the guy in it but on occasion use the Name: blah blah technique.
I rarely use the pilot name, as you can tell by most wrecks in the game that are named - ships have their own names (you can often see the pilot's name too, in the infocard).
Though the "community" general accepted vibe is the way NPCs go - caps/transports have a ship name and snubs got the pilot's name.
Though it really is whatever suits you.