Names for a "Death Star"

Is your game set in the real world or a modified version there-of, or if not is there an established mythos?

You might go with the name of a fearsome deity, monster or creature if there are any in the setting: Colossus, Leviathan, Prometheus, Thor's Hammer, etc.

No, no, it's just a generic SF.

Preferably I would use some technical name (Battle Station, Stellar Annihilator, Paradox Cube). Also, I look primarily/especially (but not only) for a name for a whole class of these ships. So the final name could be like "Colossus - Stellar Annihilator class vehicle".

Primarily, I want to get a "death star" feeling when the player sees the name of this ship/vehicle class (BTW: how to call this whole thing, it does not seem proper to call it "super ship"...)

You could also try describing the purpose of the ship.

If it is a flying fortress (mostly about fat shields), then it would probably be something akin to Star Fortress or Bastion Class.

If it is a fat flying canon to destroy planets you can name it Planet Cracker or Moon Crusher.

But that is only if it has a "special" purpose (of course ships of that size tend to outmatch most smaller ships on pretty much every field in a significant way).

That's no moon; that's an End of Life Cube.

Unlive Sphere

Penultimate Spheroid Life Remover.

If it is a flying fortress (mostly about fat shields), then it would probably be something akin to Star Fortress or Bastion Class.

Yes, something like this, gimme more names like these:)

About the mechanic. The player will build traditional ships all the time, standard. But he can build ONE special superstation-ship-battlestar-fortress, it won't be that expensive (relatively), actually it would have better power to cost ratio than traditional ships (otherwise the player would not built it :D). It will be a special project, takes long to build (but does not drain that much resources) and once finished you, the emperor, have your cute powerful unique death star thingie :)

It would not be used to destroy planets (but it could have such capability), I want it rather a special-super unit. You send it to important battles or guard important choke points, it would be slow compared to ships.

It may not quite fit with what you have in mind, but I have always liked the names that Ian Banks used for ships in the Culture series. Even if they don't quite fit, I am sure you can get some inspriation from them

-Josh

If it is a flying fortress (mostly about fat shields), then it would probably be something akin to Star Fortress or Bastion Class.

Yes, something like this, gimme more names like these:}

[...]

As you wish:

Bastille Class, Citadel Command Station, Fortification Superheavy Battleship, Castle Control Plattform

That about runs my synonyms dry, but I can offer you some german translations if you find them to sound bulkier or heavier:

Bollwerk, Festung, Zwingburg (this one is a fortress built to control area)

If it is a flying fortress (mostly about fat shields), then it would probably be something akin to Star Fortress or Bastion Class.

Yes, something like this, gimme more names like these:}

[...]

As you wish:

Bastille Class, Citadel Command Station, Fortification Superheavy Battleship, Castle Control Plattform

That about runs my synonyms dry, but I can offer you some german translations if you find them to sound bulkier or heavier:

Bollwerk, Festung, Zwingburg (this one is a fortress built to control area)

German name : apply a bonus of +1 fear to any evil death machine :D

If I were a player, I would be a lot more likely to want to build that überstarship if its name sounded dreadful and harmful. I don't know if by "a Death Star feeling" you mean that, or mean something really huge, both of them or something else.

To me, something related to fortress sounds huge, but not dreadful. On the other hand, Stellar Annihilator or Galaxy Destroyer sound like vessels I would really want to build.

Note that's just my preferences and I'm sure other people will show preference for names that evoke other things.

Have you thought about giving them unique names -- as in player defined -- rather than a generic descriptions or titles? Naming it yourself after completing whatever tech it requires could make it more special and give it a certain je-ne-sais-quoi. Granted, people will probably name it something silly, but it still might make it feel like their World Smashing Weapons Platform. No one cares about Firefly model carriers, but everyone loves Serenity.

Mine would be called Cat Scratch Fever. Or Squashinator.

A space empire, you build one or more (but usually just one) super-something-combat-gigantic-vessel things.

The Empire built two death stars.

These class of objects are typically called Megastructures - just astro-engineered ones. I'd give them individual unique names just like boats, colonies, planets, and cities have names.

Because Megastructures take so much work to build, it's unlikely there'd be many identical-planned megastructures. How many identical skyscrapers do we have? Few, if any.

Even large boats are usually have only two or three "sister ships", and even then may have modifications unique to each one because new technology gets invented while they are constructed and each one takes so long to build. Boats do have "classifications" to help military quickly group ships mentally into different classes of firepower or different cargo-tonnage. These classes are usually named after one of the first ships (the "lead ship") of that new class. We have Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, and they are named after the Nimitz which was the first of that class.

Rather, each megastructures would be extremely unique and vary greatly in size, shape, blueprints, and so on. The first of a specific size would be given some unique name (i.e. the MS Wiggins), and then later ones of similar size would be called after the original's class (i.e. the MS Monolith might be a Wiggins-class dyson sphere).

The Tiger Star. The Starmageddon. The Destiny Spear.

Have you thought about giving them unique names -- as in player defined -- rather than a generic descriptions or titles?

I need some generic name, so I can put it in research (like "+10% to speed of Stellar Anihilator" construction). So I need a generic one there. But yeah, the player could give it the unique name as well.

The Empire built two death stars.

But the second was built after the first one was destroyed. So, historically, there was only one at the same time :)

The Empire built two death stars.

Which was only to be mass-produced by ripoff games.

If there exists a possibility that even though it is a super weapon, two copies may exist at the same point in time, I would go along the lines of:

{unique name} + class + {purpose}

Alezandersmith class Assault Starbase

and casually refer to it as the 'Alezandersmith'

(of course, the name should be more badass, like the Death Star, it should be tied to both space AND fear: Star and Death, respectively).

Death... Start!

Bump.

I might still use a few more ideas for "superships" names (and then I will let this topic rest in peace :))

peace moon... :lol: