Classifactions suggestions

[Thomasian]

Going through Community Content i noticed that ships of certain classifications (e.g. Corvette, Destroyer, Frigate, etc) are dramatically different than others of the same class and was wondering, like a lot of people, how should we classify things.

Suggestion 1: Mono-dimensional

This ideal i got from Star Wars Wookieepedia where Capital ship(class Corvette and up) are classified based on one dimension specifically length and small ships are classed by role and size like basic fighters and heavy fighters.

Capital ships(star wars):

Corvette: Ships of roughly 100 - 200 meters length
Frigate: Ships of roughly 200 - 400 meters length
Cruisers: Ships of roughly 400 - 600 meters length
Heavy Cruisers: Ships of roughly 600 - 1,000 meters length
Star Destroyers: Ships of roughly 1,000 -2,000 meters length
Battlecruisers: Ships of roughly 2,000 - 5,000 meters length
Dreadnaughts: All ships over 5,000 meters length

Suggestion 2: Mass Scale

This suggestion is based, obviously, on Mass of a ship to categorize ships.

Capital Ships(Imperial Setanian Standard, old faction of mine's standard :P):

Corvette/Destroyer: 1,000-2,500 mass *Ship is a Destroyer if it is mostly armed with missiles and anti-missile turrets and design as escort, Corvette if it's mostly anti-ship. Both designed to be fast)
Frigate: 2,500-5,000
Cruiser: 5,000-10,000
Heavy Cruiser: 10,000-50,000
Battlecruiser: 50,000-100,000
Starcruiser: 100,000-500,000
Star Destroyer: 500,000-1,000,000
Dreadnaught: 1,000,000+


I know many players have discussed this issue and probably suggested systems. with so many ways to categorize ships it seems this discussion may never truly be resolved. Part of me believes there should be a universal system but part of me thinks it should be a faction based "cultural" thing, at least in rp, where the faction may use their own system or what not.

Anyways i'd like to hear suggestions for other systems or comments on my to systems. Thanks for taking the time to read this

 

[MossyStone48]

The class of a ship is decided largely by the ROLE it fulfills. What's a drone to some might be a Heavy Assault Cruiser to others. These class systems are usually best used on roleplay servers to keep everyone on even footing. They are also helpful in keeping ships organized for competitions. Outside of the few practical uses this, type of sorting, is impractical. Much like my use of commas in the previous sentence. You get the idea something was being indicated by my putting them there. But what 'that' is and why I used it would be is nebulous at best. Illustration. I used it for Illustration.

I love classification systems. The well thought out ones border on art. It give the illusion of tidiness. Although, like art, you invest a lot into it, take it home, hang it up and either forget about it OR obsess about how the wall you picked and your flooring choice clash or some similar nonsense. The end result is your sanity slowly edging to the tipping point while you repaint your house pull up the carpets and higher electricians to redo the lighting until it's "just so..".

I feel like I got off track there. Anyhow... yes.
I just go by scale and role. If the ship is big enough for the character to sit inside of with little room and it's a small combat craft then we have a fighter. If it has a flight deck you can walk around and is mostly civilian use you might have a cargo ship. And if it has a proper bridge and interior then we have a capital ship. Depending on the mass and weaponry it could be a cozy cruising yacht or a planet rendering warship.

 

[jayman38]

The discussions on classification systems normally end with "It's all relative."

The devs created this game with a vision of being able to build their own capital ships, so it's either a building game or a game of who has the bigger titan and/or fleet. (Of course, as the devs remind us, there is much more "game" to come in the future.)

Classification systems are a meaningless way to get an approximation of capability. It's much better to have a data card with the raw numbers. (Dimensions, power, weapons, support systems, etc.) However, that's too clinical for most humans. They want to put a name on something, instead of a descriptive designation.

I don't see how classification can be anything more than a cultural/rp thing. Someone will always say "I know this should be classified as a destroyer, but I'm calling it a frigate." Like I said, they want to put a name on it. The name they prefer.

 

[Lukwan]

Ships classes have come up in other threads. Many differing opinions since, yes, it is pretty relative but...

...there is value in having an official class system regardless of the fact that it would be an imperfect compromise.

1) Ship class-categories facilitate matchmaking, arena combat, ship-trading , Duels, tournaments, quests and other fun-factors.
2) Classes may prove to be useful in resolving balance-issues.
3) We already have them thanks to fleets (carriers & drones) and everyone knows the difference between Fighters and Titans.

Class designations could be mass-based or block-count or whatever the community settles on and could function in the background allowing people to call their builds whatever they want.

 

[Thomasian]

Yes I agree although I excluded fighters from my systems due to the systems being directed to categorizing Capital ships but to be honest I was focusing more on RP.
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Ships classes have come up in other threads. Many differing opinions since, yes, it is pretty relative but...

...there is value in having an official class system regardless of the fact that it would be an imperfect compromise.

1) Ship class-categories facilitate matchmaking, arena combat, ship-trading , Duels, tournaments, quests and other fun-factors.
2) Classes may prove to be useful in resolving balance-issues.
3) We already have them thanks to fleets (carriers & drones) and everyone knows the difference between Fighters and Titans.

Class designations could be mass-based or block-count or whatever the community settles on and could function in the background allowing people to call their builds whatever they want.

Due to the many opinions/options, I agree it should whatever the community settles on. To take it more in depth i believe maybe some classification systems should be determine by server admins or could be a faction's "Cultural" standard. I notice in a lot of Sci-Fi, and even the real world, multiple Factions or Nations(or groups within those factions/nations) have several different standard categories

EX: There is multiple categories for generations of fighter jets and depending on which one you "agree" with there's 5 or 6 generations.

 

[kiraen]

...there is value in having an official class system regardless of the fact that it would be an imperfect compromise.

Schine has repeatedly stated there will never be an official classification.

1) Ship class-categories facilitate matchmaking, arena combat, ship-trading , Duels, tournaments, quests and other fun-factors.
2) Classes may prove to be useful in resolving balance-issues.

Ship scoring largely covers these situation. Yes, currently the scoring is horrible but it's not final yet either.

 

[Keptick]

First off, this is not the first classification proposal, and I suspect that it won't be the last. The general consensus is that people are free to call their ships whatever the f.. they want.

Secondly, you can't have a 5km long ship in Starmade. Scales from other series are not always aplicable in the game. The game just can't support that kind of scale. I actually tested to see just how far the game could go (I have a rather monstrous computer). I spawned in four of my 1.3km long titan, the game started glitching (chunk loading errors, etc) and eventually crashed before my computer reached 100% CPU and GPU usage (so packing on better hardware would make no difference). A 5km long ship, or even 3km long, would involve a lot more blocks than those 4 titans combined.

 

[MossyStone48]

I like to cram as much of the role of a ship as possible into the smallest possible space.

See that purple and grey thing to the left of the slightly bigger white thing? That's what I would class as a fighter. It's roughly 75 meters long. My drones are smaller still. About 1/4 the mass and fit in an area of about 20x20x20. The white ship I consider a ultra light frigate or corvette. It's not meant for combat and maxes out at about 175 meters. The big box thing behind it is a salvage frigate at around 250 meters. The big grey thing in the back attached to the weird glowy blue dock is what I would consider a super capital. A carrier would be about the size of its nose. It's only about 960 meters long tho. That's peanuts compared to some builders -especially SMEditors- who make 1:1 replicas of federation starships or something out of star wars.

 

[jstenholt]

I'll donate three copies of starmade to the person who creates a chrome extension that filters out all threads about ship classification methodology on this site.