MisterVec's General Purpose Ship Classification System

[MisterVec]

Ship classification schemes suffer from two common problems:

Problem A is basically that folks often conflate a ship's hull size with some arbitrary role or another.

Problem B is that there is often quite a bit of disagreement over what names to give what hull displacement.

So, I will attempt to rectify both with a super-simple, super-easy-to use classification system that will help folks describe, in a very generalized, short-hand sort of way, the size and intended function of their ship. It's boring but functional, much like my parent's marriage.



SIZE CLASSES

Size class is determined by the longest axis of the ship. If it's 1 meter long, 1 meter wide, and 30 meters high, it's class B. End of story. Not all ships are warships. Not all ships are longer than they are wide (though most designs are). Not all ships have any obvious function. This guide works for them, too.

CLASS A: 1-25.

CLASS B: 26-50

CLASS C: 51-100

CLASS D: 101-200

CLASS E: 201-400

CLASS F: 401-600

CLASS G: 601-800

CLASS H: 801-1000

CLASS I: 1001-1500

CLASS J: 1501-2000

Classes past J simply go in alphabetical order adding an additional 500 blocks to the longest axis each time. Easy as pie.


ROLES

More important than the class is the intended role. These are hard to standardize, but I'll offer a few typical roles for both military and non-military ships.

Ship: This is if your ship has no real intended purpose ther than to look neat or be fun to fly around in. That's totally OK!

Warship: This is a standard catch-all for any vessel intended for combat if one can't come up with anything more specific.

Patrol ship: A military vessel designed to move from place to place keeping an eye out for pirates and raiders. Typically trades some armament and armor for speed and the ability to operate independently for long periods of time.

Assault Ship: Lots of big guns, lots of armor. It's designed deal with large enemy ships by taking what they dish out and returning it with interest.

Escort/Picket Ship: A military vessel specifically designed to protect other fleet assets and transports from raiders, pirates, torpedos, fighters, and the other small, fast ships. Usually features lots of smaller turrets, interceptor missiles, EWAR suites, and other handy defensive systems.

Mining Vessel: A vessel wot mines. May or may not also be heavily armed, but is mostly about the mining.

Fighter: A smaller, one man warship that relies on speed, maneuverability, and a small profile to engage smaller ships and avoid bigger ones. Usually class A or B.

Bomber: Like a Fighter, but is used to attack bigger ships via bombs, missiles, or the like.

Shuttle: A ship used to ferry people around.

Troop Transport: A ship used to ferry angry, armed people around.

Carrier: A big ship wot carries smaller ships into battle.

Tug: A small ship wot carries bigger ships away from battle.

Battleship: A big assault ship.

Dreadnaught: Also a big assault ship.

Leviathan: A big assault ship with a fanciful, mythological-sounding name.

Command ship: A ship that is designed to be the command and control center for a fleet or squadron.

Garbage scow: Any ship I occupy on account of me being rubbish.

Merchant Ship: A ship that hauls goods around for sale. May or may not also be heavily armed, but has big cargo holds either way.

There's plenty more, of course, and one can always mix and match roles if a ship adequately fulfills more than one. The important thing is that the role speaks clearly to the intended function of the ship. "Christmas Explodotron" is not a clearly-defined role, so I'd avoid that sort of thing.


Some examples:
The Vecordean Fleetworks Octet-Class is somewhere between 250 and 300 meters long, sixty meters wide and seventy-five meters tall. It's intended role is to carry around a few fighters. It has light armament intended mostly to defend itself and nearby fleet assets from enemy fighters and raiders. Using the MVGPSCS, this ship would be a Class E Escort Carrier.

The Jimbob Faction War Foundry's SkullAssassin420-class Destroyer is 825 meters long and is basically a giant gun with a few turrets taped on. It's designed to "pwn" other enemy super-ships. That makes it a Class H Assault Ship.

ScruffBoy1993's Link ship is a 2d pixel art ship that looks like Link from The Legend of Zelda 2. It's 15 meters long, five meters wide and 32 meters tall. It has no weapons systems. It's primary purpose is: "LOL". This is a Class B Ship.

I hope you find this useful! Because heaven help you if you do not.

