Ship upgrade with a bunch of numbers.

I get the same thing. I think if the original design name has a roman I then the next upgrade will have a II.
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I don't tend to like renaming my ship-classes at all. When I produce a "Battlecruiser", that ship is going to STAY "Battlecruiser" no matter how many times I upgrade the base, and it'd be nice if those old obsolete printouts simply ceased being around after there ceased to be any extant samples of it and another one of that exact name had supplanted it.

Also, the AI loves to pointlessly create a million designs which are exactly the same, and it's clogging up the space simulator list. It would be nice if obsolete garbage designs got de-listed eventually.

Yea, it's a known bug since release.

End your design names in roman numerals or letters(I think) it will automatically count up when you upgrade a design. My guess is it's trying to count up from _null when you don't have anything.

I start out by using standard navy nomenclature like FF for Fast Frigate and DD for destroyer. Next I put a version number on it like "Mk I". When a ship is built the AI place a hull number on it to designate how many ships of that class have been built. So, my very first frigate would be an FF Mk I and named "FF Mk I 0001". When this ship is upgraded, the AI changes the class to FF Mk II but does not change its name. When I retrofit a ship, I always change the name so I can tell its capabilities when viewing it in a fleet. So, FF Mk I 0001's name is changed to "FF Mk II Mod1 0001" when it is upgraded. In this way every ship will always have a unique name and I can tell its history. For example a ship named CA Mk III Mod3 0003" is the third ship of its class and has been retrofitted 3 times. A little overboard I know but I do like details.

Apparently if you leave a space at the end of your design name it works OK (have not tried this myself though), I usually use Battleship MK and then get MKI MKII e.t.c.

I'm not 100% sure, but from what I can tell the game can't handle duplicate named ships -- if a design/ship has a name, then that design/ship will ALWAYS have that name and no one else can have it. If you obsolete a design and ALL COPIES of it exit the game via retrofit/destruction, then it will, eventually, vanish of its own accord. But so long as ONE copy of the ship, in your hands or an enemies, exists, the blueprint has to remain.
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