Implants Names changes are a great improvement.

Module Names suck due to the fact that not all items have all 1-4 metal levels in the game that is one thing.

The others is you are replacing unintuitive prefixes with a generalized unintuitive prefix.
In my opinion you are complicating things or merely half way solving the problem, generalization is good but why not just put MT1-MT4 in front or back of the already existing names this will keep the established names that have been around for years buy also add the Meta Level tag for quick reference.

Best place would be at the end of the name!

Why is this better?

- Names remain unchanged and this leaves you again with the freedom to come up with god knows what names.
- Meta level is there for quick reference.
- Old players are happy that they can keep the old habits while they get the improved meta tag.
- Both search by meta tag and normal old names remain simultaneously
- Old Killboards can e easily fixed/ Killmails can be fixed by simple queries.

- Resists should also keep they're name and could get a resist prefix besides the end Meta tag.
- This keeps old flavour but also adds the resist type: EM/KN/TH/EX/AD - Electro Magnetic/Kinetic/Thermal/Explosive/Adaptive
- This would create the generalization without removing the old established names.

All around focus on ADDING Value instead of Replacing VALUE.


What you did with the propulsion modules was quite bad now its harder then before to sort them.

Contrary to what you believe the prefixes you chose are too long and unintuitive. The shorter and the more direct the better.

Besides short suffixes also clears DB storage space in the long run and makes communication less hard on bandwidths, is a WIN-WIN-WIN situation ;)

Don't treat renaming like it's some kind of monster you have to avoid at all cost. It's just a tool to improve and fix the faults and limitations of the current naming scheme. You're going to have to do some renaming anyway, since some of the old names aren't that well chosen and can cause problems.

As an example take my personal pet peeve, the shield hardener names. I've played the game for years, but if I fly an armor ship for a few times I can't search the hardeners by name anymore. It shouldn't be that hard to remember them. They are all shield hardeners, but you can't search them by those words. The whole group is a mix on barriers, fields, screens and matrixes, that you can't all get to show in any simple way. It's not a bad thing to give all of them some uniform designation, that allows you to easily remember them and get them all to show by a simple search word. If you're doing that anyway, you might as well be open minded and see what other improvements you could do.

Because you can not search for numbers in pictures....

Well, given that the changes are to a consistent scheme, it should be far less than one week for the existing not to be confused.

Personally, I don't understand the sheer volume of the whining on this. Do people really think about their afterburners other than 'I'll go for the best' and 'I'll turn it on'?

I could /almost/ understand things like missiles. Almost.

Yet another way to represent these things would be to incorporate meaningful numbers into the named modules in a similar way to the new implants. Merge them into the name of the module in a way that keeps a scifi feel - by this I mean using a naming convention that respects the race/faction that are the primary developers of a module.


For instance: missile launchers are generally patented and developed by the Caldari, so their names would integrate tech and meta levels into serial codes. The old examples of this were modules like the "XT-2800 Heavy Assault Missile Launcher" and "Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction".
However, XT-2800 has the potential to become an indicator for the developer and quality (meta level) of the item.

In this case, XT would be a 2 letter symbol for the faction who patented the specific module - examples:
XT -> No faction (tech 1/2)
CN -> Caldari Navy
DG -> Dread Guristas

Adding a code letter before the tech and meta level representation could signify calibre:
R -> Rocket Launcher
L -> Light Launcher
A -> Assault Launcher
H -> Heavy Launcher
C -> Cruise Launcher
T -> Torpedo Launcher
CT -> Citadel Torpedo Launcher
CC -> Citadel Cruise Launcher

Finally, 2800 could be truncated down to a 3 digit number which directly displays the Tech and meta level of the item, making visual comparison a lot easier (comparing numbers is easier than names, and more efficient- like the Caldari):
Meta 1 -> 101
Meta 2 -> 102
Meta 15-> 115
Tech 2 -> 205

For example:
A "Caldari Navy Cruise Missile Launcher" would translate into "CN-C108 Caldari Navy Cruise Missile Launcher".
At a glance, you can tell it is a Caldari Navy (CN) Tech 1 meta 8 Cruise Missile Launcher.
Another example:
The "Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II" would become the "XT-A205 Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II"
Here, you quickly learn it is a non faction Tech 2 HAM launcher.

This is only an example for missile launchers. Every module type should have its origin analysed and named based on what race patented it and what makes sense. Keep in mind that if you're going to use descriptive words as meta representations there needs to be a big enough difference between the weight of the words to make an impact on the user.
E.g "Prototype" and "Experimental" are two words with roughly the same weight when we compare them.


TL;DR:
Variety is the spice in this case, and I feel the way to tie this into more descriptive module names without loosing too much diversity is to use the already established races. I think it is a bad idea to homogenise ALL of the modules into one format for naming - rather, have the player figure out how a certain races name their modules.

Just my 0.02 ISK.

Zainou 'Snapshot' Heavy Missiles HM-703.....


is still a mouthful

change to just acronyms so this one would be:

Zainou 'Snapshot' HM-703


after all any idiot can figure out the acronyms for skills