 

[Morhe]

The reason the mass-based classification systems exist is because it makes it easier to describe a ship\'s general capabilities. Everyone needs to be on the same page in terms of what makes a ship a battleship, what makes a ship a dreadnaught, and what makes a ship a titan. To do that, you need clear numerical criteria for when a ship stops being one type and becomes another. In that respect, your system has two major problems:

1. It is based on the length of the ships longest dimension, which is a poor indication of how a ship will perform compared to another ship of the same class; a long, narrow ship will have the same class as bulkier ship of the same total length, despite the bulkier ship likely having more weapons, power, and shielding.
2. Ship designers class their ships based on their intended purpose, which does not indicate the ship\'s capability in any way, as one ship designer\'s definition of a \"destroyer\" could be quite different from another\'s.

As an example... if I created a 300 meter ship and called it \"The Harbinger,\" it would be a Class E Warship. \"Class E Warship\" is even less descriptive and useful than if I simply told people \"It\'s a 300 meter Harbinger,\" because your classes are just a \"length unit\" and an \"author description.\"

 

[MisterVec]

Using mass as a base says nothing about the ship\'s capabilities. None whatsoever. It\'s an arbitrary delineation and it\'s more complicated to sort out than simply \"longest axis\"

So, to point 1, I simply say that mass would provide, realistically, no better an indication of a ship\'s capabilities. Hull size or mass puts a hard limit on how many blocks can be installed, sure, but it\'s the same arbitrary sort of limit and neither actually speaks to the what the ship can do. They are both equally meaningless. I simply opted to pick something very simple to understand.

To point 2, is YES. That\'s exactly the point. The problem is that you\'ve conflated \"class name\" with a clearly-articulated role. Destroyer isn\'t a role. It\'s a hull size in the modern wet navy. That\'s why you don\'t use it. You use something that speaks to what the ship actually is intended to do. Warship. Picket ship. Assault ship. Doesn\'t matter. The point is to avoid the sort of semantic, grognardy squabbling that bogs down any meaningful discussion about classification.

JimBob and HenryBob can use their own personal ship classification system and still communicate the size and intended use of the ships they\'ve designed without needing to squabble over which one is the REAL battleship or destroyer or what have you.

 

[Kiviar]

As much as I enjoy the level of effort that has gone in to these lists over the past few days the discussion is academic. Any sort of classification is simply going to be fluff. Which is fine. I like building a ship and calling it a frigate as much as anyone. But lets not kid ourselves if its volume is bigger than 50 blocks cubed its probably just going to be too sluggish to tangle with small ships and too big a target to dodge giant AMC ships.

Trying to force a \'unified\' naming scheme is somewhat pointless in this regard. If someone wants to call their 100x50x30 ship a cruiser and someone else wants to call it a battleship, its not a big deal. We aren\'t writing the Washington naval treaty here or anything. Either way both ships will sit at a base or on a planet and look impressive and intimidating, but some guy in a stripped down fighter could probably kill it without taking any damage.

 

[MisterVec]

Yeah, pretty much. I will admit to putting almost no effort or thought into my list. Most of the schemes I saw used some dumb, arbitrary, and not very well thought out metric and set of assumptions, so I figured I\'d distill it all down to the core of what people are trying to communicate with all their fancy names and jargon: My ship is X big and does Y.

 

[Tomino_sama]

you separating ships of the same type into grades, more than a new class system. For example, we take three Battleships made by players, defined by role and/or at the creators naming decision. These three Battleships will be varying in size.



This system allows us to say, this one is a B Class Battleship, this is D Class and the largest one over there is a J Class Battaleship. Of course this grading system is arbitrary so only makes sense to those who know it. I like it as a way to differentiate between Ship Grades.



Not really too disimilar from this thread: http://star-made.org/content/dmans-ship-classifications

See if you define by Mass and then Grade (sub Class) by Length your onto a decent system.

Still though, most ship Classes in the real world are defined by the Role or Intended Use and many Ships are refitted for Specialisation, so are not different in Mass or Length however are now retitled.

 

[Yatem]

especialy better than systems that clasify a ship with 50-100 mass to be a frigate. :/

 

[MisterVec]

I had assumed this thread long dead and the ideas contained within relegated to antiquity.

 

[EpicFailLord123]

SO HILARIOUS!

 

[Wade]

lol funny how old threads come back from the grave and haunt the creators every now and then