Naval Prefixes for the Trees without them

S3b5 · March 28, 2024, 9:33am

Would you like to see this, or something similar, in-game?

Yes
No

0 voters

Naval Prefixes are used to identify what country a ship comes from. Currently, in game, only ~4 countries have a majority of their ships with naval prefixes.

Those are;
USA

With the prefix USS (United States Ship)

UK

With the prefix HMS (His/Her Majesty’s Ship), and an added note for HMAS, HMNZS, and HMCS, (His/Her Majesty’s Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian Ship, respectively)

Japan

With the prefix IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) or JDS (Japanese Defense Ship)

Italy

With the prefix RN (Regia Nave)

Germany gets an honorable mention for the Kaiserliche Marine ships in game

With the prefix SMS (Seiner Majestät Schiff)

As for the missing ones, those are Germany (the rest of it), the USSR, France, and a few Italian ships.
Regarding prefixes for these navies, these are the ones I suggest

Germany

KMS (Kriegsmarine Ship), VMS (Volksmarine Ship), and FGS (Federal German Ship)

USSR

USSRS (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic Ship) and HIRMS (His/Her Imperial Russian Majesty’s Ship)

France

FTR (French Third Republic), FFNF (Free French Naval Forces), VFNF (Vichy French Naval Forces), and FS (French Ship - post-war ships)

Italy

ITS (Italian Ship)

These prefixes would add a bit more life and flavor to each tree, and I think it would allow for easier identification by name alone. If displayed somewhere in the battle, be it in the name of the ship that pops up in the killfeed or elsewhere, it would give players an idea of what ship they may be fighting against at any given time, in case they forgot, or are unaware, where the particular name came from.

References

wikipedia - Ship Prefixes
wikipedia - Classes of French Ships for distinguishing the French Third Republic, Vichy, and Free French ships

Mathll · March 28, 2024, 11:09am

This could be a good idea, however I am more in favor of adding prefixes to boat names only if they had one ( for example the ships of the French navy have never had a prefix, all those that can be found are either used by other countries or are just invented)

In addition, you should put the correct prefix in the correct language (Italian ships have the designation RN for “Regia Marina” and not “Italian ship”).

LeonDasPro · March 28, 2024, 1:59pm

In general I agree they should be included where applicable, or where there are similar ships with similar names…Leopard?..which Leopard?

However many major Bluewater navies have never used prefixes eg France, China, Russia, Germany. If added they should be clearly differentiated and 2 or 3 letters max for non-historical use.

Eg

Russia - USSRS…I know some people use this but Imo no. Either just RFS for modern Russian Federation as its an international maritime standard, or left blank for older vessels (or RS at a pinch).

China - CS, CN, CNS or just blank. PLANS (People’s Liberation Army Navy Ship) is sometimes used unofficially but Imo no.

France - I don’t feel the need for multiple confusing multiple letter prefixes. FS is a modern standard and could also be used for other eras as with the exception of the Vichy (VFS or FSV) they are a continuation of the same nations forces.

Germany has some accepted prefixes. Nazi era is usually none or KM, and East Germany is none or VM. Overall a mixed bag but would be historically correct with gaps filled by widely recognised fillers.

And there will always be the oddities - South Vietnam has a boat in the US tree, but it can’t be USS or VPNS which is preserved for the unified country. So SV, not to be be confused with Oman’s SNV?

And let’s not forget Sweden. Should they ever arrive their official prefix is HMS for Hans/Hennes Majestäts Skepp (His/Her Majesty’s Ship). HSwMS (His/Her Swedish Majesty’s Ship) is only used in English to avoid confusion with Royal Navy ships.

Until there is common International Regulations like there is with pennant numbers (although used more for regulatory purposes and not always displayed on the vessel itself) there will be these holes.

R_nminbiY_n · March 28, 2024, 2:15pm

RVNS

Anyhow I don’t like the idea, I’d rather have prefixes only for nations that actually used them.

Zyszhao · March 28, 2024, 2:24pm

In Chinese one is called Leopard (C-54) i remember, cause there’s no IJN or HMS thing in Chinese client and i never heard any Chinese using ways like USS XXXX, they only call name in Chinese
So, use the roundel will help in this situation

LeonDasPro · March 28, 2024, 3:15pm

Your reply beat my edit so I’ll leave it be.

I’m OK with unofficial but widely prefixes eg FS, KM/KMS etc, but less so fillers for the sake of it.

Tbh I don’t see much use for changes in the trees anyway, not going to confuse the French Leopard with the British HMS Leopard in the menus. More useful in battle, but here the international standardised country code in brackets after the name would be my choice (either ‘mother’ nation or specific as long as its consistent) rather than memorising up to 4 non-historical prefixes for France.

JamesPond1200 · March 29, 2024, 2:49am

I would only apply them if they were historically accurate. If the ship never had a prefix or the acronym is made up, then I wouldn’t want it. Otherwise sure.

S3b5 · March 29, 2024, 9:30pm

The ITS I put was specifically for the post-war ships of the Italian Republic, to not confuse them with the Regia Marina from the Kingdom of Italy. I don’t know if they are different but IIRC, at least as far as I could find, the Italian Republic didn’t use a prefix - hence the ITS (Italian Ship) that is used by NATO.

I put USSRS because it was for the Soviet Navy, and not the modern Russian Navy. They are two separate navies and should be treated as such, in my opinion. If modern Russian Ships are added, they can have RFS, but as it is just the Soviet Navy currently, it needs a prefix for the Soviet Navy and not the Russian Navy. One other prefix I had was SN, for Soviet Navy, which works works, but I just prefer USSRS over SN.

This was a case of “when is the ship depicted and who was it in service with at the time”. It is complicated, but the French Navy just made no sense at the time. I suppose FS works for all of them, since it is technically the same country, they are just under different “republics,” the Third and Fourth Republic respectively. I just wanted to differentiate between at least the Third Republic (FTR(S?)) and the Fourth Republic (FS) ships.

For Germany, if prefixes are to be added, the widely accepted one (that I could find) was KMS (Kriegsmarine Ship). I differentiated the Cold War ones by VMS (Volksmarine Ship) and FGS (Federal German Ship), again to make them distinct - they are technically two separate navies, unless we get post-unification ships, which are also sometimes given the prefix FGS.

I didn’t mention China or Sweden because at the time of writing they don’t have naval forces in the game.
I do think Sweden should be HSwMS (at least for the English client) since it is widely accepted as the “unofficial” official designation abroad, but yes HMS would be more appropriate. Like in real life, it would be used as a way to avoid confusion with the Royal Navy ships.
On the other hand, China, while not having an official designation, is sometimes identified by PLAN internationally, for People’s Liberation Army Navy. There would also need to be a prefix for the Republic of China Navy, Imperial Chinese Navy, and any others that I missed. I would suggest ROCS for the ROC, and ICN for the Imperial ships, although CNS for Chinese Navy Ship might work for both. There does need to be a distinction between the PLAN and the ROCN, though. They are two separate navies.