Universal Reference Categorization System

[Chairman_Tiel]

Might as well make a topic on it.

Essentially while we're moving forward with the RP and carefully tweaking it to be less of an individualistic clusterfuck, I was thinking it would be a good idea to establish a set of naming conventions to hold true for every faction's vehicles and ships regardless of what they themselves like to call them. It would help a lot as far as coherency; after all, importing naval terms into space on a subjective basis leaves a ton for error and confusion. Adopting such a system would allow for easy * measuring, letting you know at a glance how a vehicle or ship stacks up against the competition. Bear in mind that this does not mean you can't call your stuff other names; the universal terms would just be a standard for comparison.

My proposal for these generic categories are as follows

Strikecraft: If you have a ship with one-to-three crew and is supposed to be deployed en masse, it is categorized as a Strikecraft.

Harrier: Any class that's too large to be deployed effectively as a Strikecraft but too small to be used as an Escort.

Escort: Classes that fulfill the function of a multi-role, utility vessel while being both larger and (in most cases) better armed than the Harrier category.

Lancer: Anything bigger than a Heavy Escort but smaller than a Lineship; used almost exclusively for direct combat.

Lineship: Comprised of mid-tier classes that form the backbone of a fleet element's "line" when in conventional engagements. Tend to be mid-tier; may also serve as the centerpiece of Lancer/Escort task forces depending on the faction and commander.

Juggernaut: Any class larger than a Lineship, and/or designed with the ability to take punishment first and foremost. Serve to anchor battle lines, draw enemy fire, act as command ships, be the most effective carriers, etcetera.

Experimental: Any class exceeding the mass of a faction's largest contribution to the Juggernaut category is probably extremely expensive and thus Experimental. Note: Must be at least semi-mobile.

Spoiler:

Strikecraft: Fast, maneuverable ships having a crew of one to three, designed to attack en masse and circumvent defenses against larger ships.

Corvette: Anything bigger than a strikecraft, but smaller than a frigate. Similar tactics and bonus of speed, although more cumbersome. Light screening may be a role.

Frigate: Light ships with decent maneuverability often used to screen larger vessels or conduct patrol operations.

Destroyer: Happy medium between a frigate and a cruiser, possessing the strengths and weaknesses of both.

Cruiser: Line vessels designed to take on other capital ships, whether it be by heavy armament or carrying wings of strikecraft

Dreadnaught: Uncommon evolution of the cruiser aimed at answering the threat of other dreadnoughts and destroying lesser capital ships.

Experimental: Anything bigger than a dreadnaught. Exceedingly rare due to cost with a variety of potential roles.

Modifiers:

Weight classes (can be combined with below

Light: Explicitly designed for maneuverability in mind, with little in the way of armor.

Medium: Balances speed and defenses admirably; the 'default' if not specified.

Heavy: Damage sinks possessing much armor but very cumbersome.

Tactical: Ships torn down to fit one explicit role and nothing else.

Super: Denotes a 'super-sized' variant of the hull class. May be combined with Heavy, Medium, or Light plus those below (total of three).

Pocket: The opposite of Super; ships falling under this are small for their class but pack just as much punch. Can be combined with Heavy, Medium, or Light in addition to those below.
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Recon: Maximizes sensor ability for the purposes of gathering intelligence (not necessarily offensively)

Support: Any vessel that fills a niche role such as long range fire support or medical ships.

Command: Similar to Support, though only applicable in scenarios where a starship is designed solely for the purposes of coordinating fleet movements and battles.

Strike: Ships in this category are fast and manage to pack a punch; typically used for hit and run actions.

Escort: Anything extensively fitted to combat a particular threat, eg. strikecraft.

Assault: Designed for protracted conflict - opposite of Strike.

Missile: A ship in which no less than 2/3rds of the armament are dedicated to slow-moving projectile weapons such as torpedoes and rockets.

Carrier: A ship carrying less weapons and/or armor for the capacity of transferring and deploying a substantial amount of vessels of lesser classes. Note that the correct formatting for this would be as a postfix, eg. 'destroyer-class carrier'.

Attack: Fusion of Carrier and Assault, balancing the innate support role of the former with the combat prowess of the latter.

For the ships.

For ground stuff

Vehicle: Pretty much anything, from speeders to cars to trucks.

Walker: A vehicle...with legs.

Mech: A walker, differentiated by the use of 'arms' on the chassis for manipulation of tools.

