Suggest cool names for modules

Hyperdrives:

 Experimental Reeunk Hyperdrive "Carrot on a Stick"

Jump Booster:

Kinetic Lander Propulsion System Mk. III "Moonboots"

Weapon Amplifier:

Obliteration Dynamo "Odyn"

Shield Generator:

Unyielding Tachyon Widget "Utwig"   

12. Crew Quarters - Red Shirt Space Condos (you might as well make them comfortable)

13. Docking Port - Deluxe Auto Wash Docking Port (Washes, waxes, and sterilises your vessels of all those space bugs. Free air fresheners)

For laughs:

Crew Lure Mk I "Midnight Snack"

Crew Lure Mk II "Brunch

Crew Lure Mk III "Dinner Invitation"

Engines:

Gas Guzzling Blowhard -- Strong and fast but will empty your fuel tanks rapidly

Ohm's Law -- Impossible drive, everything says it should work but doesn't unless a crew member points a screwdriver at it and chants Ohm's law the entire time it's to function.

Jump Booster:

FIC "Fart in a Can" Booster Rockets -- Used for an instantaneous boost in speed but unable to sustain flight alone

I don't have a specific context in mind for this, just a vague idea of a smaller weapon called "Squirt Gun" and a larger version of it called "Super Soaker".

Engine: Scotty Specialty Propulsor
Lander air filter: CMW Wunderbaum Deluxe
Weapon amplifier: Deth-n-Destruxn Dispenser MK V
Battery: Metallic MoP Battery

edit, moar:

Landing Zone Targeter: ICOM Landing AI
Shield modulator: RFSU Safemaker
Crew quarters: Livestock transport capsule (re-purposed), Tesselated Hyperbarracks
Battery: Vishnu Churner RTG
Sensor Module: Archeotech Auger Array

It would be easier to come up with modules if we knew a bit more about how modules worked and about the flagship itself. But lacking sufficient information, here are a few ideas:

Weapon Amplifier

More Dakka :: (Increases weapon firing speed)

*Dancing* Lights :: (Decreases weapon power, but allows it to rotate freely) ((I have no idea if ship customization will work like Star Con 2, where putting a weapon in a different area causes it to fire in different directions. But I had to have at least one reference to the Orz.))

Crew Module

*Happy Camper* Quarters :: (Increases the amount of crew members that can be on the ship.

"Death Blossom".  Pkunk could do something reminiscent of "The Last Star Fighter" thing.  It would cool if there was a ship that could do the same thing in a different way.  With a different but also applicable name if it is necessary for IP reasons like it probably is in this case.

some silly names from me, for starters:

Hyperdrive modules
    Snellman Fury I Hyperdrive
  
Thruster modules
    Kayiee-3 Thruster

Fuel Tanks
    Stardust Hoarder Mk V Container

Sensor Module
    Phamysht Nim-bal Vyzeera Sensor Module

Engine
    Lexite &%$1.equals*C/?42! Engine

Lander Armor
    Flexxor'o Armor

Lander Air Filter
    Menkmack Fjumbaca VII Air Filter

Landing Zone Targeters
    0RBITAL Decay 119 Targeters

Noise Dampener
    Vuaari Donacdum Dampener  

Jump Booster
    Doh-No Exquisite Booster

Atmosphereic Compensator
    Drenkend Equilibrator 0_0 Compensator

Crew Quarters
    Pymtek RUUM-4-1-M0 Quarters

    Pedrons Habitual-C Quarters

Docking Port
    Kalasautomat Docking Port

Weapon Amplifer
    Stroi:Togg 0P Amplificator

    Gwar-B-Q Weapon Amplifier

Shield Modulator
    Aaz-Num L3-Carapace Modulator

Inertia Dampener
    Crymsontech Chaos-1D Dampener

Battery
    Pinthi Pewdrops Core MkII battery

FWIW, I really like the "Odyn" Obliteration Dynamo and More Dakka

Hyperdrive: SBI (SpaceBalls Industries) G0N-2-Plad -  high level hyperdrive, would be amusing if the trail effect was altered as well

Weapon Amplifier: Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator -  for missile weapons perhaps?

I'll try again when I feel more clever.

Spotted the Marvin the Martian fan!

Crew Quarters:

Escher Tessellated Compartments or MCE Tessellated Compartments 

Weapon Amplifier:

Narya Intensifier or Narya Intensifying Rig

From something that recently came up as a joke in the SFB forum...

Tardis Hangar Bay.  It's a lot bigger on the inside than it looks like it is from the outside;-)

is it necessary to explain the references the names are based on or is it okay without it?

