It works because the game doesn't yet care about the number. The des does not seem to affect gameplay, although in future versions it is expected to affect computer AI regarding squadrons. It is highly recommended that you keep to using valid designations. The parser will detect some invalid colour settings and set the ships to what appears to be the default squadron Orange Alpha. Anything screwy or neat that you get by fooling around with this is unlikely to remain in later versions of the game.
Different colours typify different types of ships.
The first is the ship's X or horizontal position on the map. The number may be negative or not, negative numbers placing the ship farther to the left, positive placing the ship farther to the right. The map is Really Really Big. It would take a flea at full speed three months to cross from one end of the map to the other. 384 Hell Fighter uses a circle that is 384 degrees around, due to the ease of dividing this number by multiples of two.