Ship classes

ItzMercury5

So what do you think the requirements are for different ship classes/ what order are they.
I myself think that the classes go as follows:
Fighter-Corvette-Frigate-Cruiser-Battleship-Carrier-Supercarrier-Flagship/Capital ship
How would all of you say that the ship classes go?

KrankysFirebrand48

ItzMercury5 “capital ship” isn’t a class imo

Interceptor, fighter, attacker, bomber, gunship, (patrol boat), corvette, (monitor), frigate, destroyer, (light cruiser), cruiser, (heavy cruiser), Battlecruiser, battleship, (dreadnaught), (Titan)

carriers can be all kind of sizes. Imo carriers are for carrying fighters. You could have a frigate sized carrier.

Astrum

I personally organize them as follows:

Fighter - Shuttle/Gunship - Bomber - Corvette - Frigate - Destroyer - Cruiser - (Battle Cruiser) - Battleship/Carrier - Dreadnought

Worth noting that this is my personal way of doing it, and that I loosely follow conventional naval structure. True naval setups would probably not include dreadnought, and may have some ships flipped (ex. some navies have frigates larger than destroyers).

The terms are in reality quite muddy, with many real-life navies only loosely following ship class specifications, so I wouldn't get too hung up on it.

Lafiel

Just base them on fire power.

Astrum (ex. some navies have frigates larger than destroyers).

Yeah, that because all other navies than the us navy have kept to the historic conventions. Only the US Navy has changed the classification. Frigates used to be the next closes ships to cruisers and were squadron or fleet HQ ships in WWII. Historically, they superseded the battleship of the lines (sail ships) and became the blueprint for all modern warships. Destroyers used to be cheaper smaller ships. So its the american classification that is weird. lol

Astrum

Lafiel

Right. I couldn’t recall if it was the U.S. that had mixed it up or not.

Thanks for the clarification!

ShadowZero

will you use this for RP?

Lafiel

Everyone is using "class" ambiguously to refer to type of ships and role of ships. They are different, so you got to know what you or someone is talking about.

The definition of capital ship isn't so certain but simply put it's expensive and only similar ships can take it on. So it mostly applies to battleships or similar.

Technically, all ships carry sub or auxiliary crafts but the defining point of a carrier is that these are its main weapons or firepower.

Not-New-Anymore

I think of it like this:
If a ship is tiny and cheap, it's a fighter. These make up for their weaknesses by being numerous.
If a fighter is unarmed, it is a shuttle.
If a fighter is fast enough to outrun a missile, it's a scout.
If a fighter is designed to ram the enemy and stick to it, destroying it from up close, it's a cutter.
A torpedo boat is a fighter that exclusively uses missiles of some sort.
A frigate is 2 to four times as large as a fighter, and could use multiple weapon types effectively.
A destroyer is fairly fast, is larger than a frigate, and smaller than a cruiser.
A cruiser is large, fast, and well armed, but lacking in defense.
A battleship is a well-defended cruiser.
A mauler is slow, well armed and well defended.
An ironclad is very heavily armored, but sacrifices on everything else.

That's what I use. It's not very comprehensive, but i can usually fit a ship into a type.