Tank: Superheavy vehicle possessing enough armor to negate multiple anti-vehicle rounds.

Aircraft: Anything that flies solely atmospheric at rates exceeding those of any flying Vehicle.

VTOL: Aircraft that can go up and down, too.

Modifiers:

Civilian: Anything not used by the military (precludes tanks)

Combat: Anything used by the military

Armored: If it possesses a significant degree of armor, it falls under this category. This is, however, less than the 'Light' modifier.

Light: Can be applied to anything but Vehicle; specifies an amount of protection exceeding that of Armored when comparable.

Heavy: A more extreme version of Light.

Hover: Anything that is not solely restricted to direct contact with the ground.

(I didn't spend much time on these by comparison)

So.

[҉]

I don't think anyone really disagrees with the names, although you might consider adding 'battleship' between 'cruiser' and 'dreadnaught'. All the arguing comes from how big, say, a cruiser actually is and at exactly what point it becomes a dreadnaught (or battleship).

[Error]

Cruisers tend to be line ships, slug-it-out style, where AFAIK battleships are solely "kill capital ships, we don't need no PD".

Either that, or a battleship is a larger cruiser, with more guns and defenses.

Also, would "Siege" (dedicated anti-installation) ships be a thing, or just refitted standard ships?

[Chairman_Tiel]

I'm going with the latter here. People can call it a battleship but it'd really just be a heavy cruiser.

[҉]

Cruisers tend to be line ships, slug-it-out style, where AFAIK battleships are solely "kill capital ships, we don't need no PD".

Either that, or a battleship is a larger cruiser, with more guns and defenses.

A cruiser is "one of a class of warships of medium tonnage, designed for high speed and long cruising radius," and a battleship is "any of a class of warships that are the most heavily armored and are equipped with the most powerful armament." So they fill kinda similar roles but battleships are bigger. A capital ship, by the way, is "one of a class of the largest warships; a battleship, battle cruiser, or aircraft carrier." That refers solely to size and power, not specific role.

[Chairman_Tiel]

These are by role :P

[cats]

Uh

[Chairman_Tiel]

Uh

Such insightful critique more pls

[҉]

These are by role :P

But if it's by role, a 'cruiser' is everything between and including a Victory-class and Executor. Since Executor (or, say, a Bellator or Mandator if you want a less extreme example) is obviously a vastly more powerful ship that's worth dozens of Victories, the system is useless for its stated purpose of allowing easy comparison of fleets.

[Chairman_Tiel]

That's how Star Wars does it, yes. When I made this thread it was more come to a consensus as to how we're doing it.

[҉]

That's how Star Wars does it, yes. When I made this thread it was more come to a consensus as to how we're doing it.

I don't understand. Are you suggesting that we require all ships designed for a specific role to be roughly the same size and power?

[Chairman_Tiel]

I'm suggesting that as a rule they're going to tend to be at least around the same mass. You're not going to have a cruiser-sized ship screening other cruisers from fighter threats except in some verrrryy specific instances (hence the 'escort' modifier being a thing) that aren't tactically viable anywhere else anyway. The trick is to play off of common sense and strategic logic.

In the case of the Destroyer, you're trying to make the point that people could/would have kilometer long destroyers. They could certainly name it as such, yes, but in the book it's probably going to be some manner of dreadnaught. Once you get past a certain size it stops being a medium between picket and capitol ships and more one of the latter on its lonesome.

For the most part I see the wiki editor(s) looking at designs, their lengths, and categorizing them as need be. If people have an issue with the standard given to them, they can always dispute it, but for the most part I don't see it being too much of a problem as you can still have your Hyperion class Frigate that's actually a Heavy Cruiser to the rest of the world.

[Chairman_Tiel]

Oop you're typing something long. I must profess a degree of anxiety

[҉]

I think it's potentially a problem mostly with the uncomplicated get-up-close-and-fire-all-the-cannons kind of warships, just because those can come in so many different sizes. I recognize the 'light' and 'heavy' variants, but to use the previous example again, how much more does Executor mass than a Victory? A couple of hundred times, maybe? I have no idea. But they fight in basically the same way. Putting them in the same category because they fight in the same way is fine, but 'cruiser' is a strange term to use for that given that that term generally does refer to size and not role. Something like 'ship of the line' might make that clearer.

[Luna]

You should add the Drone modifier, cause, yeah.