Fed II Star - March 5, 2006

ELIJAH'S PLANET DESIGN GUIDE
Part 3: Identify Yourself

In Federation II you have to come up with a unique system name and planet name. Which I find makes naming my planet three times as hard. Naming your planet and system is as important as naming your character, because your planet becomes an extension of your Fed II identity. Because of this I generally set up a string when planning my planet's name. I always start with my name, then my rank and then the planet followed by the system.

Examples:
Jessecka, Founder of Dryad in the Lost System.
Monkey, Founder Acuminata of in the Musa system.

The reason why I do this is it allows me to keep all three cohesive. And then I just start listing and seeing what I like, and as I read and google if I see a word or name that I like I add it to the list. One of my early picks was "Elijah, Founder of Carmel in the Resort system." Now, instantly what I disliked about this was the Resort part. Carmel worked for me, because Elijah is a biblical name and Carmel is a biblical location in relation to the biblical character that is my namesake. Resort, however, gives away a whole section of my planet and falls into the "telling" aspect of what I warned against in my last article.

So, then I tried to think of a system name, something that I could grow into. Surely not all of my planets would have been a resort anyway. I came up with Elijah, Founder of Carmel in the Asilomar system. Asilomar, to me, is a beautiful beachside conference ground in California. One of the buildings was designed by historic female architect Julia Morgan, famed for her work at Hearst Castle. It relates to my planet as being a resort of sorts, but the name generally has no meaning to people who haven't heard of it. I like it for this reason.

So we move on and continue in this fashion until we settle. Where have I settled? Well, I'm still weeks away from uploading my planet into the game, so I'm not entirely settled yet. However, I find having a name for my planet helps further ground in my planet concept. However, my planet concept doesn't come out of my name.

As far as warnings go, I have a few specific warnings. Generally, two word planet names are hard for new players to get to, and also confusing. It's more confusing when you have a space between the words, and looks incorrect when you don't. "ForgottenRealms" vs Forgotten Realms.

Another "don't" would be, don't take a name of a planet in our solar system not used in Sol. Don't build Uranus - unless you plan on having a planet with a brilliant story based on how Uranus floated out of the Sun's orbit into your system.

If you want to name your planet after a real life, easily identified place, like a country or city, you have a few responsibilities. And if you then plan on having a themed planet based around that place, you're under even more restriction. If your planet is named "New York" it's not the real New York is it? How did it detach itself from earth, go through Earth's orbit, and not burn up? So it's a neo-New York? Why would anybody build a New New York? You have to tell me the story.

Also, it's generally not a good idea to name your system after a place that you then have your first planet be all about. Don't name your system England and then have your planet England-based. Because then, if you choose to have another planet in your system, it's already got its theme set out for it, and you'll find yourself repeating ideas and themes.

And my final word of caution? Once you name your planet and system you're stuck with it and instantly limited. Your planet and system become a part of your identity. (Which is why you should spell check both!) But more importantly, when you name your planet, you're making a design decision. Contemplate names like an artist contemplates the colors of a painting, or the structure of a sculpture.

And remember, planet design is fun, and you can break all of my "rules," planet design is definitely a art with an audience, but it's also suppose to be fun for you.