Ship classification guide

[Guest CzigBot]

It really triggers me when people make corvettes bigger than frigates or other such mishaps, so I'll just post a quick guide to ship classification based on historical classifications.

 

Fighter-It's small and shoots down other small stuff, really simple.

 

Bomber-It's small and blows up really big stuff (In the rest of the guide, fighters and bombers will just be referred to as fighters, because anything that's anti-fighter is also anti-bomber.)

 

Gunship-Like a corvette, but smaller. Generally anti-fighter.

 

Corvette-The lightest class of "big" ship, they're sub-capitals that generally either have a large array of small guns for taking on fighter swarms, or anti-capital weapons like torpedoes or bombs. They are big enough to take on swarms of smaller stuff, and fast enough to run from heavier stuff.

 

Frigate-The all-rounder light capital, they can serve in just about anything from anti-fighter, anti-capital, repair, or even as a pocket carrier (Anything bigger than this can be a carrier, gun-focused classes like the battleship might still carry a few to soften up targets before their guns get into range or to fend off bombers). These form the backbone of any navy.

 

Destroyer-A capital on the heavier end of light, much better than a frigate at anti-capital but worse as anti-fighter. One of the most important ships for supporting the heavier capitals, just after frigates.

 

Cruiser-A heavier, but still versatile capital. These generally have decent anti-fighter defense, but they're slow and a big enough target that a decently sized bomber swarm can make short work of them if no other ships are covering them. A cruiser-sized carrier would generally be called a light carrier (Not in any of these entries will be the escort carrier, a cargo ship converted to an aircraft carrier).

 

Battlecruiser-Historically, they had guns just smaller than those of a battleship, plus armor and maneuverability just below those of a heavy cruiser. In our sci-fi setting, anything too big to be a cruiser, but too small to be called a battlecruiser can fit here.

 

Battleship-Fairly self explanatory, the biggest class of ship next to the carrier with the most powerful guns. Maneuverability is sacrificed for weapons and armor, even bombers will take a few good hits to destroy one but it's a sitting duck for them. Any capital except for another battleship that gets into range of their weapons and can't evade their fire will be made short work of.

 

Carrier-Lightly armored and often slow, the carriers major strong point is that it can attack from much, much farther than any other class of ship. By the end of WWII, battleships were obsolete in favor of the carrier. Generally a large carrier would be called a fleet carrier.

[koonschi]

Avorion respects that. Even if a frigate might look smaller than a corvette it usually has more HP/shields. If it looks smaller then it's only the random generator that made an unfortunate build (in case that's what you mean).

 

Not all classes you listed here are used in Avorion, but they're in the correct order.

 

Edit: Typos.

[Aki]

But anything CA down isn't usually classified as capital (excluding CC).

[Guest CzigBot]

I was referring to the sci-fi variant, usually sci-fi frigates are considered capital but definitely not in real life. Also, I forgot destroyers, better add those. I sort of screwed up by blending together the sci-fi and real life definitions of stuff.

[Aki]

If you are referring to an sci-fi variant then, in my opinion, you need to take into account that changes in hull classifications may appear over time. Just look how different hull sizes are currently used and how this have changed since e.g. 1920.

Even if the changes over time were small then different nations may use different doctrines and different hull classification system, they may build their ships differently and focus on technology they know. There are so much more circumstances that this discussion is almost pointless without further information from Koonschi.

Having different sizes, but staying somehow in the general concepts of given ship class, like in example showed by Koon-san, is quite immersive and can act as some of those things I mentioned earlier.

I like to believe that the classes we see in Avorion are just names that are translated from the language of the race which is using them. Translation. Localization, if you prefer that word. So they are not "destroyers" or "frigates" but they are their counterparts or ships that use similar concepts in their design.

 

Edit, edit, edit, read it again if you see this message for the first time.

[Guest CzigBot]

Realistically, that'd be true. But sci-fi tends to just use a mix of modern and old designations because it sounds cooler. Maybe other races will have different classes, humanity could obviously focus on the classic ones posted above. Maybe there could be a hivemind race that's individually expendable, so they use ships with oversized guns but weak defense, or a race that has a very slow breeding and maturation speed so they put a lot of effort into keeping their crew alive. Strategy could be different too, the expendable guys would generally fight to the death but the slow breeding ones will try to jump out if before they die if possible.