Can we stop with the MK I, MK II and MK III? That's specifically what we're guarding against! They should have names all to themselves. They also should be descriptive, not just a string of numbers and letters or acronyms (px-10F, HDM, etc, those mean nothing to anyone), and lastly they should have something to do with what they're boosting - so people can identify with the module.

Just thinking out loud here -

Hyperdrive modules: Dimensional Shifting Pulsar or Photon Displacer, or something that collapses the space in front of you, to a more navigable, shorter distance. Something-Collapser.

Thruster: Phoenix Starshot, The Howling Wind

Fuel Tank: Pathfinder, Excursionist or Expeditionist-something. Odyssey is another cool word.

Sensor: Something that can see far, like a Hawk... Starhawk, Spacehawk etc, also Gazer, like Stargazer, but I'm using "star" too much. Maybe Stormfalcon?

Engine: Should be new technology-based names for propulsion - microwave, electromagnetic, whatever that race has decided to use for propulsion... bosons? Photons? Sophons? Space-folding?

Armor: Verdant Battalion Plating

Air Filter: Gaian Breeze

Crew Quarters: Vagabond something

Weapon Amplifier: Starhammer (though I am vehemently against weapon amplifiers in general, min/maxing bullshit)

Cloaking device: The Invisible Asteroid

Much like ship names, designations are "gibberish" without context.  It is something of an artform to work out militaristic designations that don't read as gibberish and that would take too much to even begin to get into here.

Ship names are a much better example.  If you try to give specific names to all of the ships of a human fleet the two most likely results will be either a re-listing of the names of US Navy ships or a bunch of random names that don't have any meaning to the reader.  You can give ship names meaning through their descriptions, using real historical figures or events that are also relevant in the story/background of your game, or by using names that you have built up in some way in the lore/story of the game universe.

A good example is that Alexander the Great is a very important figure of the lore of my own universe.  He also "ascends" as Apollo.  So in my own human fleet ships named "Alexander" or "Apollo" have a meaning attached too them through the a story, and are also automatically related too each other through the story.

Without giving ship designations and names meaning, they just read as being completely meaningless and you are better off with just individual "cool names" like "Dragon" or "Wasp" or something.

EDIT: One of my favorite SVC/SFB "militaristic designations"...  RALAD (Rail-Launched Anti-Drone).

I'd like to warn about the tendency to be too plain and banal in names. Imho names must have a hidden message, reference or acronymic joke in them, else they become plain and uninteresting and easily forgotten - nothing to remember.

What may seem to you as a letter or acronym gibberish, to some other people is actually a covert reference to certain things. Even then, this is one of the nicer things to discover (the meaning of) even much later, after completing to play the game. That's why I was asking whether we should explain the references or not, so that devs could figure out whether they were acceptable or not.

For example, in my case of Pymtek RUUM-41-M0 Crew Quarters, ruum refrers to "room", 41-M0 - to "for one more". There's even a song by Anthrax chanting: ...there's always "room for one more" which imho fits perfectly to crew quarters. Chaos-1D Dampener is a reference to the infamous album of Sepultura "Chaos AD" which is supposed to dampen the chaos. 0P is a reference to OP which widely means "overpowered". And so on...

There are of course just random numbers like Mk1 or V or -3 which indeed can be skipped if devs find it unfit. These numbers though may give a player an artificial impression of bigger scape of weapon upgrades in the game - which is not necessarily a bad thing. For example Landing Zone Targeters (Tektonic Sifter L2) might imply that now or later (by user-made contributions) in the game there might be a less and more powerful versions of it (L1 and L3) available which gives some reason for the player to aspire to acquire it.

The acronyms also give the upgrades imho a more techy and modern spirit. Mk numbers were also used in SC2.

Just my thoughts. Not a big game-breaking deal tho.

Exactly, Ashog, as long as there is some type of meaning behind it then it works, even if most wont understand the meaning.  If a player brings up the "stupid names", they feel as though they have been corrected when someone else points out too them that, example, an "R40 Lerxt Cannon" is a reference to Rush and Alex Lifeson, or that "NTE" in Galaxy Quest stands for "Not The Enterprise".  As long as it has meaning then it works.  It's when you just have random letters with no meaning that it doesn't really work.  Then it gets old fast, and even starts to seem kind of stupid to a lot of people.

How about:

18. Storage Module (Small, Medium, Large)

 

 

Possible name: Quantum Drive Mass Storage Subsystem

It converts mass digitally and stores the data on a large RAID array of quantum drives.

Cuore held me at gunpoint and told me to put this here.