Universal Reference Categorization System

[Shadowcatbot]

Why don't we just steal some of the SoaSE classifications?
Could be
Battleship - Standard big guns of fleets
(Battlecruiser? Not sure on everyone's idea of this class)
Capital ship - Not rare but not common ships
Dreadnought - Massivly massive ships
Titan - Deathstar time.

[cats]

Classification's not really that important as long as the relative combat abilities are accessible. Most of the time, needed information can be extrapolated from whatever name is given. It should also be less by role, more by relative size and/or firepower (from production).

Boats

Fighter: Small, one-pilot combat craft.

Pinnace: A few crew, multirole craft. Larger pinnaces can be self-operating.

Dropships

others.


Subcapital Line Ships

Corvette: Small military ship with or without FTL.

Frigate: Relatively small multirole ship with proportional firepower.

Destroyer: Designed purely for combat. Size comparable to or greater than a frigate, firepower equal to or exceeding that of a Cruiser

Cruiser: Multirole, The largest class of the sub-capital ships.


Capital Ship: The center of a battlegroup, task force, or fleet

Battleship: Designed to eradicate. Similar to a scaled-up destroyer.

Carrier: Large ship designed to house singleships.

Dreadnought: The largest ship class. Huge and powerful.

Unspecified: Ship-to-ship basis, really really ridiculously large and/or powerful.


Prefixes

Light: Subtract armor and firepower without meriting a shift to the former class.

Heavy: Add armor and firepower without meriting a shift to the next class up.

Planetary Assault: Extensively devoted to transporting things and delivering those things to a planet's surface.

Escort: Defenses

Strike: Anything that can get in, deliver payload, and get out, usually low armor.

Siege: Made for long-term sustained conflict, blockades, etc. High armor, low weaponry, lots of storage.

Et al


E:

Ground stuff

Mechs are large, usually bipedal vehicles of war. "Walker" often refers to things with more legs. Mechs have several advantages over tanks, as they are more maneuverable, have more space for weapons, are analogous to bipeds (allowing some neural control assistance), can transverse almost any terrain, etc. Not to be confused with exosuits, mech suits, or drones/droids/robots/whatever.

[҉]

Boats

Nope nope nope. Nothing in space is a boat.

[cats]

Boats

Nope nope nope. Nothing in space is a boat.

The things that I say are boats in space are boats in space.

[Shadowcatbot]

Boats

Nope nope nope. Nothing in space is a boat.

Boats are ships, ships in space are spaceships. Space boats.

[҉]

Boats

Nope nope nope. Nothing in space is a boat.

Boats are ships, ships in space are spaceships. Space boats.

I don't care. 'Boat' is never the correct term for any spacecraft. 'Lifeboat' and 'gunboat' appear occasionally but in all instances would be better replaced with 'lifepod' and 'gunship' respectively. Things in space are spacecraft, spaceships, or starships, in increasing order of specificity. 'Spaceboat' is not on that list.

[ACH0225]

A fleet of Strigiforme spaceboats have entered the planet's orbit. They have begun to deploy gunboats to attack several strongholds. Many of our destroyed ships' lifeboats have been captured.

[Shadowcatbot]

A fleet of Strigiforme spaceboats have entered the planet's orbit. They have begun to deploy gunboats to attack several strongholds. Many of our destroyed ships' lifeboats have been captured.

Never once did I think I'd be happy the strigiform showed up.

[Professor Fenway]

I agree with Cat's proposal with some slight modifications;

Strike-Craft
______________________________________________________
Fighter: Small 1 or 2 man spacecraft with relatively weak weapons. No FTL capabilities (ever)

Bomber: Small spacecraft designed to deliver payloads to large ships. Limited FTL capabilities

Pinnace: Small ship that fulfills a fighter OR bomber role and has full FTL capabilities, but is still relatively small.

Sub-Capital
________________________________________________________
Corvette: Small ship primarily aimed at fighter screening due to limited weaponry.

Frigate: Small ship designed for limited ship-ship combat, small skirmishes, recon. Versatile but limited.

Destroyer: Ships designed to engage larger targets.

Cruiser: Multi-role ship, most common class. Fulfills a wide variety of roles.

Battlecruiser: Battleship sized ship with the power of a cruiser. Generally serves as a sub-capital command ship when a battleship isn't warranted.


Capital
________________________________________________
Battleship: Extremely armed and armored warship. Capable of going toe-to-toe with entire fleets and coming out on top.

Carrier: Designed to carry sub-capital ships and strike-craft. Does not fulfill direct combat roles.

Dreadnought: Extremely large and powerful ship. Fields weaponry capable of decimating entire fleets in mere minutes.

Titan: The largest ship theoretically possible, though never built. Would possess weaponry capable of decimating large portions of a planet's surface.



Prefixes
_______________________________
Heavy: Possesses more weaponry and armor/shielding, but generally slower as a rule.

Light: Lessen weapon and armor/shielding in order to move faster.

Runabout: Designed to run circles around other ships, dealing damage while dodging weapons rather than absorbing them.

Planetary Assault: Has facilities necessary to siege planets

Escort: Designed to protect other ships

Recon: Outfitted with sensors and all kinds of stuff needed to see what is where, and learn about those things.

And more.

[Iv121]

You are still trying to make it huh …

Lets see, I think that we need a new name for ships below Dreadnaught state, those ships are big and powerful carrying a vast armament while still being reasonably fast compared to their bigger brothers. They can give you a punch and hold your punch without breaking, destroying what they can't outrun and outrunning what they can't destroy, that is why the best name for this type of ship will naturally be a fighter ! Those are all the qualities a good fighter has making it the perfect title for the class ! Try to argue with this logic .

[Ivan2006]

Sounds good. However, your system does not account for sub-capital carriers or carrier-warship hybrid.
@Iv what you are talking about is a battleship. And you can't call it a fighter, because it's a centuries-long tradition that fighters are strike craft designed to combat other strike craft.

[Iv121]

Since when do you have fighters in the Navy ? Century long tradition mate , and battleships are to be used to describe any spaceships used for combat ! Also due to their tendency to simply bombard helpless fleets with unrivalled firepower the class above Dreadnaught should be called "Bomber"

[Ivan2006]

Since when do you have fighters in the Navy ?

Since Pearl Harbour. And don't get me with 'that's sea-warfare and is irrelevant here', fighters would fulfill quite the same role in space as on the seas.
As soon as anyone decides to use small, maneuverable strike craft, aka bombers, everyone else needs countermeasures, AKA fighters.

and battleships are to be used to describe any spaceships used for combat !

'are to be used' gramatically is an order, and I have yet to find you being able to give orders to anyone. In case you just meant it as an opinion/idea: please reference any situation where anyone ever used the tem 'battleship' to reference combat vessels in general.

Also due to their tendency to simply bombard helpless fleets with unrivalled firepower the class above Dreadnaught should be called "Bomber"

Look at fighter-argument for reference.
also you might consider checking whether a term is already in use before suggesting it for a name-change.

[Iv121]

[Ivan2006]

tbh, it is very hard to tell when you are joking, Iv.